On Saturday, the Oklahoma Republican Party passed a resolution to “condemn” and censure Sen. James Lankford for his efforts to protect the southern border. On Sunday, the Oklahoma Republican Party issued a statement calling the Saturday resolution illegitimate. But that hasn’t slowed the attacks on the state’s senior senator.
Lankford is, by any measure of policy, ridiculously extreme. He called climate change a “myth,” said that same-sex marriage violates his religious freedom, and disparaged the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. He was one of a handful of senators who announced his intention to object to counting swing state votes following the 2020 election. When the counting process was suspended due to the violence of Jan. 6, Lankford was actually at the podium, objecting to accepting Arizona’s electoral votes. While he reversed course on those objections when the process resumed, he topped off those events by voting against a nonpartisan Jan. 6 commission.
Lankford is as hard right as they come, but now he’s being condemned as a “RINO” and has become the focus of attacks for trying to do something Republicans have claimed they wanted to do for decades. Because this fight isn’t about policy, it’s about whether Donald Trump, even out of office, can control every single action by every single Republican.
But as of Tuesday, it’s not clear that either of the statements from the Oklahoma Republican Party actually came from the Oklahoma Republican Party, because it’s not clear such a thing as a coherent, recognizable Republican Party even exists in Oklahoma.
As the Oklahoma Voice reports, the Saturday meeting at which Lankford was condemned was organized by Republican Party Vice Chairman Wayne Hill. The Sunday statement calling that meeting illegitimate was sent out by Republican Party Chairman Nathan Dahm speaking for the party’s state committee. But Hill claims he had the support of the majority of state committee members at the Saturday meeting.
Since then, Hill has sent out a series of messages justifying the Saturday meeting and elaborating on why Lankford is “an insult to the conservative values of Oklahoma Republicans.” What is purported to be an “official statement” from Hill is circulating, though it’s unclear if it actually came from Hill. Hill’s hate for Lankford seems to go back at least two years: He was the chair of a Republican county organization that voted to condemn Lankford after he reversed course on opposing the count of 2020 votes.
Dahm has said nothing more about the meeting or the condemnation of Lankford. Though he has taken time to make statements defending Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s ridiculous demand for “zero” border crossings. (Dahm’s argument is not quite as compelling as he seems to think.) He also seems to have had a long-running feud with Hill.
Lankford is supporting the bipartisan border security bill which, by most accounts, gives Republicans almost everything they ever wanted. Sen. Lindsey Graham has said that Republicans won’t get a better deal if Trump is elected. Senate Minority Whip John Thune agreed. “The Democrats will not give us anything close to this if we have to get 60 votes in the United States Senate in a Republican majority,” said Thune. “We have a unique opportunity here. And the timing is right to do this.”
Under any other circumstances, Republicans would be scrambling to pass this bill, talking it up across the media, and preparing to celebrate their victory. Except they’re not. Because Donald Trump told them not to pass it so that he could continue to have the border issue to talk about for the upcoming election.
“I’ll fight it all the way,” said Trump. “A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s okay. Please blame it on me. Please.”
Meanwhile, Lankford maintains that Trump is opposing the bill because of misinformation. “They’re all functioning off of internet rumors of what’s in the bill, and many of them are false,” Lankford said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
But that assumes Trump cares about what’s in the bill. Trump is claiming that he completely closed down the border, and “I did it without a bill,” Trump told supporters in Nevada. Except he didn’t.
Johnson is echoing that claim and saying that the Senate bill is “dead on arrival” in the House no matter what it contains.
From the sidelines, it’s certainly entertaining to watch the Republican Party rip itself wide open to put Trump ahead of what they have long claimed to be the most important issue facing the nation—even if it’s not exactly healthy.
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