Senator James Lankford (R-OK) appeared on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, where he pushed back on President Donald Trump’s plan to target left-wing extremism following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

The remarks came after White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller outlined the administration’s intentions to counter violent extremist groups on Fox News.

In his interview with host Sean Hannity, Miller pointed to what he described as a growing wave of radicalism on the left that has contributed to a climate of violence.

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Miller cited years of inflammatory rhetoric aimed at conservatives. “Says they have to be removed, and then prints their addresses. What do you think they’re trying to do? They are trying to inspire someone to murder them. That is their objective. That is their intent,” Miller said.

He highlighted disturbing reactions to Kirk’s assassination.

“And when you see online, Sean, as we’ve seen for the last few days, tape after tape after tape of federal workers, bureaucrats, staffers in the Pentagon, educators, professors, healthcare workers, nurses, celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk. These are radicalized people. There is a domestic terrorism movement in this country,” Miller told Hannity.

Miller also said Kirk himself had urged action against extremist threats in their last conversation.

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“And we are going to do that under President Trump’s leadership. I don’t care how it could be a RICO charge, a conspiracy charge, conspiracy against the United States, insurrection, but we are going to do what it takes to dismantle the organizations and the entities that are fomenting riots, that are doxxing, that are trying to inspire terrorism, that are committing acts of wanton violence. It has to stop,” he said.

Miller’s message was direct: “And my message is to all of the domestic terrorists in this country spreading this evil hate, you want us to live in fear? We will not live in fear, but you will live in exile.”

Lankford, however, suggested a broader approach that placed equal emphasis on multiple threats rather than focusing on left-wing movements.

“We need to be careful in how we talk about this, whether it is talking about white nationalists and preparing to be able to attack and to be able to carry an attack, or to somebody like a Timothy McVeigh that hated the government intensely in my state 30 years ago, murdered 168 people in Oklahoma City, or whether it is a leftist group that is interested in actually attacking a pro-life center that we saw several years ago, or whether it’s carrying out some other act of terrorism or trying to be able to intimidate people,” he said.

The senator, who previously faced criticism for advancing a proposal during the Biden presidency that would have allowed 5,000 illegal aliens per day into the United States, insisted the government should apply the law evenly across ideological divides.

“We should have equal application of the law to saying, if you’re choosing to be able to carry out an aggressive, violent act, that should be something that we actually try to interdict any time that we possibly can,” Lankford said.

“Again, thinking something, talking about something, is very different than carrying out that action. We have freedom of speech, but you do not have the freedom to be able to plan, prepare, and carry out an attack against another American, no matter what your ideology.”

The exchange highlighted a split between Trump’s inner circle, which is pressing for a crackdown specifically on left-wing extremism in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, and lawmakers like Lankford who emphasize a “both sides” framework.

The debate is expected to intensify as federal law enforcement agencies begin implementing new directives under President Trump’s leadership.

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