Arkansas GOP Senator Tom Cotton ripped President Joe Biden when he discussed American hostages still held by the terrorist group Hamas, asserting that the terrorist group is simply contemptuous of Biden.
Cotton appeared on Fox News with Shannon Bream, who noted Cotton’s service in the military overseas, then asked, “What do you make about this call for using special forces to get our folks out?”
“We should certainly be open to that; we have elite special operation forces who are specifically trained in hostage rescue,” Cotton answered, before pointing out that any action would have to be coordinated with the Israeli forces fighting Hamas in Gaza. “I do think we have to be deferential to the Israelis, to the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces about the tactical situation on the ground. But if American military forces are called upon and can provide a viable solution to get out American citizens and the citizens of Israel or other nations then we have to be open to that.”
Then he took aim at Biden’s perceived weakness among terrorist groups abroad:
But again, it’s not just those small special operations units that we have trained; we have two aircraft carriers in the region; we’ve increased the number of troops and aircraft in the region. Yet Hamas is still so contemptuous of President Biden that it hasn’t yet released American hostages.
This would never have happened under Donald Trump or Ronald Reagan. In fact, if you will recall Jimmy Carter had a hostage crisis with Iran, Hamas’ patron, for over 400 days. Iran released those hostages the day Ronald Reagan took office, because they were so scared of what Ronald Reagan might do to them. You don’t see that kind of fear of President Biden from Hamas, or Iran, or frankly, anyone around the world.
Even before Biden was elected president, Cotton — who deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq, serving in combat units including the 506th Infantry Regiment and the 101st Airborne — slammed Biden before for his weakness on foreign policy; in April 2020, Cotton penned a piece titled, “Joe Biden Is China’s Choice for President.”
Cotton listed Biden’s actions: Biden had shot down opposition to granting China most-favored-nation trade status and World Trade Organization membership in the 1990s when Biden served as the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as well as Biden praising Chinese president Xi Jinping as he seized absolute power. Cotton also said that Biden “continued to push for closer ties [with China] and even more trade,” while millions of American jobs were being lost. He concluded, “The competition between the United States and China, strategic and economic, will define the next century for our nation. We will need to be led by presidents for whom there’s no question as to which side they are on.”