Tom Cotton

Krauthammer: Obama's Wrong When He Claims We're Winning Against ISIS
By Randy Hall | December 15, 2015 | 6:06 PM EST

While a panelist on Monday night's edition of the Special Report program, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer criticized President Barack Obama for “trying to convince us that we are actually prevailing, winning, pushing in on ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).”

The regular contributor to the Fox News Channel program said that the Democratic occupant of the White House is wrong because the terrorist organization -- which is also known as ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant -- is actually “expanding” its territory.

Rubio's Criticizing Obama's Iran Deal Is Illegal, Hardball Host Chris Matthews Suggests
By Ken Shepherd | July 23, 2015 | 9:04 PM EDT

Closing a segment on the July 23 program about Republican criticism of the nuclear deal that the Obama/Kerry State Department brokered with the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hardball host Chris Matthews wondered if 2016 presidential aspirant Marco Rubio's vocal criticism of the deal might in some way be "illegal."

Sen. Tom Cotton: 'Kerry Acted Like Pontius Pilate' In Iran Negotiations
By Mark Finkelstein | July 23, 2015 | 8:39 AM EDT

Ouch: this one's going to leave a mark.  Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton has said that "John Kerry acted like Pontius Pilate, he washed his hands" on crucial issues in the Iran deal and left it to the IAEA to negotiate secret side deals with Iran on them.

Cotton made his remarks on today's Morning Joe.  It might be a mark of the regard, or lack thereof, in which Kerry is held that no one on the panel rose to his defense.  Harold Ford, Jr. was given the floor immediately after Cotton spoke, and blithely inquired only if Kerry would be asked about these issues in his Senate testimony. A bit later in the show, Dem Sen. Tim Kaine appeared.  Kaine presumably either watched or was briefed on Cotton's statement, but made not a peep to push back on the Pontius Pilate analogy.

CBS This Morning Uses Sanctuary Cities to Push Immigration as ‘a Tough Issue’ for the GOP
By Curtis Houck | July 10, 2015 | 11:29 AM EDT

On the heels of the decision by Monday’s NBC Nightly News to heavily inject politics into the murder of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle allegedly by an illegal immigrant, Friday’s CBS This Morning used the issue of sanctuary cities to somehow spin it as part of the immigration debate that’s “a tough issue for Republicans.” Correspondent Jan Crawford explained that sanctuary cities “have long been controversial” even though “[t]he thinking originally was they were a way to support immigrants, get them help if they got involved with minor offenses” but with Steinle’s murder “and immigration a contentious issue on the campaign, many politicians now are demanding change.”

Chris Matthews: Tom Cotton = 'Psycho' Killer Norman Bates
By Ken Shepherd | June 9, 2015 | 5:19 PM EDT

Free advice for Chris Matthews: Now that your wife is running for Congress, you might want to avoid the nasty on-air name-calling of Republicans with whom you disagree.

Seth Meyers Cheers Iranian Foreign Minister’s ‘Well-Done’ Response to Tom Cotton’s Tweets
By Curtis Houck | May 1, 2015 | 12:09 PM EDT

During a segment about Twitter, NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers on Thursday night praised Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s reaction to series of tweets from Republican Senator Tom Cotton (Ark.) as “well-done” and admitting that he was “very impressed” with Zarif’s use of “reverse criticism.” 

SNL's Violent Opening Skit: Impossible to Imagine If Parties Switched
By Tom Blumer | March 29, 2015 | 11:39 PM EDT

One of the first rules of genuine comedy is that to be funny, a joke or skit needs to have some basis in truth.

On that primary measurement, the cold open on "Saturday Night Live" last night failed miserably on so many fronts, it's hard to know where to begin. Its most offensive aspect is its portrayal of a Democrat inflicting violence on three Republicans to the audience's pleausre. It is impossible to imagine the program putting on a skit showing Ronald Reagan doing to the same thing to Ted Kennedy — who, in an objectively treasonous act, sought the Soviet Union's help in the 1984 presidential election for the purpose of defeating Reagan.

Salon Writer: Political System ‘Lurches Into Crisis’ Because Republicans ‘Violate Long-Standing Norms’
By Tom Johnson | March 22, 2015 | 4:45 PM EDT

Kim Messick believes America since its founding has suffered three serious breaches of political trust, the last of which is ongoing and results from “the readiness of Republicans to violate long-standing norms of institutional conduct in order to advance a highly divisive, intensely partisan agenda” that’s implacably hostile to most functions of government. Messick touches on Tom Cotton’s letter to the Iranian mullahs and John Boehner’s invitation to Benjamin Netanyahu as recent examples of the congressional GOP’s “disregard [of] any limitation on their pursuit of conservative purity” as well as of “its own hermetic vision of the conservative ‘cause’– a cause that transcends national boundaries. Its adherents find it easier to cooperate with the leader of Israel’s Likud Party than with their Democratic colleagues in the American Congress.”

CNN's Acosta Uncritically Parrots Obama Spin Re: 47 GOP Senators' Open Letter to Iran
By Ken Shepherd | March 16, 2015 | 8:54 PM EDT

Filing his report from the North Lawn of the White House on Monday's Erin Burnett OutFront, CNN's Jim Acosta uncritically parroted President Obama's falsehood regarding 47 Republican senators' open letter to the government of Iran. 

CBS Equates GOP With Iranians as ‘Hardliners’ Who Oppose Nuclear Deal
By Jeffrey Meyer | March 16, 2015 | 10:12 AM EDT

Speaking from Switzerland on Monday morning regarding the continuing nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran, CBS News reporter Margaret Brennan used the term “hardliners” to equate Republicans who oppose a potential deal to those within the Iranian regime. 

Mika Brzezinski: Tom Cotton a 'Toddler' and 'Fool'
By Mark Finkelstein | March 16, 2015 | 8:52 AM EDT

Imagine the audacity of a freshman senator presuming to speak out forcefully on foreign affairs!  What?  You thought we were alluding to Barack Obama, who after less than a year in the Senate and with no discernible foreign policy credentials began a campaign to become Commander-in-Chief?

No, no, no!  We were talking about Tom Cotton, of course!  On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski castigated Cotton as a "toddler" and a "fool" for writing that letter to Iran.  For good measure, Al Hunt said that, like America, Iran has its "crazies" too. Did Hunt just equate Republican senators who sign a letter to those in Iran who have killed Americans and others around the world with impunity? So who's crazy now?

Bob Schieffer to Tom Cotton: ‘Do You Plan To Check With the North Koreans’ Next?
By Jeffrey Meyer | March 15, 2015 | 2:13 PM EDT

Speaking to Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) about his recent letter to the leadership of Iran, Face the Nation moderator Bob Schieffer provocatively asked his guest: “Do you plan to check with the North Koreans to make sure that they know that any deal has to be approved by the Congress?”