senator james lankford because he voted to certify the election. the state republican party chairman endosing the challenger to the sitting incumbent republican u.s. senator. if you have an incumbent u.s. senator up for re-election usually you would not expect the republican party in that state and its chairman to be crusading against the incumbent senator trying to get him or her thrown out of office. usually that's how it works. for obvious reasons. but six months on from the capitol attack today what we have got now is a republican party that does that. and what we have got now are a lot of single issue republican voters and republican activists for whom, single issue, only thing that's driving them in politics is this fantasy that trump secretly won the 2020 election and the election must be overthrown so he can be reinstated. it's turned the state republican party in oklahoma against their incumbent republican senator as he faces a re-election battle. it's also animating hundreds of republican campaigns for all sorts of state offices. amy gard

. >>> also oklahoma senator james lankford changes his tune flirting with 2020 election conspiraciess he faces a tough republican primary. hear what cnn asked him ahead. >>> and i'll speak to a mother ready to sue the state of arkansas over legislation that prevents local school districts from imposing mask mandates. that fight ahead. mmm, licorice records. wonka, digital workflows for it tell us this machine needs updating... kids don't really have records anymore... but it tastes better on vinyl... servicenow. is mealtime a struggle? introducing ore-ida potato pay. where ore-ida golden crinkles are your crispy currency to pay for bites of this... ...with this. when kids won't eat dinner, potato pay them to. ore-ida. win at mealtime. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high you know how i feel ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel ♪ [man: coughing] ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day... ♪ no matter how you got copd it's time to make a stand. ♪ ...and i'm feelin' good ♪ start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy

lankford voted with trump more than 90% of the time.upposed to be the president or not, that is what he wants republicans fighting for. that's why he hasn't endorsed him. >> yeah. you know, lankford hardly, though, sort of an uninvolved victim. you recently discussed the election results with him. what did he say? >> look, i wanted to understand why he had changed his mind on january 6th. what happened behind the scenes? and as we started talking about it, he essentially said that he still had questions about the election. here is what he told me. >> do you still think that biden won the election rightfully? >> i think biden is the constitutional president. no question about it. are there questions still hanging out there, yes? >> are those questions that would have ultimately changed the outcome of the election? >> nobody knows. we can't get a full answer so we don't know. i'm not trying to be coy about it. it's the unknown at this point. i just want all the questions answered so that people can know one way or the other on it. >> and

senator lankford: thank you. senator king: thank you. mr. salesses, i know the defense department has its own intelligence service, dia. i would appreciate it if you could provide to the committee intelligence products that were available to the department of defense and the week prior to and the day prior to january 6. and they can be submitted in a classified setting if there are issues. i don't know if there is such material, but if it is -- but if there is, i hope you make it available to the committee. general walker, you are a very important witness because you were in the midst of all this. we are struggling with that long delay. you testified that in the summer, the delay was a matter of minutes. this time, it was three hours and 19 minutes. was the delay caused, and you judgment from being on these phone calls, buy anything remotely resembling politics and the desire to not interfere with this particular troop? -- particular group? or was it because of blowback, concerns of what happened in the summer and criticism the guard had tak

i think lankford, back to oklahoma, lankford is not going to be in any problem.hen probably easily win reelection. but it does say something that this is happening all across the country. where the people who are the most zealous and really the ones who know the least about what's true and what's not true are able to take over an organization, and then she shut other people up. people become afraid to stand up to them. it's the intimidation factor because what will bring trump in and what will denounce you, we'll sue you and whatever else. i think it's a problem all across the country. the trump poison has been spread throughout the party. >> and, again, and i agree. i don't think lankford necessarily is vulnerable in oklahoma, but it is striking that for some candidates around the country, it seems to be a growing number, that adherence to the big lie or things that just aren't true, it's not a bug, it's the feature of their candidacy. >> well, it is. remember, they have a secret weapon, and that is that we have the kind of a party system in the united states wh

joining us is oklahoma senator james lankford. thank you for being with us. i have the privilege of serving with you in the united states congress. i know you're passionate about this issue, the media team seems to be ignoring what is going on on the border. what are you seeing up close and personal? >> i've been to the border 3 times in the last four months to see what is going on, this is an area i track a lot. amazing was into liquid. the smugglers are excited about president biden. when donald trump goes to the border the border patrol agents are excited to see donald trump. we've got to figure out loyal to the smugglers or the border patrol agents. here is what i have seen. the wall is unfinished, president biden has hired contractors to watch the steel so people don't steal the gates and everything that will probably never be installed under president biden. there's an easy way to secure that seal, install it. the levees are down in texas because that was part of the construction as well. border patrol chief was effective under donald trump has now been

senator lankford: okay.t's helpful. you had said in this, you talked several times about thousands of well-coordinated, well-equipped violent criminals and described them, with climbing gear and all the things that you've also testified here. you also mentioned this letter about the pipe bombs that were located, that the first word will come at 12:52 that a pipe bomb had been located at the republican national committee headquarters. how was that located? who found it? and why was that particular moment the moment that it was found? steven sund: i don't know why that was a particular moment that was found. i believe it was an employee of the republican national committee that had located it in the rear of the building that had called it into capitol police headquarters. senator lankford: you had mentioned before that you thought this was part of the coordination, that there were several that were out there that would take away resources at that exact moment, but there's no way to know that they would find it

lankford's primary challenger his whole campaign is based on the fact that senator lankford didn't vote in the senate to overturn the presidential election results to try to keep trump in power. it is not surprising perhaps for a rabid trump supporters to be primarying a u.s. senator for that purpose. but perhaps it is surprising that the oklahoma republican party chairman is endorsing that challenger against the sitting republican senator from oklahoma. the chairman of the state party is endorsing the challenger. the challenger is challenging lankford specifically because he didn't vote to overturn the election. and the state party is onboard with that. lankford's gotta go. this weekend it happened again. sitting republican senator lisa murkowski, up for re-election in alaska, facing a primary challenger from a trump supporter who says lisa murkowski shouldn't have voted to impeach trump over the january 6th attack, and murkowski should have voted to overturn the election results in the senate to keep trump in power. again, perhaps it is not surprising lisa murkowski is facing a trumpy

senator lankford raise and of the case were i.c.e. offices were directed not to pursue a previously deported alien who was convicted for indecency with a child i sexual contact and confined for five years. this is a registered sex offender and i.c.e. officers were told not to remove this criminal alien. why is this happening? are you not concern about these kind of criminals being released onto the streets and hurting children again? >> senator, those types of criminals are a priority for arrest and removal. that is what the guidelines say. i cannot speak to the specific -- if i may finish, senator. i cannot speak to the particular speed i heard you give an answer to senator lankford but why can't you quit your the secretary. why are you not in charge of your department? why can't i.c.e. offices not get answers from you? why is it they had to come to me to get answers from you? because they don't know what to do. they are desperate for guidance. why can't you speak to these issues, mr. secretary? >> senator, if i may answer your quest

senator lankford is a traitor now inside trump's republican party, congressman, seriously? oh, look. here's what's happened. it's just like donald trump's method, right? the biggest enemy to maga world right now is not even me or liz cheney. it's mike pence, one of the most faithful people to donald trump. if you ever turn an ounce against donald trump, you're out of the tribe. to all my colleagues in politics, let me say this to you. either have to be a zombie for the maga relief system, whether that is today or tomorrow -- it varies every day, based on donald trump's whims, or stand up and fell your constituents the truth. that's what we have to do, tell people the truth. we know what the truth is. the american people and your base deserve to hear it. that's the moment we're in. just this kind of chaotic, people scared to do anything, scared of their own shadow, absolutely desperate to get re-elected. meanwhile, the innocent people of our base that in many cases had been led to believe that the election was stolen, is not hearing anything from any of the people they trust

>> yes, thank you, senator lankford. that issue, with respect to the retrocession of virginia 1847, '46, has never been tested. it arose in a private taxpayer suit. some 30 years later the court declined to address the merits because so much water had gone under the bridge, and so much would have to be disturbed. um, many people have questioned whether that retrocession was legitimate, including no less than president lincoln and president taft and others. and so, it remains an open question. >> so there -- what is the way that that would have to be resolved? >> well, the court would have to speak to it, first of all. >> well, you'd have to find someone withstanding to speak to it. >> yeah, the standing issue would certainly come up. but with respect to retrocession to maryland, which is what your opening question was about. there, you would certainly need the consent of maryland to do that. in fact, if i may respond to a point that professor primus made, the -- the -- the grant of land from maryland to the district was

senator lankford tweeting out within the hour saying, "ben and jerry's has now decided they know moreusalem than the israelis if ben and jerry's wants to have a meltdown and boycott israel, oklahoma is ready to respond oklahoma has an anti-boycott of israel law in place. we should immediately block the sale of all ben and jerry's in the state and any state operated facility to align with our law." >> seth: cool, they're fighting with ice cream now what's next? going to accuse mayor mccheese of voting twice in arizona you can't just ban ben and jerry's because you don't like their opinions i mean, i still eat it, even though i'm annoyed they haven't given us our own flavor yet. it would be called "a closer lick," and we've already mocked up what the container would look like i sent this to them, and i've called their offices and left dozens of messages and all that happened was one of their interns called me, and said, "we already have a flavor named after you. it's called vanilla. ha, ha, ha [ laughter ] but i assure you if this doesn't work, then we will continue to at least try to g

>> yes. >> thank you. >> thank you, senator lankford. chair recognizes senator hawley for your questions. >> thank you very much, and thank you to you will at witnesses for being here. doctor, help me understand the history here. my understanding that the united states justice department the office of legal counsel has weighed in on this question over the course of their history. to my knowledge the office of legal counsel has never said that congress has the ability to by statute to turn the district of columbia into a state. is that correct? >> that is correct. the only exception occurred during the obama administration when the office of legal counsel gave the no go for this so he turned to the visitor general's office and the visitor general said we can defend this and of course that's very general rouse because that's the job of the office to defend even constitutional matters. >> so what happened was that the attorney much general under that administration got a consistent answer, the same answers that attorney generals and preside

lankford: mr. lankford: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma's recognized. mr. lankford: we have a lot of issues we're working through in the senate, obviously infrastructure is in the conversation, what's going to happen with some spending dealing with the nawferred -- national guard and capitol police and afghan interpreters, we're engaged in a lot of different issues and we are engaged in a lot of different things behind-the-scenes. one thing that is happening is the state department. the state department's issue of passports is a major issue. it is a frustration for a lot of americans and for a lot of oklahomans that we deal with on a day to day basis is getting their passport renewed. they didn't travel last year because of covid, but they want to travel in places where they can. good luck, as we have found. right now the backlog at the state department is 18 weeks. today is july 29. if you turn in your application for your passport today, you may get your passport december 22. merry christm

a brand-new report released by senator james lankford of oklahoma, basically summarized it costing taxpayers2 billion to not be building this wall since the month of january. on top of that, basically says we are wasting $3 million every single day, paying contractors to babysit steel in the desert when there's no construction taking place. look at the video we shot right here at the section of the wall in del rio today, a massive group of 250 migrants show up to the gate here today in hopes to being led to the united states. mostly haitians, some from africa, even a guy from india. border patrol let everybody in. they took them all the way and ship them away in the area of the processing centers where many of them are going to be released. to to appear in court. showing video to the people who turned themselves in, not always the case. the texas trooper, he's going to pull over a human smuggler. when he approaches the vehicle is going to florida and take off. you'll see that the true britons are pursuing the vehicle down to the road. a ton of immigrants to start stirring out of the vehicle

james lankford will be ranking member.d josh hawley. so congratulations to our new chairs, our ranking members, and to all members of our committee. i look forward to working with all of you in the months and years ahead. officially the record for this hearing will remain opened until 5:00 pm on march 9th, 2021, for the submission of statements and questions for the record. with that, this hearing is officially adjourned. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this week marks the six-month anniversary of the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. each night, we will bring you congressional hearings that occurred in the aftermath of january 6. tonight, the senate judiciary hearing for march with fbi director christopher wray and on thu

james lankford, all he did was change his mind on not certifying the election in the hours after thelent january 6 insurrection, and now he's a target of his own party in his state. is that gop rescue plan toast? >> i think the fact that you and i can name those members on one hand is proof that it's not much of a movement. i don't want to minimize the courage it takes for those members to stand up and say the truth, but i don't think there is a ground swell of support, and i don't think the tide is turning for the party. cpac, the second one, is coming up this weekend, and if you look at the agenda and the folks that are being highlighted there, none of them are in this so-called moderate wing of the party which really just says things that are true. i don't think, i don't think they're going to have much support in the coming year as the gop has decided to double down on the insanity going into the midterms. >> it's remarkable, right. it is truly remarkable. s.e. cupp, i'm sure we'll keep talking about it. thanks very much. >> thank you, jim. >>> well, president biden is standing h

james lankford interrupted and incomes whispers and everyone starts moving quickly. everyone gets out. the house, at the same time, continued in session for several more minutes and part of the reason was because paul go saar was still airing his grievances of the big lie on the house floor objecting to the ceding electors in his own state. >> in arizona, mail-in ballots were altered on the first day of counting and has been concluded by data analysts. over 400,000 mail-in ballots were altered, switch from president trump to biden, and they were erased from president trump's total. >> there, those are lies, we know that. congressman gosar as the mob is coming closer, spewing lies about the election and his spewing of those lies in those moments you saw they're delayed everything. by the time the house finally goes into recess, six minutes after the senate, to 19, it is basically to light. the rioters, the violent mob are forcing their way further into the building, and that's why unlike the senate the members are in the chamber. they put on gas masks, they take off t

we will get that for senator lankford. next is senator casey. >> mr. chairman, thanks very much for this opportunity. secretary yellen, we're honored to have you with us today, and thank you for two things. one, for your ongoing public service at a challenging time for the nation, and secondly, the way you have done throughout your career, making the connection between economic policy and the betterment of our families and making that connection over and over again. >> thank you. >> i especially appreciate the work you've done to lift up the provisions in the rescue plan and your conversation with senator bennet, senator brown and others who have done so much for our children. i wanted to ask you first and foremost about women's rights. you discussed your objective with respect to promoting full legal rights and greater economic and education opportunities for both women and girls, not just here at home but around the world. and i share those goals. i know a lot of members of our committee do. the senate recently advanced legislation that senator corte

senator james lankford of oklahoma interrupted mid-sentence. an aide comes and whispers in his ear, and everyone starts moving very quickly. you see that? everyone gets out. the house at the same time continued in session for several more key minutes, and part of the reason was because paul gosar was still airing his grievances of the big lie on the house floor, objecting to the seating of electors in his own state. >> in arizona, as my attachments make clear, mail-in ballots were altered on the first day of counting as shown in data graphs we provide. and it's concluded by data analysts. over 400,000 mail-in ballots were altered, switched from president trump to vice president biden or completely erased from president trump's totals. >> there, those are lies. you know that. there was not 400,000 votes flipped. as the mob is encroaching and coming closer, spewing lies about the election. and his spewing of those lies in those moments you saw there delayed everything. and so by the time the house finally goes into recess, six minutes after the s

lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr.resident, a few weeks ago, president biden nominated tracy stone-manning to be able to lead the bureau of land management. many people in my state don't know much about the bureau of land management. we don't have a lot of area that's actually managed in our state by b.l.m. it has more than 10,000 employees. it manages roughly an eighth of the nation's land including 65 million acres of our forests. lands that hold 30% of our minerals. and whoever leads this entity, not only leads the issue of how we're managing our forests, how we're handling our minerals, energy development, livestock grazing and, yes, timber harvesting. the individual president biden nominated we now know was an earth first ecoterrorist. she actually typed out, as she has admitted in the past, a threatening letter that was sent out to leaders that were doing forestry in idaho saying in her letter that she typed out -- and she has admitted that she typed out the threatening letter -- that we, as she put it, drove 500

you have james lankford who is a conservative, a conservative member, who voted with former presidenturrection or the hours after the insurrection, he changed his mind and decided he didn't want to vote with the slew of republicans he said he was going to vote with to question the results of states in that election. and he is getting hammered back home. you have the state gop chairman saying he might support his opponent. that, to me -- >> and threatening to censure him and senator inhofe as well. what's been also fascinating is let's take the state of virginia, which i know is near and dear to you, j. mart. they have a big gubernatorial election coming up and right down the street from here in loudoun county you have this massive knock down, dragout fight happening over critical race theory and transgender rights. it's being fueled by trump gops. take a look at one of the school board meetings. >> you're teaching children to hate others because of their skin color. and you're forcing them to lie about other kids' gender. i am disgusted by your bigotry. >> yeah, this is going to be th

according to senator lankford's excellent report on the fact we haven't completed this wall and it's costing us billions of dollars, in that report he also stated there are about 35,000 individuals that have been released in the interior with just a notice to report, and he also states that only about 16%, a little over 5,000 have reported, so, in total, in the first six months of this year, about 173,000 people have been released in the interior and that compares to about 5,000 during the first six months of 2020. an enormous increase, 168,000 people more so my question is, do you have any idea where those 173,000 people went? do we keep track of that? >> senator, you are citing data with which i disagree. i share the reasons why i disagree-- >> okay, good, no matter what the number is, no matter what the number is, do we know where the people that have been released with either notice to appear or notice to report, do we know where they're going? are we keeping track of it so that we can round them up if they don't appear? >> i would use different language, senator. yes, we do. and

senator lankford. >> thank you senator padilla. mr.santos i have talked for several years with the census leadership and they have set out hard it is to connect with every american once every 10 years and i've reminded him the irs gathers information in april every single year. the census bureau gathers information on americans in april every 10 years. can you help me understand why the two of them cannot work together once every 10 years? a tax form and as you are submitting your tax information on that every tenure time. matt that the census information could not also be included so you also complete your census information. >> thank you so much for that question senator and i congratulate you on your long-term continuing efforts to create efficiencies like this. >> it's a dot billion dollar difference in investments. >> absolutely and i understand that. the good news is that the census bureau does cooperate with the irs and the postal service on the conduct of the 2020 census and has reference information and resources. as far as yo

senator lankford: i want to ask you some questions to follow up on statements. you talked about the difference in this bill and the hr 51 bill and how they handle the amendment. this bill says we will pass it and declare d.c. as a state and then get around to the 23rd amendment. you flipped that in your earlier statement. -- can you go into this deeper? >> the bill can only do one thing, an article. until that happens, we have an enclave of around 59 people. some of it voters who would be eligible to choose three electors. so the thought is if we can push people and wait and see what happens, may be the 23rd amendment will be repealed. so there's no hard rule or guarantee. there is not a time limit. so it is waiting to see what will happen. so another way might be to say let's repeal the 23rd amendment or putting a condition on it that way we do not have residual problems. >> do you know of any issues trying to form that way? >> i think you could develop a constitutional amendment that would condition the repeal of the 23rd amendment. i mentioned concerns about

from the senate floor from late last month this is senator james lankford.his is one of the last days before the july 4 recess. asking americans to recommit themselves to the cause of freedom. [video clip] >> on december 23, 1776 thomas payne wrote these words, "these are the times that try men's soldiers. the sunshine soldier will shrink but he who stands by it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph. what we have obtained we esteem to lightly. it gives every living thing its value. heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated. it is a good thing for us to reflect on these simple words. "what we attain to cheap." i think we have forgotten the sacrifices of previous generations. in our time and in this wealthy moment in our nation's history we seem to esteem too lightly that that was attained too cheaply and forge

next hour oklahoma senator james lankford previewing on what to expect in infrastructure vote.ng back on china's influence, former secretary of state mike pompeo will join me on his takes on cyber attacks and growing calls against taiwan's existing as independent country, don't miss a moment of it. mornings with maria live on fox business. ♪ ♪ ♪ maria: senate democrats are pushing with key procedural vote in massive infrastructure bill despite not finishing writing of the bill. republican leadership says they will not sign off until they see what is in the bill and how they plan to pay for it in order the move the bill forward. democrats will need support of at least ten republicans to reach the key 60 vote threshold. joining me right now florida congressman and member of small business committees, byron donald, it's always a pleasure, thanks very much for being here this morning. what do you see happening this morning with the procedural vote, will the democrats get the republican support that they need to move this forward? >> i mean, i hope not. what is this, a redo of obama

my colleague, senator lankford has taken it on as a fiscal hawk detailing the waste and abuse in the federal government. in his memory, i held the task force in congress and we produced what is the only budget interviewed in the house. the budget is not only clear path as my friend tom would say, it balances in five years. our interest costs are specced to triple in the next 10 years making interest costs the third largest interest cost between social security and medicare. the concerns of our constituenty leader criticized the senate. sperl pelosi has often said, show me your budget and i will show you your values. it is alarming that for the third year in a row. this majority do not care about american taxpayers and don't care about the fiscal health of this country. when i came to congress, our national debt was $19 trillion and just 2 1/2 years, we are approaching $30 trillion and our economic growth has been around 2%. in the past 12 months our country has been been devastated with millions of americans losing their jobs, businesses or both, they turn to the federal government f