Sen. Lankford reflects on Charlie Kirk's death

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford discussed the killing of activist Charlie Kirk, budget negotiations and the anniversary of 9/11 in an interview with News On 6.

Thursday, September 11th 2025, 7:24 am

By: Brooke Cox

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford is weighing in on the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the looming budget deadline and the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In an interview with News On 6’s Dave Davis, Lankford said the country is facing a painful moment and called for Americans to reject violence while also addressing political disagreements.

Q: Senator Lankford, we want to start off with Charlie Kirk and your thoughts on his killing.

Lankford: "Yeah, painful. Let me take my senator hat off and put my pastor hat back on. This is an incredibly difficult thing for the entire country, and I think people feel it. It's September the 11th. We all remember all of us that were alive in that time period that had this flashback of what happened 24 years ago. But this feels more like 1968 all of a sudden in the pain and the turmoil that was happening across the country with assassinations.

"We had two assassination attempts last year on President Trump. We had the assassination and home invasion of some Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota. We had the governor of Pennsylvania that his home was set on fire. And now just a person, literally Charlie Kirk, what he did was he traveled around campuses to have dialogue with people who disagreed, who want to talk about politics.

"This is supposed to be how we work things out as a country, literally is to be able to have open dialogue about all kinds of things. He is assassinated in front of thousands of people, leaving his two children and his wife alone. So it's incredibly painful time for the nation.

"And I would push back on all of us and to say we should live out our faith, the principles of our faith all of the time on it, even how we respond in anger in moments like this, but to also to be able to ask each other, why can't we at least talk about things where we disagree?"

Q: You posted on social media earlier that some people have commented, well, it's time to take up arms. Tell me about people who are thinking that and saying that in the public forum.

Lankford: "Yeah, there's some people have shocks, some people have anger, some people have just rage right now. And for the folks that just have rage and say, I'm tired of the left, I'm tired of people that disagree with me, I want to be able to just take it out on other people on that is not the response of America. That only makes a situation much, much, much worse, and it is still a crime.

"Right now, it is the job of law enforcement to go pursue the people who assassinated Charlie Kirk, to be able to bring them to justice and for the nation, to make sure that the entire world sees that we do not allow this in America.

"We hold people to account. That's how we do it as a nation and should do it as a nation. That is not up to individual citizens to be able to lash back that way. But that does not mean we are not incredibly angry as a country, hopefully on all sides of the political perspective, to say we are better than this and we should challenge each other to live better than this."

Q: With the budget deadline less than three weeks away from a possible government shutdown, what do you think the approach should be to getting this budget done?

Lankford: "Right now, there is some good conversation happening between the House and the Senate, the Republicans and Democrats talking about how do we actually keep the government open, continue the debate. With $37 trillion in debt, there are serious issues we need to be able to get to agreement on, but we don't need to do it during a government shutdown.

"I literally have a bill that prevents us from having a government shutdown. that keeps us debating and keeps us talking until we solve it, but holds the American people and quite frankly, all of our government harmless in the process as we try to be able to work out our differences on it. So in the next three weeks, we've really got to resolve this to be able to keep the government open.

"I think we will. We're having productive conversations on that, and I look forward to getting this resolved. But then probably in November, having another deadline there and hopefully having all of our budget arguments worked out by then."

Q: Do you foresee doing this with the Democrats, a bipartisan deal? Do you foresee Republicans going it alone? How do you think that will work out?

Lankford: "Interestingly enough, almost everything in the Senate has to be done in a bipartisan basis. This will be a bipartisan conversation that has to occur to be able to solve this. So this is not Republicans alone doing it. The Senate rules require 60 people have to agree before we can debate even almost everything. There are some exceptions on that, on a few things on tax and other things. Almost every Everything has to have 60 people. So this is one of those moments. We're going to have to have grownups in the room, sit down with people you disagree with, figure out how we're able to work it out."

Q: And you don't foresee the Republicans doing away with the 60-person rule potentially?

Lankford: "No, certainly not on the legislative. We've not even hinted anything on legislative matters to be able to do that. We've been very protective of the legislative filibuster to say, hey, it is there for a reason. It is both constitutional and traditional as a country that in the Senate, we have some things we can do about 51 now, like some of the nominations and other things, going through a process on some tax things we can do with 51. But most every bill still has to be done with 16. It has to be maintained. And that's been a clear, bright line for Republicans."

Q: Finally, Senator, it is 24 years since 9/11. Your thoughts?

Lankford: "Yeah, it is a look back on a time where the world changed in a profound way on a single day. There were a lot of Americans that felt like, hey, we're isolated, all the problems are over there. Wars and angry people that are thousands of miles away don't affect us. And we found out on September the 11th, no, they do affect us. And people in terrorist organizations around the world that say they mean to do us harm, they do mean to do us harm.

"And so it led to then the war in Afghanistan and in Iraq, a profound loss of life in a lot of those wars. We are still grateful for the people who stepped up. And I talked to so many people, including my office. We had a prayer time earlier this week. with someone who, right after 9/11, signed up for the Army, went to Iraq, now serving as a firefighter in Tulsa. But for him and for his family, he was profoundly changed.

"But that is the story of so many Americans that when we were attacked, they responded and said, how can I serve our nation in the best possible way to be able to bring peace long term? So we continue to be able to pray for those families that lost lives and loved ones in so many ways of protecting our nation, but also remember that incredibly dark day and work to never have a day like that again."