- And Senator James Lankfordof Oklahoma joins us now.

Senator, good to haveyou with us this evening.

Let's pick up right where,

- Thank you.- you know, Ben left off.

You called for the Biden administration

to withdraw Xavier Becerra's nomination,

someone you've referred to

as one of the most ardentabortion advocates in the country.

What are your biggestconcerns about Becerra?

- Well, several thingshave already come up

that you've already statedthere, and one is that,

obviously, he has no medical background.

We're in the middle of a pandemicand he's not a scientist.

He's not a medical professional.

He's an attorney.

And so to be able to put an attorney

leading the healthcareissues for our nation,

number one, it doesn't make sense.

If you were doing a LinkedIn profile

looking for someone tobe able to fill this job,

he wouldn't even show up in the search

'cause he has no healthcare background.

The second part of this is

he has been a very outspoken advocate

for increasing abortion in California

and across the country,and I find it very ironic

that the person who's leading,

or who Biden is tapping tolead Health and Human Services

considers human servicespromoting abortion in the country.

I don't find that a human service.

I find that inhumane, actually.

And it's very, very disturbing

that one of his primary characteristics

that the Biden team is putting forward

is this is an outspokenadvocate for abortion

and so he should be leadingHealth and Human Services.

- Senator Lankford in lightof some of those concerns

and those lawsuits in California

against conscience providers,

I know that you have introduced

the Conscience Protection Act.

Can you tell us more aboutthat and what it aims to do?

- I can actually.

This is something very specific that

to California and to other areas as well.

A healthcare providerthat goes into healthcare

to be able to help preserve life

shouldn't be forced to take life.

If they have a conscience issue,

which many healthcare providers do

with taking of life in an abortion,

they shouldn't becompelled by the employer

to be able to do that.

But in California and in other places,

there are clear cases where someone

who had verbally spoken up or in writing

when they joined in witha healthcare provider

said, "I am opposed morally to abortion."

Later, they're drug intoan abortion procedure

and saying, "You need to beable to be involved in this."

In other words, to keep your job,

you need to be able to help take life

when you came here to beable to preserve life.

Those individuals' conscienceshould be protected.

This shouldn't be a difficult issue.

Xavier Becerra has spokenout in opposition to that.

As was listed earlier by you,

is that he's been very outspoken to say

that pro-life clinics that are out there

have to be able to, underXavier Becerra's world,

you have to be able toalso promote abortion

in a pro-life facility.

He's been so outspoken on abortion,

he even led a charge from California

confronting Mississippi,entirely different state

and region of the country,

saying that they're theretoo opposed to abortion,

and so California is trying to be able

to file a suit against Mississippi.

He's not been just apassive person for abortion.

He's been an active abortion promoter.

When you're trying toget pro-abortion posters

into pro-life clinics,that's not supporting

the, quote-unquote, right to abortion.

That's an abortion promoter.

That's a very different level for us.

And quite frankly, forsomeone who values the life

of every child, I can't process through

how we actually put someoneleading our healthcare

that only thing some children are valuable

and some children are not.

- Senator, to the pandemic.

The COVID relief packagemay get a full House vote

as early as this weekend.

It comes, of course, with that hefty

nearly $2 trillion price tag.

How much of your opposition

has to do with how the billwould affect the federal debt?

- Quite a bit, actually.

We've done over $4 trillion inspending for COVID last year.

All those were bipartisan bills.

All those we worked outto be able to determine

we need to spend what we need to spend

but not more than we need to spend,

understanding that everysingle dollar we spend on COVID

is something we're borrowingfrom our children or from China

or from other places.

So before we borrow more money

to be able to spend on what people want,

we need to make sure that we're covering

only the essential needs.

So let's borrow what weneed to to get through it

but not more than we need to.

The Biden team has not eventapped in even close to half

of what was actuallyallocated in December.

So we did almost a trillion dollars

in additional COVID relief in December.

Most of that has not been spent yet,

yet the Biden team is saying

they want to be able to put their name

on a $1.9 trillion package,almost $2 trillion of it.

A majority of that moneywouldn't even be spent,

couldn't even be allocated until 2022,

and some of it is for thingslike tunnels in San Francisco

and bridges in New Yorkand things that are clearly

not COVID related costs.

This is just being loaded up

with a bunch of additional gimmes

that different individual senators

or House members want for their districts

and so they're loading it upand calling it a COVID package

when, clearly, it's not a COVID package

when most of the spendingdoesn't even happen this year.

- Senator, we only haveabout a half minute left.

I know you sit on theHomeland Security Committee,

which held a joint hearing today

on the Capitol insurrection.

You asked whether there's still a need

for the stepped up securitypresence still on the Capitol.

What was the answer you got?

- Yeah, I don't have aclear answer on that yet.

They're trying to keepthe security presence,

what is this fortress that's around

the United States Capitol,

at least through the middle of March.

We're trying to go back to saying

we need to be able to makesure that our Capitol Police

have everything theyneed but we should not

look like a fortress around this Capitol

and we need to be ableto get some balance back

into this perspective again.

So we're pushing on this.

So as odd as it sounds, we'renudging on the Biden team

to saying you're tryingto stop walls and fences

on the southern border, butput up walls in Washington DC.

Let's have some reasoninghere in the process.