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Wikipedia

Tom Cotton

February 16, 2024

For the fictional character, see Tom "Rocky" Cotton.

Thomas Bryant Cotton (born May 13, 1977) is an American politician, attorney, and former military officer serving as the junior United States senator from Arkansas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2015.

Tom Cotton
Official portrait, 2015
United States Senator
from Arkansas
Assumed office
January 3, 2015
Serving with John Boozman
Preceded byMark Pryor
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Arkansas's 4th district
In office
January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2015
Preceded byMike Ross
Succeeded byBruce Westerman
Personal details
Born
Thomas Bryant Cotton

(1977-05-13) May 13, 1977 (age 46)
Dardanelle, Arkansas, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Anna Peckham
​
(m. 2014)​
Children2
EducationHarvard University (BA, JD)
WebsiteSenate website
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch United States Army
Years of service
RankCaptain
Unit
Battles/wars
Awards
Tom Cotton's voice
Tom Cotton on his bill to mandate compony disclosure of foreign subsidies prior to merger
Recorded December 8, 2022

Cotton was elected as the U.S. representative for Arkansas's 4th congressional district in 2012 and to the Senate at age 37 in 2014, defeating two-term Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor.

Early life and education

Thomas Bryant Cotton was born on May 13, 1977, in Dardanelle, Arkansas.[1] His father, Thomas Leonard "Len" Cotton, was a district supervisor in the Arkansas Department of Health, and his mother, Avis (née Bryant) Cotton, was a schoolteacher who later became principal of their district's middle school.[2] Cotton's family had lived in rural Arkansas for seven generations, and he grew up on his family's cattle farm.[3][4] He attended Dardanelle High School, where he played on the local and regional basketball teams; standing 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) tall, he was usually required to play center.[4][5]

Cotton was accepted to Harvard College after graduating from high school in 1995. At Harvard, he majored in government and was a member of the editorial board of The Harvard Crimson, often dissenting from the liberal majority.[5] In articles, Cotton addressed what he saw as "sacred cows" such as affirmative action.[6] He graduated with an A.B. magna cum laude in 1998 after only three years of study. Cotton's senior thesis focused on The Federalist Papers.[4]

After graduating from Harvard College in 1998, Cotton was accepted into a master's program at Claremont Graduate University. He left in 1999, saying that he found academic life "too sedentary", and instead enrolled at Harvard Law School.[4] He graduated with a J.D. degree in 2002.[7]

Career

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Cotton spent one year as a law clerk for Judge Jerry Edwin Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He then went into private practice as an associate at law firms Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Cooper & Kirk[8] in Washington, D.C., until he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2005.[9]

Military service

 
Cotton in 2006

On January 11, 2005, Cotton enlisted in the United States Army.[10] He entered Officer Candidate School (OCS) in March 2005 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in June.[11] He completed the U.S. Army Ranger Course,[12][13] a 62-day small unit tactics and leadership program that earned him the Ranger tab, and Airborne School to earn the Parachutist Badge.[11]

In May 2006, Cotton was deployed to Baghdad as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) as a platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division. In Iraq, he led a 41-man air assault infantry platoon in the 506th Infantry Regiment, and planned and performed daily combat patrols.[11]

In December 2006 Cotton was promoted to first lieutenant and reassigned to the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) at Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia, as a platoon leader.[14]

From October 2008 to July 2009,[citation needed] Cotton was deployed to eastern Afghanistan. He was assigned within the Train Advise Assist Command – East at its Gamberi forward operating base (FOB) in Laghman Province as the operations officer of a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), where he planned daily counter-insurgency and reconstruction operations.[11]

Cotton was honorably discharged in September 2009. During his time in the service, he completed two combat deployments overseas, was awarded a Bronze Star, two Army Commendation Medals, a Combat Infantryman Badge, a Ranger tab, an Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and an Iraq Campaign Medal.[11]

Following his active duty service, Cotton went to work for management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

In July 2010, Cotton entered the Army Reserve (USAR). He was discharged in May 2013.[15]

2006 letter to The New York Times

In June 2006, while stationed in Iraq, Cotton gained public attention after writing an open letter to the editor of The New York Times, asserting three journalists had violated "espionage laws" by publishing an article detailing a classified government program monitoring terrorists' finances. The Times did not publish Cotton's letter, but it was published on Power Line, a conservative blog that had been copied on the email.[16][17] In the letter, Cotton called for the journalists to be prosecuted for espionage "to the fullest extent of the law" and incarcerated. He accused the newspaper of having "gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis". Cotton's claims circulated online and were reprinted in full elsewhere.[18] According to Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University in 2011, the Espionage Act has never been used against journalists. Rosen argued accusing investigative journalists of engaging in espionage is "essentially saying that they’re working for another power, or aiding the enemy. That is culture war tactics taken to an extreme."[18]

Army Ranger controversy

In 2021, Salon reported that Cotton falsely claimed in campaign ads and videos from 2011 to 2014 that he had served in Iraq and Afghanistan and earned a Bronze Star as a U.S. Army Ranger even though he did not serve in the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.[13][19][20][21] Fact-checking site Snopes rated Salon's reporting as true.[22] In response to the article, Democratic congressman Jason Crow, who served in the 75th Ranger Regiment, criticized Cotton for calling himself a Ranger. A spokesperson for Cotton said, "To be clear, as he's stated many times, Senator Cotton graduated from Ranger School, earned the Ranger Tab, and served a combat tour with the 101st Airborne, not the 75th Ranger Regiment."[23] As the Salon story garnered widespread attention, Cotton's spokeswoman recommended that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette talk to retired Command Sergeant Major Rick Merritt, a former regimental sergeant major of the 75th Ranger Regiment, who said that Cotton is "100% a Ranger. He will always be a Ranger. It’s unfair. It’s almost slanderous."[21]

In an article on the controversy, Business Insider wrote, "[w]hile the distinction [between being a "Ranger" and attending Ranger School] is rarely brought up outside of military circles, it has been fiercely debated among veterans and encapsulates the nuances of military titles."[24]

Cotton dismissed allegations of falsifying his military record as politically driven. "I graduated from the Ranger School, I wore the Ranger tab in combat with the 101st Airborne in Iraq. This is not about my military record. This is about my politics."[25]

U.S. House of Representatives

Shortly after Cotton's Afghanistan deployment ended, he was introduced to Chris Chocola, a former congressman and the president of Club for Growth, a Republican political action committee that became one of Cotton's top contributors.[4] Cotton considered a run against incumbent Democratic U.S. senator Blanche Lincoln in 2010 but declined due to lack of donors and believing it was premature.[5][26]

Cotton ran for Congress in Arkansas's 4th congressional district after Democratic incumbent Mike Ross announced in 2011 that he would not seek reelection.[4][27][28]

Elections

2012

See also: 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Arkansas § District 4
 
Cotton participating in a 2012 congressional debate at Southern Arkansas University

In September 2011, Arkansas Times editor Max Brantley, criticized Cotton for a 1998 article he wrote in The Harvard Crimson in which he questioned the internet's value as a teaching tool in the classroom, saying the internet had "too many temptations" to be useful in schools and libraries. Cotton later said the internet had matured since he wrote the article.[29][30]

Beth Anne Rankin, the 2010 Republican nominee, and John David Cowart, who was backed by Louisiana businessman and philanthropist Edgar Cason, were the only other Republican candidates in the race after Marcus Richmond dropped out in February 2012.[5] In the May 22 primary, Cotton won the Republican nomination with 57.6% of the vote; Rankin finished second with 37.1%.[31]

The Club for Growth endorsed Cotton.[32] Of the $2.2 million Cotton raised for his campaign, Club for Growth donors accounted for $315,000 and were his largest supporters.[4] Senator John McCain also endorsed him.[33] Cotton was supported by both the Tea Party movement and the Republican establishment.[34][35]

In the November 6 general election, Cotton defeated state senator Gene Jeffress, 59.5% to 36.7%.[31] He was the second Republican since Reconstruction Era of the United States to represent the 4th district. The first, Jay Dickey, held it from 1993 to 2001, during the presidency of Bill Clinton, whose residence was in the district at the time.[36] On January 3, 2013, Cotton was sworn into the House of Representatives by Speaker John Boehner.[37]

Tenure

As a freshman, Cotton became a vocal opponent of the Obama administration's foreign and domestic policies. He voted for an act to eliminate the 2013 statutory pay adjustment for federal employees, which prevented a 0.5% pay increase for all federal workers from taking effect in February 2013.[38] Cotton voted against the 2013 Farm Bill over concerns about waste and fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, voting later that month to strip funding from that program.[39] He also voted against the revised measure, the Agricultural Act of 2014,[40] which expanded crop insurance and a price floor for rice farmers.[41][42]

Cotton accused Obama of presenting a "false choice" between the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and war. Cotton was also criticized in some media outlets for underestimating what successful military action against Iran would entail.[43] Cotton said, "the president is trying to make you think it would be 150,000 heavy mechanized troops on the ground in the Middle East again as we saw in Iraq. That's simply not the case." Drawing a comparison to President Clinton's actions in 1998 during the Bombing of Iraq, he elaborated: "Several days' air and naval bombing against Iraq's weapons of mass destruction facilities for exactly the same kind of behavior. For interfering with weapons inspectors and for disobeying Security Council resolutions."[43][44] On July 21, 2015, Cotton and Mike Pompeo claimed to have uncovered the existence of secret side agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on procedures for inspection and verification of Iran's nuclear activities under the JCPOA. Obama administration officials acknowledged the existence of agreements between Iran and the IAEA on the inspection of sensitive military sites, but denied that they were "secret side deals", calling them standard practice in crafting arms-control pacts and saying the administration had provided information about them to Congress.[45][46]

Committee assignments

U.S. Senate

Elections

2014

See also: 2014 United States Senate election in Arkansas
 
Senator Jon Kyl and Cotton speaking at the Hudson Institute
 
Senator Cotton and former ambassador to the United Nations John R. Bolton at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)
 
U.S. secretary of defense Ash Carter and senators Joni Ernst, Daniel Sullivan, John McCain, Tom Cotton, Lindsey Graham, and Cory Gardner attending the 2016 International Institute for Strategic Studies Asia Security Summit in Singapore

On August 6, 2013, Cotton announced he would challenge Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor for his seat in the United States Senate.[47] Stuart Rothenberg of Roll Call called Pryor the most vulnerable senator seeking reelection that year.[48] Cotton was endorsed by the conservative Club for Growth PAC,[49][50][51] Senator Marco Rubio,[52] the National Federation of Independent Business,[53] and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who campaigned for Cotton.[54][55] The Associated Press called the race for Cotton immediately after the polls closed;[56] he received 56.5% of the vote to Pryor's 39.4%.[57] Cotton was sworn into office on January 6, 2015.[58]

As a U.S. senator, Cotton has received multiple death threats. In 2018, Adam Albrett of Fairfax County, Virginia, was arrested for "faxing death threats" against President Donald Trump and members of Congress, including Cotton. Police traced the fax to Albrett using the phone number in the fax header.[59]

In October 2019, local authorities charged James Powell, a 43-year-old Arkansas resident, with "first-degree terroristic threatening" after an investigation by U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI. The felony charge carries a maximum six-year prison sentence and $10,000 fine. Powell also threatened Arkansas Representative Rick Crawford with death.[60][61] In January 2020, 78-year-old Henry Edward Goodloe was sentenced to two years' probation for sending Cotton a threatening letter and a package containing white powder. Goodloe admitted to mailing an envelope containing white powder to Cotton's office, with a note stating, "You ignored me. Maybe this will get your attention." The Senate mail facility intercepted the letter, which included Goodloe's home address, and alerted a hazardous response team which determined the powder was unbleached flour and starch.[62]

2020

See also: 2020 United States Senate election in Arkansas

Cotton was reelected, defeating Libertarian challenger Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. Though Cotton outperformed President Donald Trump in the concurrent presidential election by 4.1%, the election saw an undervote of 26,000 compared to the presidential election. Harrington's 33.5% finish is the best ever for a Libertarian candidate in a U.S. Senate election by vote percentage, surpassing the previous record set in 2016 in Alaska,[63][64] and also by total number of votes (399,390, surpassing the previous record of 369,807 set by Michael Cloud in Massachusetts in 2002). Per exit polls, this largely appears to be due to many Democrats voting for Harrington as there was no Democratic candidate on the ballot (82% of Democratic voters backed Harrington).[65]

Tenure

Cassandra Butts nomination

In February 2015, Obama renominated Cassandra Butts, a former White House lawyer, to be the United States ambassador to the Bahamas. Her nomination was blocked by several senators. First, Ted Cruz placed a blanket hold on all U.S. State Department nominees.[66] Cotton specifically blocked the nominations of Butts and ambassador nominees to Sweden and Norway after the Secret Service leaked private information about a fellow member of Congress, although that issue was unrelated to those nominees. Cotton eventually released his holds on the nominees to Sweden and Norway, but kept his hold on Butts's nomination.[66]

Butts told New York Times columnist Frank Bruni that she had gone to see Cotton about his objections to her nomination and said he had told her that because he knew that Obama and Butts were friends, it was a way to "inflict special pain on the president", Bruni said. Cotton's spokeswoman did not dispute Butts's characterization. Butts died on May 26, 2016, still awaiting a Senate vote.[66]

Trump administration

 
Tom Cotton (left) with President Donald Trump and Senator David Perdue (right)

During Trump's presidency, Cotton was characterized as a Trump loyalist.[67][68] He frequently met with Trump's staff during the transition period, and according to Steve Bannon, suggested John F. Kelly as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.[9] Bannon told The New Yorker in November 2017, "Next to Trump, he's the elected official who gets it the most—the economic nationalism. Cotton was the one most supportive of us, up front and behind the scenes, from the beginning. He understands that the Washington élite—this permanent political class of both parties ... needs to be shattered." In the same article, Karl Rove, a senior figure in the George W. Bush administration, said Cotton was a more consensual figure than someone like Bannon.[9]

In a CNN interview shortly after the 2016 presidential election, Cotton denied that waterboarding is a form of torture. He said "tough calls" such as allowing it were an option Trump was ready to take: "If experienced intelligence officials come to the President of the United States and say we think this terrorist has critical information and we need to obtain it and this is the only way we can obtain it—it's a tough call. But the presidency is a tough job. And if you're not ready to make those tough calls, you shouldn't seek the office. Donald Trump's a pretty tough guy, and he's ready to make those tough calls". During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump said the United States should resume the use of waterboarding.[69]

In September 2020, Trump shortlisted Cotton as a potential Supreme Court nominee, but ultimately chose Amy Coney Barrett instead.[70][71] With less than two months to the next presidential election, Cotton supported an immediate Senate vote on Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death. In March 2016, Cotton refused to consider Obama's Supreme Court nominee during a presidential election year, providing his rationale with these questions: "Why would we cut off the national debate on the next justice? Why would we squelch the voice of the populace? Why would we deny the voters a chance to weigh in on the makeup of the Supreme Court?"[72]

In early January 2021, Cotton announced he would not support any attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election during the joint congressional certification of Electoral College results on January 6, 2021.[73]

Committee assignments

 
Senator Cotton visits Air Defenders at Osan Air Base during his three-country tour to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan

Current

Previous

Caucuses

Political positions

Cotton is considered politically conservative. The American Conservative Union's Center for Legislative Accountability gives him a lifetime rating of 86.06.[76]

2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill

Cotton was one of 18 Republican senators to vote for the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that former President Donald Trump criticized. The bill earmarked $45 billion more for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, but prohibited funding for more immigration barriers in the U.S. and did not raise border enforcement spending past current inflation levels.[77][78][79]

Race relations

 
Senator Cotton at First in the Nation Townhall, New Hampshire

Cotton drew scrutiny for columns he wrote for The Harvard Crimson about race relations in America, calling Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton "race-hustling charlatans" and saying race relations "would almost certainly improve if we stopped emphasizing race in our public life."[80]

In 2016, Cotton rejected the claim that too many criminals are being jailed, that there is over-incarceration in the United States, as "Law enforcement is able to arrest or identify a likely perpetrator for only 19 percent of property crimes and 47 percent of violent crimes. If anything, we have an under-incarceration problem".[81] Cotton said that reduced sentencing for felons would destabilize the United States, arguing that "I saw this in Baghdad. We've seen it again in Afghanistan."[81]

In November 2018, while arguing against a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill, Cotton incorrectly said that there had been no hearings on the bill. PolitiFact stated Cotton had "ignored years of congressional debate and hearings on the general topics of the bill, as well as the consideration and bipartisan passage of largely similar bills at the House committee level, by the full House, and by the Senate Judiciary Committee."[82] Arguing against the bill in question, the FIRST STEP Act, Cotton asserted that "convicts of certain sex-related crimes could accrue credits making them eligible for supervised release or 'pre-release' to a halfway house". A spokesperson for Mike Lee responded that "just because a federal offense is not on the specific list of ineligible offenses doesn't mean inmates who committed [a] non-specified offense will earn early release".[83] The bill passed 87–12 on December 18, 2018. Cotton voted against it.[84]

 
Tom Cotton and Brett Kavanaugh in August 2018

Following the murder of George Floyd, Cotton rejected the view that there is "systemic racism in the criminal justice system in America".[85] Amid the ensuing protests, Cotton advocated on Twitter that the military be used to support police, and to give "no quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters".[86] In the military, the term 'no quarter' refers to the killing of lawfully surrendering combatants, which is a war crime under the Geneva Convention. Cotton subsequently said that he was using the "colloquial" version of the phrase and cited examples of Democrats and the mainstream media using the phrase.[87][88]

A few days later, The New York Times published an opinion piece by Cotton titled "Send in the Troops", arguing for the deployment of federal troops to counter looting and rioting in major American cities. Dozens of Times staff members sharply criticized the decision to publish Cotton's article, calling its rhetoric dangerous.[89][90] Following the negative response from staffers, the Times responded by saying the piece went through a "rushed editorial process" that would be reexamined.[91] Editorial page editor James Bennet resigned days later.[92] Cotton criticized the Times for retracting his piece, saying, "The New York Times editorial page editor and owner defended it in public statements but then they totally surrendered to a woke child mob from their own newsroom that apparently gets triggered if they're presented with any opinion contrary to their own, as opposed to telling the woke children in their newsroom this is the workplace, not a social justice seminar on campus".[93]

Statements about slavery

In July 2020, Cotton introduced the Saving American History Act of 2020, proposed legislation preventing the use of federal tax dollars for the teaching of The 1619 Project, an initiative of The New York Times.[94][95][96] In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Cotton said of slavery, "As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction."[97] Joshua D. Rothman, a history professor at the University of Alabama, responded that slavery was neither "necessary" nor on the way to "extinction" when America was founded, because it "was a choice defended or accepted by most white Americans for generations, and it expanded dramatically between the Revolution and the Civil War".[98]

1619 Project director Nikole Hannah-Jones tweeted: "If chattel slavery—heritable, generational, permanent, race-based slavery where it was legal to rape, torture, and sell human beings for profit—were a 'necessary evil' as [Tom Cotton] says, it's hard to imagine what cannot be justified if it is a means to an end." Cotton responded, "more lies from the debunked 1619 Project" and said he was "not endorsing or justifying slavery" because he was relaying what he believed were the "views of the Founders".[99] Georgetown University historian Adam Rothman said Cotton's phrase is "really a kind of shorthand way of describing the complex set of attitudes of the founding generation and it's not really accurate."[100] "Of course slavery is an evil institution in all its forms, at all times in America's past, or around the world today", Cotton said on Fox News on July 27.[100]

COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act

Cotton was one of six Republican senators to vote against advancing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which would allow the U.S. Justice Department to review hate crimes related to COVID-19 and establish an online database.[101][102]

Gun laws

In January 2019, Cotton was one of 31 Republican senators to cosponsor the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, a bill introduced by John Cornyn and Ted Cruz that would grant individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home state the right to exercise this right in any other state with concealed carry laws while concurrently abiding by that state's laws.[103]

Cotton has an A rating from the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), which endorsed him in the 2014 election. The NRA's Chris W. Cox said, "Tom Cotton will always stand up for the values and freedoms of Arkansas gun owners and sportsmen."[104] In response to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Cotton said the weapon sounded like a belt-fed machine gun and that he did not believe any new gun control legislation would have prevented the shooting.[105] When it was later established that the shooter had used semi-automatic rifles with a bump stock attachment, he said he was "willing to entertain" regulation of bump stocks.[106] In June 2022, Cotton introduced the "Stop Gun Criminals Act", which sought to increase minimum sentences for existing offenses but provided no new regulation.[107][108] In May 2022, People.com listed Cotton as one of the U.S. lawmakers who had received the most funding from the NRA.[109]

Immigration

Cotton's 2012 campaign website stated, "We cannot afford to grant illegal aliens amnesty or a so-called 'earned path to citizenship'."[110]

In July 2013, after the Senate's bipartisan Gang of Eight passed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, an immigration reform proposal, House Republicans held a closed-door meeting to decide whether to bring the bill to a vote.[111] Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan spoke at one podium arguing for its passage;[112] Cotton spoke at another arguing against it, even exchanging terse comments with Speaker Boehner.[111] The House decided to not consider the bill.[112] Cotton supported Trump's 2017 Executive Order 13769 prohibiting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries.[113]

On February 7, 2017, in the presence of President Trump, Cotton and Senator David Perdue proposed a new immigration bill, the RAISE Act, which would limit the family route or chain migration. The bill would set a limit on the number of refugees offered residency at 50,000 a year and would remove the Diversity Immigrant Visa. Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain expressed opposition to the bill.[114][115]

Cotton, a supporter of Trump on immigration, was present at a January 11, 2018, meeting at which Trump is alleged to have called Haiti and African nations "shithole countries".[116][117] Cotton and Senator David Perdue said in a joint statement that "we do not recall the President saying these comments specifically".[118][119] In a statement, the White House did not deny that Trump had made the comment, although Trump did in a tweet the following day.[116] The Washington Post reported that Cotton and Perdue told the White House they heard "shithouse" rather than "shithole".[120] Cotton reiterated on CBS's Face The Nation, "I certainly didn't hear what Senator Durbin has said repeatedly". "Senator Durbin has a history of misrepresenting what happens in White House meetings, though, so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by that", Cotton added.[121] Slate magazine asserted that Cotton was referring to a misquotation Dick Durbin made of a 2013 gathering at the Obama White House at which Durbin was not present, nor had he claimed to be present. Durbin was not the only person at the meeting to confirm Trump's words; another was Lindsey Graham.[117][122]

In December 2018, Cotton placed a senatorial hold on H.R.7164 – A Bill to add Ireland to the E-3 Non-immigrant Visa Program.[123] The bill did not create new non-immigrant visas, but rather allowed Irish college graduates to apply for any surplus E-3 visas in Specialty Occupations that had gone unused by Australians within their annual cap of 10,500.[124] The bipartisan bill had passed the House of Representatives on November 28, 2018, and had also received the backing of the Trump administration. Because of Cotton's hold, it did not reach the Senate floor for consideration.[125]

Cotton's immigration positions have led to protests at his Washington office. In January 2018, five demonstrators were arrested for obstructing his office while they were protesting his position on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. They were released after paying a $50 fine.[126]

In February 2021, in a speech at CPAC, Cotton criticized the Democrats' and Joe Biden's immigration policies. Cotton claimed, "They have halted deportations for all illegal aliens. Murderers, rapists, terrorists, MS-13 gang members are not being deported." PolitiFact rated Cotton's claim as "False" and elaborated that the "Biden's administration ordered a 100-day deportation pause, but it did not apply to criminals such as murderers, rapists, terrorists or gang members."[127]

In September 2021, the Senate voted along partisan lines to reject Cotton's amendment that sought to curtail assistance to Afghan refugees after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and hinder the refugees' ability to obtain federally recognized identification cards without proving their identity.[128]

Health and social issues

Cotton opposed the Affordable Care Act, saying in 2012 that "the first step is to repeal that law, which is offensive to a free society and a free people".[129][130]

In April 2019, Cotton called the Southern Poverty Law Center a "political hate group" and asked the IRS to check whether it should retain its tax-exempt status.[131]

In 2012, Cotton said, "Strong families also depend on strong marriages, and I support the traditional understanding of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. I also support the Defense of Marriage Act."[132] In 2013, Cotton voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, saying that the federal powers in the act were too broad.[132][133]

Abortion and related issues

In June 2013, Cotton voted in favor of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill to ban abortion after 20 or more weeks following fertilization.[134] He has said that Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey were "wrongly decided as a constitutional matter" and that the legality of abortion should be up to politicians in the individual states.[135][136] He was one of 183 co-sponsors of the version of the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act introduced in 2013.[137] After Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, Cotton called Roe a "tragic mistake" that had been "corrected" and said he "highly commends the millions of Americans who toiled for years to achieve this great victory for unborn life and self-government.”[138]

Cotton has said, "I oppose the destruction of human embryos to conduct stem-cell research and all forms of human cloning."[139]

Student loans

In August 2013, Cotton voted against the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013, which sets interest rates on student loans to the 10-year Treasury note plus a varying markup for undergraduate and graduate students. He preferred a solution that ended what he called the "federal-government monopoly on the student-lending business", referring to the provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that changed the way the federal government makes student loans.[140]

January 6

On January 6, 2021, Cotton released a statement repudiating the attack on the Capitol:[141]

Last summer, as insurrection gripped the streets, I called to send in the troops if necessary to restore order. Today, insurrectionists occupied our Capitol. Fortunately, the Capitol Police and other law-enforcement agencies restored order without the need for federal troops. But the principle remains the same: no quarter for insurrectionists. Those who attacked the Capitol today should face the full extent of federal law.

He subsequently repeated his earlier description of those involved as "insurrectionists" and said they should be brought to justice.[142]

On May 28, 2021, Cotton voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack.[143]

Ranked-choice voting

After Democrat Mary Peltola won the 2022 Alaska's at-large congressional district special election, defeating former Alaska governor and Republican Sarah Palin, Cotton blasted the ranked-choice voting system that Alaska used to conduct its election, writing: "60% of Alaska voters voted for a Republican, but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion—which disenfranchises voters—a Democrat won".[144]

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Cotton was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, citing a provision in the bill that would limit defense spending increases to a lower rate than inflation. Cotton said, "Unfortunately, this bill poses a mortal risk to our national security by cutting our defense budget, which I cannot support as grave dangers gather on the horizon."[145][146]

Foreign policy views

 
US congressional delegation at Halifax International Security Forum 2014

Cotton, through his foreign policy views, has been characterized as a war hawk.[147][148]

During a February 5, 2015, Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Cotton called for housing more prisoners at Guantanamo Bay instead of closing it. He said of the detainees in the camp, "every last one them can rot in hell, but as long as they don't do that they can rot in Guantanamo Bay".[9][149] The following June, he was one of 21 Senate Republicans to oppose an amendment to the 2016 Defense Authorization Act that would impair any future president's ability to authorize torture. The amendment, which passed, had bipartisan support and was sponsored by John McCain and Dianne Feinstein.[150][151]

In September 2016, Cotton was one of 34 senators to sign a letter to United States secretary of state John Kerry advocating that the United States use "all available tools to dissuade Russia from continuing its airstrikes in Syria" from an Iranian airbase near Hamadan "that are clearly not in our interest" and stating that there should be clear enforcement by the US of the airstrikes violating "a legally binding Security Council Resolution" on Iran.[152]

In July 2017, Cotton voted in favor of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that grouped together sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea.[153]

In December 2018, after Trump announced the withdrawal of American troops in Syria, Cotton was one of six senators to sign a letter expressing concern about the move and their belief "that such action at this time is a premature and costly mistake that not only threatens the safety and security of the United States, but also emboldens ISIS, Bashar al Assad, Iran, and Russia."[154] In January 2019, Cotton was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to advance legislation intended to block Trump's intent to lift sanctions against three Russian companies.[155]

In August 2019, it was reported that Cotton had suggested to Trump and the Danish ambassador that the U.S. should buy Greenland.[156][157][158] Cotton supports U.S. withdrawal from the Open Skies agreement, which lets nations use special aircraft to monitor each other's military activities. In 2018, he asserted that the agreement was outdated and that it favored Russian interests.[159]

China

In 2018, Cotton was a cosponsor of the Countering the Chinese Government and Communist Party's Political Influence Operations Act, a bill introduced by Marco Rubio and Catherine Cortez Masto that would grant the U.S. secretary of state and the director of national intelligence (DNI) the authority to create an interagency task force with the purpose of examining attempts by China to influence the U.S. and key allies.[160]

In August 2018, Cotton and 16 other lawmakers urged the Trump administration to impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act against Chinese officials who are responsible for human rights violations in western China's Xinjiang region targeting the Uyghur ethnic minority.[161] They wrote in a bipartisan letter, "The detention of as many as a million or more Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in 'political reeducation' centers or camps requires a tough, targeted, and global response".[162]

In February 2019, Cotton was one of the group of Senate Republicans who signed a letter to Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi requesting that Pelosi invite President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen to address a joint meeting of Congress. The request came amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and China and was expected to anger Chinese leadership if granted.[163]

In May 2019, when asked about the impact of tariffs on farmers in Arkansas, Cotton said there would be "some sacrifices on the part of Americans, I grant you that, but I also would say that sacrifice is pretty minimal compared to the sacrifices that our soldiers make overseas that are fallen heroes that are laid to rest in Arlington make", and that farmers were willing to make sacrifices in order for the U.S. to fend off against Chinese attempts to displace the U.S. globally.[164]

In May 2019, Cotton was a cosponsor of the South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act, a bipartisan bill reintroduced by Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin that was intended to disrupt China's consolidation or expansion of its claims of jurisdiction over both the sea and air space in disputed zones in the South China Sea.[165]

In July 2019, Cotton and Senator Chris Van Hollen were the primary sponsors of the Defending America's 5G Future Act, a bill that would prevent Huawei from being removed from the "entity list" of the Commerce Department without an act of Congress and authorize Congress to block administration waivers for U.S. companies to do business with Huawei. The bill would also codify Trump's executive order from the previous May that empowered his administration to block foreign tech companies deemed a national security threat from conducting business in the United States.[166]

In April 2020, Cotton said that Chinese students in the United States should be restricted to studying the humanities and banned from studying science-related fields. In an interview with Fox News, he said, "It is a scandal to me that we have trained so many of the Chinese Communist Party's brightest minds."[167][168]

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

In July 2017, Cotton co-sponsored the bipartisan Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S.270), which amended existing federal law that criminalized foreign-led boycotts of U.S. allies, by specifically prohibiting support to foreign governments or organizations imposing a boycott on Israel. The proposal generated controversy as some interpreted it as a restriction on activities by private citizens and a potential violation of constitutional rights.[169][170] Others viewed it as a clarification of the existing Export Administration Act of 1979 in response to the 2016 United Nations Human Rights Council resolutions that called on corporations to reassess business activities that may impact Palestinian human rights.[171]

In October 2023, Cotton condemned Hamas's actions during the Israel–Hamas war and expressed support for Israel and its right to self-defense. He denied that Israel was committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip, saying, "If Hamas uses schools and kindergartens and mosques for military purposes, Israel has every right under the laws of war to strike back."[172] He added: "As far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza. Anything that happens in Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas."[173] On November 9, 2023, Cotton asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether journalists working for international news outlets "committed federal crimes by supporting Hamas terrorists".[174]

COVID-19

On January 28, 2020, in the context of the emergence of COVID-19, Cotton urged the Trump administration to halt commercial flights from China to the United States. On January 31, spurred in part by Cotton's warnings, the Trump administration banned most travel from China.[175][176][177][178]

In a February 16, 2020, Fox News interview,[179] Cotton said that the coronavirus may have started at the biosafety level 4 super laboratory in Wuhan, China. "Now, we don't have evidence that this disease originated there", Cotton said, "but because of China's duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning we need to at least ask the question".[180][181] Articles published by The New York Times and The Washington Post the same day reported that scientists had dismissed claims that the Chinese government created the virus. The Times said this was because of its resemblance to the SARS virus, which originated with bats.[181][180] In another interview on Fox the next day, Cotton said of the two articles, "It tells you the Chinese Communist Party, just like any communist party, has a widespread propaganda effort."[182] The Post called Cotton's comments "debunked" and "conspiracy theory" for 15 months until issuing a correction: "The term 'debunked' and The Post's use of 'conspiracy theory' have been removed because, then as now, there was no determination about the origins of the virus." Molecular biologist Richard Ebright said The Post had omitted his views supporting the lab leak hypothesis and "materially misrepresented" his views, adding, "Watching 'the first rough draft of history' being written as a partisan exercise, rather than a journalistic exercise, was dismaying."[181][183]

Cotton tweeted around March 2020: "we will hold accountable those who inflicted it on the world" for what it had done. To a tweet stating "China will pay for this", he responded "Correct."[184] In late April 2020, Cotton said in a Fox News interview that the non-containment of the pandemic was a "deliberate" and "malevolent" attack by Chinese government on the rest of the world. "They did not want to see their relative power and standing in the world decline because the virus was contained [in China]", he said.[185][186]

In early 2023, the United States Department of Energy assessed that a "lab leak was to blame" for the emergence of COVID-19. The assessment, which mirrored a similar assessment by the FBI,[187] was made with a "low confidence" level. In response, Cotton said, "being proven right doesn’t matter. What matters is holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable so this doesn’t happen again."[188][189]

Iran

 
Cotton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in July 2018

In 2013, Cotton introduced legislative language to prohibit trade with relatives of individuals subject to U.S. sanctions against Iran. According to Cotton, this would include "a spouse and any relative to the third degree", such as "parents, children, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandparents, great grandparents, grandkids, great grandkids." After Cotton's amendment came under harsh criticism regarding its constitutionality, he withdrew it.[190][191]

In March 2015, Cotton wrote and sent a letter to the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, signed by 47 of the Senate's 54 Republicans, that cast doubt on the Obama administration's authority to engage in nuclear-proliferation negotiations with Iran. The next president, they asserted, could reject it "with the stroke of a pen".[192] The open letter was released in English as well as a poorly translated Persian version, which "read like a middle schooler wrote it", according to Foreign Policy.[193] Within hours, commentators[194][clarification needed] suggested that the letter prepared by Cotton constituted a violation of the Logan Act.[195][196] Questions were also raised about whether it reflected a flawed interpretation of the Treaty Clause of the United States Constitution.[197]

President Obama mocked the letter, calling it an "unusual coalition" with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as an interference with the ongoing negotiations of a comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear program.[198] In addition, Obama said, "I'm embarrassed for them. For them to address a letter to the Ayatollah—the Supreme Leader of Iran, who they claim is our mortal enemy—and their basic argument to them is: don't deal with our president, 'cause you can't trust him to follow through on an agreement ... That's close to unprecedented."[199]

Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, responded to the letter by saying "[the senators'] letter in fact undermines the credibility of thousands of such mere executive agreements that have been or will be entered into by the US with various other governments". Zarif pointed out that the nuclear deal is not supposed to be an Iran–US deal, but an international one, saying, "change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Iran's peaceful nuclear program." He continued, "I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen, as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law."[200]

Cotton defended the letter amid criticism that it undermined Obama's efforts, saying, "It's so important we communicated this message straight to Iran... No regrets at all... they already control Tehran, increasingly they control Damascus and Beirut and Baghdad and now Sana'a as well."[201][202][203] He continued to defend his action in an interview with MSNBC by saying, "There are nothing but hardliners in Iran. They've been killing Americans for 35 years. They kill hundreds of troops in Iraq. Now they control five capitals in the Middle East. There are nothing but hardliners in Tehran and if they do all those things without a nuclear weapon, imagine what they'll do with a nuclear weapon."[204]

Cotton received extensive financial support from pro-Israel groups due to his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and for his hawkish stance toward Iran. Several pro-Israel Republican billionaires who contributed millions of dollars to William Kristol's Emergency Committee for Israel spent $960,000 to support Cotton.[205]

In July 2018, Cotton introduced the Iran Hostage Taking Accountability Act, a bill that would call for the president to compose a list of Iranians that were "knowingly responsible for or complicit in...the politically-motivated harassment, abuse, extortion, arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing, or imprisonment" of Americans and have those on the list face sanctions along with enabling the president to impose sanctions on their family members and bar them from entering the United States. Cotton stated that Iran had not changed much since 1981 and called for Americans to avoid Iran and its borders as there were "many friendly countries in the region that you can visit where you'd be safer".[206]

In May 2019, Cotton said that in the event of a war with Iran, the United States could easily win in "two strikes. The first strike and the last strike".[147] He said there would be a "furious response" by the United States if there was any provocation from Iran.[147]

Russia

On March 13, 2018, in an interview on conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt's radio show, Cotton said he expected Russian officials to "lie and deny" about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, an ex-Russian spy on British soil.[207] After Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May gave Russia 24 hours to respond to the poison, Cotton said, "I suspect the response will be the typical Russian response. They’ll lie and deny."[207] He went on to suggest retaliatory measures that the U.K. and the U.S. could implement in response to Russia's alleged actions, including renewed sanctions on oil.[207]

Reception

Former chief presidential strategist Steve Bannon has said of Cotton, "Next to Trump, he’s the elected official who gets it the most—the economic nationalism. Cotton was the one most supportive of us, up front and behind the scenes, from the beginning. He understands that the Washington élite—this permanent political class of both parties, between the K Street consultants and politicians—needs to be shattered".[208]

Cotton has been called one of the leading voices of Trumpism.[209] The Washington Post wrote: "What's fascinating is how Cotton has adjusted since Trump's victory. Some have argued that Cotton could be the "heir" to the Trumpism wing of the Republican Party.[209]

Personal life

Cotton married attorney Anna Peckham in 2014. They have two children.[210]

Cotton has said that Walter Russell Mead, Robert D. Kaplan, Henry Kissinger, Daniel Silva, C. J. Box,[211] and Jason Matthews are among his favorite authors.[212]

In 2019, Cotton published a book about the role of the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery, partly based on his service in that unit as an officer.[213]

Electoral history

Year Office Party Primary General Result Swing
Total % P. Total % ±% P.
2012 U.S. Representative Republican 20,899 57.55% 1st 154,149 59.53% +19.38% 1st Won Gain
2014 U.S. Senator Republican 478,819 56.50% N/A 1st Won Gain
2020 Republican 793,871 66.53% +10.03% 1st Won Hold

Military awards

Cotton's military awards and decorations include:[15]

See also

References

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  173. ^ "US right heats up inflammatory rhetoric on Palestine as Muslim groups worry". The Guardian. October 19, 2023.
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  182. ^ Halon, Yael (February 18, 2020). "Sen. Tom Cotton stands by startling theory on coronavirus origins: 'We need to be open to all possibilities'". Fox News. from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
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  186. ^ "Dr. Birx on whether coronavirus pandemic is being politicized". Fox News. April 25, 2020. from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021. But wherever it originated, Maria, we know that the Chinese Communist Party was both criminally negligent and incompetent at first, and then deliberately, deliberately malevolent in the way they responded to this virus, for their own people and the world. ... I believe that was a deliberate and conscious choice by the Chinese communist leadership [to keep borders open], because they didn't want to see their relative power and standing in the world decline because this virus was contained within China.
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  189. ^ Jacques, Ingrid. "COVID may have leaked out of a Chinese lab, after all. So much for 'misinformation.'". USA Today. from the original on April 13, 2023. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
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External links

Official

  • Official website  

General information

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Arkansas's 4th congressional district
2013–2015 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Vacant
Title last held by
Tim Hutchinson 		Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Arkansas
(Class 2)
2014, 2020 		Most recent
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 2) from Arkansas
2015–present
Served alongside: John Boozman 		Incumbent
Honorary titles
Preceded by Baby of the Senate
2015–2019 		Succeeded by
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded byas United States Senator from Louisiana Order of precedence of the United States
as United States Senator from Arkansas
since January 3, 2015 		Succeeded byas United States Senator from Michigan
Preceded by United States senators by seniority
60th 		Succeeded by

February 16, 2024
cotton, fictional, character, rocky, cotton, thomas, bryant, cotton, born, 1977, american, politician, attorney, former, military, officer, serving, junior, united, states, senator, from, arkansas, since, 2015, member, republican, party, served, house, represe. For the fictional character see Tom Rocky Cotton Thomas Bryant Cotton born May 13 1977 is an American politician attorney and former military officer serving as the junior United States senator from Arkansas since 2015 A member of the Republican Party he served in the U S House of Representatives from 2013 to 2015 Tom CottonOfficial portrait 2015United States Senatorfrom ArkansasIncumbentAssumed office January 3 2015Serving with John BoozmanPreceded byMark PryorMember of the U S House of Representatives from Arkansas s 4th districtIn office January 3 2013 January 3 2015Preceded byMike RossSucceeded byBruce WestermanPersonal detailsBornThomas Bryant Cotton 1977 05 13 May 13 1977 age 46 Dardanelle Arkansas U S Political partyRepublicanSpouseAnna Peckham m 2014 wbr Children2EducationHarvard University BA JD WebsiteSenate websiteMilitary serviceAllegiance United StatesBranch United States ArmyYears of service2005 2009 regular 2010 2013 reserve RankCaptainUnit506th Infantry Regiment 101st Airborne Division 2006 2008 2009 3rd Infantry Regiment The Old Guard 2006 2008 Battles warsWar in AfghanistanIraq WarAwardsBronze Star MedalArmy Commendation Medal 2 Army Achievement MedalAir Force Achievement MedalSee moreTom Cotton s voice source source Tom Cotton on his bill to mandate compony disclosure of foreign subsidies prior to mergerRecorded December 8 2022Cotton was elected as the U S representative for Arkansas s 4th congressional district in 2012 and to the Senate at age 37 in 2014 defeating two term Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Military service 3 1 2006 letter to The New York Times 3 2 Army Ranger controversy 4 U S House of Representatives 4 1 Elections 4 1 1 2012 4 2 Tenure 4 3 Committee assignments 5 U S Senate 5 1 Elections 5 1 1 2014 5 1 2 2020 5 2 Tenure 5 2 1 Cassandra Butts nomination 5 2 2 Trump administration 5 3 Committee assignments 5 3 1 Current 5 3 2 Previous 5 4 Caucuses 6 Political positions 6 1 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill 6 2 Race relations 6 2 1 Statements about slavery 6 2 2 COVID 19 Hate Crimes Act 6 3 Gun laws 6 4 Immigration 6 5 Health and social issues 6 6 Abortion and related issues 6 7 Student loans 6 8 January 6 6 9 Ranked choice voting 6 10 Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 7 Foreign policy views 7 1 China 7 2 Israeli Palestinian conflict 7 2 1 COVID 19 7 3 Iran 7 4 Russia 8 Reception 9 Personal life 10 Electoral history 11 Military awards 12 See also 13 References 14 External linksEarly life and educationThomas Bryant Cotton was born on May 13 1977 in Dardanelle Arkansas 1 His father Thomas Leonard Len Cotton was a district supervisor in the Arkansas Department of Health and his mother Avis nee Bryant Cotton was a schoolteacher who later became principal of their district s middle school 2 Cotton s family had lived in rural Arkansas for seven generations and he grew up on his family s cattle farm 3 4 He attended Dardanelle High School where he played on the local and regional basketball teams standing 6 ft 5 in 1 96 m tall he was usually required to play center 4 5 Cotton was accepted to Harvard College after graduating from high school in 1995 At Harvard he majored in government and was a member of the editorial board of The Harvard Crimson often dissenting from the liberal majority 5 In articles Cotton addressed what he saw as sacred cows such as affirmative action 6 He graduated with an A B magna cum laude in 1998 after only three years of study Cotton s senior thesis focused on The Federalist Papers 4 After graduating from Harvard College in 1998 Cotton was accepted into a master s program at Claremont Graduate University He left in 1999 saying that he found academic life too sedentary and instead enrolled at Harvard Law School 4 He graduated with a J D degree in 2002 7 CareerAfter graduating from Harvard Law School Cotton spent one year as a law clerk for Judge Jerry Edwin Smith of the U S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit He then went into private practice as an associate at law firms Gibson Dunn amp Crutcher and Cooper amp Kirk 8 in Washington D C until he enlisted in the U S Army in 2005 9 Military service nbsp Cotton in 2006On January 11 2005 Cotton enlisted in the United States Army 10 He entered Officer Candidate School OCS in March 2005 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in June 11 He completed the U S Army Ranger Course 12 13 a 62 day small unit tactics and leadership program that earned him the Ranger tab and Airborne School to earn the Parachutist Badge 11 In May 2006 Cotton was deployed to Baghdad as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom OIF as a platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division In Iraq he led a 41 man air assault infantry platoon in the 506th Infantry Regiment and planned and performed daily combat patrols 11 In December 2006 Cotton was promoted to first lieutenant and reassigned to the 3rd U S Infantry Regiment The Old Guard at Fort Myer in Arlington Virginia as a platoon leader 14 From October 2008 to July 2009 citation needed Cotton was deployed to eastern Afghanistan He was assigned within the Train Advise Assist Command East at its Gamberi forward operating base FOB in Laghman Province as the operations officer of a Provincial Reconstruction Team PRT where he planned daily counter insurgency and reconstruction operations 11 Cotton was honorably discharged in September 2009 During his time in the service he completed two combat deployments overseas was awarded a Bronze Star two Army Commendation Medals a Combat Infantryman Badge a Ranger tab an Afghanistan Campaign Medal and an Iraq Campaign Medal 11 Following his active duty service Cotton went to work for management consulting firm McKinsey amp Company In July 2010 Cotton entered the Army Reserve USAR He was discharged in May 2013 15 2006 letter to The New York Times In June 2006 while stationed in Iraq Cotton gained public attention after writing an open letter to the editor of The New York Times asserting three journalists had violated espionage laws by publishing an article detailing a classified government program monitoring terrorists finances The Times did not publish Cotton s letter but it was published on Power Line a conservative blog that had been copied on the email 16 17 In the letter Cotton called for the journalists to be prosecuted for espionage to the fullest extent of the law and incarcerated He accused the newspaper of having gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis Cotton s claims circulated online and were reprinted in full elsewhere 18 According to Jay Rosen a professor of journalism at New York University in 2011 the Espionage Act has never been used against journalists Rosen argued accusing investigative journalists of engaging in espionage is essentially saying that they re working for another power or aiding the enemy That is culture war tactics taken to an extreme 18 Army Ranger controversy In 2021 Salon reported that Cotton falsely claimed in campaign ads and videos from 2011 to 2014 that he had served in Iraq and Afghanistan and earned a Bronze Star as a U S Army Ranger even though he did not serve in the Army s 75th Ranger Regiment 13 19 20 21 Fact checking site Snopes rated Salon s reporting as true 22 In response to the article Democratic congressman Jason Crow who served in the 75th Ranger Regiment criticized Cotton for calling himself a Ranger A spokesperson for Cotton said To be clear as he s stated many times Senator Cotton graduated from Ranger School earned the Ranger Tab and served a combat tour with the 101st Airborne not the 75th Ranger Regiment 23 As the Salon story garnered widespread attention Cotton s spokeswoman recommended that the Arkansas Democrat Gazette talk to retired Command Sergeant Major Rick Merritt a former regimental sergeant major of the 75th Ranger Regiment who said that Cotton is 100 a Ranger He will always be a Ranger It s unfair It s almost slanderous 21 In an article on the controversy Business Insider wrote w hile the distinction between being a Ranger and attending Ranger School is rarely brought up outside of military circles it has been fiercely debated among veterans and encapsulates the nuances of military titles 24 Cotton dismissed allegations of falsifying his military record as politically driven I graduated from the Ranger School I wore the Ranger tab in combat with the 101st Airborne in Iraq This is not about my military record This is about my politics 25 U S House of RepresentativesShortly after Cotton s Afghanistan deployment ended he was introduced to Chris Chocola a former congressman and the president of Club for Growth a Republican political action committee that became one of Cotton s top contributors 4 Cotton considered a run against incumbent Democratic U S senator Blanche Lincoln in 2010 but declined due to lack of donors and believing it was premature 5 26 Cotton ran for Congress in Arkansas s 4th congressional district after Democratic incumbent Mike Ross announced in 2011 that he would not seek reelection 4 27 28 Elections 2012 See also 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Arkansas District 4 nbsp Cotton participating in a 2012 congressional debate at Southern Arkansas UniversityIn September 2011 Arkansas Times editor Max Brantley criticized Cotton for a 1998 article he wrote in The Harvard Crimson in which he questioned the internet s value as a teaching tool in the classroom saying the internet had too many temptations to be useful in schools and libraries Cotton later said the internet had matured since he wrote the article 29 30 Beth Anne Rankin the 2010 Republican nominee and John David Cowart who was backed by Louisiana businessman and philanthropist Edgar Cason were the only other Republican candidates in the race after Marcus Richmond dropped out in February 2012 5 In the May 22 primary Cotton won the Republican nomination with 57 6 of the vote Rankin finished second with 37 1 31 The Club for Growth endorsed Cotton 32 Of the 2 2 million Cotton raised for his campaign Club for Growth donors accounted for 315 000 and were his largest supporters 4 Senator John McCain also endorsed him 33 Cotton was supported by both the Tea Party movement and the Republican establishment 34 35 In the November 6 general election Cotton defeated state senator Gene Jeffress 59 5 to 36 7 31 He was the second Republican since Reconstruction Era of the United States to represent the 4th district The first Jay Dickey held it from 1993 to 2001 during the presidency of Bill Clinton whose residence was in the district at the time 36 On January 3 2013 Cotton was sworn into the House of Representatives by Speaker John Boehner 37 Tenure As a freshman Cotton became a vocal opponent of the Obama administration s foreign and domestic policies He voted for an act to eliminate the 2013 statutory pay adjustment for federal employees which prevented a 0 5 pay increase for all federal workers from taking effect in February 2013 38 Cotton voted against the 2013 Farm Bill over concerns about waste and fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program voting later that month to strip funding from that program 39 He also voted against the revised measure the Agricultural Act of 2014 40 which expanded crop insurance and a price floor for rice farmers 41 42 Cotton accused Obama of presenting a false choice between the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and war Cotton was also criticized in some media outlets for underestimating what successful military action against Iran would entail 43 Cotton said the president is trying to make you think it would be 150 000 heavy mechanized troops on the ground in the Middle East again as we saw in Iraq That s simply not the case Drawing a comparison to President Clinton s actions in 1998 during the Bombing of Iraq he elaborated Several days air and naval bombing against Iraq s weapons of mass destruction facilities for exactly the same kind of behavior For interfering with weapons inspectors and for disobeying Security Council resolutions 43 44 On July 21 2015 Cotton and Mike Pompeo claimed to have uncovered the existence of secret side agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA on procedures for inspection and verification of Iran s nuclear activities under the JCPOA Obama administration officials acknowledged the existence of agreements between Iran and the IAEA on the inspection of sensitive military sites but denied that they were secret side deals calling them standard practice in crafting arms control pacts and saying the administration had provided information about them to Congress 45 46 Committee assignments United States House Committee on Financial Services United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism Nonproliferation and TradeU S SenateElections 2014 See also 2014 United States Senate election in Arkansas nbsp Senator Jon Kyl and Cotton speaking at the Hudson Institute nbsp Senator Cotton and former ambassador to the United Nations John R Bolton at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC nbsp U S secretary of defense Ash Carter and senators Joni Ernst Daniel Sullivan John McCain Tom Cotton Lindsey Graham and Cory Gardner attending the 2016 International Institute for Strategic Studies Asia Security Summit in SingaporeOn August 6 2013 Cotton announced he would challenge Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor for his seat in the United States Senate 47 Stuart Rothenberg of Roll Call called Pryor the most vulnerable senator seeking reelection that year 48 Cotton was endorsed by the conservative Club for Growth PAC 49 50 51 Senator Marco Rubio 52 the National Federation of Independent Business 53 and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney who campaigned for Cotton 54 55 The Associated Press called the race for Cotton immediately after the polls closed 56 he received 56 5 of the vote to Pryor s 39 4 57 Cotton was sworn into office on January 6 2015 58 As a U S senator Cotton has received multiple death threats In 2018 Adam Albrett of Fairfax County Virginia was arrested for faxing death threats against President Donald Trump and members of Congress including Cotton Police traced the fax to Albrett using the phone number in the fax header 59 In October 2019 local authorities charged James Powell a 43 year old Arkansas resident with first degree terroristic threatening after an investigation by U S Capitol Police and the FBI The felony charge carries a maximum six year prison sentence and 10 000 fine Powell also threatened Arkansas Representative Rick Crawford with death 60 61 In January 2020 78 year old Henry Edward Goodloe was sentenced to two years probation for sending Cotton a threatening letter and a package containing white powder Goodloe admitted to mailing an envelope containing white powder to Cotton s office with a note stating You ignored me Maybe this will get your attention The Senate mail facility intercepted the letter which included Goodloe s home address and alerted a hazardous response team which determined the powder was unbleached flour and starch 62 2020 See also 2020 United States Senate election in Arkansas Cotton was reelected defeating Libertarian challenger Ricky Dale Harrington Jr Though Cotton outperformed President Donald Trump in the concurrent presidential election by 4 1 the election saw an undervote of 26 000 compared to the presidential election Harrington s 33 5 finish is the best ever for a Libertarian candidate in a U S Senate election by vote percentage surpassing the previous record set in 2016 in Alaska 63 64 and also by total number of votes 399 390 surpassing the previous record of 369 807 set by Michael Cloud in Massachusetts in 2002 Per exit polls this largely appears to be due to many Democrats voting for Harrington as there was no Democratic candidate on the ballot 82 of Democratic voters backed Harrington 65 Tenure Cassandra Butts nomination In February 2015 Obama renominated Cassandra Butts a former White House lawyer to be the United States ambassador to the Bahamas Her nomination was blocked by several senators First Ted Cruz placed a blanket hold on all U S State Department nominees 66 Cotton specifically blocked the nominations of Butts and ambassador nominees to Sweden and Norway after the Secret Service leaked private information about a fellow member of Congress although that issue was unrelated to those nominees Cotton eventually released his holds on the nominees to Sweden and Norway but kept his hold on Butts s nomination 66 Butts told New York Times columnist Frank Bruni that she had gone to see Cotton about his objections to her nomination and said he had told her that because he knew that Obama and Butts were friends it was a way to inflict special pain on the president Bruni said Cotton s spokeswoman did not dispute Butts s characterization Butts died on May 26 2016 still awaiting a Senate vote 66 Trump administration nbsp Tom Cotton left with President Donald Trump and Senator David Perdue right During Trump s presidency Cotton was characterized as a Trump loyalist 67 68 He frequently met with Trump s staff during the transition period and according to Steve Bannon suggested John F Kelly as U S Secretary of Homeland Security 9 Bannon told The New Yorker in November 2017 Next to Trump he s the elected official who gets it the most the economic nationalism Cotton was the one most supportive of us up front and behind the scenes from the beginning He understands that the Washington elite this permanent political class of both parties needs to be shattered In the same article Karl Rove a senior figure in the George W Bush administration said Cotton was a more consensual figure than someone like Bannon 9 In a CNN interview shortly after the 2016 presidential election Cotton denied that waterboarding is a form of torture He said tough calls such as allowing it were an option Trump was ready to take If experienced intelligence officials come to the President of the United States and say we think this terrorist has critical information and we need to obtain it and this is the only way we can obtain it it s a tough call But the presidency is a tough job And if you re not ready to make those tough calls you shouldn t seek the office Donald Trump s a pretty tough guy and he s ready to make those tough calls During his 2016 presidential campaign Trump said the United States should resume the use of waterboarding 69 In September 2020 Trump shortlisted Cotton as a potential Supreme Court nominee but ultimately chose Amy Coney Barrett instead 70 71 With less than two months to the next presidential election Cotton supported an immediate Senate vote on Trump s nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg s death In March 2016 Cotton refused to consider Obama s Supreme Court nominee during a presidential election year providing his rationale with these questions Why would we cut off the national debate on the next justice Why would we squelch the voice of the populace Why would we deny the voters a chance to weigh in on the makeup of the Supreme Court 72 In early January 2021 Cotton announced he would not support any attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election during the joint congressional certification of Electoral College results on January 6 2021 73 Committee assignments nbsp Senator Cotton visits Air Defenders at Osan Air Base during his three country tour to Japan South Korea and TaiwanCurrent United States Senate Committee on Armed Services 74 United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland Chair 2015 2021 Ranking Member 2021 present United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities 2015 2017 United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel 2015 2017 United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower 2017 present United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces 2017 present United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary 2021 present Joint Economic CommitteePrevious United States Senate Special Committee on Aging 2015 2017 United States Senate Committee on Banking Housing and Urban Affairs 2015 2021 United States Senate Committee on the Budget 2018 2019 75 Caucuses Senate Republican ConferencePolitical positionsCotton is considered politically conservative The American Conservative Union s Center for Legislative Accountability gives him a lifetime rating of 86 06 76 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill Cotton was one of 18 Republican senators to vote for the 1 7 trillion omnibus bill that former President Donald Trump criticized The bill earmarked 45 billion more for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia but prohibited funding for more immigration barriers in the U S and did not raise border enforcement spending past current inflation levels 77 78 79 Race relations nbsp Senator Cotton at First in the Nation Townhall New HampshireCotton drew scrutiny for columns he wrote for The Harvard Crimson about race relations in America calling Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton race hustling charlatans and saying race relations would almost certainly improve if we stopped emphasizing race in our public life 80 In 2016 Cotton rejected the claim that too many criminals are being jailed that there is over incarceration in the United States as Law enforcement is able to arrest or identify a likely perpetrator for only 19 percent of property crimes and 47 percent of violent crimes If anything we have an under incarceration problem 81 Cotton said that reduced sentencing for felons would destabilize the United States arguing that I saw this in Baghdad We ve seen it again in Afghanistan 81 In November 2018 while arguing against a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill Cotton incorrectly said that there had been no hearings on the bill PolitiFact stated Cotton had ignored years of congressional debate and hearings on the general topics of the bill as well as the consideration and bipartisan passage of largely similar bills at the House committee level by the full House and by the Senate Judiciary Committee 82 Arguing against the bill in question the FIRST STEP Act Cotton asserted that convicts of certain sex related crimes could accrue credits making them eligible for supervised release or pre release to a halfway house A spokesperson for Mike Lee responded that just because a federal offense is not on the specific list of ineligible offenses doesn t mean inmates who committed a non specified offense will earn early release 83 The bill passed 87 12 on December 18 2018 Cotton voted against it 84 nbsp Tom Cotton and Brett Kavanaugh in August 2018Following the murder of George Floyd Cotton rejected the view that there is systemic racism in the criminal justice system in America 85 Amid the ensuing protests Cotton advocated on Twitter that the military be used to support police and to give no quarter for insurrectionists anarchists rioters and looters 86 In the military the term no quarter refers to the killing of lawfully surrendering combatants which is a war crime under the Geneva Convention Cotton subsequently said that he was using the colloquial version of the phrase and cited examples of Democrats and the mainstream media using the phrase 87 88 A few days later The New York Times published an opinion piece by Cotton titled Send in the Troops arguing for the deployment of federal troops to counter looting and rioting in major American cities Dozens of Times staff members sharply criticized the decision to publish Cotton s article calling its rhetoric dangerous 89 90 Following the negative response from staffers the Times responded by saying the piece went through a rushed editorial process that would be reexamined 91 Editorial page editor James Bennet resigned days later 92 Cotton criticized the Times for retracting his piece saying The New York Times editorial page editor and owner defended it in public statements but then they totally surrendered to a woke child mob from their own newsroom that apparently gets triggered if they re presented with any opinion contrary to their own as opposed to telling the woke children in their newsroom this is the workplace not a social justice seminar on campus 93 Statements about slavery In July 2020 Cotton introduced the Saving American History Act of 2020 proposed legislation preventing the use of federal tax dollars for the teaching of The 1619 Project an initiative of The New York Times 94 95 96 In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette Cotton said of slavery As the Founding Fathers said it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built but the union was built in a way as Lincoln said to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction 97 Joshua D Rothman a history professor at the University of Alabama responded that slavery was neither necessary nor on the way to extinction when America was founded because it was a choice defended or accepted by most white Americans for generations and it expanded dramatically between the Revolution and the Civil War 98 1619 Project director Nikole Hannah Jones tweeted If chattel slavery heritable generational permanent race based slavery where it was legal to rape torture and sell human beings for profit were a necessary evil as Tom Cotton says it s hard to imagine what cannot be justified if it is a means to an end Cotton responded more lies from the debunked 1619 Project and said he was not endorsing or justifying slavery because he was relaying what he believed were the views of the Founders 99 Georgetown University historian Adam Rothman said Cotton s phrase is really a kind of shorthand way of describing the complex set of attitudes of the founding generation and it s not really accurate 100 Of course slavery is an evil institution in all its forms at all times in America s past or around the world today Cotton said on Fox News on July 27 100 COVID 19 Hate Crimes Act Cotton was one of six Republican senators to vote against advancing the COVID 19 Hate Crimes Act which would allow the U S Justice Department to review hate crimes related to COVID 19 and establish an online database 101 102 Gun laws In January 2019 Cotton was one of 31 Republican senators to cosponsor the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act a bill introduced by John Cornyn and Ted Cruz that would grant individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home state the right to exercise this right in any other state with concealed carry laws while concurrently abiding by that state s laws 103 Cotton has an A rating from the National Rifle Association of America NRA which endorsed him in the 2014 election The NRA s Chris W Cox said Tom Cotton will always stand up for the values and freedoms of Arkansas gun owners and sportsmen 104 In response to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting Cotton said the weapon sounded like a belt fed machine gun and that he did not believe any new gun control legislation would have prevented the shooting 105 When it was later established that the shooter had used semi automatic rifles with a bump stock attachment he said he was willing to entertain regulation of bump stocks 106 In June 2022 Cotton introduced the Stop Gun Criminals Act which sought to increase minimum sentences for existing offenses but provided no new regulation 107 108 In May 2022 People com listed Cotton as one of the U S lawmakers who had received the most funding from the NRA 109 Immigration Cotton s 2012 campaign website stated We cannot afford to grant illegal aliens amnesty or a so called earned path to citizenship 110 In July 2013 after the Senate s bipartisan Gang of Eight passed the Border Security Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 an immigration reform proposal House Republicans held a closed door meeting to decide whether to bring the bill to a vote 111 Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan spoke at one podium arguing for its passage 112 Cotton spoke at another arguing against it even exchanging terse comments with Speaker Boehner 111 The House decided to not consider the bill 112 Cotton supported Trump s 2017 Executive Order 13769 prohibiting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries 113 On February 7 2017 in the presence of President Trump Cotton and Senator David Perdue proposed a new immigration bill the RAISE Act which would limit the family route or chain migration The bill would set a limit on the number of refugees offered residency at 50 000 a year and would remove the Diversity Immigrant Visa Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain expressed opposition to the bill 114 115 Cotton a supporter of Trump on immigration was present at a January 11 2018 meeting at which Trump is alleged to have called Haiti and African nations shithole countries 116 117 Cotton and Senator David Perdue said in a joint statement that we do not recall the President saying these comments specifically 118 119 In a statement the White House did not deny that Trump had made the comment although Trump did in a tweet the following day 116 The Washington Post reported that Cotton and Perdue told the White House they heard shithouse rather than shithole 120 Cotton reiterated on CBS s Face The Nation I certainly didn t hear what Senator Durbin has said repeatedly Senator Durbin has a history of misrepresenting what happens in White House meetings though so perhaps we shouldn t be surprised by that Cotton added 121 Slate magazine asserted that Cotton was referring to a misquotation Dick Durbin made of a 2013 gathering at the Obama White House at which Durbin was not present nor had he claimed to be present Durbin was not the only person at the meeting to confirm Trump s words another was Lindsey Graham 117 122 In December 2018 Cotton placed a senatorial hold on H R 7164 A Bill to add Ireland to the E 3 Non immigrant Visa Program 123 The bill did not create new non immigrant visas but rather allowed Irish college graduates to apply for any surplus E 3 visas in Specialty Occupations that had gone unused by Australians within their annual cap of 10 500 124 The bipartisan bill had passed the House of Representatives on November 28 2018 and had also received the backing of the Trump administration Because of Cotton s hold it did not reach the Senate floor for consideration 125 Cotton s immigration positions have led to protests at his Washington office In January 2018 five demonstrators were arrested for obstructing his office while they were protesting his position on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals They were released after paying a 50 fine 126 In February 2021 in a speech at CPAC Cotton criticized the Democrats and Joe Biden s immigration policies Cotton claimed They have halted deportations for all illegal aliens Murderers rapists terrorists MS 13 gang members are not being deported PolitiFact rated Cotton s claim as False and elaborated that the Biden s administration ordered a 100 day deportation pause but it did not apply to criminals such as murderers rapists terrorists or gang members 127 In September 2021 the Senate voted along partisan lines to reject Cotton s amendment that sought to curtail assistance to Afghan refugees after the Taliban took over Afghanistan and hinder the refugees ability to obtain federally recognized identification cards without proving their identity 128 Health and social issues Cotton opposed the Affordable Care Act saying in 2012 that the first step is to repeal that law which is offensive to a free society and a free people 129 130 In April 2019 Cotton called the Southern Poverty Law Center a political hate group and asked the IRS to check whether it should retain its tax exempt status 131 In 2012 Cotton said Strong families also depend on strong marriages and I support the traditional understanding of marriage as the union of one man and one woman I also support the Defense of Marriage Act 132 In 2013 Cotton voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act saying that the federal powers in the act were too broad 132 133 Abortion and related issues In June 2013 Cotton voted in favor of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act a bill to ban abortion after 20 or more weeks following fertilization 134 He has said that Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey were wrongly decided as a constitutional matter and that the legality of abortion should be up to politicians in the individual states 135 136 He was one of 183 co sponsors of the version of the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act introduced in 2013 137 After Roe v Wade was overturned in June 2022 Cotton called Roe a tragic mistake that had been corrected and said he highly commends the millions of Americans who toiled for years to achieve this great victory for unborn life and self government 138 Cotton has said I oppose the destruction of human embryos to conduct stem cell research and all forms of human cloning 139 Student loans In August 2013 Cotton voted against the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013 which sets interest rates on student loans to the 10 year Treasury note plus a varying markup for undergraduate and graduate students He preferred a solution that ended what he called the federal government monopoly on the student lending business referring to the provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that changed the way the federal government makes student loans 140 January 6 On January 6 2021 Cotton released a statement repudiating the attack on the Capitol 141 Last summer as insurrection gripped the streets I called to send in the troops if necessary to restore order Today insurrectionists occupied our Capitol Fortunately the Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies restored order without the need for federal troops But the principle remains the same no quarter for insurrectionists Those who attacked the Capitol today should face the full extent of federal law He subsequently repeated his earlier description of those involved as insurrectionists and said they should be brought to justice 142 On May 28 2021 Cotton voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack 143 Ranked choice voting After Democrat Mary Peltola won the 2022 Alaska s at large congressional district special election defeating former Alaska governor and Republican Sarah Palin Cotton blasted the ranked choice voting system that Alaska used to conduct its election writing 60 of Alaska voters voted for a Republican but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion which disenfranchises voters a Democrat won 144 Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 Cotton was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 citing a provision in the bill that would limit defense spending increases to a lower rate than inflation Cotton said Unfortunately this bill poses a mortal risk to our national security by cutting our defense budget which I cannot support as grave dangers gather on the horizon 145 146 Foreign policy views nbsp US congressional delegation at Halifax International Security Forum 2014Cotton through his foreign policy views has been characterized as a war hawk 147 148 During a February 5 2015 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Cotton called for housing more prisoners at Guantanamo Bay instead of closing it He said of the detainees in the camp every last one them can rot in hell but as long as they don t do that they can rot in Guantanamo Bay 9 149 The following June he was one of 21 Senate Republicans to oppose an amendment to the 2016 Defense Authorization Act that would impair any future president s ability to authorize torture The amendment which passed had bipartisan support and was sponsored by John McCain and Dianne Feinstein 150 151 In September 2016 Cotton was one of 34 senators to sign a letter to United States secretary of state John Kerry advocating that the United States use all available tools to dissuade Russia from continuing its airstrikes in Syria from an Iranian airbase near Hamadan that are clearly not in our interest and stating that there should be clear enforcement by the US of the airstrikes violating a legally binding Security Council Resolution on Iran 152 In July 2017 Cotton voted in favor of the Countering America s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that grouped together sanctions against Russia Iran and North Korea 153 In December 2018 after Trump announced the withdrawal of American troops in Syria Cotton was one of six senators to sign a letter expressing concern about the move and their belief that such action at this time is a premature and costly mistake that not only threatens the safety and security of the United States but also emboldens ISIS Bashar al Assad Iran and Russia 154 In January 2019 Cotton was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to advance legislation intended to block Trump s intent to lift sanctions against three Russian companies 155 In August 2019 it was reported that Cotton had suggested to Trump and the Danish ambassador that the U S should buy Greenland 156 157 158 Cotton supports U S withdrawal from the Open Skies agreement which lets nations use special aircraft to monitor each other s military activities In 2018 he asserted that the agreement was outdated and that it favored Russian interests 159 China In 2018 Cotton was a cosponsor of the Countering the Chinese Government and Communist Party s Political Influence Operations Act a bill introduced by Marco Rubio and Catherine Cortez Masto that would grant the U S secretary of state and the director of national intelligence DNI the authority to create an interagency task force with the purpose of examining attempts by China to influence the U S and key allies 160 In August 2018 Cotton and 16 other lawmakers urged the Trump administration to impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act against Chinese officials who are responsible for human rights violations in western China s Xinjiang region targeting the Uyghur ethnic minority 161 They wrote in a bipartisan letter The detention of as many as a million or more Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in political reeducation centers or camps requires a tough targeted and global response 162 In February 2019 Cotton was one of the group of Senate Republicans who signed a letter to Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi requesting that Pelosi invite President of Taiwan Tsai Ing wen to address a joint meeting of Congress The request came amid heightened tensions between the U S and China and was expected to anger Chinese leadership if granted 163 In May 2019 when asked about the impact of tariffs on farmers in Arkansas Cotton said there would be some sacrifices on the part of Americans I grant you that but I also would say that sacrifice is pretty minimal compared to the sacrifices that our soldiers make overseas that are fallen heroes that are laid to rest in Arlington make and that farmers were willing to make sacrifices in order for the U S to fend off against Chinese attempts to displace the U S globally 164 In May 2019 Cotton was a cosponsor of the South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act a bipartisan bill reintroduced by Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin that was intended to disrupt China s consolidation or expansion of its claims of jurisdiction over both the sea and air space in disputed zones in the South China Sea 165 In July 2019 Cotton and Senator Chris Van Hollen were the primary sponsors of the Defending America s 5G Future Act a bill that would prevent Huawei from being removed from the entity list of the Commerce Department without an act of Congress and authorize Congress to block administration waivers for U S companies to do business with Huawei The bill would also codify Trump s executive order from the previous May that empowered his administration to block foreign tech companies deemed a national security threat from conducting business in the United States 166 In April 2020 Cotton said that Chinese students in the United States should be restricted to studying the humanities and banned from studying science related fields In an interview with Fox News he said It is a scandal to me that we have trained so many of the Chinese Communist Party s brightest minds 167 168 Israeli Palestinian conflict In July 2017 Cotton co sponsored the bipartisan Israel Anti Boycott Act S 270 which amended existing federal law that criminalized foreign led boycotts of U S allies by specifically prohibiting support to foreign governments or organizations imposing a boycott on Israel The proposal generated controversy as some interpreted it as a restriction on activities by private citizens and a potential violation of constitutional rights 169 170 Others viewed it as a clarification of the existing Export Administration Act of 1979 in response to the 2016 United Nations Human Rights Council resolutions that called on corporations to reassess business activities that may impact Palestinian human rights 171 In October 2023 Cotton condemned Hamas s actions during the Israel Hamas war and expressed support for Israel and its right to self defense He denied that Israel was committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip saying If Hamas uses schools and kindergartens and mosques for military purposes Israel has every right under the laws of war to strike back 172 He added As far as I m concerned Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza Anything that happens in Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas 173 On November 9 2023 Cotton asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether journalists working for international news outlets committed federal crimes by supporting Hamas terrorists 174 COVID 19 On January 28 2020 in the context of the emergence of COVID 19 Cotton urged the Trump administration to halt commercial flights from China to the United States On January 31 spurred in part by Cotton s warnings the Trump administration banned most travel from China 175 176 177 178 In a February 16 2020 Fox News interview 179 Cotton said that the coronavirus may have started at the biosafety level 4 super laboratory in Wuhan China Now we don t have evidence that this disease originated there Cotton said but because of China s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning we need to at least ask the question 180 181 Articles published by The New York Times and The Washington Post the same day reported that scientists had dismissed claims that the Chinese government created the virus The Times said this was because of its resemblance to the SARS virus which originated with bats 181 180 In another interview on Fox the next day Cotton said of the two articles It tells you the Chinese Communist Party just like any communist party has a widespread propaganda effort 182 The Post called Cotton s comments debunked and conspiracy theory for 15 months until issuing a correction The term debunked and The Post s use of conspiracy theory have been removed because then as now there was no determination about the origins of the virus Molecular biologist Richard Ebright said The Post had omitted his views supporting the lab leak hypothesis and materially misrepresented his views adding Watching the first rough draft of history being written as a partisan exercise rather than a journalistic exercise was dismaying 181 183 Cotton tweeted around March 2020 we will hold accountable those who inflicted it on the world for what it had done To a tweet stating China will pay for this he responded Correct 184 In late April 2020 Cotton said in a Fox News interview that the non containment of the pandemic was a deliberate and malevolent attack by Chinese government on the rest of the world They did not want to see their relative power and standing in the world decline because the virus was contained in China he said 185 186 In early 2023 the United States Department of Energy assessed that a lab leak was to blame for the emergence of COVID 19 The assessment which mirrored a similar assessment by the FBI 187 was made with a low confidence level In response Cotton said being proven right doesn t matter What matters is holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable so this doesn t happen again 188 189 Iran nbsp Cotton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in July 2018In 2013 Cotton introduced legislative language to prohibit trade with relatives of individuals subject to U S sanctions against Iran According to Cotton this would include a spouse and any relative to the third degree such as parents children aunts uncles nephews nieces grandparents great grandparents grandkids great grandkids After Cotton s amendment came under harsh criticism regarding its constitutionality he withdrew it 190 191 In March 2015 Cotton wrote and sent a letter to the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran signed by 47 of the Senate s 54 Republicans that cast doubt on the Obama administration s authority to engage in nuclear proliferation negotiations with Iran The next president they asserted could reject it with the stroke of a pen 192 The open letter was released in English as well as a poorly translated Persian version which read like a middle schooler wrote it according to Foreign Policy 193 Within hours commentators 194 clarification needed suggested that the letter prepared by Cotton constituted a violation of the Logan Act 195 196 Questions were also raised about whether it reflected a flawed interpretation of the Treaty Clause of the United States Constitution 197 President Obama mocked the letter calling it an unusual coalition with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as an interference with the ongoing negotiations of a comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear program 198 In addition Obama said I m embarrassed for them For them to address a letter to the Ayatollah the Supreme Leader of Iran who they claim is our mortal enemy and their basic argument to them is don t deal with our president cause you can t trust him to follow through on an agreement That s close to unprecedented 199 Iran s foreign minister Javad Zarif responded to the letter by saying the senators letter in fact undermines the credibility of thousands of such mere executive agreements that have been or will be entered into by the US with various other governments Zarif pointed out that the nuclear deal is not supposed to be an Iran US deal but an international one saying change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Iran s peaceful nuclear program He continued I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen as they boast it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law 200 Cotton defended the letter amid criticism that it undermined Obama s efforts saying It s so important we communicated this message straight to Iran No regrets at all they already control Tehran increasingly they control Damascus and Beirut and Baghdad and now Sana a as well 201 202 203 He continued to defend his action in an interview with MSNBC by saying There are nothing but hardliners in Iran They ve been killing Americans for 35 years They kill hundreds of troops in Iraq Now they control five capitals in the Middle East There are nothing but hardliners in Tehran and if they do all those things without a nuclear weapon imagine what they ll do with a nuclear weapon 204 Cotton received extensive financial support from pro Israel groups due to his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and for his hawkish stance toward Iran Several pro Israel Republican billionaires who contributed millions of dollars to William Kristol s Emergency Committee for Israel spent 960 000 to support Cotton 205 In July 2018 Cotton introduced the Iran Hostage Taking Accountability Act a bill that would call for the president to compose a list of Iranians that were knowingly responsible for or complicit in the politically motivated harassment abuse extortion arrest trial conviction sentencing or imprisonment of Americans and have those on the list face sanctions along with enabling the president to impose sanctions on their family members and bar them from entering the United States Cotton stated that Iran had not changed much since 1981 and called for Americans to avoid Iran and its borders as there were many friendly countries in the region that you can visit where you d be safer 206 In May 2019 Cotton said that in the event of a war with Iran the United States could easily win in two strikes The first strike and the last strike 147 He said there would be a furious response by the United States if there was any provocation from Iran 147 Russia On March 13 2018 in an interview on conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt s radio show Cotton said he expected Russian officials to lie and deny about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal an ex Russian spy on British soil 207 After Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May gave Russia 24 hours to respond to the poison Cotton said I suspect the response will be the typical Russian response They ll lie and deny 207 He went on to suggest retaliatory measures that the U K and the U S could implement in response to Russia s alleged actions including renewed sanctions on oil 207 ReceptionFormer chief presidential strategist Steve Bannon has said of Cotton Next to Trump he s the elected official who gets it the most the economic nationalism Cotton was the one most supportive of us up front and behind the scenes from the beginning He understands that the Washington elite this permanent political class of both parties between the K Street consultants and politicians needs to be shattered 208 Cotton has been called one of the leading voices of Trumpism 209 The Washington Post wrote What s fascinating is how Cotton has adjusted since Trump s victory Some have argued that Cotton could be the heir to the Trumpism wing of the Republican Party 209 Personal lifeCotton married attorney Anna Peckham in 2014 They have two children 210 Cotton has said that Walter Russell Mead Robert D Kaplan Henry Kissinger Daniel Silva C J Box 211 and Jason Matthews are among his favorite authors 212 In 2019 Cotton published a book about the role of the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery partly based on his service in that unit as an officer 213 Electoral historyYear Office Party Primary General Result SwingTotal P Total P 2012 U S Representative Republican 20 899 57 55 1st 154 149 59 53 19 38 1st Won Gain2014 U S Senator Republican 478 819 56 50 N A 1st Won Gain2020 Republican 793 871 66 53 10 03 1st Won HoldMilitary awardsCotton s military awards and decorations include 15 nbsp Combat Infantryman Badge nbsp Parachutist Badge nbsp Air Assault Badge nbsp Ranger Tab nbsp 101st Airborne Division Combat Service ID Badge nbsp 506th Infantry Regimental Distinctive Insignia nbsp Bronze Star Medal nbsp nbsp Army Commendation Medal with Oak leaf cluster nbsp Army Achievement Medal nbsp Air Force Achievement Medal nbsp National Defense Service Medal nbsp nbsp nbsp Afghanistan Campaign Medal with two campaign stars nbsp nbsp Iraq Campaign Medal with campaign star nbsp Global War on Terrorism Service Medal nbsp Army Service Ribbon nbsp Overseas Service Ribbon nbsp NATO MedalSee alsoList of members of the American 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negligent and incompetent at first and then deliberately deliberately malevolent in the way they responded to this virus for their own people and the world I believe that was a deliberate and conscious choice by the Chinese communist leadership to keep borders open because they didn t want to see their relative power and standing in the world decline because this virus was contained within China Sabes Adam February 28 2023 FBI director says COVID pandemic most likely originated from Chinese lab Fox News Archived from the original on April 13 2023 Retrieved March 6 2023 Collinson Stephen February 28 2023 Blinken s new warning to Beijing is the latest sign of deteriorating US China relations CNN Archived from the original on April 13 2023 Retrieved March 6 2023 Jacques Ingrid COVID may have leaked out of a Chinese lab after all So much for misinformation USA Today Archived from the original on April 13 2023 Retrieved March 6 2023 Waldman Paul March 11 2015 For Tom Cotton letter to Iran 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2017 Retrieved September 17 2017 Bump Philip March 9 2015 What an 18th century non war with France has to do with the Senate s letter to Iran The Washington Post Archived from the original on July 25 2015 Retrieved September 17 2017 Jaffe Alexandra March 11 2015 Obama Iranian official slam GOP letter on deal CNN Archived from the original on March 11 2015 Retrieved March 10 2015 Obama mocks Republican letter to Iran over nuclear talks BBC News March 9 2015 Archived from the original on August 13 2018 Retrieved June 21 2018 Lavender Paige March 13 2015 Obama I m Embarrassed For Republicans Who Sent Letter To Iran The Huffington Post Archived from the original on May 1 2017 Retrieved December 2 2017 Zarif Javad March 9 2015 Dr Zarif s Response to the Letter of US Senators Ministry of Foreign Affairs Iran Archived from the original on March 11 2015 Retrieved March 10 2015 Freshman GOP Senator Cotton says no regrets about letter warning Iran about Nuclear Deterrent Fox News March 15 2015 Archived from the original on December 3 2017 Retrieved December 2 2017 Face the Nation March 15 Kerry Cotton Manchin CBS News March 15 2015 Archived from the original on December 3 2017 Retrieved December 2 2017 Guion Payton March 16 2015 Tom Cotton US Senator apparently does not know the capital of Iran The Independent Archived from the original on December 3 2017 Retrieved September 17 2017 Tom Cotton I want complete nuclear disarmament MSNBC March 15 2015 Archived from the original on June 30 2020 Retrieved February 17 2020 Lipton Eric April 4 2015 GOP s Israel support deepens as political contributions shift The New York Times Archived from the original on June 8 2015 Retrieved February 28 2017 subscription required Lockwood Frank E July 20 2018 U S Sen Tom Cotton s bill targets Iran over captives Arkansas Democrat Gazette Archived from the original on August 17 2019 Retrieved August 17 2019 a b c Cotton Russia will lie and deny about British spy poisoning Archived August 6 2020 at the Wayback Machine 13 March 2018 The Hill Retrieved 24 march 2020 Is Tom Cotton the Future of Trumpism The New Yorker November 6 2017 Archived from the original on April 26 2020 Retrieved May 29 2022 a b How Sen Tom Cotton emerged as one of Trumpism s leading voices The Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Archived from the original on January 20 2021 Retrieved May 29 2022 Brantley Max March 17 2014 Tom Cotton still mum on marriage details Arkansas Times Archived from the original on February 3 2019 Retrieved December 3 2017 Dovere Edward Isaac May 5 2017 Tom Cotton has no problem with Donald Trump Politico Archived from the original on June 5 2020 Retrieved June 5 2020 Takala Rudy June 27 2016 Tom Cotton Deterrence once lost is very hard to regain The Washington Examiner Archived from the original on August 6 2020 Retrieved June 5 2020 For Arlington s Old Guard the mission is to honor and the standard is perfection PBS NewsHour May 27 2019 Archived from the original on January 20 2021 Retrieved January 26 2021 External linksOfficial Official website nbsp General information Appearances on C SPAN Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Financial information federal office at the Federal Election Commission Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress Profile at Vote Smart Tom Cotton at Ballotpedia Tom Cotton at CurlieU S House of RepresentativesPreceded byMike Ross Member of the U S House of Representatives from Arkansas s 4th congressional district2013 2015 Succeeded byBruce WestermanParty political officesVacantTitle last held byTim Hutchinson Republican nominee for U S Senator from Arkansas Class 2 2014 2020 Most recentU S SenatePreceded byMark Pryor U S senator Class 2 from Arkansas2015 present Served alongside John Boozman IncumbentHonorary titlesPreceded byChris Murphy Baby of the Senate2015 2019 Succeeded byJosh HawleyU S order of precedence ceremonial Preceded byBill Cassidyas United States Senator from Louisiana Order of precedence of the United States as United States Senator from Arkansassince January 3 2015 Succeeded byGary Petersas United States Senator from MichiganPreceded byJames Lankford United States senators by seniority60th Succeeded bySteve Daines Portals nbsp Biography nbsp Conservatism nbsp Politics nbsp United StatesTom Cotton at Wikipedia s sister projects nbsp Media from Commons nbsp Quotations from Wikiquote nbsp Texts from Wikisource Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Tom Cotton amp oldid 1204033218, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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