Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) felt the fury of one constituent at a town hall on Tuesday, when a man arose to grill the congressman over concerns about NSA surveillance programs.
In the video above, Dax Ewbank of Oklahoma City accuses Lankford of misleading people in a recent letter in which he attempted to tamp down fears that NSA programs were being used to target normal U.S. citizens.
Ewbank begins by pointing to a bombshell Reuters report earlier this month, which found that a Drug Enforcement Administration special operations unit that had partnered with the NSA was funneling key surveillance information to authorities to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. A document cited in the report also found that operatives had been instructed to alter the investigative trail to cover up where the relevant information had originated. Days after the Reuters story broke, reporters found that details of the program had been published in a manual used by IRS agents for the past two years.
(Watch Ewbank give Lankford a tongue-lashing above.)
"I do not accept this idea that we need to wait for two years while you guys figure out what to do," Ewbanks yelled, as the crowd began clapping in agreement. “It needs to end now.”
Congress narrowly shot down an amendment introduced by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) last month, which would have ended funding for NSA phone surveillance programs. Lankford voted against it.
The Oklahoman also reported that constituents loudly voiced their opposition to an immigration reform package already passed by the Senate. Some also spoke out against undocumented immigrants, whom they accused of "ruining our economic system." Lankford responded by guaranteeing that the Senate bill wouldn't pass the House.
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