Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:06 pm
Tom Cotton compared protesters to the traitors who rebelled against the United States and formed the Confederacy on Tuesday. The comments come as the President threatens to deploy federal officers to cities.
The Republican spoke to Fox News about ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd. The Arkansas senator compared recent events to the notorious event that sparked the Civil War.
“These insurrectionists in the streets of Portland are little different from the insurrectionists who seceded from the union in 1861 in South Carolina, and tried to take over Fort Sumter,” Cotton said.
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On Fox & Friends, Sen. Tom Cotton compares protesters to the Confederacy: "These insurrectionists in the streets of Portland are little different from the insurrectionists who seceded from the union in 1861 in South Carolina, and tried to take over Fort Sumter." pic.twitter.com/7ylYh3N1dB
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) July 21, 2020
Cotton’s hyperbolic comparison is the latest in a Republican push to conflate criminal violence with legitimate protests as part of a ‘law and order’ pitch for November’s elections.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, President Donald Trump said he’d send federal law enforcement into Democrat-led cities. He singled out violence in Chicago.
“And you add it up over the summer – this is worse than Afghanistan, by far,” Trump said.
“This is worse than anything anyone has ever seen” he said.
“All run by the same liberal Democrats. And you know what? If Biden got in, that would be true for the country. The whole country would go to hell. And we’re not going to let it go to hell.”
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Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media
