Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) claimed that a conservative media figure threatened him prior to the details of his bipartisan border deal were even made public.
Lankford along with Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) worked for months to craft a bipartisan deal that would expand security funding at the border as well as provide billions to Ukraine, Israel, and other allies in the Indo-Pacific.
However, the deal received massive pushback from former President Donald Trump who pressured House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to kill the bill.
The Oklahoma senator took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to reveal that he too received major pushback behind the scenes from pundits in conservative media shortly before the bill’s text was released. Lankford then revealed that an unnamed conservative commentator threatened to “destroy” him if he helped solve the border crisis amid the 2024 presidential election.
“I had a popular commentator four weeks ago that I talked to you, that told me flat out, before they knew any of the contents of the bill, any of the content,” said Lankford. “Nothing was out at that point. That told me flat out, ‘If you try to move a bill that solves the border crisis during this presidential year, I will do whatever I can to destroy you, because I do not want you to solve this during the presidential election.'”
“By the way, they have been faithful
The recent influx of migrants at the border and the surge of undocumented border crossings has benefitted Trump in polling against President Joe Biden for the general election.
Watch the clip above via CSPAN.