James Lankford

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President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday evening that former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is his pick for U.S. attorney general, hours after former congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Lankford: We don’t know ‘one way or another’ how DOJ will act with political interference

By Mallory Wilson - The Washington Times

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., the lead GOP negotiator on a border-foreign aid package, speaks with reporters outside the chamber at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. Any bipartisan border deal could be doomed because of resistance from former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

GOP gets burned by latest flirtation with immigration deal

By Stephen Dinan and Ramsey Touchberry - The Washington Times

Send your letters to the editor: yourletters@washingtontimes.com

Letter to the editor: A law based on illegality

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., the lead GOP negotiator on a border-foreign aid package, speaks with reporters outside the chamber at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. Any bipartisan border deal could be doomed because of resistance from former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. James Lankford, lead Republican negotiator on border deal, censured by home state GOP

By Ramsey Touchberry - The Washington Times

Migrants wait to be processed by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol after they crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico, Oct. 19, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. The mayor of Eagle Pass, a Texas border city that's at the center of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's aggressive measures to curb migrant crossings, accused the state Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, of a new escalation, saying state troopers closed a large public park along the Rio Grande without asking permission. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Senate border deal would allow 5,000 illegal immigrants a day

By Ramsey Touchberry and Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaks to media about Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden. Republicans are insisting on pairing the funding with changes to America’s immigration and border policies. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)

Key GOP senator sees border security deal this week, vows no one will be ‘jammed’

By Ramsey Touchberry - The Washington Times

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaks to media about Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden. Republicans are insisting on pairing the funding with changes to America’s immigration and border policies. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)

U.S. aid for Ukraine by year-end seems increasingly out of reach as GOP ties it to border security

By Stephen Groves and Lisa Mascaro - Associated Press

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaks to media about Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden. Republicans are insisting on pairing the funding with changes to America’s immigration and border policies. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)

U.S. aid for Ukraine by year-end seems increasingly of out reach as GOP ties it to border security

By Stephen Groves and Lisa Mascaro - Associated Press

Migrants who had been waiting for temporary transit papers but failed to get them after waiting, some up to two months, leave Tapachula, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, as they make their way to the U.S. border. The migrants said they did not have the resources to pay for more food and lodging as they wait. (AP Photo/Edgar Clemente) **FILE**

Senate GOP’s border security plan would restart border wall, restrict asylum claims

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

A Planned Parenthood sign is displayed on the outside of a clinic during a news conference, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

GOP lawmakers call for investigation into Planned Parenthood COVID-19 relief money

By Alex Miller - The Washington Times

A display of the fentanyl and meth that was seized by Customs and Border Protection officers at the Nogales Port of Entry is shown during a press conference Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019, in Nogales, Ariz. (Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily Star via AP, File)

Sen. James Lankford calls for reinforcements to stop drugs at border

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs to examine proposed budget estimates and justification for fiscal year 2024 for the Department of State with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Wednesday, March 22, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Senate Ethics Committee admonishes Sen. Lindsey Graham

By Mary Clare Jalonick - Associated Press

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., listens to testimony during a Senate Indian Affairs Committee about the status of the descendants of enslaved people formerly held by the Muscogee (Creek), Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole and Cherokee Nations, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 27, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Lankford to keep blocking Pentagon nominees until COVID vax rule repealed

By Ramsey Touchberry - The Washington Times

Abandoned border wall construction material is used to close a gap in the newly constructed border wall Wednesday, May 19, 2021, near Sasabe, Ariz. The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced DHS will use border funding to close wall gaps in areas of Arizona, California and Texas by border construction started by the Trump administration. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Ready or not? Homeland security insists they are ready for border surge, then asks for delay

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin gives his victory speech at his watch party, Aug. 23, 2022, in Tulsa, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP, File)

Republicans James Lankford, Markwayne Mullin win Oklahoma Senate seats

By Sean Murphy - Associated Press

A U.S. government-built section of border wall snakes through the Sonoran Desert just west of the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, separating Mexico, left, and the United States, Dec. 9, 2020, in Douglas, Ariz. A prosecutor told jurors in closing arguments at a criminal trial, Tuesday, May 31, 2022, that there is overwhelming evidence that organizers of a &quot;We Build The Wall&quot; campaign to raise money for a wall along the U.S. southern border defrauded investors. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

‘Glam migration:’ The illegal immigrant wore Versace

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., arrives for a hearing on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Washington, in this file photo. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) **FILE**

Lankford calls for Pentagon audit of religious exemption requests for vaccine mandate

By Joseph Clark - The Washington Times

In this March 30, 2021, file photo, minors are shown inside a pod at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in Donna, Texas. President Biden said migrants separated at the southern border during the Trump administration deserve compensation, but it likely won’t be $450,000. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool) ** FILE **

Feds ponder how much to pay illegal immigrants in compensation

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., arrives for a hearing on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Washington. Lankford, whose voting record in the Senate has aligned with former President Donald Trump’s position nearly 90% of the time, finds himself under fierce attack by a challenger in his own party. Similar scenes are playing out in other red states where ultra right-wing challengers are tapping into anger among Republicans over Trump's election loss and coronavirus-related lockdowns. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) **FILE**

‘Build America by hiring Americans’: Lankford pushes E-Verify requirements in infrastructure package

By Haris Alic - The Washington Times

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on President Joe Biden's budget request, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 10, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

GOP senator grills Biden HHS secretary on ‘birthing people,’ suggests using ‘Mom’ instead

By Valerie Richardson - The Washington Times