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Republican Kentucky lawmaker Andy Barr’s 2021 claim that the U.S. had an "obligation" to welcome Afghans after the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal is resurfacing and complicating his high-stakes 2026 Senate campaign after the footage went viral.
"We have failed in our obligation to help many of these Afghans who risked their lives and, in many cases, died for the cause of their own country in assistance to the United States, and we owe them to help them get into our country with these visas, and the P1 and P2 visas as well," Barr said in a 2021 interview with Kentucky Educational Television of Afghans. "And I voted for these special immigrant visas because it would send a terrible message to our allies around the world that we’re going to abandon you if you help us in your time of need."
Many Afghans worked as interpreters, cultural advisors and offered other assistance to the U.S. during the Afghan war. Dozens of Republican lawmakers and leaders supported welcoming Afghan allies amid the withdrawal, while simultaneously stressing the need to vet the refugees, including then-former President Donald Trump.
Barr's 2026 Republican Senate opponent, Nate Morris, slammed him as having "blood on his hands" for his comments and previous support of a bill broadening special visas for Afghan refugees.
But Barr's campaign hit back against the criticisms in a comment to Fox News Digital, underscoring he did not vote for Biden’s Afghan resettlement program and that he wholeheartedly supports Trump's immigration policies.
"Andy Barr voted against Biden’s Afghan resettlement program," the spokesperson said. "Andy Barr supports President Trump’s common sense border security plan — deporting all illegals and reforming our legal immigration system."
Footage of Barr's interview has spread like wildfire on social media. It's racked up millions of views following the horrific shooting in Washington, D.C., the day before Thanksgiving when two National Guard members were shot, leaving one soldier critically injured and leaving Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom dead.
Authorities identified Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, as the suspect in the shooting, which unfolded just blocks from the White House.
Lakanwal entered the U.S. legally in 2021 under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome, a program that evacuated and resettled Afghan refugees as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. He reportedly worked with various U.S. government entities, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Afghanistan, Fox Digital previously reported.
Other refugees who entered the nation under Operation Allies Welcome have been arrested for suspected terrorist ties. The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that ICE arrested a suspected ISIS-K Afghan terrorist, marking the third "Afghan national terrorist arrested in recent days."
Barr came under fierce scrutiny online recently as his 2021 comments spread.
"WTF!???" Donald Trump Jr. posted to X on Black Friday.
"Andy Barr voted to flood America with unvetted Afghans while our borders were wide open. Now we see the results. This blood is on establishment RINOs (Republican in name only) like Barr who sided with Biden & McConnell over America First," another conservative account posted.
Others pointed to the remarks as evidence that Barr should not be elected to the Senate during the 2026 midterms. Barr is among a handful of Republicans running to replace retiring Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Some Barr critics rallied around Morris, the CEO of Kentucky-based company Morris Industries, as the conservative candidate to replace McConnell.
"Compare Barr to Nate Morris who is calling for an immigration moratorium and there’s literally no comparison," Turning Point USA spokesman and executive producer of "The Charlie Kirk Show" Andrew Kolvet posted to X. "That’s why Charlie went out of his way to endorse @NateMorris. Our number one mission must be to save America, not destroy it through unfettered mass migration."
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Morris said, "Barr knows that he has been exposed for his role helping Biden bring these dangerous Afghan refugees to America and so now he's trying to pretend that 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."
Barr's campaign hit back at Morris' remarks in comments to Fox Digital Wednesday, including highlighting that the lawmaker did not vote for an Afghan resettlement program under the Biden administration.
"Nate Morris is spiraling 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 doesn’t support President Trump’s policies 100%, he can’t be trusted to vote with him in the U.S. Senate."
Barr voted against H.R. 5305 in September 2021, which provided more than $6 billion to resettle Afghan refugees, beyond people who assisted the U.S. during the war.
He was among 192 Republicans who supported the Averting Loss of Life and Injury by Expediting SIVs Act of 2021, which expedited the special immigrant visa process for Afghan nationals who worked with the U.S. government or NATO in Afghanistan and increased the number of available special immigrant visas to 8,000.
The bill passed the House, but did not become law. President Joe Biden instead signed a spending bill that added 8,000 Afghan special immigration visas and eased some of its rules.
On Aug. 29, 2021, the Biden administration launched Operation Allies Welcome, a Department of Homeland Security led-project to "support vulnerable Afghans, including those who worked alongside us in Afghanistan for the past two decades, as they safely resettle in the United States."
Trump dropped the hammer on the visa program shortly after the recent D.C. shooting that took place at the end of November.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that officials are "actively re-examining" all the Afghan nationals who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration. More than 76,000 Afghans were evacuated and processed into the country, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Barr published a statement denouncing the shooting in Washington, D.C., while simultaneously offering his support to Trump for vowing to pause immigration applications from "Third World Countries." The Trump administration officially halted immigration applications from 19 countries on Tuesday.
"President Trump is right to pause 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 rushed unvetted arrivals into the country. President Trump is cleaning up Biden’s mess and I fully support him," Barr said in the Friday statement, which also offered his condolences to Beckstrom.
Morris continued in his comments to Fox Digital that the "future of Western Civilization is at stake."
"I've been campaigning on an immigration moratorium and a plan to deport all illegals since I launched my campaign for U.S. Senate," he said. "I'm honored to say that it was one of the main reasons that Charlie Kirk endorsed my campaign at our launch event."
"My opponent, Andy Barr, on the other hand, actually went on TV just a few months ago and called me a ‘nativist’ for supporting an immigration moratorium. In 2021, while President Trump, Vice President Vance and the entire MAGA movement was fighting to stop Biden from bringing Afghan refugees into our country, Andy Barr was siding with his "mentor" Mitch McConnell and telling Kentuckians that we 'owed it' to the Afghan people to bring them here," he said.
Fox News Digital also reached out to Republican former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's Senate campaign regarding Barr's 2021 comments.
"Kentuckians remember exactly what happened during Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Andy Barr is a classic say whatever it takes Washington politician. He's voted with Nancy Pelosi over 1,200 times in Congress and was strongly supportive of opening wide our borders to unvetted Afghans during Biden's reckless and dangerous withdrawal. Daniel Cameron would have never voted for that," Cameron's Senate campaign said.
Cameron's team added that Morris is "a fake on immigration" who "doesn't have any real beliefs — just whatever is politically convenient to him."
The campaign added that Cameron "has by far the most conservative record on illegal immigration," citing how he sued the Biden administration for "dismantling President Trump’s border policies" when he served as state attorney general, fought the Customs and Border Protection "One App that streamlines illegal entry" and the Biden administration's "unlawful abuse of immigration parole."
The Afghan withdrawal widely has been viewed as one of the biggest failures under the Biden administration, leaving 13 U.S. service members killed at the Abbey Gate bombing, as well as abandoning millions of dollars in military equipment that ultimately landed in the hands of the Taliban.
But Barr wasn't alone. Other Republicans also signaled support for welcoming Afghans to the U.S. in 2021, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who said at the time during an interview on Fox News: "We owe a debt of honor and gratitude to every one of the Afghan soldiers who stood with the brave men and women that fought in Afghanistan."
Some Republicans, such as now-Vice President JD Vance, however, predicted the plan could end in disaster. Vance was not yet elected to the Senate at the time of his remarks.
"So let's have an honest question about what exists in Afghanistan," Vance said in a video message in August 2021. "According to Pew, 40% of the people there believe that blowing yourself up, 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 ensure that we're properly vetting them so that we don't get a bunch of people who believe they should blow themselves up in a mall because somebody looked at their wife the wrong way. That is not real leadership."
Trump said at the time the U.S. should prioritize bringing home American citizens but also assist Afghans who aided U.S. forces.
"I'm America first. Okay? The Americans come out first. But we're also going to help people that helped us, and we have to be very careful with the vetting, because you have some rough people in there," he said during a 2021 appearance on Fox News.
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