President Donald Trump is trying his best to move on from last week’s “Signalgate” snafu and deliver on the agenda he promised the American people. But it’s become increasingly clear that some weak-kneed Republican senators didn’t get the memo.
On Sunday, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” to effectively carry water for Democrats attempting to scandalize the incident and bog down the administration in endless years-long investigations.
Most notable for spearheading last year’s horrific Senate border bill, Lankford was asked by program co-host and regime hack Dana Bash about whether he supports launching “an independent investigation” into how The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Golberg got added into the Signal chat on U.S. strikes on Houthi terrorists. Bash specifically referenced a request issued last week by the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., that the Pentagon inspector general probe the matter.
“[Wicker] wants the Pentagon inspector general to investigate. Do you also want an independent investigation into how all of this happened?” Bash asked.
“It’s entirely appropriate for the inspector general to be able to look at it and to be able to ask two questions. One is, obviously, how did a reporter get into this thread in the conversation? And the second part of the conversation is, when individuals from the administration are not sitting at their desk in a classified setting on a classified computer, how do they communicate to each other?” Lankford said.
Lankford went on to credit the Trump administration for “push[ing] back” against the Houthi terrorists before being asked again by Bash whether he supports an IG investigation into the incident and if he supports Wicker and Reed’s call for such a probe. Without missing a beat, the Oklahoma senator once more gave Bash the answer she was looking for.
“I do believe that Roger Wicker has actually called on that, that Jack Reed and Roger Wicker together have gone back and said, hey, we need to have the inspector general be able to take a look at this … ,” Lankford said.
“And you agree with that?” Bash asked, to which Lankford replied, “I do. I think it’s entirely appropriate.”
What’s incredible about Lankford’s willingness to capitulate before one of the worst media propagandists in the business is that a Democrat senator would never be caught dead calling for any sort of “investigation” into a Democrat president over a similar incident. Most Democrats barely batted an eye when Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin went MIA multiple times last year and didn’t tell relevant authorities.
A more appropriate response from the Oklahoma Republican should have been something like this:
Thanks so much for the question, Dana. I would love to answer it after your network — which a jury literally found is fake news — has asked Democrats why they weren’t concerned about so-called ‘national security’ when Joe Biden got 13 American troops killed in Afghanistan; or when Hillary Clinton mishandled classified emails; or when Biden allowed a Chinese spy balloon to float across the continental United States; or when Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell had a fling with a Chinese spy; or when Lloyd Austin hid his medical issues from the Biden White House; or any of the other Democrat-linked ‘national security’ matters your network refused to cover or downplayed to help your political allies.
While it’s perfectly reasonable to want to determine how a known anti-Trump fabulist like Goldberg got added to the administration’s Signal chat, it’s completely asinine for Lankford and Wicker to legitimize Democrat efforts to make the matter into the world-ending scandal that it’s not by indulging calls for never-ending investigations that serve only to paralyze the Trump administration.
Recall that many congressional Republicans failed to effectively push back against the baseless Russia collusion hoax following the 2016 election, and the dishonest media narratives that came with it. This complacent attitude gave Democrats the perfect opening to run wild with baseless conspiracies about Trump scheming with Moscow to overthrow American democracy — unfounded claims their media allies were more than happy to amplify.
By the time the dust settled, and the Mueller investigation went up in flames in mid-2019, the damage had been done. All but forced to grapple with the mountain of probes into his administration, Trump and his team were essentially hamstrung for most of his first term in office — crippling the will of Americans who voted for him in the process.
And yet, despite leftists deploying this same strategy again over Signalgate, spineless GOP senators like Lankford and Wicker are completely out to lunch. In agreeing with Democrats’ calls for an investigation, both Republicans have shown they have learned absolutely nothing about the devastating consequences that can arise from giving Democrats an inch on these issues.
Avoiding a repeat of the Russia collusion hoax requires GOP officials to forcefully push back on the biggest lies and dishonest narratives stemming from Democrats and their buddies in the corporate press. If Republicans can’t find it within themselves to do something as basic as that, they have no business being in public office.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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