James Lankford says any Iran deal is ‘best if ratified by Congress’: Full interview

[0:02] Welcome back. Joining me now is Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma. [0:07] Senator Lankford, welcome back to Meet the Press. [0:11] Glad to be back with you again. [0:13] It's great to have you back. I want to start with you on Iran as well. President Trump says [0:19] that Iran has agreed to never have a nuclear weapon. It's worth noting they have agreed to [0:25] that in the past. Of course, the more complicated issue is what to do about its nuclear program. [0:31] How do you dismantle its nuclear stockpile? Is a deal that leaves those issues unresolved a good [0:38] deal in your mind, Senator? Well, let's wait and see what the deal actually is. That's part of the [0:43] challenge we have right now is we have not seen the details of the actually agreement yet on this. [0:49] But the president's been very, very clear. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, cannot have a [0:53] nuclear weapons program, and cannot keep that highly enriched uranium in the country. That [0:58] is that is dramatically different than what President Barack Obama was negotiating years [1:02] ago. When Barack Obama was negotiating, you have to delay your nuclear program. President Trump is [1:08] no, you can never have a nuclear program. You can't have the stockpiles. You can't have a program [1:13] there that makes an incredible difference for us. So not having a nuclear program, not having a closed [1:20] strait of Hormuz and not having a terrorist nation actually terrorize the rest of its neighbors and the [1:27] United States would be a huge gain for us. And of course, you're right. We don't know the specifics. We [1:32] haven't seen the text. There has been public discussion and questions surrounding whether part of this [1:39] deal might give Iran $300 billion in a reconstruction fund. Your colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham, [1:47] had this to say about that possibility, quote, the idea of a $300 billion reconstruction fund [1:53] given who is in charge of Iran seems to be tone deaf. It would be akin to a Marshall plan for Germany [1:59] with the Nazis still in charge. Now, again, the final terms of the deal have not been made public. But do [2:07] you agree with Senator Lindsey Graham that effectively with this same regime in charge, there should be no [2:14] economic rewards, that that would be a mistake? What's been interesting is I haven't heard anyone [2:20] from the administration float anything like that. That's what's floating around social media to be [2:24] able to have this giant fund for Iran. What has actually been stated by the administration is folks [2:29] like Treasury Secretary Besant saying that the Iranian frozen funds should actually be used to help [2:34] rebuild Kuwait, rebuild Jordan, rebuild the areas that Iran has attacked, and that any funds that would [2:41] be unfrozen that Iranian funds that are being held by countries all in the region where Iran and its [2:46] regime has hidden its money off, any of those funds could only be released if there was a change in [2:52] behavior, not a change in a signature or words. They've got to be able to drop their terrorism. [2:57] They've got to release all these nuclear ambitions that they have, and they've got to reopen the [3:01] Strait of Hormuz. Now, the dollars that are out there are Iranian dollars frozen in other banks, [3:06] but those need to be first used to be able to fix what they broke, and that also needs to be used [3:11] only or returned back to them or get access back to them if they actually have action that actually [3:16] brings peace. One of the criticisms of the nuclear deal struck during the Obama administration, I was [3:23] just talking about this with Leader Jeffries, the fact that it wasn't codified by Congress, it did enable [3:28] President Trump to rip it up. Do you think that any deal that President Trump strikes should, in fact, [3:34] be voted on and ratified by Congress? Yeah, it is best if it is ratified by Congress. [3:41] It has a more lasting effect on it. Barack Obama's nuclear deal was so bad when Joe Biden came in [3:46] the White House, he did not reinstitute it. He had four years that he looks at it and said, [3:51] no, we're not going to try to do the same deal that Barack Obama did on it. So President Trump was [3:56] right to be able to tear that up. It opened a pathway towards a nuclear weapon and just delayed it [4:01] outside of the Obama presidency. That doesn't help the American people long term. I think people [4:06] forget Iran has been at war with the United States for 47 years. What President Trump is trying to do [4:13] is to be able to end Iran's constant attack of Americans and American assets and American allies [4:19] in that region and coming at us. So to get an end to that is very, very significant. We have [4:25] military bases all in that region because Iran is constantly attacking us. So to try to end that [4:32] forever helps us in this generation and future generations. A key surveillance tool, Senator, [4:39] lapsed on Friday after Congress failed to renew it in time, FISA. The country is in the middle, [4:46] of course, as you know, of the World Cup, this war with Iran. Has this lapse made the country less safe? [4:54] Well, 100 percent, it's made the country less safe. And this has been a frustrating thing for me. [5:00] Democrats are mad at the president again. And so that to stick the president, they're actually [5:06] putting American national security at risk. This is the same thing that we face on them shutting down [5:11] the government over and over again. They don't want to pay federal workers because they're mad at [5:16] President Trump. They want to try to block everything and to be able to reopen a closed border [5:21] because they're mad at President Trump. Now it's literally during the World Cup, during this ongoing [5:26] conflict in Iran with all the things that are happening around the world, with al Qaeda continuing [5:31] to try to find ways to be able to attack the United States. We have literally notified the entire world [5:36] we're no longer watching. That is incredibly irresponsible. So this needs to be turned back [5:42] on again to say, no, we are watching. We have one lesson from 9-11. We need to pay attention to [5:49] people around the world when they mean to do us harm. They have the ability to be able to do us harm. [5:54] And they've shown that clearly now to be able to say we're not going to watch, I think is very [5:59] irresponsible. So let's get that back on again. The president's announced Jay Clayton to be able to [6:03] come on to be able to lead the director of national intelligence. He has wide bipartisan support. [6:08] He's gone through confirmation process before with wide bipartisan support. Already Democrat leaders [6:14] on both the House and the Senate have expressed their support for him. This is absurd to be able [6:18] to just close down FISA and to say we're mad at the president. And so we're just going to shut things [6:24] down and not listen worldwide. All right. A couple more. And of course, their argument is he had [6:28] initially picked Bill Pulte to serve as acting director who doesn't have experience and intelligence. [6:32] But let's keep moving because we're almost out of time. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, [6:37] who lost his primary last month to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, had a pretty blunt prediction, [6:44] Senator, for Republicans, telling The New York Times this week, quote, [6:47] I think November is going to be a disaster. Do you agree with Senator Cornyn that the midterms [6:54] are going to be a disaster for Republicans? I don't actually. And I didn't see that exact quote. [7:01] I don't know if he was talking about Texas or if he's talking about across the entire country, [7:04] because we continue to see more and more Republicans showing stronger and stronger [7:09] polling numbers. I saw Karnacki at the very beginning of this and saw and heard his comments [7:14] saying that, hey, the separation between Democrats and Republicans is actually [7:18] pretty close to compared to what it would be. We also see in multiple states where there's not a [7:23] Democrat running at all or there's an independent running. And Democrats are saying vote for the [7:28] independent here because the Democrat brand has been so damaged. They're open borders. [7:33] What happened with inflation? We're talking about 4 percent inflation now, which is too high. But [7:38] under the Biden administration, it was 9 percent inflation with the open borders and what was [7:43] happening with the crime that was happening. I think Americans, when they look side by side, [7:47] they will see the dramatic difference. Not nine was the peak. It did then come down [7:51] to about three as he was leaving office. But let me let me go back to Ken Paxton for a second. [7:56] He's faced allegations of bribery, fraud, abuse of power, retaliating against whistleblowers and [8:02] more. Last year, his wife sued for divorce on what she said were, quote, biblical grounds. [8:08] Do you think Ken Paxton has the character to serve as a U.S. senator? [8:15] I think the people of Texas will make a decision on that, just like the people in Maine will make [8:19] a decision about Graham Plattner on this. Everybody makes their own decision for their own reasons. [8:24] I look at the policy areas. There's a lot of personal things, and I look at personal things, [8:28] and I think that matters. I think it matters for leaders. But I also look at the policy areas. [8:33] What Tallarico is bringing is an open border. He's bringing a very different economic model on this. [8:39] So I think all those things matter for Graham Plattner and his statements about health care and [8:45] about open borders and about crime and all those things. I look at, I think the people of Maine, [8:49] the people of Texas are going to have to make their own decisions. But, Senator, very quickly, [8:53] would you campaign with Ken Paxton? Yeah, when I look at the side-by-side between Tallarico [9:00] and Ken Paxton, I think the policies do matter on that significantly, yes. [9:05] Okay. Senator Lankford, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. [9:11] You bet. Glad to be able to visit with you again. [9:12] We thank you for watching, and remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app [9:18] or watch live on our YouTube channel.