On Wednesday, February 7, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma talked about the political challenges he faced while serving as the top GOP negotiator on a bipartisan border security deal.
The deal was always going to fail. In a speech he gave before the expected failure, Lankford lamented about how some Republicans were objecting for political reasons.
“Some of them have been very clear with me,” Lankford said. “They have political differences with the bill. They say it’s the wrong time to solve the problem. We’ll let the presidential election solve this problem.”
Lankford even went as far as revealing that a “popular commentator” threatened to “destroy” him. But only if he negotiated the deal during a presidential election year, regardless of what was in it.
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“I will do whatever I can to destroy you because I do not want you to solve this during the presidential election,” Lankford recalled the commentator saying. According to him, those who made such promises have kept it religiously by doing all they can to destroy him.
Ahead of the release of the deal’s text, right-wing media outlets like Fox News promoted false claims about it. Their reasoning was that it would lead to “amnesty.” And some Republicans outrightly admitted that politics was a big factor for them.
“I cannot vote for this bill,” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the third-highest ranking GOP senator, in his statement on the deal. “Americans will turn to the upcoming election to end the border crisis.”
Following the expected failed vote, the Senate is expected to take up a bill to send billions in aid to Ukraine and Israel. However, they will do so without any border security provisions.
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The deal, which was negotiated following GOP demands to attach border security provisions to a bill to provide billions in aid to Ukraine and Israel, has affected Lankford’s life greatly.
Last month, Lankford faced condemnation and censuring by his own state’s party for simply speaking with Democrats. This is even though the deal he was negotiating needed the parties involved to be vocal.
Of course, Lankford is taking it all in stride and is fighting in defense of his work. He has appeared on Fox News to defend his work in Congress. One that many of his colleagues supported until former President Donald Trump came out against the measure.
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“It is interesting: Republicans, four months ago, would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel, and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said: ‘We’re not going to give money for this. We want a change in law,’” Lankford said.
“A few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding, I actually don’t want a change in law because of presidential election year.’”
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