Sen. Cotton: Hypocrites, 'Woke Progressives' Complain on Column

Sen. Tom Cotton Wednesday slammed people critical of his New York Times opinion piece calling for the use of force against George Floyd protesters as hypocrites and "woke progressives" who don't stand behind their own liberal values. 

"I think it exposes the hypocrisy of all these woke progressives who claim to defend liberal values but as soon as they are presented with an opinion with which they disagree, they demand censorship and they refer to words as violence and call for firings at the newspaper," the Arkansas Republican said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom."

In his column, Cotton said that it will take an "overwhelming show of force", but "delusional politicians" refuse to do what's necessary. He also pointed out that other presidents have opted to use military force, including Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson who used the military to disperse mobs preventing school desegregation. 

"They are simply throwing a temper tantrum," Cotton said of people who were angered with his column. On Thursday, those people included staff members from The Times itself, blasted the newspaper for printing the article. 

But Cotton argued Thursday, as he did in his opinion piece, that it is up to a president, not a senator or a defense secretary, to invoke the insurrection act and that it is "not a first resort, it's the last resort," that is taken where law enforcement is overwhelmed and the National Guard is not sufficiently able to provide help. 

"That's a decision for the president to make and what the president needs are the forces that are mobilized and activated and ready to be deployed and the advice to assess situations on the ground," said Cotton. "I know that we can do that with the National Guard and local law enforcement and that's exactly what the president intends to do . . . the president needs to have the tools and the equipment and the information needed to move quickly to protect our citizens. That's what's necessary."

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