GOP Senator Mocked For Saying Bob Menendez Should NOT Resign

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) this week mounted an unexpected defense of Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat recently indicted on extensive bribery charges.

Menendez faces allegations that he accepted various bribes, including $480,000 in cash and $100,000 in gold bars, in return for improperly using his influence to benefit and enrich several New Jersey businessmen.

Although many of Menendez’s Democratic colleagues have suggested he resign, no Republican senators have called on him to step down, according to Business Insider.

Republicans Are Legislating Like There’s No Tomorrow

Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas suggested Sunday that the push by his fellow Republicans to pass a healthcare reform bill was putting the GOP’s House majority at risk. Don’t “walk the plank and vote for a bill that cannot pass the Senate,” he warned. That warning became more urgent Monday after an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office showed that 24 million people would lose their healthcare insurance over the next decade under the GOP plan. The effects would hit older, low-income people especially hard. A 64-year-old making $26,500, for example, would pay $14,600 in premiums for insurance, versus $1,700 under Obamacare. Vox called it “one of the largest, most significant income redistribution programs the US government has ever considered—from the poor to the wealthy rather than the other way around.”

Rush To Repeal Obamacare Draws Warning From Another GOP Senator

More Republicans are expressing anxiety over plans to repeal Obamacare before reaching agreement on a replacement plan.

And now one GOP senator has said clearly the two steps should happen simultaneously.

The senator is Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and during an interview on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily” on Thursday, he said, “I think when we repeal Obamacare, we need to have the solution in place moving forward.”

Tom Cotton Thinks America Isn’t Locking Enough People Up

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is criticizing efforts to reform America’s criminal justice system, arguing on Thursday that the country actually has an “under-incarceration problem” — even though the U.S. has the world’s largest prison population.

Cotton gave a speech on criminal justice Thursday at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. During his remarks, he argued that policy goals like reducing mandatory minimum sentences, restoring voting rights for felons and reducing barriers to employment for ex-offenders are misguided and “dangerous.”

Weighing A High Court Nominee Trashes The Constitution, Republican Says

WASHINGTON -- The Constitution may say that the president shall appoint judges with the advice and consent of the Senate, but doing so now would be to trash that very Constitution, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) argued Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared almost immediately upon the death of Justice Antonin Scalia that the Senate would entertain no replacement named by President Barack Obama, leaving the seat vacant for more than a year.

Tom Cotton Suggests War With Iran Would Be A Breeze

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), a strong opponent of President Barack Obama’s diplomatic efforts to contain Iran’s nuclear program, suggested on Tuesday that armed conflict with Tehran could be easily contained to “several days of air and naval bombing” and would not require the deployment of American ground troops. The comments eerily echoed the false predictions of Bush administration officials on the eve of the Iraq invasion.

Appearing on the Family Research Council’s Washington Watch radio show, Cotton slammed Obama for suggesting that military confrontation was the only alternative to diplomacy in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Senator Says Critics Of Indiana Should Get ‘Perspective,’ Be Thankful State Doesn’t Execute Gays

Appearing yesterday on CNN, Senator Tom Cotton (R) urged critics of Indiana’s “religious freedom” law to get “perspective,” suggesting the treatment of LGBT people in Indiana compared favorably to countries where gay people are executed.

“I think it’s important we have a sense of perspective,” Cotton said. “In Iran they hang you for the crime of being gay.”

Tom Cotton Wants To Punish Countries That Take Guantanamo Prisoners -- Including U.S. Allies

WASHINGTON -- Days after touring the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark). introduced legislation that would likely ensure the prison remains open for future lawmakers to visit as well.

Cotton, apparently unbowed by the outcry over his recent open letter to Iranian leaders, introduced a bill on Wednesday that would cut U.S. funding to countries that receive former Guantanamo detainees who are later suspected of terrorism. He toured the prison March 13 with three other senators.

Tom Cotton: 'No Regrets At All' Over Letter To Iran

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said on CBS’ "Face the Nation" on Sunday that he had “no regrets at all” over the letter he orchestrated to be sent to Iranian ayatollahs warning them that any deal struck with the Obama administration over their country’s nuclear program could be cancelled by a future administration or Congress.

Cotton and the 46 other Republican senators who signed his letter have come under severe criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for seeking to undermine ongoing negotiations to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

Tom Cotton Doesn't Give A Sh** About Iran Talks Protocol. But A Lot Of Others Do.

WASHINGTON -- An open letter from Senate Republicans to Iranian leadership, released Monday, ended up sparking scorn about its ultimate value and flak over the authors' adherence to protocol.

Drafted by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and co-signed by 46 Republican senators, the letter was a not-so-subtle threat to Iran that any international agreement reached with President Barack Obama on Iran's nuclear program would unravel under his successor.

Coming just weeks before a March 24 deadline for the current talks, it was met with a combination of outrage and ridicule. Former Bush administration legal adviser Jack Goldsmith poked a hole in the senators' interpretation of constitutional law. Others decried the letter's blatant effort to sabotage the ongoing talks between Iran, the U.S. and five other nations. Still others found the whole episode perplexing and overdramatized.

Tom Cotton 'Corruption Of Blood' Bill Would Convict Family Members Of Iran Sanctions Violators

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday introduced legislation that would "automatically" punish family members of people who violate U.S. sanctions against Iran, levying sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

The provision was introduced as an amendment to the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013, which lays out strong penalties for people who violate human rights, engage in censorship, or commit other abuses associated with the Iranian government.

Tom Cotton: The GOP Candidate Who Wants Times Journos Jailed

In 2006, Tom Cotton, a twentysomething US Army lieutenant serving in Iraq, wrote an open letter calling for the prosecution and imprisonment of two of the New York Times' most prominent reporters, Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, who had just broken a major story about how the government was tracking terrorist financing. The letter, which also called for the prosecution of Bill Keller, the Times' then-executive editor, was initially published on the conservative blog PowerLine but soon went viral.

Now, half a decade later, Cotton is running for Congress as a Republican. He has a good chance of winning. Mike Ross, the Democratic incumbent in Arkansas' 4th District, is retiring, and Cotton has earned solid establishment support (and a fawning Weekly Standard profile) in his race for the GOP nomination. So far, Cotton's past as an internet meme-generator and amateur media critic has gone largely unnoticed.