Tom Cotton
Tom Cotton | |
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United States Senator from Arkansas | |
Assumed office January 3, 2015 Serving with John Boozman | |
Preceded by | Mark Pryor |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas's 4th district | |
In office January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2015 | |
Preceded by | Mike Ross |
Succeeded by | Bruce Westerman |
Personal details | |
Born | Thomas Bryant Cotton May 13, 1977 Dardanelle, Arkansas, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Anna Peckham (m. 2014) |
Children | 2 |
Education | Harvard University (AB, JD) |
Website | Senate website |
Military service | |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Branch | ![]() |
Years of service | |
Rank | ![]() |
Unit |
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Wars | |
Awards | |
Thomas Bryant Cotton (born May 13, 1977) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator for Arkansas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2015.
After graduating from Harvard College in 1998 and Harvard Law School in 2002, Cotton worked as a federal clerk for a year and as an associate at two Washington, D.C., law firms before enlisting in the U.S. Army in January 2005. He was commissioned as an infantry officer in June and rose to the rank of captain before being honorably discharged in 2009. He served tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and at Fort Myer (Arlington, Virginia), and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
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, 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]
Following his active duty service, Cotton went to work for management consulting firm McKinsey & Company before running for Congress in Arkansas's 4th congressional district when Democratic incumbent Mike Ross announced in 2011 that he would not seek reelection.[4][10][11]
Military service[]
On January 11, 2005, Cotton enlisted in the United States Army.[12] He entered Officer Candidate School (OCS) in March 2005 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in June.[13] He completed the U.S. Army Ranger Course,[14][15] a 62-day small unit tactics and leadership program that earned him the Ranger tab, and Airborne School to earn the Parachutist Badge.[13]
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.[13]
In December 2006 Cotton was promoted to first lieutenant and reassigned to the 3d Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) at Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia, as a platoon leader.[16]
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.[13]
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.[13] In July 2010, Cotton entered the Army Reserve (USAR). He was discharged in May 2013.[17]
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.[18][19] 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.[20] 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."[20]
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.[15][21][22][23] Fact-checking site Snopes rated Salon's reporting as true.[24] 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."[25] 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."[23]
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."[26]
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."[27]
Political career[]
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][28] After the retirement announcement of Democratic incumbent Mike Ross in 2011, Cotton ran for Congress in Arkansas's 4th congressional district.[10][11]
U.S. House of Representatives[]
Elections[]
2012[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Debate_10.4.12_%288070720129%29.jpg/170px-Debate_10.4.12_%288070720129%29.jpg)
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 , 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 Trade
U.S. Senate[]
Elections[]
2014[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Jon_Kyl_and_Tom_Cotton_28024309880_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-Jon_Kyl_and_Tom_Cotton_28024309880_%28cropped%29.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/U.S._Senator_Tom_Cotton_and_former_Ambassador_to_the_U.N._John_Bolton_speaking_at_the_2015_Conservative_Political_Action_Conference_%28CPAC%29_in_Maryland.jpg/220px-U.S._Senator_Tom_Cotton_and_former_Ambassador_to_the_U.N._John_Bolton_speaking_at_the_2015_Conservative_Political_Action_Conference_%28CPAC%29_in_Maryland.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/U.S._Secretary_of_Defense_Ash_Carter_and_Senators_Joni_Ernst%2C_Daniel_Sullivan%2C_John_McCain%2C_Tom_Cotton%2C_Lindsey_Graham%2C_and_Cory_Gardner_attending_the_2016_International_Institute_for_Strategic_Studies_Asia_Security_Summit_in_Singapore.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
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]
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.[63] 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.[63]
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.[63]
Trump administration[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/President_Donald_J._Trump%2C_Senator_Tom_Cotton%2C_and_Senator_David_Perdue%2C_August_2%2C_2017_%2836182228582%29.jpg/220px-President_Donald_J._Trump%2C_Senator_Tom_Cotton%2C_and_Senator_David_Perdue%2C_August_2%2C_2017_%2836182228582%29.jpg)
During Trump's presidency, Cotton was characterized as a Trump loyalist.[64][65] 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.[66]
In September 2020, Trump shortlisted Cotton as a potential Supreme Court nominee, but ultimately chose Amy Coney Barrett instead.[67][68] 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?"[69]
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.[70]
Committee assignments[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Sen._Tom_Cotton_visits_Air_Defenders_in_Korea_150815-A-DY706-004.jpg/220px-Sen._Tom_Cotton_visits_Air_Defenders_in_Korea_150815-A-DY706-004.jpg)
Current[]
- United States Senate Committee on Armed Services[71]
- United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland (Chair, 2015–2021) (Ranking Member, 2021–)
- 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–)
- United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces (2017–)
- United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
- United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (2021–)
- Joint Economic Committee
Previous[]
- 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)
Caucuses[]
- Senate Republican Conference
Domestic policy positions[]
Cotton is considered politically conservative. The American Conservative Union's Center for Legislative Accountability gives him a lifetime rating of 86.06.[73]
Race relations[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Senator_of_Arkansas_Tom_Cotton_at_NH_FITN_2016_by_Michael_Vadon_08.jpg/220px-Senator_of_Arkansas_Tom_Cotton_at_NH_FITN_2016_by_Michael_Vadon_08.jpg)
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."[74]
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".[75] 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."[75]
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."[76] 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".[77] The bill passed 87–12 on December 18, 2018. Cotton voted against it.[78]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Tom_Cotton_and_Brett_Kavanaugh.jpg/220px-Tom_Cotton_and_Brett_Kavanaugh.jpg)
Black Lives Matter[]
Following the murder of George Floyd, Cotton rejected the view that there is "systemic racism in the criminal justice system in America".[79] 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."[80] 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.[81][82]
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.[83][84] Following the negative response from staffers, the Times responded by saying the piece went through a "rushed editorial process" that would be reexamined.[85] Editorial page editor James Bennet resigned days later.[86]
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.[87][88][89] 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."[90] 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".[91]
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 @TomCottonAR 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".[92] 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."[93] "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.[93]
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.[94][95]
Gun laws[]
Cotton has an A rating from the National Rifle Association (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."[96] In response to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Cotton said that he did not believe any new gun control legislation would have prevented the shooting.[97]
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.[98]
Immigration[]
Cotton's 2012 campaign website stated, "We cannot afford to grant illegal aliens amnesty or a so-called 'earned path to citizenship.'"[99]
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.[100] Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan spoke at one podium arguing for its passage;[101] Cotton spoke at another arguing against it, even exchanging terse comments with Speaker Boehner.[100] The House decided to not consider the bill.[101] Cotton supported Trump's 2017 Executive Order 13769 prohibiting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries.[102]
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.[103][104]
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."[105][106] Cotton and Senator David Perdue said in a joint statement that "we do not recall the President saying these comments specifically".[107][108] In a statement, the White House did not deny that Trump had made the comment, although Trump did in a tweet the following day.[105] The Washington Post reported that Cotton and Perdue told the White House they heard "shithouse" rather than "shithole".[109] 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.[110] 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.[106][111]
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.[112] 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.[113] 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.[114]
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.[115]
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."[116]
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.[117]
Health and social issues[]
Cotton opposes 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".[118][119]
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.[120]
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."[121] In 2013, Cotton voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, saying that the federal powers in the act were too broad.[121][122]
[]
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.[123] 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 up to politicians in the individual states.[124][125] He was one of 183 co-sponsors of the version of the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act introduced in 2013.[126]
Cotton has said, "I oppose the destruction of human embryos to conduct stem-cell research and all forms of human cloning."[127]
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.[128]
National security[]
On May 28, 2021, Cotton voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack.[129]
Foreign policy positions[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/US_congressional_delegation_at_HISF_2014.jpg/220px-US_congressional_delegation_at_HISF_2014.jpg)
Cotton's foreign policy views have been characterized as "hawkish".[130][131]
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][132] 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.[133][134]
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.[135]
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.[136]
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 the law as a restriction on activities by private citizens and potentially a violation of constitutional rights.[137][138] 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.[139]
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."[140] 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.[141]
In August 2019, it was reported that Cotton had suggested to Trump and the Danish ambassador that the U.S. should buy Greenland.[142][143][144] 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.[145]
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.[146]
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.[147] 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".[148]
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.[149]
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.[150]
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.[151]
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.[152]
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."[153][154]
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.[155][156][157][158]
In a February 16, 2020, Fox News interview,[159] 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".[160][161] 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.[161][160] 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."[162] 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."[161][163]
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."[164] 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.[165][166]
Iran[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Secretary_Pompeo_Delivers_Remarks_on_%22Supporting_Iranian_Voices%E2%80%9D_%2841773488870%29.jpg/220px-Secretary_Pompeo_Delivers_Remarks_on_%22Supporting_Iranian_Voices%E2%80%9D_%2841773488870%29.jpg)
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.[167][168]
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".[169] 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.[170] Within hours, commentators[171][clarification needed] suggested that the letter prepared by Cotton constituted a violation of the Logan Act.[172][173] Questions were also raised about whether it reflected a flawed interpretation of the Treaty Clause of the United States Constitution.[174]
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.[175] 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."[176]
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."[177]
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."[178][179][180] 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."[181]
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.[182]
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".[183]
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".[130] He said there would be a "furious response" by the United States if there was any provocation from Iran.[130]
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.[184] 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."[184] 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.[184]
Personal life[]
Cotton married attorney Anna Peckham in 2014. They have two children.[185]
Cotton has said that Walter Russell Mead, Robert D. Kaplan, Henry Kissinger, Daniel Silva, C. J. Box,[186] and Jason Matthews are among his favorite authors.[187]
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.[188]
Electoral history[]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Tom Cotton | 154,149 | 59.53% | ||
Democratic | Gene Jeffress | 95,013 | 36.69% | ||
Libertarian | Bobby Tullis | 4,984 | 1.92% | ||
Green | J. Joshua Drake | 4,807 | 1.86% | ||
Majority | 59,136 | 22.84% | |||
Total votes | 258,953 | 100.00 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Tom Cotton | 478,819 | 56.50% | N/A | |
Democratic | Mark Pryor (incumbent) | 334,174 | 39.43% | -40.10% | |
Libertarian | Nathan LaFrance | 17,210 | 2.03% | N/A | |
Green | Mark Swaney | 16,797 | 1.98% | -18.49% | |
Write-in | 505 | 0.06% | N/A | ||
Total votes | 847,505 | 100.00% | N/A | ||
Republican gain from Democratic |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Tom Cotton (incumbent) | 793,871 | 66.53% | +10.03% | |
Libertarian | Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. | 399,390 | 33.47% | +31.44% | |
Total votes | 1,193,261 | 100.0% | |||
Republican hold |
Primary elections[]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Tom Cotton | 20,899 | 57.55% | |
Republican | Beth Anne Rankin | 13,460 | 37.07% | |
Republican | John Cowart | 1,953 | 5.38% | |
Total votes | 36,312 | 100.0 |
Military awards[]
Cotton's military awards and decorations include:[17]
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See also[]
References[]
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- ^ Lyons, Gene (October 9, 2014). "Tom Cotton wouldn't be anywhere without government dollars". Arkansas Times.
- ^ "New Arkansas Rep. Cotton Draws Spotlight; 113th Congress Sworn In". Times Record News. January 4, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g Ball, Molly (September 17, 2014). "The Making of a Conservative Superstar". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ a b c d Bolduc, Brian (October 7, 2011). "G.I. Tom". National Review.
- ^ Levy, Gabrielle (April 16, 2015). "Tom Cotton Takes On the World". U.S. News & World Report.
- ^ "COTTON, Tom". United States Congress.
- ^ Franco, Cheere (April 24, 2016). "HIGH PROFILE: Senator Tom Cotton". Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
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- ^ a b Brantley, Max (July 25, 2011). "U.S. Rep. Mike Ross won't seek 2012 re-election". Arkansas Times.
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- ^ a b c d e "NATIONAL DEFENSE PAC today announces with extreme pride its endorsement of Congressman Thomas Cotton" (PDF) (Press release). National Defense PAC. October 6, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
- ^ "Fort Benning | Student Information". Ranger School Student Information.
- ^ a b Sollenberger, Roger (January 23, 2021). "Sen. Tom Cotton campaigned on his "experience as an Army Ranger" — but he didn't have any". Salon. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
- ^ Cotton, Tom (May 31, 2017). "Congress must support Arlington expansion". Philadelphia Media Network.
- ^ a b "Tom Cotton Army Service Record". MuckRock.
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- ^ Leibovich, Mark (April 5, 2015). "Tom Cotton Is Not Mailing It In". The New York Times Magazine.
- ^ a b Baumann, Nick (November 10, 2011). "The GOP Candidate Who Wants Journos Jailed". Mother Jones. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
- ^ Sollenberger, Roger (January 31, 2021). "Tom Cotton's "Army Ranger" dissembling goes back at least eight years". Salon. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
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- ^ a b Lockwood, Frank E. (January 24, 2021). "Article questions Cotton's status as Army Ranger". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
- ^ Kasprak, Alex (January 24, 2021). "Did Sen. Tom Cotton Falsely Claim To Have Been an 'Army Ranger in Afghanistan and Iraq'?". Snopes. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
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- ^ Choi, David. "'This is about my politics': Tom Cotton says his military record was scrutinized because he's a 'conservative veteran'". Business Insider. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
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- ^ Brantley, Max (September 1, 2011). "Tom Cotton learns value of Internet". Arkansas Times.
- ^ Minton, Michelle (September 26, 2016). "Tom Cotton's Last Minute Anti-Gambling Bill". Competitive Enterprise Institute.
- ^ a b "Arkansas's 4th Congressional District elections, 2012". Ballotpedia.
- ^ "CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC ENDORSES TOM COTTON FOR CONGRESS" (Press release). Club for Growth. February 14, 2012.
- ^ Miller, Joshua (May 3, 2012). "Arkansas: Tom Cotton Gets John McCain Endorsement". Roll Call.
- ^ "Tea Party Express Endorses Tom Cotton in Arkansas" (Press release). Tea Party Express.
- ^ Joseph, Cameron (July 31, 2013). "Cotton's decision to run for Senate gives GOP 'rock star' candidate in Arkansas". The Hill.
- ^ Merica, Dan (December 3, 2012). "Freshman's House office search foreshadows the legislator he might be". CNN.
- ^ Kranz, Michal (November 30, 2017). "Meet Tom Cotton, the Arkansas senator with Trump's ear who graduated from Harvard in 3 years and might become the next head of the CIA". Business Insider.
- ^ "HR 273 – Eliminates the 2013 Statutory Pay Adjustment for Federal Employees – Voting Record". Project Vote Smart.
- ^ Huey-Burns, Caitlin (July 16, 2013). "Tom Cotton a Key House Voice on Immigration Reform". RealClearPolitics.
- ^ "House Floor Activities Legislative Day of January 29, 2014". House of Representatives.
- ^ Nixon, Ron (February 4, 2014). "Senate Passes Long-Stalled Farm Bill, With Clear Winners and Losers". The New York Times.(subscription required)
- ^ Liberto, Jennifer (February 4, 2014). "Senate passes farm bill". CNNMoney.
- ^ a b Montanaro, Domenico (April 8, 2015). "Tom Cotton: Military Action Against Iran Would Take Only 'Several Days'". NPR.
- ^ Kendall Breitman (April 8, 2015). "Sen. Tom Cotton says U.S. could pursue targeted attack on Iran". POLITICO.
- ^ Fabian, Jordan; Wong, Kristina (July 26, 2015). "White House launches Iran side deals counterattack". The Hill.
- ^ Schulberg, Jessica (December 19, 2016). "John Kerry's Confident The IAEA Can Handle Iran, But Congress Isn't Buying It". The Huffington Post.
- ^ Condon, Stephanie (August 6, 2013). "Republican Rep. Tom Cotton announces bid to challenge Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark". CBS News.
- ^ Rothenberg, Stuart (June 9, 2014). "Mark Pryor: Still This Cycle's Most Vulnerable Senator". Roll Call.
- ^ Gentilviso, Chris (August 7, 2013). "Tom Cotton 2014 Senate Run Gets Early Club For Growth Endorsement". The Huffington Post.
- ^ Judis, John (October 16, 2013). "The Shrinking Club for Growth". The New Republic.
- ^ Joseph, Cameron (August 7, 2013). "Club for Growth endorses Tom Cotton, launches ads in Arkansas Senate race". The Hill.
- ^ Strauss, Daniel (September 17, 2013). "Rubio Endorses Rep. Tom Cotton for Senate". Talking Points Memo.
- ^ Urban, Peter (July 1, 2014). "Small-business group endorses Cotton". Arkansas News.
- ^ Ramsey, David (August 21, 2014). "Mitt Romney endorses Tom Cotton". Arkansas Times.
- ^ Brantley, Max (August 20, 2014). "Mitt Romney to campaign for Asa Hutchinson and Tom Cotton; Democrats comment". Arkansas Times.
- ^ Glueck, Katie. "Cotton defeats Pryor in Arkansas". POLITICO.
- ^ ENR Home Page For Google Analytics https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/AR/53237/149792/Web01/en/summary.html. Retrieved June 28, 2020. Missing or empty
|title=
(help) - ^ Kranz, Michal. "Meet Tom Cotton, the Arkansas senator with Trump's ear who graduated from Harvard in 3 years and might become the next head of the CIA". Business Insider.
- ^ MacFarlane, Scott. "Virginia Man Arrested for Sending Faxes Threatening Trump: Docs". NBC 4 Washington. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
- ^ Connolly, Griffin (October 2, 2019). "Arkansas man arrested for death threats against Sen. Tom Cotton, Rep. Rick Crawford". Roll Call. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
- ^ "Man jailed in Faulkner Co. accused of threatening Rep. Rick Crawford and Sen. Tom Cotton". Fox 16. September 30, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
- ^ "Arkansas man gets probation after mailing powder to senator". ABC 7. January 15, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
- ^ a b c Bruni, Frank (June 7, 2016). "An Obama Nominee's Crushed Hopes". The New York Times.
- ^ "Tom Cotton is campaigning hard, just not for reelection". AP NEWS. October 26, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
- ^ Johnson, Eliana; Watkins, Ali. "Cotton cements his rise under Trump". POLITICO. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
- ^ Manduley, Christina (November 9, 2016). "Sen. Tom Cotton: Waterboarding isn't torture". CNN. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
- ^ Klar, Rebecca (September 9, 2020). "Tom Cotton after Trump names him potential Supreme Court nominee: 'It's time for Roe v. Wade to go'". TheHill. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
- ^ "Amy Coney Barrett: Trump nominates conservative favourite for Supreme Court". BBC News. September 27, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
- ^ Desjardins, Lisa (September 22, 2020). "What every Republican senator has said about filling a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
- ^ FOX13Memphis.com News Staff (January 3, 2021). "Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton says he won't vote to challenge the joint session of Congress". Fox 13 Memphis. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ "Committee Membership List". Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ "U.S. Senate: Committee Assignments of the 117th Congress". www.senate.gov.
- ^ "Sen. Tom Cotton". American Conservative Union Foundation. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
- ^ Roller, Emma (August 27, 2013). "Tom Cotton: Race Relations Would Improve "If We Stopped Emphasizing Race in Our Public Life"". Slate. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
- ^ a b Gass, Nick (May 19, 2016). "Sen. Tom Cotton: U.S. has 'under-incarceration problem'". Politico. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
- ^ "Were there no hearings on bipartisan criminal justice bill?". @politifact. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
- ^ EVERETT, BURGESS; SCHOR, ELANA. "Cotton wields sex offender report to tank prisons bill". Politico. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
- ^ Levin, Marianne. "Senate approves Trump-backed criminal justice overhaul". Politico. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ Alberta, Tim (June 8, 2020). "Is This the Last Stand of the 'Law and Order' Republicans?". Politico. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
- ^ Carney, Jordain (June 1, 2020). "Cotton: Trump should use Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty military to cities". TheHill. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
- ^ Kane, Paul (June 1, 2020). "Cotton urges deployment of military in response to violence; other Republicans empathize with peaceful protesters, Floyd family". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
- ^ Kalmbacher, Colin (June 1, 2020). "Republican Senator Called for 'No Quarter' Military Response to 'Looters.' Lawyers Note That's a War Crime". lawandcrime.com.
- ^ Cotton, Tom (June 3, 2020). "Send in the Troops". The New York Times. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
- ^ Izadi, Elahe (June 4, 2020). "New York Times staffers denounce newspaper for Tom Cotton editorial urging military incursion into U.S. cities". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
- ^ Ellefson, Lindsey (June 4, 2020). "New York Times Says 'Rushed Editorial Process' Led to Tom Cotton Op-Ed". TheWrap. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
- ^ Luscombe, Richard (June 7, 2020). "New York Times senior editor resigns amid backlash over controversial oped". The Guardian. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
- ^ Lockwood, Frank E. (July 26, 2020). "Bill by Sen. Tom Cotton targets curriculum on slavery". Arkansas Online. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
- ^ Srikanth, Anagha (July 23, 2020). "Sen. Tom Cotton introduces bill withholding federal funding for schools teaching the 1619 Project". TheHill. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
- ^ Foran, Clare (July 24, 2020). "GOP Sen. Tom Cotton pitches bill to prohibit use of federal funds to teach 1619 Project". CNN. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
- ^ Lockwood, Frank E. (July 26, 2020). "Bill by Sen. Tom Cotton targets curriculum on slavery". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
- ^ Armus, Tea. "Sen. Tom Cotton wants to take 'The 1619 Project' out of classrooms. His efforts have kept it in the spotlight". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
- ^ Bowden, John (July 26, 2020). "Cotton called out for remarks on slavery in criticism of 1619 Project". The Hill. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
- ^ a b Cole, Devan (July 28, 2020). "Tom Cotton describes slavery as a 'necessary evil' in bid to keep schools from teaching 1619 Project". CNN. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
- ^ Rogers, Alex (April 14, 2021). "Senate advances bill to combat surge of anti-Asian hate crimes". CNN. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
- ^ "On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed (Motion to Invoke Cloture Re: Motion to Proceed to S. 937)". United States Senate. April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
- ^ "NRA Endorses Tom Cotton for U.S. Senate in Arkansas" (Press release). National Rifle Association. September 9, 2014.
- ^ Shelbourne, Mallory (October 3, 2017). "Cotton: Las Vegas shooter's weapon sounded like 'belt-fed machine gun'". The Hill.
- ^ "Sens. Cruz, Cornyn file Concealed-Carry Reciprocity Bill". kcbd.com. January 10, 2019.
- ^ "Tom Cotton on Immigration". On the Issues.
- ^ a b Costa, Robert (July 15, 2013). "Picking Tom Cotton: On immigration, a freshman speaks for the right flank of the House GOP". The National Review.
- ^ a b Lizza, Ryan (July 20, 2016). "Occupied Territory: The Republican élite struggles over whether to resist Trump or capitulate". The New Yorker.
- ^ Blake, Aaron (January 29, 2017). "Coffman, Gardner join Republicans against President Trump's travel ban; here's where the rest stand". The Denver Post.
- ^ "A new effort to narrow the route to permanent residency in America". The Economist. February 16, 2017.
- ^ Alvarez, Priscilla (August 21, 2017). "Can a Decades-Old Immigration Proposal Pass Under Trump?". The Atlantic.
- ^ a b Vitali, Ali (January 12, 2018). "Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as 'shithole' countries". NBC News. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ a b Saletan, William (January 24, 2018). "Cotton Tales". Slate. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ Ashley Killough, January 12, 2017, CNN, 2 Republican senators in Trump meeting say they don't recall 'shithole' comment
"We do not recall the President saying these comments specifically but what he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system,..." - ^ Ruth Brown, January 12, 2017, New York Post, "GOP lawmakers 'do not recall' Trump's 'shithole' slur", Retrieved January 14, 2017, "...Republican Sens. David Perdue and Tom Cotton say they "don't recall" President Trump "specifically" smearing Haiti and African nations as "shitholes" ..."
- ^ Dawsey, Josh; Costa, Robert; Parker, Ashley (January 15, 2018). "Inside the tense, profane White House meeting on immigration". The Washington Post.
- ^ Samuels, Brett (January 14, 2018). "Cotton hits Durbin for claims of Trump's 's---hole countries' comment". The Hill. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
- ^ Milbank, Dana (May 10, 2018). "Tom Cotton is filled with rage. Thank God he wasn't tapped as CIA director". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
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- ^ "What is the E3 visa and what does it mean to the Irish?". IrishCentral.com. December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
- ^ "Irish E3 visas face further blow as another senator places hold on bill". IrishCentral.com. December 20, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
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- ^ "4th District hopefuls split on health care law". Associated Press. September 26, 2012.
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- ^