Kentucky lawmaker’s 2021 Afghan refugee remarks haunt 2026 Senate bid

Kentucky Republican Rep. Andy Barr’s 2021 claim that the United States has an “obligation” to welcome Afghans After the Biden administration’s chaotic walkout, it has resurfaced and complicated his high-stakes 2026 Senate campaign after the footage went viral.

“We have failed in our commitment to help many of these Afghans who have risked their lives, and in many cases died, for their country’s cause to help the United States, and we owe it to them to help them enter our country on these visas, and P1 and P2 visas as well,” Barr said in a 2021 interview with Kentucky Afghan Educational Television. “I voted for these special immigrant visas because it would send a terrible message to our allies around the world that we will abandon you if you help us in your time of need.”

Many Afghans served as interpreters, cultural advisors, and provided other assistance to the United States during the Afghan War. Dozens of Republican lawmakers and leaders, including former then-President Donald TrumpHe supported welcoming Afghan allies amid the 2021 withdrawal from the country, while at the same time emphasizing the need for refugee screening.

Nate Morris, Barr’s 2026 Republican Senate challenger, criticized Barr as having “blood on his hands” over his comments and past support for a bill expanding special visas for Afghan refugees.

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Inside Abbey Gate, British and US security forces maintain order among Afghan evacuees awaiting departure, in Kabul, August 25, 2021. (Marcus Lam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)

But Barr’s campaign responded to the criticism in a commentary on Fox News Digital, stressing that he did not vote for Biden’s resettlement program in Afghanistan, and that he wholeheartedly supports Trump’s immigration policies.

“Andy Barr voted against Biden’s resettlement program in Afghanistan,” the spokesperson said. “Andy Barr supports President Trump’s common-sense border security plan, which is to deport all illegal immigrants and reform our legal immigration system.”

“See results”

Screenshots from Barr’s interview spread like wildfire On social media. It has garnered millions of views in the wake of the horrific shooting in Washington, D.C., the day before Thanksgiving when two National Guard members were shot while leaving the military. Sarah Beckstrom died and another soldier was seriously injured.

Authorities identified Afghan Rehmanullah Lakkanwal, 29, as the suspect in the shooting, which occurred just blocks from the White House.

Lakanwal legally entered the United States in 2021 under the Biden administration Operation Allied WelcomeIt is a program that evacuated and resettled Afghan refugees as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. He reportedly worked with various US government entities, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Afghanistan, Fox Digital previously reported.

Other refugees who entered the country as part of Operation Welcoming Allies were arrested on suspicion of terrorist links. The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested a suspected Afghan ISIS-K terrorist, the third “Afghan national terrorist arrested in recent days.”

Barr has come under intense scrutiny online recently as his 2021 comments went viral.

“What nonsense!???” Donald Trump Jr. posted on X on Black Friday.

“Andy Barr voted to flood America with unvetted Afghans while our borders were wide open. Now we’re seeing the results. This blood is running on RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) like Barr who sided with Biden and McConnell on America First,” another conservative said. The account has been published.

Others pointed to the statements as evidence that Barr should not be elected to the Senate during the 2026 midterm elections. Barr is among a handful of Republicans vying to replace retiring Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Some of Barr’s critics have rallied around Morris, CEO of Kentucky-based Morris Industries, as the conservative candidate to replace McConnell.

Rep. Andy Barr is among a handful of Republicans vying to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)

“Compare Barr with Nate Morris calling for a halt to immigration and there is literally no comparison,” said Andrew Colvitt, spokesman for Turning Point USA and executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show.” “That’s why Charlie went out of his way to endorse @NateMorris. Our first mission should be to save America, not destroy it through unchecked mass immigration.”

Vance’s previous warnings were renewed after an Afghan citizen was named as a suspect in the shooting of a capital guard

“Barr knows he was exposed for his role in helping Biden bring these dangerous Afghan refugees to America, so now he’s trying to pretend it never happened, but we’ve all seen the video footage. Just like Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell, Andy Barr has blood on his hands,” Morris said.

Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, right, joins Nate Morris, as the businessman launches the 2026 Republican Senate campaign, in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, on June 30, 2025. (Nate Morris campaign)

Barr’s campaign responded to Morris’ comments in comments to Fox Digital Wednesday, including highlighting that the lawmaker did not vote for the Afghan resettlement program under the Biden administration.

“Nate Morris is escalating and lying again,” a Barr campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

“Andy stands with Trump 100% on immigration; Nate Morris does not. If Nate Morris does not support President Trump’s policies 100%, he cannot be trusted to vote with him in the US Senate.”

Barr voted against H.R. 5305 in September 2021, which provided more than $6 billion to resettle Afghan refugees — other than people who helped the United States during the war.

He was among 192 Republicans who supported the Avoiding Loss of Life and Injury by Accelerating the Special Immigration Act of 2021, which expedites the special immigrant visa process for Afghan citizens who have worked with the U.S. government or NATO in Afghanistan and increases the number of special immigrant visas available to 8,000.

The House of Representatives approved the bill, but it did not become law. president Joe Biden Instead, he signed a spending bill that added 8,000 special Afghan immigrant visas and relaxed some of its rules.

On August 29, 2021, the Biden administration launched Operation Welcoming Allies, a project led by the Department of Homeland Security “to support vulnerable Afghans, including those who have served with us in Afghanistan over the past two decades, so that they can safely settle in the United States.”

On August 29, 2021, the Biden administration launched Operation Welcoming Allies. (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)

Trump dropped the hammer on the visa program shortly after the most recent shooting in D.C., which occurred at the end of November.

White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said Monday that officials are “rescreening” all Afghan citizens who entered the United States during the Biden administration. Fox News Digital reported earlier that more than 76,000 Afghans had been evacuated and transferred to the country.

Barr posted a statement condemning the shootings in Washington, D.C., while at the same time offering his support to Trump for his pledge to temporarily halt immigration applications from “third world countries.” The Trump administration officially halted immigration applications from 19 countries on Tuesday.

He added: “President Trump is right to stop immigration from countries we can’t vet. As I’ve said repeatedly, if we can’t vet them, they don’t belong here.” That’s why I voted against Biden’s $6 billion Afghan resettlement package that accelerated the arrival of unvetted arrivals into the country. “President Trump is cleaning up the mess Biden made and I fully support him,” Barr said in a statement on Friday, who also offered his condolences to Beckstrom.

Morris continued in his statements to Fox Digital that “the future of Western civilization is at stake.”

2026 Republican Senate challenger Nate Morris criticized Rep. Andy Barr, calling Barr “blood on his hands” over his comments and past support for a bill expanding special visas for Afghan refugees. (Lee Vogel/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)

“I have been campaigning on stopping immigration and a plan to deport all illegal immigrants since I launched my campaign for the U.S. Senate,” he said. “I’m proud to say that this was one of the main reasons Charlie Kirk endorsed my campaign at the launch.”

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“On the other hand, my opponent, Andy Barr, went on TV just a few months ago and called me an ‘immigrant advocate’ in support of stopping immigration. In 2021, while President Trump, Vice President Vance and the entire MAGA movement were fighting to stop Biden from bringing Afghan refugees into our country, Andy Barr was standing alongside his ‘mentor’ Mitch McConnell and telling Kentuckians that we ‘owe it’ to the Afghan people to bring them in.” Here,” he said.

Fox News Digital also reached out to former Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s Senate campaign regarding Barr’s 2021 comments.

“Kentuckians remember exactly what happened during Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Cameron’s Senate campaign said. “Andy Barr is a classic say-whatever-it-takes-a-politician in Washington. He voted with Nancy Pelosi more than 1,200 times in Congress and was a strong supporter of wide opening our borders to unvetted Afghans during Biden’s reckless and dangerous withdrawal. Daniel Cameron would never have voted for that.”

Cameron’s team added that Morris is “a phony on immigration” and “doesn’t have any real beliefs – just whatever suits him politically”.

The campaign added that Cameron “has by far the most conservative record on illegal immigration,” noting how he sued the Biden administration for “dismantling President Trump’s border policies” while serving as state attorney general, and fought Customs and Border Protection’s “single enforcement simplifies illegal entry” and the Biden administration’s “unlawful abuse of immigration parole.”

“Religion of honor”

The Afghan withdrawal is widely viewed as one of the biggest failures under the Biden administration, resulting in the deaths of 13 US service members in Afghanistan. Monastery gate The bombing, as well as the abandonment of military equipment worth millions of dollars, which eventually fell into the hands of the Taliban.

Refugees from Afghanistan are escorted to a waiting bus after processing at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, August 23, 2021. (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/Getty Images)

The alleged shooter entered the capital under the Afghanistan resettlement process, and Mayorkas vowed it would be done “quickly and safely.”

But Barr was not alone. Other Republicans also signaled their support for welcoming Afghans to the United States in 2021, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who said at the time during an interview on Fox News: “We owe honor and gratitude to every Afghan soldier who stood with the brave men and women who fought in Afghanistan.”

Some Republicans, like the current Vice President J.D. VanceHowever, expect the plan to end in disaster. Vance had not yet been elected to the Senate at the time of his remarks.

“So, let’s ask an honest question about what is in Afghanistan,” Vance said in an August 2021 video message. According to Pew, 40% of people there believe that blowing themselves up, or committing a suicide bombing, is an acceptable way to solve the problem. So, yes, let’s help the Afghans who helped us, but let’s make sure that we vet them properly so that we don’t get a group of people who think they should blow themselves up in Afghanistan. “A mall because someone looked at their wife the wrong way, and that’s not real leadership.”

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Trump said at the time that the United States should prioritize repatriating American citizens, but should also help Afghans who helped American forces.

“I’m America first. OK? Americans out first,” he said during a 2021 Fox News appearance. “But we’re also going to help the people who helped us, and we have to be very careful when vetting, because there are some tough people out there.”