Sen. Lankford says U.S. is winning Iran war but ‘there’s still work to be done’: Full interview

[0:00] and joining me now is republican senator james lankford of oklahoma senator lankford welcome [0:05] back to meet the press hey thanks for having me back again good palm sunday morning to you [0:11] good palm sunday morning to you thank you for being here i want to start off by talking about [0:17] the war with iran senator president trump continues to insist that the united states [0:22] is winning take a listen to a little bit of what he had to say this week let me say we've won you [0:28] know you never like to say too early you won we won we won the bet in the first hour it was over [0:34] we won i think we won we've knocked out their navy their air force we've knocked out their [0:39] anti-aircraft we've knocked out everything this war has been won [0:44] senator lankford do you agree with president trump that the united states has in fact won the war [0:50] we are one or winning there is no question about that the major features of this was to [0:56] be able to stop their production of ballistic missiles of one-way attack drones to be able [1:00] to take out their capable [1:01] ability to attack Americans and our allies in the region, to be able to stop their nuclear [1:06] program development, to be able to halt that, and then to be able to try to take down their [1:11] Navy so that they can't endlessly shut down the Strait of Hormuz over and over again. [1:15] Obviously, there is still work to be done. It's not over by any means. But if you want to talk [1:21] about the military objectives, just about every one of those objectives have been hit and have [1:25] been hit early. Well, let's unpack that a little bit. And let's start with the regime that is in [1:30] power, because, of course, the Supreme Leader was killed. It's believed his son has taken over [1:37] and arguably more hard line than his father even was. Is it a victory for the U.S. if the war ends [1:45] with this regime still in power, Senator? Well, to be clear, we have yet to see the new [1:52] Supreme Leader anywhere in public or to make any kind of public statement. So we're not sure 100 [1:57] percent about that yet. But the administration's focus has been very clear. [2:02] This is a regime that is in power. It's a regime that is in power. It's a regime that is in power. [2:02] This is a regime that is in power. It's a regime that is in power. It's a regime that is in power. [2:02] This has been about taking out their nuclear program, stopping their terrorism, their ballistic [2:05] missile program and reopening the Strait of Hormuz permanently. We're going to have to work with [2:10] whatever leader is there. Iran is not going to bring in Thomas Jefferson to be able to lead [2:14] Iran, though. It'd be great to be able to see that for the people of Iran to be able to have [2:19] that kind of freedom. It will be a different type of regime than what we would select here in [2:23] America. But it will be important for us to be able to have at least someone who's not trying [2:27] to kill us every day. Remembering that for 47 years, this regime has been in power. It's been [2:32] attacking Americans at every opportunity they can possibly get, whether it's marine barracks in [2:37] Lebanon, whether it's Houthis attacking just ships randomly coming across their coast. Iran has been [2:43] focused on trying to be able to carry out their acts of terrorism. Every base that we have in the [2:47] region there is a base there because of the threat of Iran. This is not a new threat. This has been [2:53] a threat for almost five decades now. And President Trump has just determined it's going to stop. [2:57] You're going to stop trying to threaten and kill Americans. Let's talk about the missile [3:02] program. You raised that. Reuters is reporting that the U.S. can only confirm the destruction [3:06] of about a third of Iran's missile arsenal, which is significantly less than the 90 percent or more [3:13] that the administration says that it's destroyed. Do you think it's a victory [3:17] if the war ends with less than 100 percent of Iran's missile program destroyed? [3:23] Yeah, there's a difference between the missiles and the missile launchers. We've been actually [3:28] going after missile launchers. You can't launch a missile if you don't have the launcher itself. [3:33] So the focus from the administration from the very beginning is, yes, taking out their [3:37] production capability for missiles and all of their industrial infrastructure for that, [3:42] but taking out one by one the launchers so they can't actually launch these missiles at us and [3:48] our allies. As you know, there's a lot of discussion, Senator, about what exactly is [3:52] going to happen next. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he believes it is possible to [3:58] meet all of the military objectives without putting U.S. boots on the ground. Do you agree [4:03] with that? [4:03] Yeah, it's hard to be able to tell. We should be able to do that for what the American objectives [4:09] were and still remain. That is taking out their nuclear program, stopping the terrorist threats [4:15] on it and reopening the Strait of Hormuz on it. But I would tell you the president's actually [4:19] bringing ground troops. He's got 5,000 Marines coming in. He has the folks from the 82nd Airborne. [4:24] He is creating contingencies to put pressure on Iran to be able to finish the negotiation to say [4:29] we are capable of doing more and doing what the United States military alone in the world can [4:35] actually do. [4:35] So I don't fault the president for being able to put additional pressure on Iran saying come to the table, let's get this done. No one wants a war. And you certainly don't want to battle against the United States of America, the strongest, most moral fighting force in the world. So I think the president's right to be able to put troops in the area and to be able to ratchet up the pressure on Iran to make a deal. [4:55] Let me follow up with you on that point. The Wall Street Journal announcing they could be preparing some 10,000 troops to be deployed to the region. Would you support that? [5:05] The president putting U.S. boots on the ground in Iran, Senator? [5:12] Well, that is a different story. We've got to be able to know what the objectives are and what they're actually carrying out. So to be very clear on this, the worst thing that can happen is to be able to have this kind of conflict start and to not end it, to leave it undone. We've got to be able to finish this. Again, almost five decades, Iran has been attacking Americans at every single chance that they have at any moment through their allies in the region. [5:36] They're going to continue to be able to come after us until we make them stop. The focus here is to be able to stop them from attacking us and to make sure it does not restart again. [5:52] So you say it is a different story when we're talking about U.S. boots on the ground. Let me ask you bluntly, Senator, do you believe President Trump would need Congressional approval if he, in fact, does want to leave Iran? [6:06] want to put U.S. boots on the ground in Iran? [6:09] If we have a longstanding war that's happening, go back again to what happened in Iraq or in [6:16] Afghanistan, yes. If this is to protect Americans and to be able to make sure that we're in there [6:22] for a season and we're stopping and getting out, that's very, very different. So, again, [6:26] this is all contingent. It's an interesting question to be able to talk about on the [6:29] political side. But really, the focus needs to be on how do we make them stop attacking us. [6:35] That's the main focus. The president has the authority to be able to prevent someone [6:39] from attacking us. That is what he's doing right now. If we're going to have a longstanding [6:43] occupation, that's a very different issue. But I don't think that's even what President Trump [6:47] is even talking about. We're not trying to be able to go in and to be able to occupy the country [6:51] or to be able to have a longstanding, long-term war. No one wants to see that. [6:56] So I'm looking forward to us getting this mission complete and getting out of there. [7:01] I just want to put a fine point on what you're saying, though. You are not ruling out supporting [7:04] the president. [7:05] Putting U.S. boots on the ground, if he deems that necessary. [7:09] That depends on what boots we're putting on the ground. In that sense, [7:12] if this is special forces to be able to carry out a specific operation, [7:15] get in, get out, that's very different than longstanding occupation. [7:18] OK, you talk about Congress's role. I want to play a little bit of what President Trump [7:23] said this week as it relates to congressional oversight. Take a look. [7:28] We have a thing called a war, or as they would rather say, a military operation. [7:34] It's for legal reasons. [7:35] I say military because it's a military operation. I don't need any approvals. [7:40] As a warrior, you're supposed to get approval from Congress, something like that. [7:44] So I call it a military operation. [7:47] Do you agree that as long as President Trump calls it a military operation, [7:50] he doesn't need congressional approval? [7:54] No, I would say the people of Iran believe this is a war. There's no question about that. [7:59] The key focus will be when the supplemental request comes in for additional funding [8:03] from the White House to say, OK, we need additional funding to be able to carry forward. [8:08] That's the moment that Congress always engages. So this moment is about protecting the American [8:13] people that have been under attack from Iran and its regime for decades now. When additional [8:19] funding request comes in, Congress will have to speak at that moment to be able to talk about how [8:23] far, what the plans are, what we're going to do. Just to put one other fine point, [8:27] America's problem is not with the Iranian people. It's with the regime that is dominating the [8:32] Iranian people right now. They've killed tens of thousands of their own people. They dominate them. [8:37] They cut off the Internet. [8:38] They cut off all access to the outside world. They crush protesters. They hang teenagers [8:43] for protesting. I mean, this is a brutal regime that hates its own people and dominates its own [8:50] people, much less what they're doing to the rest of the world. So it is a good thing to be able to [8:54] have someone to step in and to be able to stop them from attacking us. But it also leaves an [8:59] opportunity for hope for the Iranian people to one day live in peace. [9:03] Let me ask you, the administration is temporarily waiving sanctions on Russia. [9:08] And Iranian oil to try to ease the supply shock the war has caused. I want to play for you [9:14] something that President Zelensky of Ukraine had to say to Araf Sanchez about what the sanctions [9:22] relief means to Russia from his perspective. Take a look at this exchange. [9:26] But now if sanctions are lifted and he will get more money, much more money, [9:32] he will put this money to the weapon. [9:34] Is President Putin the big winner here with this? [9:38] Sanctions relief by the Trump administration? [9:42] No, President Putin is certainly not the big winner here. He's a dictator and a thug in that [9:47] area. And he's brutally attacking his neighbors. One of the things that the United States and [9:51] President Trump has taken out is the ability for Iran to be able to provide these one-way [9:55] attack drones to Russia. Remember, Russia's major weapon has been these one-way attack [10:00] drones provided by Iran. So the United States has taken out those production facilities. So Iran [10:06] can't provide weapons anymore to Russia. To be clear, the sanctions relief by the Trump administration [10:10] that were lifted on the oil were the sanctions that were on ships in the water. President Trump's [10:15] trying to be able to manage a global shock to oil prices worldwide, while we're also trying to be [10:19] able to take out a terrorist regime in Iran. This is a very difficult balancing act. [10:25] Senator, do you support lifting those sanctions against Russia? What [10:29] President Zelensky sees effectively as a reward for Russia? [10:34] Right. It's not a reward for Russia by any means. What President Trump is trying to do is to be [10:38] able to deal with just trying to be able to get oil that's already on the water. [10:41] So no, President Trump is not unilaterally lifting sanctions on Russia. They have a [10:45] tremendous number of sanctions on them, and they should have a tremendous number of sanctions on [10:50] them. They are a brutal regime. Senator, I do want to move to this funding fight on Capitol Hill. [10:56] The Department of Homeland Security isn't being funded on Friday. The Senate unanimously, [11:01] I don't have to tell you this, passed a measure that House Republicans rejected. It would have [11:06] funded DHS. It wouldn't have funded ICE and CBP. Why aren't Republicans on the, [11:11] on the same page about how to reopen the government? [11:16] Yeah, this is a difficult issue, because we're dealing with Democrats right now that do not want [11:20] to fund ICE and CBP. They want to go back to our open borders. They don't want to have enforcement [11:24] in the interior of the country. But the Democrats did support the Senate measure, Senator. They did [11:29] support the Senate measure. They did support, they did support this. They did support the Senate [11:32] measure. But you remember, there wasn't any new funding for ICE or for CBP. Now, I would tell you, [11:37] Kristen, last summer in the one big, beautiful bill, we actually included additional funding, [11:43] for ICE and CBP. We pre-funded ICE and CBP because we knew there would be a day that Democrats would [11:49] not want to fund ICE or CBP at all. So last summer we pre-funded them completely for the next three [11:55] years, so that we would not have a moment like this. The DHS funding bill for the last five years [12:01] has been the hardest bill to be able to pass through Congress. It's been blocked over and [12:06] over and over again by Democrats. We knew this was not going to get easier. So we pre-funded all that [12:10] money. Kristen. [12:11] So when we got to the negotiations, and you know, we've talked to a lot of people, and I appreciate [12:13] at the end of it and couldn't make progress and everything, we determined, okay, we're going to [12:17] just use the funding we've already set aside last summer to be able to fund ICE and CBP for the rest [12:23] of the time, but let's get everything else in DHS open. What Democrats were asking for for ICE and [12:29] CBP on their quote-unquote reforms were absolutely absurd. They asked for things, for instance, like [12:35] ICE could not be at polling places. Well, if you're not legally present, you shouldn't be voting in [12:41] America. But Democrats were demanding that ICE agents would not go to a polling place. They were [12:47] demanding body-worn cameras, which we were fine with, and said, yes, absolutely, let's add funding [12:51] for body-worn cameras. Then they brought back language and said, well, the body-worn cameras [12:55] can only be, the footage can only be used to be able to prosecute agents. They can't be used to [13:00] actually prosecute anyone else on the film, that is, anyone else that would actually be not legally [13:06] present in the country. There were so many different standards or different rules they [13:11] tried to put in place. They tried to put in place a lot of different things. They tried to put in [13:11] a lot of different things. They tried to put in place a lot of different things. They tried to put in [13:11] everything that had made it unreasonable, even limiting where Border Patrol could even function [13:16] in the country, limiting to a very narrow strip right along the border and saying that's the only [13:22] place Border Patrol can go. It's been a very, very frustrating negotiation. We just want to [13:28] get DHS back open again. Senator, just to be very clear, though, the Senate vote was unanimous. It [13:33] seems like Republicans are not on the same page here. But let me ask you, big picture, because [13:36] you're a member of both the Homeland Security and Intelligence Committees, [13:40] Federal officials have been warning about the war with Iran, creating a heightened threat environment in this country. [13:47] Republicans are in charge of all three branches of government. [13:51] Given that and the strain on airport security caused by this shutdown, is air travel and airport security safe right now? [14:00] It is safe right now because we have a lot of great patriots that are working in homeland security that are working for no money at all right now. [14:08] They'll be paid at some point, but they're not being paid right now, and that's incredibly frustrating. [14:13] But those patriots that are still out there serving, they're doing the hard work to be able to protect the nation. [14:18] But we've got to get this back open again. [14:20] We have thousands of folks that are on furlough, and one of our frustrations, one of the things you mentioned, we're in a conflict with Iran right now. [14:26] We need the cybersecurity professionals at their desk, and they're currently not being funded. [14:31] We need to get those things funded. [14:33] By the way, I've got a bill that ends government shutdowns forever. [14:36] You and I have talked about it before. [14:38] This is a bummer. [14:38] It's a bipartisan bill. [14:39] I believe we have enough support in the Senate right now. [14:42] We want to move this to the House. [14:43] But I believe that we should never leave Washington, D.C., until everything is funded, but we should never get to a moment we're not paying federal workers. [14:52] The simplicity of that bill is pay the federal workers, make sure everything's taken care of on the programs, [14:58] but members of Congress are in session seven days a week until we solve the funding issues. [15:02] That should be the way we actually solve this. [15:04] My focus is we should never, ever have government shutdowns on any of these areas. [15:08] Thank you. [15:08] All right. [15:09] Well, Senator James Lankford, thank you so much for joining us on this Sunday. [15:12] We really appreciate it. [15:15] Thank you. [15:17] We thank you for watching. [15:18] And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.