Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford waffled and used lots of weasel words to try to avoid directly answering whether he supports Trump as their nominee given all the vile things that have come out of Trump's mouth and the 91 felony counts he's facing. In the end, of course, he's just like the rest of them. He's going to support the fascist criminal because heaven forbid nothing could be worse than supporting a Democrat.
It was nice to see George Stephanopoulos keep at it until he finally got an answer out of him.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Lankford, thank you for joining us this morning. I want to get to the war and the negotiations over border security and foreign aid. But first, your party's leading candidate for president was on the stump yesterday repeating lies about the 2020 election. He's called those convicted in the January 6th insurrection hostages. He faces 91 separate felony counts himself. He's raised the prospect of executing the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and terminating parts of the Constitution. In the face of all that and more, are you prepared to support Donald Trump if he's your party's nominee?
It's nice to see someone on the main broadcast networks calling Trump a liar, and detailing the legal jeopardy he's in, while also highlighting his insane statements like the one about General Milley. It would be great if a few Republican voters actually questioned whether it's a good idea to support Trump.
LANKFORD: Yeah, we haven't had a single vote yet, George. This is still weeks and weeks away from our first votes that are happening, actually, in Iowa, then New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and a lot of people are going to make that decision. That's not going to be me making that decision. That's going to be the American people that actually make that decision.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that's going to be Republican primary voters. You're a Republican senator, and I'm asking for your opinion. Given that record of Donald Trump, are you prepared to support him if he's the nominee of your party?
LANKFORD: I have not actually endorsed anyone for president this time, and I didn't during the 2016 time period either. So I've stayed out of this. Again, it's going to be Republican voters and the American people that are going to make that decision in the primary, and then in November it'll be American voters as well. The challenge right now is Americans are trying to be able to get information, trying to be to make decisions and they're going to make their own decisions on that. That's who we are as Americans.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Right, I understand that, but I'm asking what your decision is.You're an elected official, you're a Republican Party official. I'm asking, can you support Donald Trump as the nominee, given his record?
LANKFORD: Yeah, if he ends up being the nominee, and I've got a choice between Donald Trump and Biden, I've got a choice between two different sets of policies, two different sets of ideas, two different ways to handle the economy, two different ways to be able to handle energy, two different ways to handle foreign policy, immigration between me, that is not a hard choice between those two sets of policies that would actually face us when we get to that November time period, and if that ends up being the choice of the American people in both of those primaries, that two different sets of policies is not difficult for me because I've seen the difference between what happens at the border and security, what happens into our economy, what happens in foreign policy. Americans have seen a side-by-side on that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if Donald Trump is convicted in one of these trials?
LANKFORD: We have a long way to go on that, George. I know you're trying to jump ahead through a lot of different things here. I understand that everyone is innocent until proven guilty in this process. We've got to be able to go through a lot of things, and again, we're back to the American people. The American people make this choice, and then we actually, as leaders, work with other leaders to be able to go through the process.
Some profile in courage there, huh?
What Senator Lankford doesn't seem to care about is that none of the policy he talks about there matters. There won't be any policy decisions, just grievance service and an end to democracy here in the United states.
