Sen. James Lankford criticized Democrat leaders for rejecting President Donald Trump's offers to address violent crime in major cities, calling it an example of "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
"This is the ultimate in Trump Derangement Syndrome, where there's high crime in your city, and the president of the United States offers help, but it's like, 'No, we don't want your help,'" the Oklahoma Republican told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "'We don't want the National Guard coming in. We don't want individuals to try to make our city more secure.'"
The senator pointed out that Chicago's long-running crime problems show a clear case where local leaders should welcome federal assistance.
"When Chicago has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country, and does year after year after year, they should be asking for help, not pushing help away. This should be pretty straightforward," he said.
Lankford contrasted that response with Louisiana, where Gov. Jeff Landry has openly embraced cooperation with Trump.
"Louisiana is a great state, has fantastic people, but they have some crime issues in New Orleans," the senator said. "They're literally saying, hey, if the president wants to come help us, we're glad to be able to have the help ... to make sure that we can have safe streets in a safe, safe community on that."
The senator also pushed back against California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom's claims on crime statistics, saying Newsom misrepresented Oklahoma's record while criticizing Lankford.
"Well, Gavin Newsom tried to be able to push back and say, this senator doesn't know the crime rate in his own state. And I just laughed. And I was like, 'OK, well, let's look at the crime rate in California on it'. His robbery rate is four times higher. His violent crime rate is much higher," Lankford said.
The senator also took aim at California's cost of living.
"The price of gasoline in California is crazy," Lankford said. "I actually asked him, 'Hey, is the robbery rate so high in California because your gasoline is twice as high as it is in Oklahoma?'" he said.
Lankford added that people are leaving California because they want to get away from high prices and high crime, and aren't staying because of Newsom's "great policies."
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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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