About a year ago, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford took a strategic turn to the hard right and started using “Joe Biden’s crisis at the border” as a campaign rallying cry in a desperate attempt to appeal to racist Oklahoma voters and fend off a primary challenge from crazed right-wing Christian nationalist Jackson Lahmayer.
Here was his first tweet on the topic:
President Biden’s executive order to halt border construction threatens national security & safety. Agents along the border have told me physical barriers slow illegal immigration & push people toward points of entry allowing agents to manage immigrants in a safer environment.
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 21, 2021
Since then, Lankford has issued hundreds of additional tweets that include the words “Biden” and “border.” He’s also routinely broached the topic in national media appearances and with cameras running on the Senate floor.
As we noted in the past, he's even taken his own trips to the border for convenient photo ops:
I visited the AZ border yesterday. You can see giant gaps in fence- it’s ridiculous it’s 95% done & won’t be completed. This is a problem created by Biden’s administration--stopping construction weakens effectiveness of the fencing structure and the technology. It makes no sense. pic.twitter.com/aiB2bdOx8r
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) March 15, 2021
Biden's failed policies are wreaking havoc at the US/Mexico border. pic.twitter.com/p82DbhmH8m
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) July 15, 2022
Well, I guess Lankford’s year-long campaign to use the border situation to pander to voters finally caught President Biden’s attention.
On Sunday, Joe Biden played a bit of political game theory himself and visited the border for the first time since he was elected President. Like any Presidential PR visit, he made sure to shake hands, meet with pre-determined people and take plenty of photographs.
As the guy who spent a year yelling about the crisis at the border, you’d think Lankford would have been happy to see the President finally visit, but shockingly, he instead used it as an opportunity to ask “what took so long" and complains about the President taking photos:
Biden has had two years to visit the border – why now?
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 8, 2023
Biden got his photo-op by the border wall. The same wall his party stopped construction on.
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 9, 2023
Joe Biden can't just make this border trip another posed photo-op. He needs to return to Washington ready and willing to secure the border.
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 8, 2023
Yep. Joe Biden finally took a page from Lankford’s playbook and went to the border for a photo op and Lankford complained about it.
I know we expect hypocrisy from politicians, but that takes things too far. It would be like Lankford complaining about teens losing their virginity at a Joe Biden-sponsored Church Camp! It happened all the time under Lankford’s watch at Falls Creek. Plus, James does have weird views on consent.
Then again, what do we really expect?
Politicians use social media to posture and pander with propaganda and political distortion, not tell the truth or be sincere.
Lankford can’t really tweet something like “I’ve been using the border as a pandering campaign issue for a year, so I’m happy to see President Biden visit the border and witness this crisis firsthand. I can’t wait to work with him on a non-solution to this never-ending issue, so both sides can continue to use it as a divisive wedge issue for years to come,” because it would be too honest.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
