GOP Senator's Message to Trump: 'No One Is Above the Law'
The legal nuances of the President of the United States pardoning himself don't seem to rankle Republican Senator James Lankford as much as the fact that the administration is talking about it at all.
"It's really an odd conversation, quite frankly, out of the White House, to be talking about presidential pardons when the whole time you're saying 'I didn't do anything,'" Lankford, Oklahoma's junior senator, told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin on Tuesday.
In [a tweet](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1003616210922147841) the day before, President Trump said, "I have the absolute right to pardon myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?"
The statement touched off a constitutional debate over presidential powers.
"It seems weird to suddenly have this switch-up message coming from the White House," Lankford said, adding: "I think the White House should be focused on getting information out."
As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Lankford said that information should be included in a bipartisan report on exactly what happened during the 2016 presidential campaign, and put an end to the speculation over Russian involvement in the election. That includes concluding the work of the special counsel, Robert Mueller.
"At the end of the day, let's get the facts out there, because the nation has to move on," Lankford said.
For more, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/republican-senators-frustrated-by-budget-appropriations-process).
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are asking a judge to postpone his criminal trial without setting a new date as he stands accused of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate.
A court-appointed monitor is urging a judge to begin contempt proceedings against New York City over conditions at the troubled Rikers Island jail complex, setting the stage for a potential federal takeover of the jail system in the nation’s most populous city.
Kansas must stop allowing transgender people to change the sex listed on their driver’s licenses, a state-court judge ordered Monday as part of a lawsuit filed by the state’s Republican attorney general.
President Joe Biden and King Charles III, two leaders who waited decades to reach the pinnacle of their careers, used their first meeting in those roles Monday to zero in on the generational challenge of climate change, prodding private companies to do more to bolster clean energy in developing countries.
Former New Jersey Gov. and current Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie took aim at Donald Trump, calling him a "three-time loser." He also criticized the probe against Hunter Biden and gave his stance on Social Security.