Tom "Send in the Troops" Cotton Mobilizes for Gardner

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by: Colorado Pols

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) is raising money for Sen Cory Gardner.

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is rolling out endorsements from fellow Republican Senators and spending a lot of money on Facebook to promote them in an effort to raise more money for his own re-election bid. For obvious reasons, Gardner’s campaign has been less enthusiastic about announcing one particular endorsement.

This week Gardner promoted endorsements/fundraising pleas from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Gardner’s campaign is also spending money promoting an endorsement from Arkansas Sen. Tom “Send in the Troops” Cotton; curiously, Gardner’s campaign hasn’t yet mentioned this endorsement outside of its Facebook ad spending disclosure.

Using Cotton’s endorsement in any capacity is a strange choice after the Arkansas Republican made national headlines last week for a fascist Op-Ed published in The New York Times in which Cotton called for an armed military response — “send in the troops” — in response to nationwide protests related to the murder of George Floyd. The Times later amended a note on the Op-Ed, writing “the tone of the essay in places is needlessly harsh and falls short of the thoughtful approach that advances useful debate.”

Gardner hasn’t said a peep about President Trump’s militant rhetoric in response to the protests, and now he’s throwing in his lot with a controversial Republican Senator who wants armed soldiers roaming American streets. By not making any other mention of Cotton’s support, Gardner was probably hoping that nobody would notice outside of the people targeted with the Facebook ad.

The video message from Cotton also contains a narrative about Democrat John Hickenlooper that is outright false. Cotton says that Hickenlooper “is running from the law to avoid ethics charges for using state funds to fund his lavish lifestyle.” As The Denver Post writes today in an editorial about Hickenlooper’s ethics charges, Cotton’s description is nowhere close to the truth:

We don’t believe Hickenlooper was trying to undermine the system, or disrespect the commission, or avoid accountability. In fact, the governor has been extremely transparent. He has provided details about what he did and did not pay for and he has spoken publicly about the trips. And he is now committed to paying whatever fees are imposed by the commission out of his own pocket.

Also, we are confident that Hickenlooper is an ethical public servant, albeit one who has made mistakes. The ethics commission didn’t find any evidence that MDC Holdings or Fiat Chrysler had business before the state when Hickenlooper accepted these “gifts.” We’ve not seen evidence of a quid-pro-quo despite Hickenlooper’s opponents’ best efforts to paint the governor as a corporate-shill whose decision making is compromised by his friendships and acquaintances with wealthy businessmen and women.

Hickenlooper did need to exercise more caution when traveling to avoid these infractions, but we also think there is ample evidence that he tried to comply with the spirit and letter of the law.

“Using state funds to fund his lavish lifestyle”? Yeah, not so much.

But the biggest issue with Cotton’s endorsement video is that it creates another problem that Gardner didn’t need; it is now perfectly acceptable for reporters to ask Gardner if he agrees with Cotton that armed soldiers should be patrolling our streets in response to protests about police brutality.

Cotton’s video had better raise a LOT of money for Gardner, because there is a considerable downside to his public support.

11 thoughts on “Tom “Send in the Troops” Cotton Mobilizes for Gardner”

MichaelBowman says:

June 11, 2020 at 12:36 pm

It appears someone is 'mobilizing' the US Senate today under the leadership of (in my best Sarah Cooper voice) Pocohontas.

When you need something important done, send in the women.

Seriously failed presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, just introduced an Amendment on the renaming of many of our legendary Military Bases from which we trained to WIN two World Wars. Hopefully our great Republican Senators won’t fall for this!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2020

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1. MichaelBowman says:
  
  June 11, 2020 at 12:37 pm
  
  Last week, I filed an amendment to the annual defense bill to rename all bases named for Confederate generals. Yesterday, Senate Armed Services Committee members reached an agreement: the US military must rename those military installations within 3 years.
  
  — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 11, 2020
  
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  1. MichaelBowman says:
    
    June 11, 2020 at 12:43 pm
    
    Pocahontas FTW: (cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war)
    
    Senate committee adopts amendment requiring renaming of military bases
    
    A source familiar with the proceedings confirmed to CBS News that the GOP-led panel on Wednesday approved the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) offered by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts via voice vote. According to a summaryof the NDAA released by the committee Thursday, the measure requires the Defense Department to rename posts and assets — streets, aircraft, ships, and other equipment — either named for Confederate officers or that honor the confederacy within three years.
    
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2. MichaelBowman says:
  
  June 11, 2020 at 12:39 pm
  
  You can see the swells in the ocean building:
  
  Richard Russell spent his career defending segregation, opposing civil rights, and blocking anti-lynching bills.
  
  It is long past time we renamed the Russell Senate Building to honor someone else.
  
  Who should it be?
  
  — Michael Bennet (@SenatorBennet) June 11, 2020
  
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  1. Moderatus says:
    
    June 11, 2020 at 4:26 pm
    
    Yeah, poor James Bennet. Bum rap!
    
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    1. unnamed says:
      
      June 12, 2020 at 5:54 am
      
      Hey nutlid,
      
      You're not man enough to respond to my comment that was directed at you? Guess it isn't that surprising. You're as cowardly as you are stupid.
      
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3. Conserv. Head Banger says:
  
  June 11, 2020 at 3:23 pm
  
  “we trained to win two World Wars………”
  
  Saw this couple days ago on Yahoo News (slightly paraphrased)……..
  
  Last Saturday, June 6, was the 76th anniversary of D-Day. Every one of our American soldiers who hit the Normandy beaches that day; many of them soon to die for their country; was an ANTI-FAscist. What does that say about Trump?
  
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unnamed says:

June 11, 2020 at 12:39 pm

Going back to when our butthurt, kleenex loving man child said when he came on here to whine about how we are out to destroy Republicans: Tom Cotton is a prime example why the current Republican party needs and deserves to be destroyed. Maybe the sane, non-complicit Republicans can start anew with a party that won't claim that they are the only true Americans while subverting America and what it should stand for at every turn.

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kickshot says:

June 11, 2020 at 12:40 pm

“Gardner’s campaign hasn’t yet mentioned this endorsement outside of its Facebook ad spending disclosure.”

Well, we will just have to mention it for him …. often and loudly.

With friends like Cotton, who need enemas?

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1. MichaelBowman says:
  
  June 11, 2020 at 12:46 pm
  
  He's about as welcome as Steve 'cantaloupe calves' King in a melon field?
  
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JohnInDenver says:

June 11, 2020 at 5:02 pm

And if you want more of the problems of Sen. Tom Cotton as an endorsement, there was a recent article pointing to the obvious efforts to put Cotton in as a "post-Trump" Presidential candidate in The Guardian. You can see the whole thing here.

The paragraph of some of Cotton's recent hits:

Cotton’s moment in the spotlight has passed – but he will almost certainly be back there soon. Despite having the charisma of a soggy bag of lettuce, the senator is hugely powerful: Cotton has influenced many of Trump’s decisions, including cuts to legal immigration and the banning of commercial flights between the US and China during the early days of Covid-19. He is also the guy who told Trump it would be a great idea to buy Greenland. When not urging the acquisition of the world’s largest island, Cotton can often be found fanning the flames of racism and xenophobia. He has repeatedly used the phrases “China virus” and “Wuhan virus” and has floated the conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was created by the Chinese government in a weapons lab.

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