JUST IN: Lankford on Fox News Sunday — “We Don’t Want To Go To War, But We’re Not Going To Allow You To Attack Us”

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OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — Senator James Lankford (R-OK), a member of the Senate Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees, joined Fox News Sunday to discuss recent developments in Iran.

Excerpts:

On Iran’s Attacks On America:

“President Trump has made it very clear he’s not trying to be able to start a war in the Middle East. He’s trying to be able to protect American lives around the world. People forget there [are] 700,000 Americans that are in Israel right now, and they’re facing an onslaught.

“We’ve had 174 attacks on American warships right off the coast of Yemen, with Iranian weapons. We’ve had multiple attacks on Americans in the region, in Iraq, just in the past few months. So we have faced a tremendous amount of inbound attacks from Iran. So I think the President’s shown incredible restraint.”

On Iran’s Nuclear Progress:

“As for the argument that somehow Iran is a long way from a nuclear weapon, I think everybody’s skipping over the International Atomic Energy Agency just May the [31^st], said that Iran is two days away at that point [on May the 31^st], two days away from having their first-weapons grade uranium.

“They also found evidence of a weapons manufacturing technology that’s happening. So all of this thought about they’re a long way away from it — two days doesn’t seem like a long way away from having their first weapons-grade uranium. They might have been a month away from having a dozen, but not for their first.

“And all it takes is having their first ready. [The] President’s been very, very clear: they cannot have a nuclear weapon. In fact, that has been a bipartisan statement that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon for a very long time.”

On Iran’s Alliance With Russia:

“Right now, Putin is slaughtering the Ukrainians next door using Iranian weapons, as they have done for a very long time now through this war. And so it is not surprising the two of them continue to be able to ally together.

“The challenge that we have right now is we cannot have a nuclear armed Iran. We cannot have an Iran that is [the] largest state sponsor of terrorism that continues to be able to develop new technologies, to be able to attack their neighbors. We cannot allow them to be able to have a nuclear weapon. That has been clear.

“President Biden said that, but did nothing about it. President Trump has said that. President Obama said that before. This cannot be allowed. And President Trump has been the one to be able to take the strong action, to say they’ve done one thing — they’ve stopped the nuclear weapons program there.”

On The Fordow Facility:

“What has been very clear in Fordow, that deep mountain, [is] that there’s no way to be able to stop it without American support. So contrary to popular statements here… everyone’s been very clear: Fordow is the location where they’ve been advancing their nuclear technology towards weaponization.

“That spot could only be taken out by American forces. The President’s taken that one spot out and has said now it’s time to be able to actually come to the table, because Iran for months has refused to be able to make an agreement to be able to eliminate those nuclear weapons. So we eliminated their capability for them.”

On Inspections And Past Agreements:

“They continue to have inspections. The International Atomic Energy Agency continue to be able to have their cameras, their inspection devices, their technology that was in those locations. Iran is the one that actually took those apart several months ago.

“President Obama… actually made this agreement that allowed over ten years [for] Iran to continue their nuclear technology and to have a ten-year time period until they could actually get to a bomb.

“President Trump stepped in and said, no, we’re not going to give you [a] ten-year time period. You can’t have a bomb at all. You can’t continue your nuclear work on this. So President Trump set that aside. President Biden came back and said, well, we’ll negotiate again. Maybe we’ll allow you to be able to have that.

“President Trump came back again, as the American people asked him to do, and said, you cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

On Uranium Enrichment And Intent:

“Iran is trying to be the only country in the world saying, we’re trying to only do peaceful power, but also produce their own uranium.

“They’re also producing uranium at highly enriched levels that no other country in the world, unless they have a nuclear weapon, actually has. There’s no question Iran was working towards having a nuclear weapon. That is without question. Everyone knows that, that looks at the data on this.”

On Presidential War Powers And The Threat Of Impeachment:

“If Democrats get control Congress, we are most certainly headed towards impeachment again. That has been the playbook that they played twice on President Trump.

“This is something Bernie Sanders has talked about. This is something Representative Ocasio-Cortez has talked about. This is something now that Senator Tim Kaine is talking about — not impeachment — but just we’re going to find a way to be able to block the president from protecting American citizens in that region and to be able to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

“The same country that operates Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, Shia militias that are in Iraq that attacked American citizens… that same entity is the same one that’s developing a nuclear weapon and chanting at the same time ‘Death to America.’ That is a threat.

“And the president has to make a difficult decision to say, when is the moment to be able to prevent that threat from happening? The 9/11 doctrine… said, we are not going to wait until another country attacks us. If we know they plan and intend to attack us, we’re going to stop them to be able to protect American lives.

“We don’t want to go to war, but we’re not going to allow you to attack us.”

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