'Ultimate betrayal': MAGA influencer melts down as GOP lawmaker helps refugees
U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) walks to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 15, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

MAGA influencer Laura Loomer melted down Friday over claims that a Republican lawmaker worked to help house Afghan refugees at a Texas military base after the Taliban took over the country in 2021.

Loomer was criticizing Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and his work with Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) to house 10,000 Afghan refugees in August 2021 at Fort Bliss in a post on X Friday, a week after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard troops, killing one and leaving another severely injured.

In her long post, Loomer attempted to connect crime rates in El Paso and called the refugees "unvetted Afghan imports, brought in under the banner of humanitarianism and 'counterterrorism cooperation', have contributed to this crime surge," she wrote.

"Senator Cornyn is currently running for reelection against Texas GOP Attorney General @KenPaxtonTX. The primary is in 2026.
It’s disqualifying that Cornyn colluded with radical open-border advocates like Senator Padilla to import hostile Islamic individuals for the purpose of creating a future Democrat voting bloc," Loomer wrote.

"It’s the ultimate betrayal of Texans. Texas voters should keep this in mind when they head to the polls in 2026 for the midterm primary elections," she added.

Cornyn worked with Padilla to bring Afghans who worked with the U.S. as interpreters and translators and who would have otherwise been targeted by the Taliban after the country fell to the terrorist group in 2021.