A 7-year-old town hall attendee challenged Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton Wednesday night over President Donald Trump's plans to have a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
"Donald Trump thinks a wall is more important that kids' things and stuff. But to kids, it's more important. Donald Trump makes Mexicans not important to people who are in Arkansas who like Mexicans, like me, my grandma, and all my people," Toby Smith, who said he is "almost 8," told Cotton at an event at Springdale High School.
"He's deleting all the parks and PBS Kids just to make a wall. He shouldn't do that. He shouldn't do all that stuff just for a wall."
The Washington Post published a clip of the exchange.
Smith was alluding to a report last month that claimed Trump's administration was mulling a plan to cut funding and privatize PBS in an effort to trim excess fat off the federal budget.
Cotton did not address the potential for cutting funding to PBS, opting instead to defend Trump's insistence that a wall needs to be built for national security reasons.
"We are a melting pot. We are all one people. We want Mexico to be a healthy, strong partner. We want to help them to deal with the problems that they've got with drug cartels and crime and grow their economy," Cotton said.
"But we also have to protect our own citizens from that, and that's where the wall comes in."
Cotton's answer was met with jeers and boos, with shouts of, "He just wants to watch PBS!" coming from the rowdy crowd.
Republican lawmakers have faced hostile crowds in recent weeks during town halls in their home states.
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