CNN "State of the Union with Jake Tapper" - Interview with James Lankford

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Joining me now from Oklahoma, Republican Senator James Lankford.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

President Trump said the rally's date and location -- quote -- "wasn't done for that reason," to commemorate Juneteenth. And then he changed the date -- quote -- "out of respect" for the holiday.

You talked with him and suggested that he change the date. Tell us about that conversation. What did he say to you? What did you tell him?

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK): Yes, there were several folks that talked to the president about it just to be able to raise the issue, not only the sensitivities in Tulsa that were 99 years after the largest race massacre in American history, where a white mob ransacked through the Greenwood district, what was called at that time the Black Wall Street, and killed up to 300 people, and just burned that part of the city to the ground.

So, there are special sensitivities there in Tulsa. But Juneteenth is a very significant day. So my encouragement to the president was to be able to pick a day around it.

Actually, interestingly enough, when I talked to him, I called him on a different reason. He raised it to me and said: "What do you think about this? I'm thinking about it. Other people have asked me about it."

I suggested, yes, I think that would be a great idea and it would be very, very respectful to the community. His immediate response was: "I don't want to do anything to be able to disrespect the black community in this," didn't see this -- he didn't see it as disrespectful to be able to do it on Juneteenth. Other people interpreted it differently.

And so he moved the rally date. He actually asked me to be able to call some of the folks in Tulsa that were organizing the Juneteenth event to be able to see which day would work better for them around that.

I did. I called them and found out they didn't have a preference between Saturday or Thursday, either one. And the rally is now moved to Saturday.

TAPPER: Let me ask you about the rally. You're planning on attending it.

That arena in Tulsa has canceled or postponed all events through July, except for this Trump rally, because of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump adviser Larry Kudlow just told me that he thinks attendees should -- quote -- "probably" wear masks.

CDC guidelines say that you shouldn't go into a packed arena indoors, but, if you do, you should wear masks.

Are you going to be wearing a mask? Would you encourage other attendees to wear a mask?

LANKFORD: So, I haven't decided on that.

In Oklahoma, we're way ahead of the rest of the nation in many ways on this. We have seen an uptick on some of our cases just in the last week. Obviously, we have been through phase one, phase two, and we're finished with phase three of our reopening.

Our hospitalizations continue to go down. Our death rate continues to be able to go down. So, we have a few more cases in the last week, but we assume that with going through all three phases and being open. Our -- we have had protests, like other areas of the country have had. So they have had a lot of people gathered in rallies and such.

[09:45:03]

So, we will be interested to be able to see what those numbers look like in the next couple of days. But Oklahoma is far ahead of the rest of the country in many areas as far as declining numbers.

TAPPER: Right, but you still do have coronavirus in Oklahoma.

LANKFORD: Sure.

TAPPER: You're not sure if you're going to wear a mask? I mean, I have a mask right here just for walking the halls here at CNN.

I mean, don't you think it's just common sense? You don't want to spread it. You don't want to contract it. It's what the CDC says everyone should do.

LANKFORD: So -- so, I have been home all of just about a day-and-a- half now.

Over the weekend, I went out to one restaurant. It's the only one place I have been out. I wore a mask at that spot. I wear a mask everywhere that I go currently and have for weeks and weeks and weeks when I'm out at all here at Oklahoma.

And so I assume I'm going to have it. I'm trying to figure out the best way to be able to do this.

You see actually very few masks in Oklahoma now, because our numbers have declined so much and because we have been through all three phases. There are still some that use masks. But we encourage people strongly, if they're high-risk individuals, if they're older individuals, if they have other health issues, not to get out even with a mask, not to get out. And we will continue to do that.

TAPPER: OK. Dr. Fauci says people should wear masks. But I want to move on.

I want to ask you about your legislation on policing reform. You are working with Senator Tim Scott to introduce it next week. The second ranking Democrat, Democrat Dick Durbin, told CNN this week that he doesn't think your legislation goes far enough.

One of the main sticking points is a ban on police choke holds, which Democrats want, and your legislation incentivizes to reduce it, but doesn't ban it. At least 20 cities and municipalities have already banned it.

LANKFORD: Right.

TAPPER: Do you support a national ban on police choke holds?

LANKFORD: I do, actually.

It's interesting for someone to be able to mention that our legislation doesn't go far enough, when our legislation's not even going to be released until Wednesday. So I don't know who has read our legislation yet, when it's not even public, it's not even finished at this point.

We have been gathering ideas from all across our conference, across the nation, calling police chiefs. I have been on the phone with a lot of police chiefs in my state. Been on the phone talking to a lot of activists and other folks to be able to interact, to be able to find, what are the best ideas and how can we actually get something done?

Democrats have put out a proposal. The president is putting out a proposal. We're going to put out a proposal from the Senate. Those will all be combined. And we will try to get good legislation done.

But I do believe choke holds should be banned. If you go back to the consensus opinion from law enforcement from 2017, there was a ban on that. And most departments already have banned choke holds on that, where they don't train for it at all and say, don't use things that you haven't been trained for.

So, this is something that's grown for a very long time and should be completed.

TAPPER: Senator Lankford, come back and talk to us more about the legislation. It looks like there really could be some bipartisan work here. And we want to talk more about it with you and Senator Scott.

Thanks for joining us this morning. And have a meaningful time at church this morning.

LANKFORD: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

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