We noted earlier that Sen. Tom Cotton jumped to Donald Trump’s defense on his mean immigration plan. That ain’t all.
Now comes Politico with some sharp words by Cotton at Trump cabinet members:
This is a moment of truth for President Trump’s national security team. He is set to overrule both his secretaries of State and Defense on the Iran nuclear deal this week, declaring it no longer in the U.S. “national interest” in explicit contradiction to their public position. And if they don’t like it, Senator Tom Cotton says, then they should get out.
Their “job is now to move out and execute,” Cotton, the Arkansas Republican and national security hawk who is one of Trump’s closest remaining congressional advisers on foreign policy, says in a new interview for The Global Politico, our weekly podcast on world affairs. Or, “if you feel strongly enough, then you have to resign.”
After watching Cotton pop off on TV over the weekend, one observer wondered whether Cotton was angling for a top defense post himself (besides running for president, of course). This would be a good news-bad news thing. Hard to imagine Arkansas could land somebody worse as a replacement U.S. senator, but …. we must think of the country.