Sen. James Lankford said Tuesday there are no "immediate concerns" for him as far as President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is concerned and urged the Senate to take its time to evaluate his background and opinions.
"What I'm looking forward is two months about talking about the role of the Constitution and the role of the court," the Oklahoma Republican said during an MSNBC "Morning Joe" interview.
"Is the court all about having another legislature that can kind of pick what the law, what they want to it say or are they really a group that's bound by the law and bound by the Constitution to determine here's what it says and if we change it let's go through the legislative process to do that."
Some people, he added, wish the law said a certain thing and want a judge to say what they wish the law said, but others would say he should focus on what the law says.
Lankford also discussed this week's NATO summer, including Trump's call for allied countries to pay more for defense while the United States pays less. He said he's not concerned that allies will consider Trump's stance too stringent.
"Quite frankly, we've seen NATO allies step up and say 'he's right we haven't paid enough,'" said Lankford. "NATO has kicked in quite a bit more in the last year and a half."
He also pointed out that the spending is not a new issue, and that other leaders in the past, including Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon have all complained.
"There's a long historic process on United States pushing on nato allies saying you need to step up and meet your commitments," said Lankford.
However, he admitted that the relationship between allies such as Germany, France, and England have been strained under Trump.
"He's pushing them in a way they don't like and pushing them in a financial area they've not done for decades," said Lankford. "They will step up their financial obligations for NATO."
Tariffs, however are a different issue.
"[It is] one of the prime issues that folks in Oklahoma talked to me about last week when I was traveling around the state," said Lankford. "People in agriculture are concerned about tariffs and the direction we're going dealing with tariffs."
Farmers, he said, are putting seed in the ground now but don't know if they'll be able to ship out their crops.
"Individuals are losing money right now because they are being undercut and if our allies, whether it be Mexico or Canada or in Europe or in Asia, if they go find other markets that's very difficult to win back," Lankford said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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