On Fox News, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) referred to the pro-Palestinian protestors who stopped traffic yesterday on the Golden Gate Bridge as criminals.
Cotton said: “If something like this happened in Arkansas, on a bridge there, let’s just say, I think there’d be a lot of very wet criminals that got tossed overboard, not by law enforcement but by the people whose road they’re blocking.”
Addressing some other common methods of protest, Cotton added: “If they glue their hands to a car or the pavement, well, probably pretty painful to have their skin ripped off, but I think that’s the way we would handle it in Arkansas.”
The MAGA Senator further suggested: “And I encourage people anywhere, who get stuck behind criminals like this, who are trying to block traffic, to take matters into their own hands. There’s only usually a few of them and a lot of people being inconvenienced. It’s time to put an end to this nonsense.”
BREAKING: Sitting U.S. Senator Tom Cotton casually suggesting citizens throw protesters over the sides of bridges, and even “having their skin ripped off.”
Is this violent rhetoric what passes for normal now?pic.twitter.com/IQ7IBShCOp
— Really American (@ReallyAmerican1) April 15, 2024
Political activist Majid M. Padellan a.k.a. ‘Brooklyn Dad Defiant’ on X, responded to Cotton’s violent rhetoric by writing: “Interesting how he starts to call them ‘protesters, and then pivots to ‘criminals,’ even though none of them are attacking the US Capitol, beating cops with fire extinguishers the way what they call January 6 ‘hostages’ did.”
[Note: On January 6, 2021, Cotton released a statement repudiating the attack on the Capitol and described those involved as “insurrectionists.” Cotton said “those who attacked the Capitol today should face the full extent of federal law.”]
Cotton has since softened his stance on the January 6ers, recently supporting one in a potentially far-reaching Supreme Court case. Other protestors haven’t been as fortunate: During the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the ensuing protests, Cotton (a former military officer and Harvard-trained lawyer) called on then-President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and send military troops into U.S. cities.
In an op-ed essay for the New York Times, ‘Send in the Troops,’ Cotton wrote: “One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers.” The Times later concluded that the essay “fell short of our standards and should not have been published.”