In case you missed it — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) joined “Fox and Friends” today to discuss the increasing number of encampments on college campuses across the country protesting Israel’s war against Hamas.
In part, Senator Cotton said:
“None of these little Gazas should have been allowed to remain. They are disgusting cesspools of anti-Semitic hate, full of pro-Hamas sympathizers, fanatics, and freaks that had been assaulting Jewish students around the country, have been blocking their paths going to classrooms, that have been telling them to go back to their real home, painting swastikas on campuses; it has no place in America. And it's the fault of liberal college administrators and liberal politicians that it was tolerated for this long in the first place.”
Senator Cotton’s full interview may be found here and below.
Host: The senator from Arkansas, Senator Tom Cotton. Senator, we're glad to have you on this morning. We still haven't heard from the President United States, the Governor, Gavin Newsom, or the Mayor, Karen Bass. But thank God for law enforcement that was able to get this done. What is your reaction to these developments that we've been covering all morning?
Senator Cotton: Well, I commend the police officers who were able to break up this little Gaza on UCLA's campus, but it's way too late. They should have been allowed to do this from the very beginning. But you have liberal college administrators and liberal politicians, like Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom and Joe Biden, who are afraid of offending the anti-Semitic wing of the Democratic Party. None of these little Gazas should have been allowed to remain. They are disgusting cesspools of anti-Semitic hate, full of pro-Hamas sympathizers, fanatics, and freaks that had been assaulting Jewish students around the country, have been blocking their paths going to classrooms, that have been telling them to go back to their real home, painting swastikas on campuses; it has no place in America. And it's the fault of liberal college administrators and liberal politicians that it was tolerated for this long in the first place.
Host: Senator, what's your reaction to what took place on several college campuses, where the American flag was taken down and replaced by the Palestinian flag? I mean, what kind of message does that send to Hamas, and to our greatest adversary, Iran?
Senator Cotton: Well, it's a revolting display of anti-Americanism. And we know what kind of message it sends, because Hamas and the ayatollahs in Iran have been celebrating these fanatics that have built little Gazas all around America's campuses, while Joe Biden remains silent, while he doesn't take action. Not only has he refused to speak out in an unequivocal way, where's the Department of State revoking visas for foreigners who are in little Gazas? Or the Department of Homeland Security, deporting them, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, investigating why Jewish civil rights are being violated without any recourse by these college administrators? Or where the funding for little Gazas are coming from? These aren't people out there living under tarps, they've got pup tents that cost hundreds of dollars. These are all questions that Joe Biden could have been tackling over the last several weeks. But he's been totally silent and paralyzed by indecision because he's afraid of the anti-Semitic weighing of his own party.
Host: He is and guess what he wants to talk about abortion. That's what I'm looking at, his Twitter feed. That's all. That's all they got the Roe v. Wade. But a couple of things. You realize that ,unlike Columbia, they said have you seen in that encampment, you're suspended from school. UCLA says we're going to look at your situation. So there's going to be no ramifications for this. But, Senator, very few people have more of a global perspective, a better global perspective than you. They are celebrating this in Iran. They are celebrating this in Gaza. This fortifies Hamas's position against any type of hostage swap, Hezbollah is high fiving. How much more difficult is the Israeli situation right now, and how much how much more jet fuel does all those governments now have because of what these college students and their infiltrators have done in 20 states across our country?
Senator Cotton: Well, of course they're celebrating the little Gazas on American campuses in the real Gaza and in Iran, because they know it's putting political pressure on Joe Biden to put more pressure on Israel. This is straight out of Hamas' gameplan or Iran's gameplan, is to use international political pressure to include political pressure from the Democratic Party in America to constrain Israel, to limit its freedom of action in its righteous war of survival. Look, if Joe Biden hadn't spent his last six months nitpicking against Benjamin Netanyahu telling him he can't do this, that or the other thing, expressing how terrible it is that Israeli actions occasionally result in civilian casualties because Hamas uses civilians as human shields, then this war may have already been over, which of course, is what every Israeli would like. They would like the war to be over. They would like to have Hamas destroyed and be safe and secure. But because Joe Biden has been nitpicking at Israel for six or seven months, and allowing this kind of international political pressure to build, Hamas is benefiting. It makes it much less likely, for instance, to return the hostages.
Host: How do we get here though? I mean, some of these students are Americans, and now they hate the country, hate our country, and they hate Israelis and Jewish people. And they made it very clear. How did our young people become so radicalized so quickly?
Senator Cotton: Well, part of it is, they’ve been indoctrinated by left wing anti-American faculty for years. Look at what happened at Columbia. You had one of these little Gazas erected. Students were threatened, as they should have been, with discipline up to and including expulsion if they didn't obey campus rules and regulations and obey the law. And faculty members went out and literally locked arms in front of little Gaza to try to prevent law enforcement from doing its job. It's part of the left wing, Marxist ideology that the students have been marinated in for years at places like Colombia to the point where they come not only to hate their country, but to celebrate Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization, that raped women and burned children alive on October 7. I've sometimes seen them called anti-war protesters. These are not anti-war protesters. These are pro-war protesters; they celebrate and Hamas's war against the Jewish people.
Host: The faculty is standing with them, being arrested, at City College they're leading it, we've seen emails. You see in Columbia to they they stood by the encampments. And then you had these guys on a platform while the LAPD or highway patrol started moving forward, the faculty is proud of what they produced.
Senator Cotton: That's absolutely right. The faculty has been producing these kinds of fanatics and terrorist sympathizers for years. Because, by definition, if America and Israel are strong and confident and prosperous, that means that what our nations must be the oppressor nations and therefore, in their kind of kind of demented worldview, that we are morally evil when the exact opposite is true. America and Israel stand for everything that is good among nations. That's why people are desperate to come to America. That's why nations around the world look to America for leadership, yet in the anti-Semitic wing, in the Marxist wing, of the Democratic Party, they turn that moral position on its head.
Host: Senator, thanks so much great press conference yesterday too, with moral clarity. Too bad your Leader Chuck Schumer doesn't have the same feeling. Appreciate it.