Senator Tom Cotton joined me this morning:

Audio:

01-30hhs-cotton

Transcript:

HH: Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas joins me. Good morning, Senator. Welcome back. A grim day as the Iranians have killed three American troops, Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Georgia, Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders of Waycross, Georgia, and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett of Savannah, Georgia. How should the United States respond, Senator?

TC: It is grim indeed, Hugh. My condolences go out to the families and the loved ones of those three brave soldiers who were killed and the many dozens who were injured, Hugh. I think there’s several of those still in critical condition today. May God heal them all and get them back to their battle buddies and their families promptly. Hugh, the only way to respond specifically to this attack is massive and devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces throughout the region and in Iran itself. Only then will Iran realize that killing an American is an absolute red line that they can never cross again. Remember, Donald Trump in 2020 killed their terrorist mastermind, Qasem Soleimani, for targeting Americans just a few weeks earlier. In 1988, Ronald Reagan sank half of Iran’s navy for reminding the Persian Gulf, which didn’t result in dead Americans, simply a damaged Naval vessel and injured sailors. Unfortunately, this is the result of eight years of failed policy of Barack Obama and his understudy, Joe Biden. Or I’m sorry, 11 years. Eight years under Barack Obama, and three years under Joe Biden. They have viewed Iran as a normal nation that has legitimate grievances against America, and if we would simply conciliate with them and appease them and grant them one-sided concessions, Iran would pull in its horns and begin behaving like a normal nation, and everything would be wonderful again in the Middle East. It’s not the case. Iran has been an unappeasable enemy of the United States for 45 years. One of the first actions of the Ayatollah was to take Americans hostage in our own embassy and hold them hostage for more than a year. We have to totally reverse the failed Obama-Biden policy of 11 years and view Iran for what it is, an evil enemy that cannot be placated, that can only, in the long run, be defeated. That should be the policy of the United States.

HH: Senator Cotton, Eliot Cohen wrote this morning, and it’s quoted in News Items. I want to read it to you. “A different Iran policy would begin by making it clear that the United States was breaking with the failed approach of the past, that it understood Iran’s implacable hostility, and would henceforth act on the premise that the Iranian regime can never be conciliated. The United States would be characterized by vigorous covert as well as overt support for the strong currents in Iran that oppose the regime, and periodically erupt in protest against it. It would respond to attacks by Iranian proxies on the United States and its allies with massive, disproportionate, and above all, lethal attacks. Above all, it would be and appear just as implacable towards Iran as Iran’s leaders are towards the United States. In the absence of such a policy, Iran will grow stronger and more malevolent, not less. Iran will expand and escalate war in the Middle East and beyond. Changing American policy is not a good choice, but it is the best choice before the administration.” Do you agree?

TC: Well, Hugh, I think it is a good choice to change American policy for the reasons I outlined. For 45 years, Iran has been implacably hostile to America. And 11 years of failed appeasement and conciliation by Barack Obama and Joe Biden has only emboldened Iran and invited more aggression. I know that many people like the sight of him now. I think over 160 strikes against American positions by Iran’s proxies since the October 7th atrocity in Israel. Don’t forget that there were almost 10 strikes against our positions before the October 7th atrocity, Hugh, since Joe Biden took office. And how many times did we respond? It’s something like four or five. That kind of weakness simply invites more aggression. Yet, you still see the President and his mouthpieces at the White House podium or on background in newspapers saying well, we want to be measured. We have to be proportionate. We are afraid that we might see escalation. What we saw over the weekend, Hugh, is escalation, Iran killing Americans. And there has to be massive consequences for that, and we should never be proportionate when an enemy attacks America.

HH: I agree with that.

TC: We should be overwhelmingly disproportionate.

HH: And that, in fact, deters. This is cut number 10, Senator Cotton, a montage of Vice President Harris, Secretary Blinken, and two Joe Biden’s in the aftermath of 10/7 talking to Iran, Cut number 10:

Reporter: And what’s the message to Iran?

KH: Don’t.

AB: It was very important to send a very clear message to anyone who might seek to take advantage of the conflict in Gaza, to threaten our personnel here or anywhere else in the region. Don’t do it.

Reporter: What is your message to Hezbollah and its backer, Iran?

JB: Don’t. Don’t, don’t, don’t.

JB: I’ve already delivered the message to Iran. They know not to do anything.

HH: They know not to do anything. Obviously not, Senator. How would you improve the messaging of the White House?

TC: Well, Hugh, I mean, Joe Biden is weak and pathetic and cowardly. You don’t deter people like the Ayatollahs who govern Iran by going on TV and saying don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t. You do it by holding at risk and ultimately destroying or killing the things and the people they hold most dear, like the Revolutionary Guard shock troops. I’m confident that the Ayatollah saw those videos and were laughing at Joe Biden. And every time, Hugh, every time since he took office, and especially since October 7th, when one of these militias in Iraq or Syria, or rebel outlaws in Yemen shoot rockets and missiles at us and we do nothing, or even if we only shoot back at those militias, again, Iran is laughing at us and high-fiving, because they’ve had a decades-long strategy of using proxies throughout the Middle East to attack us so they can deny that it was them. And what do we do when we only attack Iranian proxies, Hugh? We validate their proxy strategy. They look at that and say it’s going great for us, because as the saying goes, Hugh, Iran is very willing to fight to the last Arab against the United States. They don’t care about…

HH: Tell me about the target list, Senator. I’ve talked about the oil refineries, which has been much discussed over many years, because that would cripple their economy. Ambassador Haley said minutes ago on this program first step is put the sanctions back in place. Other people, like David Drucker, suggest hit the drone factories. They’ll all inside of Iran, though. They go after Iran. I’m not in favor of hitting more IRGC camps, because that’s, as you said, they’ll fight to the last Arab.

TC: Yeah, so Hugh, there’s no shortage of targets that we could take out that would send a message to the Ayatollah. We certainly should target all IRGC camps and boats or ships and bases. But there’s also other targets that would put immense pressure on Iran. For instance, you mentioned, as has often been mentioned, their refineries, because that is a massive bottleneck in the Iranian economy, one also that is controlled in so small part by the people that run the IRGC, who are also getting rich off the killing of Americans. But there can be no doubt that America will not tolerate Iran or its proxies killing Americans or even targeting Americans anymore. There’s a simple test here, Hugh, for what happens. Do the attacks stop? If they don’t stop, then Joe Biden has once again failed. He has proven himself of being unworthy of being commander-in-chief for those young men and women that are in the Middle East, frankly, like sitting ducks, because he will not take the actions necessary, because he is cowardly, he is fearful. He broadcasts his fear all the time. And right now, he’s starting to introduce his own reelection calculations into the lives of Americans in the Middle East, which is outrageous.

HH: Senator Cotton, let me ask you about the election calculations. It appears to me that Joe Biden is backing up on support for Israel. It appears to me that CIA Director Burns and Tony Blinken and others are sending one message and one message only – quit, to Israel. Is that how you read it?

TC: Oh, there’s no question, Hugh, that he’s backing up. He’s been backing up almost since the days right after the strike. But now, he’s doing it increasingly publicly. You saw stories over the weekend leaked from White House officials that they’re now thinking about withholding ammunition and shells from Israel to put pressure on them to stop their war of survival against Hamas. They’re even was apparently talk of withholding defensive weapons, things like Interceptors for air defense systems that protect Israelis sitting in major cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa. These things didn’t just happen, Hugh. This is a concerted effort by the administration to put out stories that puts pressure on the government of Israel to halt its war of survival against the brutal, the brutal terrorists that committed the October 7th atrocities. And again, why is he doing that? For two main reasons. First, his party has bought into this crazed worldview that somehow Israel are oppressive settlers, colonialists, in their own Biblical homeland. And second, he’s worried about what it means for his reelection. It’s young, progressive or Arab-American voters sour on Joe Biden’s very tepid support for Israel, because they want no support for Israel, and what it means for him to win in states like Michigan or Pennsylvania or Ohio.

HH: Do you think Donald Trump can win Michigan?

TC: Absolutely. He won it in 2016. No question he can win it again. And when you look at the embarrassment, embarrassment and humiliation that America has suffered under Joe Biden, the runaway inflation, the lack of job growth and working-class jobs in places like Michigan, our wide-open Southern border that is letting, yes, terrorists from places like Somalia come across the border and just wander around freely until they get arrested on unrelated charges, there’s no question that Donald Trump can win Michigan.

HH: Last question, Senator. I have a piece at Fox News today – No Border, No Deal. Do you agree with me? No border wall, no deal?

TC: Well, as we’ve discussed, Hugh, the border wall is the visible commitment of an invisible conviction or principle that we will not tolerate illegal immigration. It is a necessary, though not sufficient part of finally securing our border. So we do need to finish the border wall. Of course, we also have to have the other reforms we’ve discussed in the past like reforming our asylum process, putting an end to President Biden’s abuses of the parole system. But that said, all these abuses are things that he could simply reverse. He does not, as he said, need this bill to pass. He wants this bill to pass, because he knows that he may be able to disregard many of its key provisions, or those provisions may be weak, and then he could say I did what Republicans wanted. This is what they blessed for the border. Why they can’t, I mean, Joe Biden could stop this slow-motion invasion that he himself set in motion three years ago by himself, today, if he wanted to.

HH: Senator Tom Cotton, always good to talk to you. Thank you, Senator.

End of interview.