Fox News "The Story with Martha McCallum" - Transcript Interview with James Lankford

Interview

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Also, here tonight, as I said, Republican Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma.

Senator, welcome. Good evening.

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK): Thank you. Good to see you again.

HENRY: Please answer Paul's question there, sir. He's a lawyer. He's got a position on this. We gave him a fair hearing. You're going to be at this rally tonight. You're standing there in Oklahoma tonight. Answer his question. Is this really going to be safe? Do you have concerns when even local health officials have said they're worried?

LANKFORD: Every single person in America, quite frankly, around the world, is all managing their own health with COVID-19 right now. We have told people - the Trump campaign has told people, if you are a high-risk individual, if you have other medical conditions, don't come, watch it on TV. If you want to come to be a part of it and be able to socially distance, there's an outdoor space that I'm standing in right now--

HENRY: Sure.

LANKFORD: --an enormous gathering with a giant screen here where people can see it or there is the indoor in this facility if you want to be able to come to it. So there's a lots of options here. As you mentioned before, all they have and (ph) hand sanitizers, masks that have been given out, all those things.

In addition, the state actually set up 80 different testing spots and encouraged folks in the week leading up to this to say, if you're planning to attend, here's 80 different places you can go - you can get at COVID-19 test to be able to verify if you're going to pass this on to other people while you're there.

HENRY: But does it--

LANKFORD: So--

HENRY: Pardon me--

LANKFORD: --a lot has been done to be able to pull this together.

HENRY: Does it send the right signal, though - when Paul says, look, the CDC has advised against large gatherings, states are still opening up in phases, does it send the right signal - let's forget about the President. You are a senator. Does it send the right signal to your people to say, we're going to have a large gathering?

LANKFORD: I think we lost you. OK. I think we lost the Senator's mike. I hope we can get it back in a second or so. Doesn't appear that we have it. Why don't we take a break and see if we can get the Senator on the other side, with thousands already lining up for the President's rally, another round of Fox polls giving fresh insight into whether voters think the virus is under control or not.

Charlie Kirk and Jessica Tarlov will be back. We hope to get the Senator as well.

...

Let's get back to Republican Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma.

As I mentioned, there are some storms there. I think it knocked out your audio. Senator, thank you for your patience. You heard that debate there. You heard me with the lawyer at the top who filed this suit. I think part of what people are frustrated about is what they see as a double-standard. With the protests, the media and others were not calling people out quite as much and demanding masks and social distancing and the rest.

LANKFORD: Yes. I think that's part of the issue that they're focusing on, but quite frankly, that's on the conservative side they're focused on the double-standard. On the left-wing side of all the media, they are focused on doing whatever they can to distract from policy issues, from the economy starting to bounce back, to distract from the fact that Joe Biden is still in his basement while the President is drawing a million people trying to line up. This is distract, distract, distract.

Everyone gets the whole issue about COVID-19 and how important it is to be able to watch your own health and to be as responsible as you can. But everyone is losing track. In Oklahoma, we've been through all three phases already. Our restaurants, our retail is open. We're done on all those three phases on it. Now we're trying to be able to manage this as we go forward.

HENRY: Senator, the President tweeted something today that caught my eye about the rally. It wasn't about the COVID issue. It was more just about the campaign itself and sort of restarting it. He basically said, the campaign hasn't even started for me, it starts Saturday.

Given some of the tough poll numbers for him, given the fact that we've got 40 million people unemployed, maybe some people say it's not his fault, because of COVID, maybe others will hold him accountable, he's going to find that out from the voters. But do you think that tomorrow night is bigger picture, more about restarting this campaign?

LANKFORD: I do, actually. And I think this is reframing where we are and where we've been while we just walk through as a country. I literally think there'll be people all around the world that will pause to be able to watch this speech from the President. This is his moment on the world stage and certainly on the national stage to be able to talk about race relations obviously in this city, in this community, on this weekend.

This is his moment to be able to talk about the economy, about trade, about what's happening with China, about what we're going to do for the future. So it's a big deal and it's a big speech, but it recaptures again the nation's attention to say, this November, we're going to decide as a country in which direction we're going to go. And so it's a good anchor moment for the President to be able to launch this, and the whole world is watching.

HENRY: I've got about 30 seconds. But something else happened this week, which is that the President's team came out and said they want more than the traditional three presidential debates. They want four, maybe even more. And we're already seeing resistance from the Biden campaign. Do you think that's beyond restarting the rallies, the President wants to get out there mano a mano and have a more direct battle?

LANKFORD: I do. I think the President wants to get out there in a conversation side-by-side with Joe Biden, where he doesn't have a script, where he doesn't have a teleprompter, and he has to be able to recall those things and to be able to talk about things on his feet. I think the President longs for that kind of moment to be able to have a side-by-side, allow the American people to choose with no teleprompters, no script, no structured audience on it, actually having to make their case.

HENRY: Senator James Lankford, we certainly appreciate your patience. We hope you and everyone else at the rally will be safe tomorrow night, and thanks for coming on tonight. Thank you, sir.

LANKFORD: We do. Thanks, Ed.

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