Sen. James Lankford Faces Backlash For 3-Second Appearance During State Of The Union Address

Oklahoma Senator James Lankford caused an uproar on social media after agreeing with President Biden on the bipartisan immigration bill which was rejected by Republicans earlier this year.

Lankford made a three-second appearance during the State of the Union Address, during which he can be seen mouthing, “That’s true,” while President Joe Biden delivered the address.

The Oklahoma County Republican Party even apparently voted to censure Senator Lankford after the address.

Supporters of the Senator posted on social media about the censure after an Oklahoma County GOP meeting on Saturday.

The State Party attempted to censure Lankford in January over the bipartisan border deal, but former President Donald Trump’s opposition ultimately torpedoed it.

Party leaders pulled that state censure, saying the meeting was illegal and that the censure was not binding.

Lankford told CNN over the weekend that President Joe Biden was correct in the State of the Union when he said the bill would have added 100 immigration judges and more than 4,000 asylum officers.

“I was listening to the President, and obviously, as he was walking through, I could hear my colleagues around me saying none of that is true. I was actually listening to the President and thinking, no, that part is actually true,” Lankford said. “It [the border bill] would have hired all of those additional agents, would have expedited the [asylum] process [to deport illegal border crossers], and would have also changed the asylum standard.”

Senator Lankford also gave an update on conditions at the border over the weekend ahead of a hearing on Monday held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

He said the southern border is a massive terrorism risk, and in the past four and a half months, 50 people on the terrorism watch list were arrested crossing the border, and 10,000 people stopped were classified as “Special Interest Aliens.”

News 9 reached out to the Oklahoma County GOP and Senator Lankford’s office about the censure and has not heard back yet.