Democrats will try to make abortion a key issue in the 2024 presidential election, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Newsmax on Wednesday.
Abortion played a pivotal role in the midterm elections last year after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, which had legalized the procedure nationally.
"I would expect the same in 2024," Lankford said on "Wake Up America." "I would expect Democrats nationwide to say, 'Hey, we want the ability to take the lives of children at whatever point in gestation that we want to be able to do that.'
"Republicans, I think, will stand up and say, 'Hey, let's talk about the value of every single child.'"
Lankford said the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which returned the abortion issue to the states, has resulted in about 200,000 children being alive who otherwise would not have been.
"When you look at what's really a controversial decision, it was the actual Roe v. Wade decision itself 50 years ago when the Supreme Court invented new constitutional authorities," Lankford said.
"The Dobbs decision, the 24th of June last year, the Supreme Court came back and looked at it and said there was no basis for the Roe v. Wade decision. The decision about abortion historically has been a decision that's been made by states and by elected officials, not by judges. And so what the Supreme Court did was it turned it back over to the American people."
Lankford said that he believes the person who leaked the Dobbs decision eventually will be identified.
"I think it will eventually come out," he said. "There's such a small group of people that have access to those different opinions as they're being written."
Lankford, a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, was asked about special counsel John Durham's appearance before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning.
Durham released a report in May saying the FBI lacked "actual evidence" to investigate Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and relied too heavily on tips provided by Trump's political opponents to fuel the probe.
"I think a lot of what should come out today is what are the recommendations John Durham would make," Lankford said. "How did this actually happen, where literally FBI D.C. headquarters was making decisions that most every FBI agent in the field would say, 'That's an absurd decision.'"
Americans having lost faith in the FBI is a problem for more people than just those in the bureau, according to Lankford.
"It's not only a big problem for the FBI, it's a big problem for the United States," he said. "We need to have trust in our law enforcement. We need to be able to look at what law enforcement is doing and say they're being fair in the way they prosecute, the way they handle every case.
"So, for the field office versus what's happening in D.C., it's very important for the D.C. office to clean up its act."
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