Sen. Tom Cotton tore into President Joe Biden over the weekend, hammering the current president for his stances on Iran and the border. Though much of the GOP has moved away from the sort of warhawk attitude generally represented by Sen. Cotton, his attitude toward the border and the idea that America shouldn’t pay ransom money is one with which many in the party still strongly agree.
Sen. Cotton’s comments on the Iran issue came during a Sunday interview on Fox Business Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo, with the Senator explaining what he thinks is wrong with Biden’s stance on Iran and how certain policies have helped Iran strengthen its power in the region.
Beginning, Sen. Cotton claimed, “For three years, the president has appeased Iran, the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. It’s not just the $6 billion that was released from sanctions controls last month. It’s $10 billion that was released from Iraq into Iran.”
Continuing, he added, “It’s looking the other way on more than 80 attacks against American troops in Israel, in the Middle East, or allowing Iran to threaten shipping in the Persian Gulf. Allowing Iran, without serious consequence, to arm Russia to kill more Ukrainians, releasing hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority since the very beginning of this administration.”
He then explained that such actions breed an attitude of contempt among our enemies, saying, “These are all acts of appeasement, concessions and weakness that embolden the leaders in Tehran, as well as Hamas, to believe that they could launch this brazen, savage attack against Israel.”
Sen. Tim Scott said much the same thing: “America’s weakness is blood in the water for bad actors, but this is worse than that. We didn’t just invite this aggression, we paid for it. Iran is the biggest funder of Hamas. This is the Biden $6 billion ransom payment at work.”
Sen. Cotton also tore into the Biden Administration’s border policy. Doing so in a letter obtained by Breitbart, he argued that the administration’s announced repatriation flights won’t do enough to stem the tide and deal with the crisis facing America.
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“Migrants are rushing to the United States because you invited them, both by refusing to enforce the law and by literal invitation through your abuse of immigration “parole,” and a few repatriation flights will do little to repair the damage, especially while you continue allowing illegal aliens to flood into the country. Further, there is little reason to believe Venezuela agreed to your repatriation flights without getting something in return,” he wrote.
Continuing, he said, “Please answer the following questions as soon as practicable, and make senior administration officials available to brief Congress no later than Friday, October 13: What are the terms of your repatriation agreement with Venezuela? What side deals or other agreements involving Venezuela have you made in the past 90 days? How many Venezuelans enter the United States illegally every month, both across our southern border and through your administration’s “parole” program? How many illegal aliens will be deported to Venezuela each month under your plan?”
Featured image credit: By Southern Arkansas University – Debate 10.4.12, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64711579