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Among those watching President Joe Biden deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday night were Oklahoma’s leaders.

Pictured: President Joe Biden addresses the nation during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night (photo courtesy: News on 6).

Taking to Facebook after Biden’s speech was U.S. Senator James Lankford. Lankford highlights how “audacious” it was that President Biden would talk about border security with the many areas of lack of law enforcement of our border. He points out Biden’s attention to the deficit when his “COVID relief” programs both caused the inflation we see today and added trillions to the deficit.

Excerpts and video from Sen. Lankford on Biden’s State of the Union below:

On starting the speech with Ukraine

"The biggest issues that I saw as we were going through the speech and I was kind of flowing through the argument—obviously that we’re going to stand with the people of Ukraine. Good, we should stand with the people of Ukraine. It was good that the loudest, longest applause through the entire speech was actually right at the beginning for the ambassador from Ukraine to be able to tell the world that we are standing with the people of Ukraine, and we should be standing with them for humanitarian, supporting them, cutting off Russia and isolating them from the world’s economy. We should do what it takes to be able to make it very, very clear to Russia that the world will not put up with their aggression and continue to be clear on that.

So I was pleased to be able to see that he actually started with that, but the speech went downhill from there…"

On Biden’s misleading message about addressing gas prices with releasing strategic petroleum reserves

"Then he started talking about that we’re going to save oil prices and try to bring down the cost of energy in America by releasing 60 million barrels of oil worldwide. That seems like a big number except the United States alone uses 20 million barrels of oil a day, so that 60 million barrels worldwide they’ve coordinated equals three days in America or less than one day of actually world consumption. And that’s actually got to be replaced. That’s our strategic oil reserve

What we really need to do and what he wouldn’t talk about tonight is actually put pressure on Russia by increasing Oklahoma and American oil and gas production to be able to send to Europe.

You want to be able to hurt Russia long-term, you’ve got to be able to cut off their customers."

On Biden’s mixed message on addressing inflation when his American Rescue Plan caused it

"He talked about the American Rescue Plan and then talked about inflation right after that, which I thought was interesting because the American Rescue Plan is what directly led to the inflation that we’re facing today. He talked about inflation, and he said, ‘This is all because of COVID,’ basically, but what he conveniently left out is, this is not the kind of inflation they have in Australia or in Japan or in South Korea or in Canada or in multiple countries around the world that are western economies. They’re not experiencing seven-and-a-half percent inflation because they didn’t do a plan like what Biden put in place last year…"

On Biden’s comments that we need to secure the border

Lankford (pictured left): "He talked about border security. Wow. That’s all I could say. While I was sitting there listening, knowing what they’ve actually done on border security, he started talking about technology and how they’re going to stop people from illegally crossing…I was just in Brownsville, just a few weeks ago. I saw the court rooms that he was talking about. Those court rooms that he was talking about were empty the day I was there. Zero people in them. 50,000 people had illegally crossed that border just last month. They had three different hearings in that, so while he talked about, ‘We’re going to do these court rooms, and we’re going to have these judges,’ I’ve seen it firsthand. They’re not actually doing hearings there. And he can talk a big game about what’s actually happening, but they’re not really enforcing it. So that was literally not true.

Every American knows we had 2 million people illegally cross the border last year, and then he has the audacity to stand there and talk about how we’re going to have strong border security on that. That’s pretty audacious to say the least…"

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COMMENTS FROM CONGRESSMAN MARKWAYNE MULLIN

“It is clear President Biden is taking our country in the wrong direction. His priorities could not be more out of touch with hard-working Americans. Our country is facing many self-inflicted crises, yet he offered no real solutions. As the world watches the tragedy unfold in Ukraine, our president had a real opportunity to show strength. But instead, he focused on pushing his party’s socialist agenda.”

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REMARKS FROM CONGRESSMAN KEVIN HERN

“There was only one thing Oklahomans needed to hear from their president tonight: an immediate commitment to energy independence. We didn’t hear that. President Biden could have announced the relaunch of the Keystone Pipeline and the reversal of job-killing energy policies he put in place on Day 1, but that didn’t happen. In fact, Biden barely mentioned his job-killing energy plan at all. He doubled down on all the bad policy choices he’s made in the last 13 months, and committed to spend even more federal tax dollars, increasing our deficits and causing further inflationary pressure on American families.

This isn’t what Oklahomans were expecting from their President. Americans are crying out for help and their Democrat-led government is ignoring them. Given Biden’s abysmal approval rating and a never-ending line of disasters, I had low expectations for tonight. Biden managed to underperform even that. Oklahomans deserve better. The American people deserve better.”

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STATEMENT FROM SENATOR JIM INHOFE

“The speech we heard from President Biden tonight was just that — talk. I am incredibly disappointed in this administration’s continued harm of Oklahomans and America. It is clear that under President Biden, the state of our union is not as strong as it should be.

President Biden’s foreign policy and national security strategy are making our country less safe, failing to secure U.S. interests, and weakening our reputation around the world. In the last year alone, we have witnessed two of the greatest national defense blunders in my lifetime. For months, we watched Russia's military buildup around Ukraine — it was plain as day that Putin intended to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty, and this administration wasn’t ready. The only real action taken by the Biden administration came much too late. His deterrence strategy failed, unfortunately for the millions of Ukrainians now fighting for their country and lives. Putin is going to great lengths to get what he wants, and we can no longer afford to drag our feet in acting to support Ukraine. Congress must provide additional aid to help now, because the administration won’t. 

Even though President Biden didn’t even acknowledge it once — not even to commemorate the 13 American service members who lost their lives in Kabul on August 26 — no one should forget the rushed withdrawal from Afghanistan that left the Taliban stronger than it was on 9/11. Biden is solely responsible for this terrible decision and the chaos that followed. Perhaps worst of all, the administration told us they’d conduct “over-the-horizon” counterterrorism to mitigate the terrorist threat against the homeland. In reality, we’ve carried out no strikes, and we don’t have the intelligence to even know what al-Qaeda or ISIS is planning.

Across the globe, our adversaries, like Communist China, are taking notes on how the United States and our allies and partners are responding to the crises in Ukraine and Afghanistan. This administration has proven unable to take calculated risks, to think creatively, or to make the investments in national security across the government that would gird America for long-term strategic competition. Instead of focusing on making our world safer from these threats, President Biden has focused our Department of Defense on progressive priorities like climate change and a “woke” social agenda. I will continue to use my position as ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold the Biden administration accountable and to make sure our military gets the resources it needs to defend this country. I don’t want to see yet another mistake — like a return to the failed Iran nuclear deal or an even worse new deal.

Even though we face all of these threats, President Biden has tried to underfund national defense at every turn. Let’s not forget that his very first budget cut funding for our military because it didn’t keep up with inflation — let alone provide the 3 to 5 percent real growth above inflation recommended by the National Defense Strategy Commission. I led the charge to reject his underwhelming budget, and on a bipartisan basis, my colleagues worked with me to boost defense spending. As he works to strengthen our union this year, I hope President Biden makes investment in our national defense a higher priority.

This is even more important because of inflation. President Biden’s policies have led to skyrocketing prices — a 40-year high of 7.5 percent. Oklahomans and Americans are paying the price — the average family will lose thousands of dollars in buying power this year. Everyday necessities like food and gas should not cost a small fortune. Gas at the pump is near an 8-year high with prices only expected to rise in the months ahead. For our troops, that means lower pay, fewer modern weapons, and less training. Instead of working to cut costs and boost production, Democrats have sought reckless tax-and-spend sprees that would stick Oklahoma families with higher costs and lower wages. I will fight these policies and continue to work toward solutions that bring about real economic recovery for Oklahoma.

President Biden’s terrible record on energy and climate has not been forgotten and is on full display across America. Take the Paris Climate Agreement—President Trump wisely withdrew from the job-killing deal altogether. It was a failure when Obama introduced it, with no means of enforcement, sustainability or legal significance. President Biden has rejoined this failed agreement by executive action with no effective plan to actually hold accountable the world’s largest polluters, including China, Russia or India. Not to mention the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and its associated 10,000 jobs. This pipeline would have strengthened our energy independence as it was expected to carry over 800,000 barrels of oil per day, which would have increased domestic supply and reduced the supply and demand disruption we are witnessing today that have increased oil prices above $100. While this administration has called for more foreign oil production, it remains clear to Oklahomans that the real solution to our energy needs is to cut regulations and unleash American energy production like we did under the Trump administration — and the situation in Ukraine makes this even more essential.

This administration has lost sight of what is important to the people of this nation, but I have not. While the Biden administration is working against Oklahomans and America, I will continue to fight for policies and initiatives that improve our national security and provide real relief to families.”

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GOVERNOR KEVIN STITT’S RESPONSE

Governor Kevin Stitt sent a letter on Tuesday to President Joe Biden requesting immediate action be taken to strengthen the United States and our allies abroad by embracing America’s domestic crude oil and natural gas industry and halting the importation of Russian crude oil and natural gas products.

In part, the letter states:

“Every administration since 1973, Republican and Democrat, prioritized American energy independence – until yours. The recent events in Ukraine are yet another example of why we should be selling energy to our friends and not buying it from our enemies.

Energy-producing states like Oklahoma are ready to step up domestic production in an environmentally responsible way…. With your support, we can significantly increase production to meet America’s domestic needs and export energy to our allies, reducing their dependence on foreign adversaries.

Mr. President, energy security is national security. Right now, ahead of your first State of the Union address, there is a window of opportunity to reverse course on your administration’s resistance to domestic oil and gas production. I encourage you to embrace American energy producing states here at home. Now is the time to put politics aside and work together to regain our energy independence and support our allies around the globe.”

Read the full letter here.