On Monday, Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough had Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on as a guest. Cotton is running for the US Senate against Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor. Before speaking to Cotton, a clip was played of Pryor discussing Cotton, his political career and his service in the military. One portion of Pryor’s interview that was highlighted as Cotton was introduced on the set was Pryor stating that Cotton seems to have a ‘sense of entitlement’ regarding his military service.
As Pryor explained, serving in the military does not and should not guarantee that someone is qualified or should be elected to a higher office. While Cotton’s service to this country should be commended, as Pryor said, he should still show that he deserves to be a US Senator and can fulfill the duties of the office if elected. The ‘sense of entitlement’ statement went hand-in-hand with an earlier statement of Pryor’s where he said that Cotton only got elected to the House of Representatives in order to bolster his resume and run for Senate. Basically, Cotton hasn’t done anything while in the House and only saw serving in the Lower Chamber as a necessary evil in order to get a higher office.
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After playing the clip of Pryor, Scarborough went over to Cotton and played around with him, acting as if he was wiping Grey Poupon off of Cotton’s coat because he was obviously rich and entitled. Scarborough and Mika then sucked up to Cotton for the next few minutes, essentially running the segment as a long campaign commercial for Cotton. Mush time was discussed hyping his military record, while also letting him equivocate on veterans’ issues. They then let Cotton call Pryor ‘extreme’ for casting the ‘deciding’ vote on Obamacare. Cotton then had to say the usual Republican ACA lies about skyrocketing premiums and people losing their insurance.
Below is the video of the segment:
Towards the end of the segment, Scarborough stated that they would have Pryor on at some point to explain his comments and also respond to Cotton. Of course, I doubt highly that Pryor will get the same amount of fawning and boot-licking from Mika and Joe that was afforded Cotton on Monday. In fact, if they even have Pryor on in the near future, I am sure he won’t be able to discuss any actual issues confronting the two candidates. Instead, he will have to spend the whole time defending and explaining his ‘entitlement’ comment.
Finally, while it is true that Cotton joined the Army in 2005 and served in Iraq and Afghanistan, receiving a number of commendations, it isn’t like he came from rough beginnings. His family owns a prosperous cattle farm in Arkansas. He went to college at Harvard and later got his law degree from Harvard Law. He spent a couple of years working at a private law firm before going into the military and then was able to work on the family farm as well as a management consulting firm after being honorably discharged.
It seems to me that what Pryor is attempting to do is portray Cotton as a self-centered opportunist who feels he has put together a resume that looks good for a Senate election campaign. Thus, he should be elected despite having no actual legislative accomplishments or new ideas to speak of. Perhaps Pryor can figure out a better way to say this without using the term ‘entitled.’ Perhaps using terms like ‘scheming’ or ‘opportunistic’ might get less blowback.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
