James Lankford, Oklahoma’s sappy senior GOP senator, never ceases to disappoint. Lankford was recently in the news for helping broker a bipartisan Senate deal on the border that House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, prudently rejected.

And when Joe Biden delivered his recent State of the Union address, Laura Ingraham tweeted this:

(Lankford’s actual Twitter handle is @SenatorLankford.)

Lankford is involved in another imprudent project that hasn’t received much publicity. He wants to turn 60 blocks of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a national monument to the so-called “Tulsa Massacre of 1921.”   A CRT theme park, in other words. 

I am glad to be joined by @SenBooker to establish a national monument in the Historic Greenwood District to formally recognize our history, remember those we lost, & reflect on North Tulsa’s resilience to rebuild—

— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) December 14, 2023

In December, with New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker, he introduced the “Black Wall Street National Monument Establishment Act” to create a National Monument [Booker, Lankford Propose Establishing National Monument in North Tulsa, Booker.Senate.gov, December 14, 2023]:

There is established the Historic Greenwood District—Black Wall Street National Monument in the State of Oklahoma as a unit of the National Park System to preserve, protect, and interpret for the benefit of present and future generations resources associated with the Historic Greenwood District, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 and the role of each in the history of the State of Oklahoma and the United States.

A possible complication: According  to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ridiculous ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, that part of Tulsa is part of the Creek Indian Reservation. What do the Creek Indians have to say about the proposal? 

Anyway, as conservative Tulsa commentator David Arnett explained: What happened in Tulsa in 1921 wasn’t a massacre.

“Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford wants a huge part of downtown Tulsa to be moved to federal control thus directing ownership and future development,” Arnett wrote:

This will likely hike property taxes for everyone else in Tulsa County as this land goes off common property tax rolls—an area that stretches from Archer Street north beyond Pine Street, and from Elgin Street east to Peoria Avenue generally encompassing over 60 city blocks of downtown Tulsa to establish a memorial for a “massacre.” …

The bill legitimizes the title of “Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921,” which this writer and others have long disputed. In short, two groups of armed civilians marched on the Tulsa County Courthouse in 1921. It was a civil insurrection or civil war if you prefer. Both groups brought guns from home and many WW I veterans engaged in the confrontation. Once fighting began, heart-rending tragedy followed, but it was not a massacre. Oklahoma has suffered massacres before, from the Tonkawa Massacre to the Murrah Building bombing, but Tulsa, by objective analysis, was a civilian battle.

[Sen. Lankford’s Massive Tulsa National Park, David Arnett, Straight Up, March 1, 2024]

James Lankford was elected to Congress in 2010, serving until 2015 when he won a special election to replace retiring GOP Senator Tom Coburn. He was re-elected in 2016 and again in 2022.

All of Oklahoma’s 77 counties voted GOP in the past five presidential elections: 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. So the Sooner State is solidly GOP, so Lankford has no reason to appease the left on so many issues, most notably race and immigration.

But alas, when it comes to defending the Historic American Nation, Lankford is no better than a Democrat. Worse, maybe, is that his pseudo-conservative rhetoric gulls the unsuspecting into thinking he’s on the right track.

Lankford’s record in three areas—Political Savvy, Immigration, and Defending American Heritage—is clear. It’s abysmal.  Consider some examples in the three areas:

Political Savvy:

1. J6 Flip-flop leads to stupid, unappreciated apology to Black Oklahomans

In the aftermath of the contested 2020 election, Lankford enraged both Trump supporters and black voters. Four days before the mostly peaceful protest on January 6, he proposed the formation of a 15-member commission to scrutinize the election [Lankford Calls for Election Commission To Review 2020 Voter Fraud, Lankford.Senate.gov, January 2, 2021]. Noting the many concerns voters had about irregularities on Election Day, Lankford explained what he expected:

If we can agree to form the electoral commission and submit its findings to the individual states, I am prepared to respect the final decision of the states. But, if we cannot agree to hear the concerns of millions of Americans, I am prepared to oppose the electors on January 6 since I cannot be certain that they were ‘regularly made,’ which is the statutory requirement.   

On January 6, Lankford was giving his speech on this very topic at the very moment that the Mostly Peaceful Protesters interrupted the session.

After the hullabaloo ended and the session restarted, Lankford resumed his speech in which he said “Obviously the commission we have asked for is not going to happen at this point."

But the very fact that Lankford questioned the election, despite his dropping the commission idea, was enough to provoke criticism from black activists back home.

That endangered Lankford’s membership on the committee commemorating the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot—again, now the Tulsa Race Massacre. Lankford was very proud to be a member. On January 14, in a letter to black residents of North Tulsa, the senator apologized for questioning the election.

But it didn’t help.

Protestors gathered outside his Oklahoma City office to demand his resignation. “No Cops No KKK, No Lankford Representing the USA,” one sign said [Oklahoma City protestors calling for Sen. James Lankford’s resignation from committee, Jacklyn Chapell, KFOR, January 18, 2021].

MEMORANDUM FOR JAMES LANKFORD: When you try to please everyone, you don’t please anyone.

2. Lankford Votes To Make Hard Leftist Merrick Garland Attorney General

Most Republican senators voted against Garland’s confirmation, but not Lankford [Lankford And Inhofe Break GOP Ranks To Confirm Garland As Attorney General, by Chris Polansky, Public Radio Tulsa, March 11, 2021].

He backed Garland despite the latter’s confession that he hadn’t thought about whether illegal entry into the U.S. should be a crime, and his outrageous statement that “domestic terrorism” today is worse than the Oklahoma City bombing.

You have to ask whether Lankford can’t decide if illegally entering the country should be a crime, or if domestic terrorism at the time was worse than the bombing.

• Merrick Garland says he hasn’t ‘thought about’ whether illegal border entry should remain a crime, by Thomas Barrabi, Fox News, February 22, 2021
• Domestic terrorism in the US is ‘more dangerous’ now than after the Oklahoma City bombing, Biden AG nominee says, by Jake Lahut, Business Insider, February 22, 2021

Garland told the Senate Judiciary Committee in his opening statement for his confirmation hearing, “if confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6, a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy” [Judiciary Committee Releases Judge Garland’s Opening Remarks Ahead of Hearing to be Attorney General, Judiciary.Senate.gov, February 21, 2021].

Merrick Garland: "If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6, a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy." pic.twitter.com/56o2l3wwLp

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 22, 2021

Yet Lankford, who proposed a commission to probe the 2020 election, voted for Garland.

Immigration

Lankford is an unreliable leader on immigration and especially prone to fall for and disseminate phony compassionate arguments to excuse illegal immigration:

• In 2017, Lankford and Thom Tillis of North Carolina teamed up to promote an amnesty for the so-called “DREAMers” called the “Succeed Act.”
• In 2019, Lankford and his Delaware Democrat Buddy Chris Coons organized a bipartisan letter that urged President Trump to take in “as many refugees as possible.”
• In 2020, Lankford and Tillis supported a Big Ag amnesty misleadingly entitled the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
• During the Flu Manchu Panic, Lankford was part of a group of Republican senators that urged Trump not to restrict the issuance of H-2B and H-2A work visas [GOP senators urge Trump not to restrict guest worker visas, J. Edward Moreno, The Hill, May 27, 2020].

(Not) Defending American Heritage

When it comes to defending American heritage, Lankford is worse than useless—he’s on the other side:

• Army bases on which millions of servicemen have served through the years were renamed because they had been named for former Confederates. These name changes were not only expensive but also were a slap in the face to Southerners, who form an important part of the U.S. Army. We have Lankford to thank, in part for this, as he’s been promoting this since the Trump administration.
• In 2016, Lankford introduced a bill to erase Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill and replace him with a (then-unspecified) woman. The plan now is to replace Jackson with Harriet Tubman, but the powers that be are not, surprisingly, moving quickly enough for the communist Mainstream Media [When will Harriet Tubman adorn the $20 bill? by Annie Linskey, Washington Post, June 3, 2021].
• In 2020, Lankford and Senator Ron Johnson introduced a measure to replace Columbus Day with Texas regional holiday, Juneteenth. He withdrew it after a public outcry, but Lankford got his wish a year later, when the Senate unanimously approved Juneteenth as our 11th federal holiday.

When he voted for it, did Lankford not notice the official name of the holiday? It's “Juneteenth National Independence Day.” In other words, it replaces July 4, and gives black Americans their own Independence Day.  See t-shirt below.

Immigration patriots and other genuine conservatives who oppose Lankford’s agenda have another four years for another primary.  In 2021, Tulsa pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, a well-funded and strong candidate, opposed Lankford in the primary. Though he spent big bucks and hosted mass rallies with big-name speakers, Lahmeyer's campaign didn’t reach out to the grass roots voters in the counties. I know people who signed up to volunteer for his campaign who were never contacted.

Lankford crushed him, 67.8 percent of the vote to 26.4. Then Lankford shellacked Democrat Madison Horn, 64.3-32.1.

Lankford's next scheduled election: 2028. That means he's entitled to be in office until January of 2029.

So the best we can do until then is minimize Lankford's influence. 

American citizen Allan Wall (email him) moved back to the U.S.A. in 2008 after many years residing in Mexico. Allan‘s wife is from Mexico and is now a U.S. citizen, their two sons are bilingual. In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Border Hawk blog archive is here, his website is here.