“The people of Alabama are going to decide Roy Moore’s fate,” Sen. Tom Cotton said today. “The people of Alabama are going to make that decision just like the people of this country made their decision last year on Donald Trump.”
Cotton’s comments came in response to questions during an AP press conference about GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore and President Donald Trump, who have faced numerous allegations of sexual misconduct (in Moore’s case, charges of molesting teenage girls).
Cotton declined to say whether he believed Trump’s accusers. “I haven’t gone back and looked at all the things they said,” Cotton said. “It’s important that any woman feels that she can make a complaint if she’s been subjected to sexual harassment or assault. … Each case has to be evaluated on the merits. We shouldn’t have trial by newspaper. … I haven’t gone back and evaluated those claims from last year.”
A few other highlights (you can watch the full video here):
Rumor Mill
Cotton called the rumors that Trump will soon nominate him to head the CIA “idle speculation.”
“Last time I checked, the CIA has a director and he’s doing a pretty good job, and I’m pretty happy serving the people of Arkansas in the Senate,” Cotton said.
Capitol Critters
Cotton expressed confidence that Congress can dodge a government shutdown. Asked what he would be willing to compromise with Democrats on to accomplish that, he changed the subject.
Dreamers Deferred
Asked whether the Democrats had leverage during the budget fight in order to push for legal status for the DACA Dreamers, Cotton said, “that’s a ridiculous position and it won’t happen.”
Donors not Deferred
Cotton said that despite what “fancy economic models” say, the GOP tax bill will benefit working-class Arkansans.
Neocon Man
A good chunk of the presser covered foreign policy. Cotton, as ever, is reflexively hawkish on all matters, a bellicose interventionist disdainful of diplomacy. He has made sabotaging the nuclear deal with Iran the primary focus of his political career; he says that a pre-emptive U.S. military strike against North Korea should be on the table. While readers of this blog may daydream of Cotton leaving the Senate, it is worth pondering how dangerous he could be running the CIA. Cotton is a rigid idealogue and a neocon cheerleader — imagine him in charge of the intelligence that could be used as the pretext for war.
Russia
“I agree that Russia hacked into those emails and released them,” Cotton said. “That’s what Russia does.” (Cotton said this was just like how the Reds were really the ones behind the nuclear freeze movement in this country in the early 1980s, a topic that, one imagines, steamed young Cotton when he was in kindergarten.)
As for Trump, Cotton cited Sen. Dianne Feinstein‘s statements that she had thus far not seen evidence of collusion. “We’ll follow the facts where they take us,” he said.
