Way back in January, when Democrats only cared about removing President Donald Trump from office, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/while-democrats-pushed-impeachment-one-republican-senator-sounded-alarm-on-coronavirus">sounding the alarm</a> on the coronavirus, which at that time appeared contained to China.
Cotton kept asking questions about whether China was telling the truth about how the coronavirus outbreak originated.
“We don’t know where it originated, and we have to get to the bottom of that,” Cotton said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” back in mid-February “We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China’s only biosafety level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases.”
Cotton went on to acknowledge that the U.S. needs more information about how the disease originated in China.
“Now, we don’t have evidence that this disease originated there, but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says,” Cotton said. “And China right now is not giving any evidence on that question at all.”
The Washington Post and other media outlets “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/media-claims-tom-cotton-coronavirus-claims-debunked-fail-to-debunk-what-he-actually-said">fact checked</a>” Cotton’s statements, except they fact checked something Cotton never said. The Post’s fact check consisted of talking to a chemical biology professor at Rutgers University who said, “There’s absolutely nothing in the genome sequence of this virus that indicates the virus was engineered.”
Another professor said it was “highly unlikely” the virus infected the general population due to an accident at China’s super lab, but then also said it was wrong to suggest China intentionally released the disease – again, something Cotton didn’t say.
Cotton responded to the “fact checkers” by saying he didn’t say the coronavirus was bioengineered. He then listed four hypotheses – not theories – about how the virus originated and again said China needed to provide more information. The four hypotheses were: 1) The virus came from natural causes, 2) it was accidentally released from the lab, 3) it was bio-engineered and accidentally released, and 4) it was bio-engineered and deliberately released. He said the third and fourth hypotheses were the least likely. He also listed these after so-called fact checkers claimed he suggested China deliberately released a bioweapon into the world.
Now, in early April, Post columnist David Ignatius <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-did-covid-19-begin-its-initial-origin-story-is-shaky/2020/04/02/1475d488-7521-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html">begrudgingly accepts</a> that maybe Cotton was right to suggest the coronavirus was accidentally released from the lab that studies the coronavirus. Of course, Ignatius couldn’t say Cotton was right, and instead downplayed Cotton’s early talk of an accidental release by claiming “Cotton’s earlier loose talk about bioweapons set off a furor, back when he first raised it in late January and called the outbreak ‘<a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/jan/31/cotton-steps-away-from-trial-to-deal-wi/?news">worse than Chernobyl</a>.’”
Ignatius also worked in a dig at President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus,” even though major media outlets – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/07/what-iowa-disaster-wuhan-virus-have-common/">including the Post</a> – were using those terms until the Chinese Communist Party said it was racist to use them.
Ignatius then said “China dished wild, irresponsible allegations of its own,” even though he provided no evidence the U.S. also dished “wild, irresponsible allegations.”
Still, Ignatius finally admitted that “the initial ‘origin story’ — that the virus was spread by people who ate contaminated animals at the <a href="https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/wuhans-huanan-seafood-market-may-not-be-ground-zero-of-the-covid19-pandemic/">Huanan Seafood Market</a> in Wuhan — is shaky.” He then spoke to the same Rutgers professor from the Post’s earlier fact check who now acknowledged that “the first human infection could have occurred as a natural accident.”
More from Ignatius:
<blockquote>Ebright described a December video from the Wuhan CDC that shows staffers “collecting bat coronaviruses with inadequate [personal protective equipment] and unsafe operational practices.” Separately, I reviewed two Chinese articles, from 2017 and 2019, describing the heroics of Wuhan CDC researcher Tian Junhua, who while capturing bats in a cave “forgot to take protective measures” so that “bat urine dripped from the top of his head like raindrops.”
And then there’s the Chinese study that was curiously withdrawn. In February, a site called ResearchGate published a brief article by Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao from Guangzhou’s South China University of Technology. “In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in high risk biohazardous laboratories,” the <a href="https://img-prod.tgcom24.mediaset.it/images/2020/02/16/114720192-5eb8307f-017c-4075-a697-348628da0204.pdf">article </a>concluded. Botao Xiao <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-epidemic-draws-scrutiny-to-labs-handling-deadly-pathogens-11583349777">told </a>the Wall Street Journal in February that he had withdrawn the paper because it “was not supported by direct proofs.”</blockquote>
Yet the Post refused to accept Cotton may have been right to suggest the virus came from that lab that was just down the street from the epicenter of the virus. Instead it used the opportunity to paint the Arkansas senator as a conspiracy theorist.

Tom Cotton

Washington Post Now Admits Maybe Tom Cotton Was Right To Suspect Coronavirus Outbreak Originated in Chinese Lab

Coronavirus

Media Bias

Washington Post

Despite <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-scarborough-says-everybody-but-trump-saw-coronavirus-coming-in-early-january-thats-not-true">revisionist claims</a> that everyone but President Donald Trump knew the coronavirus was serious in January, at that time, Democrats were focused solely on impeaching the president over a phone call.
National Review’s John McCormack has <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/the-senator-who-saw-the-coronavirus-coming/">an article</a> explaining that while Democrats and the media were focused on impeachment, one Republican Senator – Tom Cotton of Arkansas – was sounding the alarm on the coronavirus.
“On January 22, one day before the Chinese government <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/chinas-devastating-lies/">began</a> a quarantine of Wuhan to contain the spread of the virus, the Arkansas senator sent a <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/files/documents/200122_Cotton%20HHS%20Letter_Wuhan%20Coronavirus%20FINAL.pdf">letter</a> to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar encouraging the Trump administration to consider banning travel between China and the United States and warning that the Communist regime could be covering up how dangerous the disease really was. That same day, he amplified his warnings on <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1219973310630563841">Twitter</a> and in an appearance on the radio program of Fox &amp; Friends host Brian Kilmeade,” McCormack wrote.
“At the time, the Senate impeachment trial was dominating the news cycle. The trial, which lasted from January 16 to February 5, had even blotted out coverage of the Democratic presidential primary in the days leading up to the Iowa caucuses. When the first classified briefing on the virus was held in the Senate on January 24, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/30/how-coronavirus-shook-congress-complacency-155058">only 14 senators reportedly showed up</a>,” he continued.
In <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/files/documents/200128_Senator%20Cotton_Coronavirus_Letter.pdf">another letter</a>, written to Azar as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, Cotton warned that “no amount of screening [at airports] will identify a contagious-but-asymptomatic person afflicted with the coronavirus.” In that same letter, dated January 28, Cotton requested Americans in China be evacuated and that travel to and from the country be stopped.
On January 29, Cotton spoke to Trump about the virus, missing nearly three hours of the impeachment trial. Around that time, Cotton said the coronavirus outbreak was “the biggest and the most important story in the world.”
National Review spoke to Cotton about why he was sounding the alarm so early about the coronavirus when at the time it seemed contained to China and hadn’t infected many people.
“Two things struck me about China’s response,” he told the outlet. “First their deceit and their dishonesty going back to early December. And second, the extreme draconian measures they had taken. By the third week of January, they had more than 75 million people on lockdown. They were confined to their homes and apartments, otherwise they were arrested. In some cases, the front doors of those buildings were welded shut. All schools had shut down. Hong Kong had banned flights from the mainland. [These are] the kind of extreme, draconian measures that you would only take in a position of power in China if you were greatly worried about the spread of this virus.”
Two days after meeting with Cotton, Trump announced restrictions on commercial flights between American and China. Cotton told National Review that those who supported the restrictions were national security aides and that “most of his economic and public-health advisers were ambivalent at best about the travel ban.”
Cotton told the outlet he was also trying to get the administration “to be very aggressive and very flexible when it came to testing and diagnostic protocols. One consistent thing I had seen in the literature from past outbreaks is that the FDA and especially the CDC is unfortunately somewhat slow to act in these circumstances.”
Cotton said he discussed testing with Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and his deputy, Matthew Pottinger.
Cotton said that ultimately Trump bears responsibility for the CDC and FDA’s testing failures, as “sometimes you have to push very, very hard” to get through the bureaucracy. As to what happens now, Cotton said the virus needed to be contained before the economy can open up again.
“You can’t have a virus rampaging through society and expect the economy to open up, but you can’t have economic collapse and expect our health-care system to continue to work,” Cotton told National Review. “You have to get the virus under control before you gradually start reopening things like white-collar work and manufacturing capacity and low-density retail and ultimately high-density retail.”

While Democrats Pushed Impeachment, One Republican Senator Sounded Alarm On Coronavirus

Donald Trump

Impeachment

On Wednesday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) appeared on Fox News to speak about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Host Steve Doocy first asked Sen. Cotton about the coronavirus relief legislation that lawmakers have been haggling over for the last several days. Cotton assured viewers that the bill isn’t the one Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) proposed, and that there would be “some more money” for “people who are losing their job” and “medical equipment,” among other things.
Doocy also asked Cotton about a recent op-ed penned by the senator and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) for Fox News in which they argue that the United States must end its pharmaceutical dependence on China.
Cotton replied:
<blockquote>Yeah, things like antibiotics and ibuprofen and Advil are made in China for the most part. It&#8217;s time to bring that manufacturing capacity back to the United States, time to bring a lot more back to the United States from China. China unleashed this plague on the world, and there will be a reckoning when we&#8217;re on the back side of it.</blockquote>
In the op-ed, Cotton and Gallagher write that America’s dependence on China for pharmaceuticals poses a national security risk, and that the “low quality” of Chinese-made drugs has been dangerous in the past and could be dangerous in the future as well.
To put the Unites States’ dependence on Chinese pharmaceuticals to an end, Cotton and Gallagher have introduced the “Protecting Our Pharmaceutical Supply Chain From China Act.”
They <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/sen-cotton-and-rep-gallagher-china-stole-us-capacity-to-make-drugs-we-must-take-it-back">write</a>:
<blockquote>Our bill would require federal entities like the Department of Defense, VA hospitals, Medicare and Medicaid to cut off purchases of drugs with Chinese ingredients no later than 2025. This requirement would phase in over a period of years to give drug companies time to adjust, but would put clear pressure on importers to stop doing business with the CCP. The bill also would require drug companies to label the origins of ingredients in their drugs, so U.S. consumers are better informed of where their medicine comes from and whether it’s likely to be safe.</blockquote>
The bill would also encourage “the medical industry to manufacture in our country again by offering full and immediate expensing of factories, warehouses and capital goods related to the manufacture of drugs and medical devices on American soil.”
Earlier in the segment, Doocy asked Cotton about the timeline for the reopening of the economy, citing President Trump’s recent remarks that he would like to see the economy reopen “in stages” starting around Easter.
Cotton replied:
<blockquote>Well, I’d love to see that as well, but I think we have to exercise caution, Steve. The one thing we don’t want to see is a relaxing of some of the restrictions on public activities and then a resurgence of the pandemic. Ultimately, this is going to be a multifaceted response. It’s gonna require more testing and more personal protective equipment for our doctors and our nurses, making sure that none of our hospitals, whether it’s in rural Arkansas or New York City, are overwhelmed, not just by coronavirus cases, but by other cases needing intensive care.
And then also taking assessment of conditions on a regional or even local basis. Remember, the president didn’t “shut down the country.” These are decisions that are being made by governors and by mayors at the local and the state level based on conditions in their states. And ultimately, I think whenever we get back on our feet, get back to work, it’s gonna happen on a rolling basis in places that haven’t had a large outbreak or have got an outbreak under control, so you won’t just see a single, nationwide set of conditions. I think you’ll see it down to the local and state level as the president and the federal government works with our governors and our mayors.</blockquote>
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Sen. Tom Cotton

Sen. Cotton Introduces Bill To End Dependence On China-Made Pharmaceuticals: ‘China Unleashed This Plague’

China

COVID-19

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) highlighted &#8220;absurd provisions&#8221; that are &#8220;unrelated to the crisis at hand&#8221; that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) added to the coronavirus stimulus bill, which is needed to protect the economy and American families.
&#8220;Families and businesses need help now to survive the China virus pandemic,&#8221; Cotton <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1242169734763819011">tweeted</a>. &#8220;But @SpeakerPelosi walked away from negotiations to write her own bill, full of absurd provisions completely unrelated to the crisis at hand.&#8221;
Cotton then laid out 12 things that &#8220;Speaker Pelosi is demanding while Americans suffer.&#8221;
Cotton&#8217;s list included:
<ol>
<li>Corporate pay statistics by race and race statistics for all corporate boards at companies receiving assistance.</li>
<li>Bailing out all current debt of postal service</li>
<li>Required early voting</li>
<li>Required same day voter registration</li>
<li>10k bailout for student loans</li>
<li>For companies accepting assistance, 1/3 of board members must be chosen by workers</li>
<li>Provisions on official time for union collective bargaining</li>
<li>Full offset of airline emissions by 2025</li>
<li>Greenhouse gas statistics for individual flights</li>
<li>Retirement plans for community newspaper employees</li>
<li>$15 minimum wage at companies receiving assistance</li>
<li>Permanent paid leave at companies receiving assistance</li>
</ol>
&#8220;The Democrats see an opportunity in this crisis,&#8221; Cotton concluded. &#8220;Not to help the American people, but to hold an emergency relief bill hostage until they get their radical wish list. How long will Arkansans and Americans across the country have to wait?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
MSNBC’s <a href="https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GarrettHaake</a> on Dems&#39; Coronavirus bill: They&#39;re looking to include &quot;election security and vote by mail … [things] that are arguably not a current crisis” <a href="https://t.co/BcC2YoCqA4">pic.twitter.com/BcC2YoCqA4</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1242205113256529921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Yesterday, Democrats <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-democrats-block-coronavirus-bill-that-provides-lifeline-to-economy-families">blocked</a> a $1.8 trillion stimulus bill, which included $1,200 payments to millions of Americans and numerous other benefits, from being passed after Pelosi allegedly blew up the deal, according to Republicans and various reports.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mcconnell-explodes-on-pelosi-for-ruining-stimulus-bill-that-protected-economy-families">unloaded</a> on Pelosi during a speech on the Senate floor yesterday, saying that the Senate was doing just fine until her &#8220;intervention.&#8221;
“The American people are watching this spectacle,” McConnell said. “I’m told the futures market is down 5%. I’m also told that that’s when trading stops. So the notion that we have time to play games here with the American economy and the American people is utterly absurd.”
“So I want to explain what just happened,” McConnell continued. “Our good friends on the other side would not have been disadvantaged one bit if this vote had succeeded because it would have required potentially 30 more hours of discussion, during which these seemingly endless negotiations could go on as long as they would like.”
“Now the build up to this, so everybody fully understands, is that we had a high level of bipartisanship in five different working groups over the last 48 hours where members who were participating were reaching agreement,” McConnell continued. “And then all of a sudden the Democratic leader and the Speaker of the House shows up, and we’re back to square one. So, we’re fiddling here, fiddling with the emotions of the American people, fiddling with the markets, fiddling with our health care. The American people expect us to act tomorrow. And I want everybody to fully understand if we aren’t able to act tomorrow, it will be because of our colleagues on the other side continuing to dicker when the country expects us to come together and address this problem.”
“Now I changed my vote which gives me the opportunity to move to reconsider at a later time. That’s all I can do in the face of this obstruction. Look, I can understand obstruction when you’re trying to achieve something,” McConnell continued. “This obstruction achieves nothing. Nothing whatsoever other than prevent us from getting into a position where there are literally 30 more hours that they could use to continue to dicker. So at a time when the country is crying out for bipartisanship and cooperation — and we saw that over the last 48 hours when regular members of Senate, not in the leadership office, not in the speaker’s office for goodness sakes, she’s the Speaker of the House, not the speaker of the Senate. We don’t have one. We were doing just fine until that intervention.”
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“So I want the American people to fully understand what’s going on here,” McConnell continued. “The markets are already reacting to this outrageous nonsense. We have an obligation to the American people to deal with this emergency and to deal with it tomorrow. And if we don’t, I want everybody to fully understand you’ve seen everybody who’s on record, I’ve conspicuously avoided trying to turn this into any kind of partisan effort for two days. But it’s pretty clear what’s going on here.”
“Hopefully some adults will show up on the other side of the room and understand the gravity of the situation and the need to act before the markets go down further and the American people become even more depressed about our lack of ability to come together under the most extraordinary circumstances,” McConnell continued. “We’ve never been confronted with anything like this before. It’s totally different. And we’re not immune to it in terms of the public health risk. The coronavirus has hit the Senate today as well. We have five members, five members in self-quarantine. Everybody understands the emergency, particularly when it hits close to home. It’s not just back in our states, but right here in the Senate. So I would say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, step up, step up. Help us reach an agreement so we can do what needs to be done for the American people no later than tomorrow.”
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WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The American people expect us to act. If we fail, it will be because Senate Democrats are continuing to dither while the country expects bold, bipartisan action. <a href="https://t.co/23pFHoDtCl">pic.twitter.com/23pFHoDtCl</a>
&mdash; Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1241890195676573696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
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U.S. Senate Meets As Virus Rescue Plan Stalls

Senator Highlights Pelosi’s ‘Absurd’ Coronavirus Bill That Is ‘Unrelated To The Crisis’

Mitch McConnell

On Thursday, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) appeared on Fox News’  &#8220;The Story&#8221; with Martha MacCallum, who asked him if the United States could ever trust China again after their machinations regarding  the coronavirus, prompting Cotton to snap, &#8220;I have never trusted a Communist and I never will trust a Communist. That&#8217;s who runs China — the Chinese Communist Party.&#8221;
MacCallum started the segment by quoting from a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/coronavirus-china-americans-ben-shapiro">FoxNews.com op-ed</a> from Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro, who had written, “The Chinese government is chiefly responsible for the explosion of this pandemic . . . to trust the Chinese government after a global betrayal of this magnitude would not only be foolish, it would be immoral.”
MacCallum asked,“Does this fundamentally change our relationship with China and can we trust the government of China anymore?”
Cotton answered:
<blockquote>I have never trusted a Communist and I never will trust a Communist. And that&#8217;s who runs China, is the Chinese Communist Party. China doesn&#8217;t deserve to be trusted, as the president said; they unleashed this pandemic on the world. In early December, they knew that there was some kind of outbreak happening with the novel coronavirus in Wuhan.
If they had acted quickly, rather than lying to their own people, suppressing the whistleblowers, and lying to the world, then not only China but U.S. and other scientists and researchers and epidemiologists and other experts from around the world could have helped them contain this in Whuhan or in Hubei Province. Look what we have now: A pandemic and a severe global recession. Again, because of the Chinese Communist Party&#8217;s dishonesty, corruption, and incompetence.</blockquote>
MacCallum noted that in the early stages of the coronavirus, President Trump trusted the Chinese. She asked, “Can we ever work with them again?”
Cotton replied, “Simply because we can&#8217;t trust a Communist like [Chinese President] Xi Jinping doesn&#8217;t mean that we don&#8217;t have to talk with him. As Ronald Reagan said when we talked to Soviet leaders, &#8216;Trust but verify.'&#8221;
He continued:
<blockquote>So of course President Trump has to maintain open lines of communication with all of our adversaries around the world; however, we cannot trust China to continue to manufacture our pharmaceuticals, things like antibiotics and penicillin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen, so say nothing of dozens of other basic pharmaceutical ingredients.  That&#8217;s why I would say that the military, health and human services, meaning Medicare and Medicaid, the VA, can no longer buy drugs that are sourced from China and I would give incentives for companies to bring manufacturing of basic pharmaceuticals back to the United States.</blockquote>
MacCallum asked what differentiated Cotton&#8217;s bill from other bills with similar intent.
Cotton answered, “There&#8217;s a lot of different approaches; what we do is use the purchasing power of the entire United States government, every agency in the United States government that buys pharmaceuticals at scale.  We don&#8217;t say, &#8216;Study the problem,&#8217; we don&#8217;t say, &#8216;Form a commission and get back to us,&#8217; we just tell them within a certain time, stop buying these drugs.  And at the same time we provide incentives so we can start making those drugs here.&#8221;
Video below:
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cotton

WATCH: Tom Cotton On China: ‘I Have Never Trusted A Communist And I Never Will Trust A Communist’

Ben Shapiro

Noting that a Chinese Communist Party state-run media agency  reportedly stated that Beijing could “announce strategic control over medical products and ban exports to the United States. Then, the United States will be caught in the ocean of new coronaviruses,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) will introduce the Protecting our Pharmaceutical Supply Chain from China Act on Thursday to protect the United States from dependence on China for pharmaceuticals.
Cotton’s <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&amp;id=1342">website</a> notes that the bill will:
<ol>
<li>Track active pharmaceutical ingredients through an FDA registry; require the Food and Drug Administration to create a registry of all drugs and corresponding APIs that are produced outside the United States and are determined to be critical to the health and safety of Americans.</li>
<li>Prohibit pharmaceutical purchases from China or products with active pharmaceutical ingredients created in China.</li>
<li>Create transparency in the supply chain by instituting a country of origin label of all imported drugs.</li>
<li>Provide economic incentives for manufacturing drugs and medical equipment in the United States.</li>
</ol>
Earlier this month, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/coronavirus-china-us-drugs-trump-rubio-china-virus-xinhua-hell-epidemic-a9400811.html">The Independent</a> reported, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) told Fox News of <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/2020-03/04/c_1125660473.htm">an article</a> in Xinhua, the Chinese state-run media agency, that stated: “If China retaliates against the United States at this time, in addition to announcing a travel ban on the United States, it will also announce strategic control over medical products and ban exports to the United States. Then the United States will be caught in the ocean of new coronaviruses … Also according to the U.S. CDC officials, most of the drugs in the United States are imported…If China banned exports, the United States will fall into the hell of a new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic … We should say righteously that the U.S. owes China an apology, the world owes China a ‘thank you.’”
Cotton stated, “The Chinese Communist Party has threatened to cut off America&#8217;s access to vital drugs in the midst of a pandemic caused by its own failures. It&#8217;s time to pull America&#8217;s supply chains for life-saving medicine out of China and make the CCP pay for contributing to this global emergency.”
Gallagher echoed, &#8220;The Chinese Communist Party&#8217;s outrageous threats to withhold lifesaving drugs from the U.S. endangers public health and should open our eyes to our dangerous over-reliance on China in our medical supply chain. This is a national security imperative that to many Americans, is a matter of life and death. It&#8217;s past time for us to develop an aggressive plan to move critical pharmaceutical supply chains away from China.&#8221;
Cotton’s Senate <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/files/documents/Cotton%20Gallagher%20Bill%20FINAL.pdf">website</a> noted how dependent the United States is on the supply of pharmaceuticals from China:
<blockquote>Today, most active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used for drugs in the United States are made in China, including 95% of U.S. imports of ibuprofen, 70% of acetaminophen, and 40-45% of Penicillin. This vulnerable state of affairs is due to the Chinese Communist Party having spent a generation cornering this strategic market.</blockquote>
The bill’s text states that none of the actions the bill would implement would require the FDA to divert resources or otherwise slow its response to the coronavirus.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin Delivers Financial Stability Report To Senate Committee

Chinese State-Run Agency Reportedly Threatened China Could Withhold Lifesaving Drugs From U.S. Tom Cotton Has Bill That Would End U.S. Dependency On China.

Prescription Drugs

A political action committee associated with Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) has launched a new attack ad in Ohio and swing states across the nation attacking former Vice President Joe Biden for being “weak on China.” Cotton, a veteran of the war in Iraq, is determined to help GOP candidates who are veterans succeed in their quest for elective office, as <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/12/tom-cotton-launches-new-ad-attacking-joe-biden-on-china-in-ohio/">The Federalist</a> noted.
The Republican Majority Fund’s ad starts by citing a litany of China’s alleged human rights abuses and history of cyberwarfare, stating:
<blockquote>They run concentration camps. They forced the abortions of millions of babies. They brutally crack down on protesters. They hack America’s networks. They have stolen millions of our jobs. China is the greatest threat to our national security and our values. Career politician Joe Biden is weak on China.</blockquote>
The video shifts to footage of Biden pronouncing, “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. They’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not a competition for us.”
A 2019 <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2019/May/02/2002127082/-1/-1/1/2019_CHINA_MILITARY_POWER_REPORT.pdf">Pentagon report</a> stated:
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<blockquote>China’s military modernization also targets capabilities with the potential to degrade core U.S. operational and technological advantages. China uses a variety of methods to acquire foreign military and dual-use technologies, including targeted foreign direct investment, cyber theft, and exploitation of private Chinese nationals’ access to these technologies, as well as harnessing its intelligence services, computer intrusions, and other illicit approaches. In 2018, Chinese efforts to acquire sensitive, dual-use, or military-grade equipment from the United States included dynamic random access memory, aviation technologies, and anti- submarine warfare technologies.</blockquote>
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The narrator in the ad continues, “When Joe Biden was vice-president, his son got a sweetheart $1.5 billon deal from the Bank of China. When Joe Biden was senator, he voted to give special trade status that devastated American workers.  Biden is weak on China and wrong for America. We need to stand up to China and protect American jobs and our national security. Senator Cotton is standing with President Trump to take on China and keep America great.”
Cotton noted in <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/joe-biden-is-chinas-choice-for-president/">National Review</a>:
<blockquote>Despite the occasional box-checking, wishy-washy comment slapping Beijing on the wrist for the worst of its abuses, the reality is that the former vice president’s support of the People’s Republic of China is deep and longstanding. In the critical fight over whether to grant most-favored-nation trade status and World Trade Organization membership to China in the 1990s — a fight in which, again, many of his party’s leaders in Congress were on the right side — Biden carefully shepherded China through the process from his powerful perch as the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Wherever a brake might have been applied — by placing human-rights or labor conditions on most-favored-nation status, for example — Biden voted the measures down and lobbied other senators for Beijing.</blockquote>
Cotton told The Federalist: “Throughout his career, almost every time he got the chance, Joe Biden took China’s side and American workers are still suffering for it. Last year, Joe Biden claimed that China is ‘not competition for us’ and last month, he opposed President Trump’s travel ban on China as ‘xenophobic.’ Whatever the issue, Biden can be relied on to take China’s side.”
The Federalist noted, “Cotton’s Biden attack ad airing in Ohio might play to Sanders’ benefit in the state’s primaries next week as Sanders has targeted Biden on trade.”
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c_5BZsOPK7U" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

U.S Vice President Joe Biden Visits China

WATCH: Tom Cotton’s PAC Launches Ad Smashing Biden’s Past Support Of China

Joe Biden

On Tuesday morning, The New York Times reported that critics had singled out conservatives such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and  Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) for using the term &#8220;Wuhan&#8221; when describing the coronavirus that has affected various parts of the world. The Times tweeted:
<blockquote>Some conservatives, including Mike Pompeo, Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. Paul Gosar, are using the term “Wuhan virus” to describe Covid-19. Critics accused the term, which goes against the recommendation of health officials, of being racist and xenophobic.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Some conservatives, including Mike Pompeo, Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. Paul Gosar, are using the term “Wuhan virus” to describe Covid-19. Critics accused the term, which goes against the recommendation of health officials, of being racist and xenophobic. <a href="https://t.co/z31zlTHCaL">https://t.co/z31zlTHCaL</a>
&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1237417952955305987?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The Times may have taken satisfaction in seeing prominent members of the GOP come under fire for alleged racist and xenophobic language, but it should take a look at its own house first. Check out these tweets from the paper that has boasted it featured &#8220;All the news fit to print&#8221;:
January 21: “Breaking News: The first U.S. case of the Wuhan coronavirus has been confirmed in Washington State, federal officials said. The virus has spread from China to at least 4 other countries.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Breaking News: The first U.S. case of the Wuhan coronavirus has been confirmed in Washington State, federal officials said. The virus has spread from China to at least 4 other countries. <a href="https://t.co/ahjgXTS9sM">https://t.co/ahjgXTS9sM</a>
&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1219690544936431616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
January 21: “Maps: Where the Wuhan coronavirus has spread.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Maps: Where the Wuhan coronavirus has spread<a href="https://t.co/vmgMbfsjgY">https://t.co/vmgMbfsjgY</a>
&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1219816978451439616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
January 23: “A Texas A&amp;M University student is being examined for a suspected case of the Wuhan coronavirus. Officials say they&#8217;re keeping the patient isolated at home while they do additional testing.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A Texas A&amp;M University student is being examined for a suspected case of the Wuhan coronavirus. Officials say they&#39;re keeping the patient isolated at home while they do additional testing.<a href="https://t.co/5NeFbKq4KD">https://t.co/5NeFbKq4KD</a>
&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1220481391361712129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
January 23: “A look at China&#8217;s battle with the Wuhan coronavirus, in photos.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A look at China&#39;s battle with the Wuhan coronavirus, in photos <a href="https://t.co/3sWfHBDnKJ">https://t.co/3sWfHBDnKJ</a>
&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1220325349575266304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
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January 24: &#8220;The latest on the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak: France has become the first country in Europe to report infections. Authorities confirmed one case in Bordeaux and another in Paris.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The latest on the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak: France has become the first country in Europe to report infections. Authorities confirmed one case in Bordeaux and another in Paris. <a href="https://t.co/aGBQGOciRx">https://t.co/aGBQGOciRx</a>
&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1220795757156012032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
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January 27: “The death toll of the Wuhan coronavirus climbed to at least 80 &#8211; Nearly 3,000 people have so far contracted the virus &#8211; China extended its Lunar New Year holiday by three more days to discourage people from traveling Latest updates here:”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&#8211; The death toll of the Wuhan coronavirus climbed to at least 80 &#8211; Nearly 3,000 people have so far contracted the virus &#8211; China extended its Lunar New Year holiday by three more days to discourage people from traveling
Latest updates here: <a href="https://t.co/oRy57fXbf8">https://t.co/oRy57fXbf8</a>
&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1221694345520152576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
January 27: “Videos circulating on Chinese social media show doctors straining to handle the enormous workload and hospital corridors loaded with patients, some of whom appear to already be dead. Here are the latest updates on the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Videos circulating on Chinese social media show doctors straining to handle the enormous workload and hospital corridors loaded with patients, some of whom appear to already be dead.
Here are the latest updates on the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. <a href="https://t.co/thOFNwafla">https://t.co/thOFNwafla</a>
&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1221719508882161664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
January 29: “China now has more cases of the Wuhan coronavirus than it had of SARS, but comparing the two is tricky —170 people have died. More than 7,711 cases have been confirmed. —Mask hoarders may raise the risk of an outbreak in the United States.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
—China now has more cases of the Wuhan coronavirus than it had of SARS, but comparing the two is tricky —170 people have died. More than 7,711 cases have been confirmed. —Mask hoarders may raise the risk of an outbreak in the United States
Live updates: <a href="https://t.co/LYRZ4OWir9">https://t.co/LYRZ4OWir9</a>
&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1222767316250873856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
February 2: “The Wuhan coronavirus spreading from China is now likely to become a pandemic that circles the globe, according to experts. But scientists do not yet know how lethal the new coronavirus is.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Wuhan coronavirus spreading from China is now likely to become a pandemic that circles the globe, according to experts. But scientists do not yet know how lethal the new coronavirus is. <a href="https://t.co/u1KezmOoq2">https://t.co/u1KezmOoq2</a>
&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1224067508107386882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/10/republicans-face-backlash-racist-labeling-coronavirus-china-wuhan">The Guardian</a> reported on Tuesday in a piece titled, &#8220;Republicans face backlash over racist labeling of coronavirus,&#8221; that the Chinese government took umbrage with politicians using the term Wuhan to describe the virus:
<blockquote>China reacted furiously on Monday, with a spokesman for the foreign ministry <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/t1753656.shtml" data-link-name="in body link">criticizing US elected officials</a>. “Despite the fact that the WHO [<a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world-health-organization" data-link-name="in body link">World Health Organization</a>] has officially named this novel type of coronavirus, certain American politician[s], disrespecting science and the WHO decision, jumped at the first chance to stigmatize China and Wuhan with it. We condemn this despicable practice,” said Geng Shuang.</blockquote>
The Guardian then issued its partisan shot: &#8220;Republicans’ attempts to associate Covid-19 overtly with China repeats a common theme of associating epidemics with certain countries, such as 1918 influenza pandemic being branded &#8216;Spanish flu.&#8217;”
No mention of The New York Times.

Oops computer keyboard close up

NY Times Notes GOP Leaders Get Accused Of Racism For Calling Coronavirus ‘Wuhan.’ Check Out These NY Times Tweets.

Mike Pompeo

New York Times

Racism

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) told Fox News on Sunday that the China&#8217;s communist government has repeatedly lied about the coronavirus, including the magnitude of the problem and where the virus originated.
Cotton, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee, told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that &#8220;the situation is very grave, in part because, as you say, China was lying from the beginning, and they&#8217;re still lying today, and also because there are so many unknowns about this virus, for example, how many people one person can infect once they have the virus, the extent to which it&#8217;s contagious before one is symptomatic, or the mortality rate.&#8221;
Cotton also said that China&#8217;s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-coronavirus.html">claim</a> in January that the virus originated from an animal market was not true.
&#8220;This virus didn&#8217;t originate in the Wuhan animal market,&#8221; Cotton said. &#8220;Epidemiologists who are widely respected from China who have published a studied in the international journal The Lancet have demonstrated that several of the original cases didn&#8217;t have any contact with that food market.&#8221;
&#8220;The virus went into that food market before it came out of that food market. So, we don&#8217;t know where it originated,&#8221; Cotton continued. &#8220;But we do know that we have to get to the bottom of that. We also know that, just a few miles away from that food market is China&#8217;s only biosafety level four super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases.&#8221;
&#8220;Now, we don&#8217;t have evidence that this disease originated there, but, because of China&#8217;s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says,&#8221; Cotton added. &#8220;And China right now is not giving any evidence on that question at all.&#8221;
Cotton noted that the United States has the same types of laboratories that are run by the military and are used for preventative purposes.
&#8220;China&#8217;s obviously very secretive about what happens at the Wuhan laboratory. We don&#8217;t know, again, where this virus originated. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s so important that we at least ask the questions and get the evidence,&#8221; Cotton said. &#8220;But China continues to block our ability to ask those questions and get that evidence.&#8221;
At the end of January, Cotton <a href="https://twitter.com/sentomcotton/status/1222923797503803392">said</a> that the coronavirus was worse than Chernobyl for China&#8217;s communist government.
Cotton also said that China&#8217;s attempts to downplay the gravity of the situation made the outbreak much worse.
&#8220;The first cases indicated in early December, which meant that they were transmitted some time in November. China finally fessed up to the WHO on December 31. If they had taken action weeks earlier, not only might their own people have been better protected, but the entire world might have been better protected,&#8221; Cotton said. &#8220;This is just a pattern of Chinese dishonesty from the very beginning, which continues to this very day. Just a few days ago, we went from a situation where they were reporting only a couple hundred more cases or maybe 1,000 more cases a day to almost 14,000 cases in a single day.&#8221;
&#8220;That wasn&#8217;t the result of any scientific discovery,&#8221; Cotton concluded. &#8220;That was a political decision to finally reveal what they knew to be true. Yet they are still covering up, in all likelihood, the number of cases and deaths from coronavirus inside of China.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I want to commend <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> for shutting down travel from China. That was the most important preventative step we could have taken. WATCH my interview with <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MariaBartiromo</a> on coronavirus: <a href="https://t.co/aPa347oFQk">https://t.co/aPa347oFQk</a>
&mdash; Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1229151761186934784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Senate Impeachment Trial Of President Donald Trump Begins

Tom Cotton: China Lying About Magnitude, Origin Of Coronavirus, ‘Worse Than Chernobyl’

There is a lot of misinformation surrounding the coronavirus outbreak in China and elsewhere, mostly thanks to the communist nation’s crackdown on letting real information out.
The American media, however, is more concerned with dunking on Republicans and “fact checking” them to bolster claims they’re liars than with actual information regarding the coronavirus. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has said multiple times that we currently don’t know where exactly the coronavirus has originated (he said China’s explanation that it originated in a fish market is untrue). Cotton has also said that just miles away from that food market is a Chinese super lab that studies human infectious diseases.
Cue media fact checkers. The fact checkers point to “experts” who have “debunked” Cotton’s claims. Except they have “debunked” things Cotton never said.
The Washington Post is the most recent to “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/16/tom-cotton-coronavirus-conspiracy/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=wp_main">fact check</a>” Cotton, quoting him saying one thing and experts talking about something else. The Post included two quotes from Cotton.
“We don’t know where it originated, and we have to get to the bottom of that,” Cotton said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China’s only biosafety level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases.”
During that same interview, Cotton acknowledged that the U.S. needs more information from China about where the disease originated.
“Now, we don’t have evidence that this disease originated there, but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says,” Cotton said. “And China right now is not giving any evidence on that question at all.”
Nowhere in those interviews does Cotton suggest China hand-made the disease in those labs, yet that is what the “fact checkers” are debunking. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/business/media/coronavirus-tom-cotton-china.html">The New York Times</a> and <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/sen-tom-cotton-flogs-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-dismissed-by-actual-scientists">The Daily Beast</a> also “debunked” Cotton’s claims.
Richard Ebright, chemical biology professor at Rutgers University, told the Post “There’s absolutely nothing in the genome sequence of this virus that indicates the virus was engineered.
“The possibility this was a deliberately released bioweapon can be firmly excluded,” he added.
Except, Cotton didn’t suggest it was manmade. He said the lab “researches” human infectious diseases. He didn’t say they engineered them. Ebright’s other point also can’t be “firmly excluded” just because the virus may not have been human engineered. Surely the Post edited his remarks.
Vipin Narang, associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, came the closest to “debunking” what Cotton said, by saying it was “highly unlikely” the virus infected the general population due to an accident at the lab. That’s more in line with what Cotton was saying.
Narang then went sideways by debunking something Cotton didn’t say.
“It’s a skip in logic to say it’s a bioweapon that the Chinese developed and intentionally deployed, or even unintentionally deployed,” Narang said.
Yes, it is a skip in logic. One Cotton didn’t make.
Cotton responded to media outlets “debunking” claims he didn’t make on Twitter.
“Let me debunk the debunkers. <a href="https://twitter.com/paulina_milla">@paulina_milla</a> and her ‘experts’ wrongly jump straight to the claim that the coronavirus is an engineered bioweapon. That’s not what I’ve said. There’s at least four hypotheses about the origin of the virus:” Cotton said. He then outlined the four hypotheses, which he said are not “theories,” but “hypotheses that ought to be studied in light of the evidence, if the Chinese Communist Party would provide it.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Let me debunk the debunkers. <a href="https://twitter.com/paulina_milla?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@paulina_milla</a> and her “experts” wrongly jump straight to the claim that the coronavirus is an engineered bioweapon. That’s not what I’ve said. There’s at least four hypotheses about the origin of the virus: <a href="https://t.co/536ygN1gC7">https://t.co/536ygN1gC7</a>
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1229202134048133126?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The first, which Cotton said is the most likely, is that the virus came from natural causes. The second hypothesis is that the virus was accidentally released from the lab. The third is that it is an engineered-bioweapon with an accidental release, and the fourth hypothesis is that it was a deliberate release.
Cotton listed these hypotheses after the “debunkers” started jumping to conclusions to fact check him.

Media Claims Tom Cotton Coronavirus Claims Debunked, Fail To Debunk What He Actually Said

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) will head into the 2020 election without major opposition after the Democratic Party’s intended senatorial candidate, Joshua Mahoney, dropped out mere hours after filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Mahoney reportedly said he was dropping out to focus on his family amidst a “family health concern,” according to the <a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/nov/12/josh-mahony-drops-out-us-senate-race/">Arkansas Democrat Gazette</a>. However, a campaign statement says that he is dropping out to “focus on my family and place their interests first.”
“I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to all of those who have supported me during this race,” reads the campaign statement, as noted by the news agency. “It has been the honor of my life to be able to meet and visit with so many Arkansans over the last six months and hear their voices. It was my sincere hope to be their advocate in Washington, DC. However, in this moment right now, I need to focus on my family and place their interests first.”
Mahoney originally declared his candidacy back in May, and his abrupt exit has led members of the Republican to believe that, contrary to what Mahoney has publicly stated, a well-timed opposition research dump may be the actual reason for abandoning the race.  
Shortly after the deadline to file had passed, Cotton’s campaign manager Brian Colas sent an email to Cotton’s supporters revealing that there were “significant vulnerabilities in Mahoney’s background,” according to the <a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/nov/17/memo-reveals-attack-strategy-for-cotton-1/">Arkansas Democrat Gazette</a>. 
&#8220;Our strategy was to hold our research, allow Mahony to gain momentum to prevent other candidates from entering the race, and work [with] the state Republican Party and the [National Republican Senatorial Committee] to release this information after it was too late for anyone else to enter the race,&#8221; wrote Colas in the email to supporters, as noted by the news agency. 
The Arkansas Republican Party also issued a <a href="https://www.arkansasgop.org/press-release.html">statement</a>, calling for an FEC investigation into allegedly false statements Mahoney had made on official campaign registration forms. 
“A review of contribution records filed with the FEC reveal that, in the past 18 months, Mahony has falsely listed himself as a ‘small business owner’ employed by ‘EAM, LLC’ at least seventy-four times, despite admitting that he was actually unemployed during that time, having previously sold his interest in a business owned and run by a member of his extended family,” according to the statement on the state Republican Party&#8217;s website. “Willfully making false statements to a federal agency (or causing others to do so) is a violation of federal law and carries civil and criminal penalties.”
“Mahony’s misrepresentations aren’t just to the government. He has already repeatedly lied to Arkansas voters, falsely claiming that he is a business owner and entrepreneur, when he has been unemployed for years and living off of his wife’s salary and royalties from a business built by extended family members.”
Cotton is currently serving his first term as the state’s junior senator, having defeated incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) in 2014. He is now all but assured re-election in 2020.

Cotton Deploys Bold Strategy Against Dem Rival. He’ll Now Run Unopposed.

2020 Election

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has sent <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/files/documents/IG%20Letter.pdf">a letter</a> detailing five questions he has for Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson.
Late last month, Atkinson testified behind closed doors before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. During that time, Cotton’s staff <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&#038;id=1232">said</a>, the IG “refused to answer questions about the political bias of the ‘whistleblower,’ despite being in a closed session and despite this information being unclassified.” Later, Atkinson offered this information to the House Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by a Democrat.
On Wednesday, Cotton sent a letter to Atkinson with five unanswered questions from his testimony.
“Your disappointing testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on September 26 was evasive to the point of being insolent and obstructive,” Cotton says in the letter. “Despite repeated questions, you refused to explain what you meant in your written report by ‘indicia of an arguable political bias on the part of the Complainant in favor of a rival political candidate.’ This information is, of course, unclassified and we were meeting in a closed setting. Yet you moralized about how you were duty bound not to share even a hint of this political bias with us.”
Cotton’s questions center around the whistleblower’s political bias:
<ol>
<li>
<blockquote>Does the complainant have (or did he once have) a professional relationship with a Democratic presidential candidate or campaign?
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>If so, which candidate or campaign and what is the nature of that relationship?
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>What other &#8220;indicia of arguable political bias&#8221; of the complainant did you find?
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Did you or anyone subject to your control or influence share with CNN that the &#8220;arguable political bias&#8221; was merely that the complainant is a registered Democrat?
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Why did you refuse to answer my questions at the September 26 hearing?
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>
Cotton gave Atkinson a deadline of 5:00 pm on Friday, October 11 to answer the questions.
As Julie Kelly of American Greatness noted, Cotton’s letter lacks any real teeth, reminding readers that the GOP Senate has regularly sent “strongly worded letters” without ever following up on them.
“We’ve seen this movie before in GOP Senate &#8211; threats and demands that are never followed-up,” Kelly tweeted. “Just this week, the Senate Judiciary committee asked about criminal referrals it send to DOJ A YEAR AGO related to the Kavanaugh debacle. Lots of letters sent in 2017/18 about FISA/Spy/Russiagate. No action.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
So we have another strongly-worded *letter* from a GOP Senator demanding answers from a shady bureaucrat he called “insolent and obstructive” for refusing to answer questions about the whistleblower even though the info isn’t classified. Cotton set a deadline of tomorrow for&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/JhhfYpiFcZ">https://t.co/JhhfYpiFcZ</a>
— Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) <a href="https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1182281852142444544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2019</a>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A YEAR AGO related to the Kavanaugh debacle. Lots of letters sent in 2017/18 about FISA/Spy/Russiagate. No action. I hope <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenTomCotton</a> does not repeat the same mistake here with Atkinson.
— Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) <a href="https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1182282690843877376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2019</a>
</blockquote>
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Indeed, throughout the two year investigation into whether President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election (the investigation of which found no evidence to support the media and Democrat’s continued claims about this), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent numerous letters demanding answers to questions. Some of those letters, <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/constituents/2017-07-20%20CEG%20to%20DOJ%20%28Ukraine%20DNC%20FARA%29.pdf">such as this one</a>, sought answers as to why Democrat-connected consultants were allowed to retroactively file under the Foreign Agents Registration Act while Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was indicted for not doing so in a timely manner. Another <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-seeks-information-about-fbi-raid-whistleblower-s-home">letter</a> from Grassley asked why the FBI raided the home of a whistleblower “who reportedly disclosed information about the Clinton Foundation and the Uranium One transaction.” These and numerous other letters from the senator were never followed up on, and as Kelly pointed out, neither was the criminal referrals for people who provided false testimony during the investigation into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Sen. Cotton Has Some Questions For The Intelligence Community IG Regarding The Whistleblower Complaint

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) revealed on Wednesday that he had inquired about the United States purchasing Greenland months before reports surfaced that President Donald Trump first expressed interest in buying the island.
“You’re joking, but I can reveal to you that several months ago, I met with the Danish ambassador and I proposed that they sell Greenland to us,” Cotton said while speaking at the inaugural <a href="https://talkbusiness.net/2019/08/sen-cotton-says-he-asked-danish-ambassador-about-selling-greenland/">Talk Business &amp; Politics Power Lunch</a>.
Accordingly, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-eyes-a-new-real-estate-purchase-greenland-11565904223">The Wall Street Journal</a> published a report last week that stated Trump had asked about the United States’ ability to acquire Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, on multiple occasions and had even directed his White House counsel to look into its legal possibility.
The president confirmed days later that he was sincerely looking into purchasing the world’s largest non-continental island.
“Strategically, for the United States, it would be nice,” Trump told reporters. “And we’re a big ally of Denmark, and we help Denmark, and we protect Denmark.”
“Obviously, the right decision for this country,” Cotton replied when he was asked about the proposal. He argued that Greenland’s rich mineral resources and strategic location makes it an ideal acquisition for America, noting further that the move would be “vital to our national security” and that the “economic potential is untold.”
“Anyone who can’t see that is blinded by Trump derangement,” the Arkansas senator said.
Cotton reminded the crowd that former President Harry Truman offered to purchase Greenland for $100 million in the mid-1940s after World War II. He also explained that China attempted to bribe the local Greenland government into allowing the country to build three military bases on the land in 2018; at the time, the U.S. government convinced Denmark to block the deal.
The United States and Greenland have had a longstanding agreement to house American military assets on the island. Consequently, Thule Air Base, which is the U.S.&#8217;s northernmost base, has been active since World War II.
“I told the president you should buy it as well,” Cotton said. “[Trump has] heard that from me and from some other people as well.”
However, the White House’s inquiry into a sale ignited a media firestorm and forced the island’s over-arching government to issue a defensive statement.
“Greenland is not for sale,” said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. “Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.”
After Frederiksen later criticized the president’s “absurd discussion” about purchasing the island, Trump retaliated by canceling a scheduled meeting between the United States and Denmark.
“Denmark is a very special country with incredible people,” Trump tweeted. “But based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing out meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">&#8230;.The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1163961884225277954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
“The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct,” he continued. “I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!”

Greenland

Republican Senator Takes Credit For Suggesting Greenland Purchase To Trump

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called out a handful of Democrats on Thursday evening after the lawmakers expressed outrage over Attorney General William Barr’s decision to resume executions of federal prisoners.
The Department of Justice announced earlier in the day that the Bureau of Prisons was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49923/ag-barr-orders-first-federal-executions-2003-here-ryan-saavedra">adopting an addendum</a> to the Federal Execution Protocol making way &#8220;for the federal government to resume capital punishment after a nearly two-decade lapse, and bringing justice to victims of the most horrific crimes.&#8221;
Cotton initially responded to two members of the progressive group known as &#8220;The Squad,&#8221; Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), after they criticized the decision.
&#8220;[Pressley] defending an Aryan Nation white supremacist who brutally murdered an 8-year old girl [and] dumped their bodies in a bayou is a little surprising,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1154570513878069248?s=20">Cotton</a> replied. &#8220;Clinton DOJ sought death penalty! Just shows had radical Dems are today.&#8221;
&#8220;[Omar] also leaping to the defense of Aryan Nation white supremacist. He is the heinous one,&#8221; Cotton said in response to Omar’s contention that the death penalty is &#8220;heinous.&#8221; &#8220;His three murder victims (one an 8-year old girl) were in Arkansas. Justice for their families [and] their memories is long overdue.&#8221;
&#8220;Thank you, AG Barr,&#8221; he added.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/IlhanMN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IlhanMN</a> also leaping to defense of Aryan Nation white supremacist. He is the heinous one. His three murder victims (one an 8-year-old girl) were Arkansans. Justice for their families &amp; their memories is long overdue. Thank you, AG Barr. <a href="https://t.co/3zjWc8GoBH">https://t.co/3zjWc8GoBH</a>
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1154571914159038464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Along with the decision to resume federal executions, Barr revealed that he had directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule the executions of five death-row inmates. The first inmate scheduled is Daniel Lewis Lee, a member of a white supremacist group who had murdered a family of three, including an 8-year-old child.
The <a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/jul/25/man-convicted-killing-arkansas-couple-8-year-old-g/">Arkansas Democrat Gazette</a> describes the event:
<blockquote>Prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice said Lee robbed and shot the victims with a stun gun, then covered their heads with plastic bags, sealed the bags with duct tape, weighed down each victim with rocks and threw the family of three into the Illinois bayou at Russelville. Authorities said the crimes were part of a scheme to steal a large cache of guns and $50,000 cash from [the victim] to use in the establishment of a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest.</blockquote>
Nevertheless, a host of 2020 Democratic contenders tweeted their opposition to reinstating the federal death penalty.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) called capital punishment &#8220;immoral and deeply flawed,&#8221; adding that &#8220;too many innocent people have been put to death.&#8221;
&#8220;Democrats have lost their minds!&#8221; Cotton <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1154575068044963841?s=20">responded</a>.
&#8220;There’s enough violence in the world,&#8221; <a href="http://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1154577112361316352?s=20">wrote</a> Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). &#8220;The government shouldn’t add to it. When I am president, we will abolish the death penalty.&#8221;
&#8220;[Sanders] can’t even see the moral difference between death sentence after due process [and] brutal triple murder,&#8221; Cotton <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1154577112361316352?s=20">replied</a>. &#8220;Disturbing.&#8221;
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) came out against the death penalty because the American criminal justice system &#8220;has a long history of mistakes when it comes to capital punishment – especially when it comes to Black and Brown people.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ewarren</a>, I hate to break the news, but the first murderer facing execution is an Aryan Nation white supremacist. He brutally murdered an 8-year-old Arkansas girl &amp; her parents. *Clinton DOJ* sought death penalty. Dems have lost their mind since the 1990s. <a href="https://t.co/LNA5mzzYWh">https://t.co/LNA5mzzYWh</a>
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1154578262770823168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;[Warren], I hate to break the news, but the first murderer facing execution is an Aryan Nation white supremacist,&#8221; Cotton said. &#8220;… Dems have lost their minds since the 1990s.&#8221;
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg also expressed his opposition to capital punishment on the grounds of racism. &#8220;Justice is not equally distributed in our country. Too often, race and geography determine who lives and who dies,&#8221; Buttigieg said. &#8220;We should be joining the ranks of modern nations and abolishing the death penalty – not expanding its reach.&#8221;
&#8220;[Buttigieg] apparently not aware this murderer is an Aryan Nation white supremacist who killed an 8-year-old Arkansas girl [and] her parents,&#8221; Cotton <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1154580488511721472?s=20">responded</a>. &#8220;A jury of his peers – not race or geography – decided [he] should die for his heinous crimes. Much more than his victims got.&#8221;
&#8220;Most Americans have always believed that the death penalty is a just response to the most heinous crimes,&#8221; Cotton told The Daily Wire. &#8220;I commend the president and Attorney General Barr for reinstating the federal death penalty in order to carry out sentences imposed on five brutal murderers by juries of their peers.&#8221;
&#8220;After many years of unnecessary delay, justice will soon be done for these criminals’ many victims, including the Mueller family of Tilly, Arkansas,&#8221; he added.

Tom Cotton Calls Out 2020 Democrats For Defending ‘Heinous’ White Supremacist Against The Death Penalty

Department of Justice

William Barr

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), arguably the single most authentically pro-Israel elected politician in America, has long been hard-nosed and hawkish on the uniquely evil threat posed by the radical terror mullocracy governing the Islamic Republic of Iran. As I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43151/hammer-ted-cruzs-non-interventionist-hawk-foreign-josh-hammer">noted</a> back in February, here is how Cruz recently put it in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jR2DTXJKVo">important foreign policy address</a> delivered to the American Enterprise Institute:
<blockquote>
If we ever discover the Ayatollah is on the verge of getting nuclear weapons, and I believe his ambitions will continue to be doing just that, we should be prepared to use crushing military force to make sure that doesn&#8217;t happen. Military force to destroy their nuclear capacity &#8212; that should be our objective. Why? Because that is what our national interest is. To prevent an Ayatollah who chants &#8220;death to America&#8221; and &#8220;death to Israel&#8221; from ever having weapons capable of murdering in a flash of light millions of American souls.
</blockquote>
Cruz&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43151/hammer-ted-cruzs-non-interventionist-hawk-foreign-josh-hammer">&#8220;non-interventionist hawk&#8221;</a> foreign policy profile prioritizes the blistering aggression of counter-jihadism when need be &#8212; while also prudently resisting American resources getting sucked into sharia tribal warfare in third-world backwaters, so that our military and social capital may be conserved for truly necessary military exercises.
The threat posed by Iran, which is the world&#8217;s number one state sponsor of cultivated and exported jihadism, meets any definition of a serious geopolitical threat posed to American interests. And as The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45883/senate-hawks-push-white-house-stop-extending-josh-hammer">reported</a> in April, Cruz recently found himself allied with fellow Iran hawks Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and a small handful of other Republican senators, as well as National Security Advisor John Bolton, on the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-11/fresh-u-s-divide-on-iran-emerges-over-expiring-nuclear-waivers">issue of fully ending waivers</a> for Iran&#8217;s allegedly &#8220;civil&#8221; nuclear research program. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at the time, was opposed to the Cruz-led push to once and for all end waivers for Iran&#8217;s civil-nuclear research program.
At the time, Cruz helped craft a letter, a copy of which The Daily Wire obtained from a Republican staffer, that urged the Trump administration to take four concrete steps: (1) once and for all end all U.S. implementation of the Iran deal by refusing to reissue waivers permitting civil nuclear work, (2) urge the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to reopen its file on the possible military dimensions of Iran&#8217;s nuclear program, (3) properly designate all Iranian entities named in the Israeli government&#8217;s previously seized nuclear archive from Tehran, and (4) explicitly reference the <a href="http://urges the Trump Administration to take four concrete steps: (1) once and for all end all U.S. implementation of the Iran deal by refusing to reissue waivers permitting civil nuclear work, (2) urge the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to reopen its file on the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program, (3) properly designate all Iranian entities named in the Israeli government's previously seized nuclear archive from Tehran, and (4) explicitly reference the aforementioned nuclear archive in the Trump Administration's upcoming report to Congress on &quot;Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments.&quot;">aforementioned nuclear archive</a> in the Trump administration&#8217;s upcoming report to Congress on &#8220;Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments.&#8221;
Now, Cruz has a new proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would codify this termination of Iran&#8217;s civil-nuclear waivers into law. The proposed amendment, a copy of which The Daily Wire has also obtained, would formally amend the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012 to end waivers and finally impose sanctions on Iran&#8217;s &#8220;civil&#8221; nuclear sector.
This is common sense policy, pure and simple. Iran, which has one of the world&#8217;s largest oil reserves, has no need whatsoever for a &#8220;civil&#8221; nuclear program. Instead, it is far more likely that the &#8220;civil&#8221; program is being used to hoodwink and bamboozle easily duped Westerners into inadvertently supporting the terrorist regime&#8217;s nuclear weapon ambitions.
&#8220;Sen. Cruz believes that it&#8217;s long past time to fully tear up the catastrophic Obama Iran nuclear deal, including by making Iran&#8217;s nuclear program off-limits to the international community through the sector-based designation described in his amendment,&#8221; a Cruz spokesman told The Daily Wire. &#8220;He has also called upon the Trump administration to take steps that would reinforce this measure, including ending civil-nuclear waivers that allow Iran to build up its program and invoking the snapback provision in United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 to restore international sanctions.&#8221;
While the amendment&#8217;s chances of being adopted into the NDAA may be slim, this is nonetheless a move that ought to be unambiguously applauded. Conservative Iran hawks ought to be thankful, yet again, for Cruz&#8217;s leadership on the issue of preventing a nuclear Iran.

Ted Cruz Proposes Important Amendment To Finally End Iran’s Civil-Nuclear Waivers

Foreign Policy

Iran

John Bolton

Marco Rubio

Middle East

Nuclear Weapons

Ted Cruz

Today, a stunning <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/team-obama-tells-iran-dont-escalate-dont-take-trumps-bait">report</a> in the Daily Beast reveals the depths to which the sycophantic pro-Iran capitulators of the Barack Obama foreign policy apparatus continue to sink to support the terrorist regime that remains the world&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43339/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">number one state sponsor</a> of jihadist exportation.
In unusual journalistic fashion, the Daily Beast anonymously quotes many former Obama administration officials throughout the piece &#8212; thus lending cover to those who would openly collude with a brazen American geopolitical foe against the interests of the American people.
Per the Daily Beast:
<blockquote>
As the Trump administration sent warplanes and an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, a small group of former Obama administration officials reached out to their contacts in the Iranian government, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Their message to Iran: Don&#8217;t take Trump&#8217;s bait. Stay calm.
Conversations between former Obama officials and Iranian government officials have been ongoing since November 2016. Zarif, who visits the U.S. every year for the U.N. General Assembly in New York, usually meets with lawmakers, think tanks, journalists, and former officials when he is in town.
But the recent round of conversations, which took place over the phone and in person over the last two months, came as lines of communication between the U.S. and Iran, through intermediaries in Europe and elsewhere, deteriorated.
</blockquote>
The Daily Beast further noted how the Obama officials seem to have a clear motive: Discerning whether the possibility exists of the U.S. re-entering a new Iran nuclear deal in a post-President Donald Trump world. &#8220;Separately, some former Obama officials are trying to keep the roots of the Iran nuclear deal alive by taking the pulse of lawmakers on Capitol Hill to gauge whether they are in favor of restarting talks in the future,&#8221; the outlet stated.
Conservative, anti-Iran national security hands had a field day with the report.
Omri Ceren, national security advisor for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), tweeted: &#8220;Former Obama officials have been working with Iran and friends on the Hill to isolate the Trump admin. Their most recent contacts were a couple weeks ago. They told [the Daily Beast] that them secretly talking to Iran is &#8216;normal.'&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Former Obama officials have been working with Iran and friends on the Hill to isolate the Trump admin. Their most recent contacts were a couple weeks ago. They told <a href="https://twitter.com/thedailybeast?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@thedailybeast</a> that them secretly talking to Iran is &#8220;normal&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/OcenW1KuMq">https://t.co/OcenW1KuMq</a>
&#8212; Omri Ceren (@omriceren) <a href="https://twitter.com/omriceren/status/1134431729983328259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Foreign policy consultant Jason Epstein tweeted: &#8220;I&#8217;m old enough to remember when war veteran Tom Cotton and his GOP colleagues were cursed as &#8216;traitors&#8217; for merely penning a letter to Khamenei explaining how the Senate worked.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I&#8217;m old enough to remember when war veteran Tom Cotton and his GOP colleagues were cursed as &#8220;traitors&#8221; for merely penning a letter to Khamenei explaining how the Senate worked. <a href="https://t.co/fmfh0mBpH2">https://t.co/fmfh0mBpH2</a>
&#8212; (((Jason Epstein))) (@Southfive) <a href="https://twitter.com/Southfive/status/1134435072176734208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Epstein was referring to Cotton&#8217;s decision to spearhead a <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&amp;id=120">March 2015 letter</a> sent, on behalf of 47 total U.S. senators, to the terrorist-supporting ruling mullahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Quite presciently, the letter noted how the Iran nuclear deal, structured as it was as an &#8220;executive agreement,&#8221; could easily be altered or terminated in the future.
&#8220;The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time,&#8221; the letter read. &#8220;We hope this letter enriches your knowledge of our constitutional system and promotes mutual understanding and clarity as nuclear negotiations progress,&#8221; it concluded.

Obama’s Pro-Iran Echo Chamber Still Secretly Talks With Terrorist Regime And Insists It’s ‘Normal’

Barack Obama

Trump Administration

The United States may be on the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46807/trump-sends-clear-and-unmistakable-message-iran-ryan-saavedra">seeming precipice of war</a> with the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43339/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">jihad-exporting</a> terrorist regime that has governed the Islamic Republic of Iran since the fateful Islamic Revolution of 1979, but apparently that hasn&#8217;t stopped the notoriously <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2018/08/08/sen-dianne-feinsteins-ties-china-go-way-deeper-alleged-office-spy/">authoritarian regime-friendly</a> Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) from recently meeting with infamous Iranian regime mouthpiece Mohammad Javad Zarif &#8212; foreign minister for the terrorist mullocracy.
Per <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2019/05/23/dianne-feinsteins-dinner-with-the-foreign-minister-of-iran-439276">Politico</a>&#8216;s &#8220;Playbook&#8221;:
<blockquote>
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CALIF.) had dinner with IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER JAVAD ZARIF when he was in the United States a few weeks ago, several sources told us. Last week, Playbook reported that Feinstein was walking around the Capitol with Zarif&#8217;s contact information pulled up on her iPhone &#8212; we spotted it in an elevator. 
FEINSTEIN&#8217;S team tells us that the dinner was &#8220;arranged in consultation with the State Department.&#8221; &#8220;The office was in touch with State in advance of the meeting to let them know it was happening and to get an update on U.S.-Iran activity,&#8221; Feinstein&#8217;s office said. A State Department official told us that they did not ask Feinstein to go to the dinner with Zarif, a smooth-talking, American-educated Iranian diplomat who worked on the nuclear deal with John Kerry.
OF COURSE, the United States and Iran are in the middle of a high-wire diplomatic and military staring contest. The United States has moved additional military resources into the region, and has indicated it has intelligence that the Iranians were readying to attack American interests in the region.
</blockquote>
Politico also casually referred to Feinstein&#8217;s &#8220;dining with the foreign minister of an adversary&#8221; as &#8220;a bit unusual.&#8221;
As the Washington Examiner <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/dianne-feinstein-met-with-iranian-foreign-minister-as-us-iran-feud-escalated">notes</a>, Zarif was one of the preeminent public-facing Iranian regime figureheads during the Obama administration&#8217;s negotiations that led to the United States&#8217; entrance in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (i.e., the Iran nuclear deal):
<blockquote>
Zarif was also one of the Iranian officials who met with former Secretary of State John Kerry about salvaging the Iran nuclear deal. This led to accusations by the Trump administration that Kerry violated the Logan Act, a more than 200-year-old law that prohibits unauthorized private citizens from acting on behalf of the U.S. in disputes with foreign governments but has never been used to prosecute anyone.
</blockquote>
The Logan Act routinely comes up in discussions regarding non-presidential governmental figures and foreign government officials, but it is never actually invoked. Conservative commentator and radio host Erick Erickson actually once <a href="https://www.redstate.com/erick/2015/03/10/the-logan-act-is-the-talking-point-of-hacks-and-morons/">referred</a> to it, during the context of the Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)-led Republican senator pushback against the Iran deal, as a &#8220;talking point of hacks and morons&#8221;:
<blockquote>
The Logan Act originated in 1799. Not a single person has ever been convicted under the Logan Act. Ironically, the namesake of the law, George Logan, after compelling John Adams to get the act passed, became a United States Senator. The Logan Act serves mostly as a partisan tool to throw at opponents who dare to contradict a sitting President&#8217;s foreign policy. &#8230;
It&#8217;s a stupid talking point used by unserious people who want to avoid having to deal with the fact that the President of the United States is giving away the farm to Iranians who, given the chance, would gladly kill him, you, me, and everyone complaining about a Logan Act violation.
</blockquote>

Dianne Feinstein Recently Dined With Top Official From Terrorist Iranian Regime, Report Says

Dianne Feinstein

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the double-Harvard graduate who is a U.S. Army combat veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, has always been blisteringly hawkish on the issue of Iran. Famously, Cotton led in <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&amp;id=120">March 2015 a letter sent, on behalf of 47 total U.S. senators</a>, to the terrorist-supporting ruling mullahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Quite presciently, the letter noted how the Iran nuclear deal, structured as it was as an &#8220;executive agreement,&#8221; could easily be altered or terminated in the future.
&#8220;The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time,&#8221; the letter read. &#8220;We hope this letter enriches your knowledge of our constitutional system and promotes mutual understanding and clarity as nuclear negotiations progress,&#8221; it concluded.
Later in 2015, after the U.S. entered into the Iran nuclear deal, Cotton and fellow Iran hawk then-Congressman (and current Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo (R-KS) stunningly <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/07/congressmen-discover-secret-deals-iran-agreement/">announced</a> that they had taken it upon themselves to discover &#8220;two secret side deals to the nuclear agreement with Iran that [were] not [meant to] be shared with other nations, with Congress, or with the U.S. public.&#8221; At the time, the joint Cotton/Pompeo press release <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/07/congressmen-discover-secret-deals-iran-agreement/">said</a>, in relevant part:
<blockquote>
According to the IAEA, the Iran agreement negotiators, including the Obama administration, agreed that the IAEA and Iran would forge separate arrangements to govern the inspection of the Parchin military complex &#8212; one of the most secretive military facilities in Iran &#8212; and how Iran would satisfy the IAEA&#8217;s outstanding questions regarding past weaponization work. Both arrangements will not be vetted by any organization other than Iran and the IAEA, and will not be released even to the nations that negotiated the JCPOA [Iran nuclear agreement]. This means that the secret arrangements have not been released for public scrutiny and have not been submitted to Congress as part of its legislatively mandated review of the Iran deal.
</blockquote>
Now, nearly four years later and with the Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46807/trump-sends-clear-and-unmistakable-message-iran-ryan-saavedra">saber-rattling</a> with the Iranian mullocracy, Cotton is showcasing his staunch confidence as to how quickly a prospective military conflict between the U.S. and Iran would end. Specifically, Cotton <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/443725-cotton-us-could-win-war-with-iran-in-two-strikes">told</a> host Margaret Hoover on the &#8220;Firing Line&#8221; program that it would take precisely two military strikes to definitively defeat Iran in war.
&#8220;Firing Line&#8221; tweeted: &#8220;Senator [Tom Cotton] tells Firing Line if it comes to war with Iran, he is confident the United States would win, and would win swiftly. &#8216;Two strikes, the first strike and the last strike,&#8217; says the Senator.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Senator <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TomCottonAR</a> tells Firing Line if it comes to war with Iran, he is confident the United States would win, and would win swiftly. &#8220;Two strikes, the first strike and the last strike,&#8221; says the Senator. <a href="https://t.co/twTdrFTwHu">pic.twitter.com/twTdrFTwHu</a>
&#8212; Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/FiringLineShow/status/1128393270458048512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
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More from <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cotton-america-win-war-against-iran-two-strikes">Fox News</a>:
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The senator went on to say that the all-out war with Iran would be justified if the regime &#8220;struck out militarily against us or against our allies in the region, then I would certainly expect a devastating response against Iran.&#8221;
But he insisted that he doesn&#8217;t advocate taking a military action against the Middle Eastern country, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m simply delivering the message that if Iran were to attack the United States it would be a grave miscalculation on their part and there would be a furious response.&#8221;
The State Department ordered Wednesday all non-emergency personnel at the U.S. Embassy and consulate in Iraq to leave the country amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
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Tom Cotton: U.S. Would Defeat Iran In War With Only ‘Two Strikes’

U.S. Senate

There appears to be an increasingly wide rift developing in Washington between conservative Iran hawks and Iran lesser-hawks. The issue is whether the United States should fully let expire the next batch of oil waivers for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43339/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">fanatical</a> jihadist regime that governs the Islamic Republic of Iran. The rift exposes Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and a small handful of other Republican senators, alongside National Security Advisor John Bolton, on one side, and the institutional U.S. State Department &#8212; embodied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo &#8212; on the other side.
Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-11/fresh-u-s-divide-on-iran-emerges-over-expiring-nuclear-waivers">reports</a>:
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In a letter to President Donald Trump this week, a group of Republican senators demanded that Secretary of State Michael Pompeo stop letting Iran continue its limited civilian nuclear research program.
At issue are three waivers the Trump administration granted after it withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal last year. They allow Iran to work with nations that remain in the deal at three sites &#8212; Fordow, Bushehr and Arak &#8212; to ensure it doesn&#8217;t seek to enrich uranium to high levels. It&#8217;s part of an effort to limit the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation.
In their April 9 letter to Trump, six Republican senators including Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marco Rubio of Florida argued that the administration shouldn&#8217;t extend the waivers when they expire in early May.
&#8220;There is extensive evidence Iran channeled its nuclear weapons program through civil nuclear projects after 2003,&#8221; the senators wrote. &#8230; They urged the president to &#8220;finally end all U.S. implementation&#8221; of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
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The Daily Wire received a copy of the senators&#8217; letter, courtesy of a Republican staffer. The letter urges the Trump Administration to take four concrete steps: (1) once and for all end all U.S. implementation of the Iran deal by refusing to reissue waivers permitting civil nuclear work, (2) urge the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to reopen its file on the possible military dimensions of Iran&#8217;s nuclear program, (3) properly designate all Iranian entities named in the Israeli government&#8217;s previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30045/iran-lied-netanyahu-reveals-israel-smuggled-100000-ben-shapiro">seized nuclear archive</a> from Tehran, and (4) explicitly reference the aforementioned nuclear archive in the Trump Administration&#8217;s upcoming report to Congress on &#8220;Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments.&#8221;
At least on issue (2), it seems like the senators may be fighting an uphill battle. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44212/classic-iaea-head-says-he-can-not-speak-past-josh-hammer">reported</a> last month, the IAEA tends to be less than forthcoming on the issue of Iran&#8217;s hegemonic nuclearization ambitions:
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On Monday in Vienna, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiya Amano hedged hard when asked about the extent of the Iranian regime&#8217;s prior nuclear activity. Specifically, Amano said that he could &#8220;not speak of&#8221; such previous activity &#8212; effectively refusing to confirm or deny that the Islamic Republic has engaged in prior nuclearization efforts.
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At The Federalist last month, Erielle Davidson persuasively <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/03/27/ted-cruz-right-united-states-axe-irans-oil-waivers/">argued</a> Cruz and his fellow senators are correct to push for a full evisceration of Iran&#8217;s oil waivers:
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Waivers have been used as a balm to protect Iran from economic collapse following President Trump&#8217;s exit from the Iran Deal and the swift reinstatement of sanctions this past November. The Trump administration has expressed aims of removing Iranian crude exports entirely from the market very soon, but arguments within the State Department questioning the feasibility of such an aim have garnered suspicion. &#8230;
The waivers have allowed Iran to continue to rake in billions of dollars, thus enabling the country&#8212;and the repressive regime&#8212;to stave off economic collapse. Many experts on both sides of the Iran debate think Iran is positioned to wait out the Trump administration&#8217;s pressure campaign, perhaps indefinitely, unless the Iranian economy sustains a dramatic shock.
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Sen. Cruz has made hawkishness on Iran a centerpiece of his foreign policy profile. As I argued in a Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43151/hammer-ted-cruzs-non-interventionist-hawk-foreign-josh-hammer">op-ed</a> in February:
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Since joining the U.S. Senate in 2013, Cruz&#8217;s foreign policy has consistently been in the wide chasm between Ron Paul-style isolationism and Dick Cheney-style moralistic interventionism. Cruz has been blisteringly hawkish on true national security threats to the United States and our core allies &#8212; his stances on the Shiite supremacist Iranian terror regime mullocracry and the Sunni supremacist Islamism of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas alike both come to mind &#8212; but as a doctrinal rule, he has generally been warier of the risk of prolonged military deployments.
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Senate Hawks Push White House To Stop Extending Certain Iran Nuclear Waivers

State Department

As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39463/cruz-cotton-submit-resolution-urging-israeli-hank-berrien">has</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/41900/ted-cruz-tom-cotton-renew-call-israeli-sovereignty-hank-berrien">reported</a>, Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) have been actively calling for the United States to formally recognize Israel&#8217;s annexation of the strategically sensitive Golan Heights region. The Golan Heights, which Israel first acquired in 1967&#8217;s existential Six Day War defensive fight and formally annexed in 1981, has nonetheless languished since 1981 as a matter of formal U.S. recognition.
As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Hank Berrien <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39463/cruz-cotton-submit-resolution-urging-israeli-hank-berrien">reported</a> on December 18, the joint Cruz/Cotton <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/files/documents/Bills/20181217_golan_heights_new.pdf">Senate resolution</a> thoroughly traced the modern history of the Golan&#8217;s legal status, from 1967 through the bloody years-long civil war raging in Syria through the present day:
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The resolution points out that &#8220;until 1967, Syria controlled the Golan Heights and used the topographical advantage it provided to attack Israeli troops and civilians&#8221;; that &#8220;in the Six Day War of 1967, Syria intensified its attacks against Israel from the Golan Heights, and Israel captured the area in a defensive war&#8221;; that &#8220;in October 1973, the Golan Heights provided Israel with critical strategic depth to repel a surprise attack by Syrian forces; that on September 1, 1975, President Gerald Ford offered a diplomatic assurance to Israel that &#8216;the U.S. will support the position that an overall settlement with Syria in the framework of a peace agreement must assure Israel&#8217;s security from attack from the Golan Heights'&#8221;; and that &#8220;&#8216;the U.S. has not developed a final position on the borders. Should it do so it will give great weight to Israel&#8217;s position that any peace agreement with Syria must be predicated on Israel remaining on the Golan Heights.'&#8221; &#8230;
Then Cruz and Cotton get down to the current situation, asserting that &#8220;since 2011, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians, including with weapons of mass destruction, and has pursued an ethnic cleansing campaign against Syrian Sunnis,&#8221; and that &#8220;Iran has used the war in Syria to establish a military presence in the Levant, including thousands of Iranian troops and proxies, and now seeks to create territorial corridors that solidify its control, expand its activities, establish a permanent military presence, and provide arms to its terrorist proxies.&#8221;
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In January, as <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5441903,00.html">ynetnews</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/41900/ted-cruz-tom-cotton-renew-call-israeli-sovereignty-hank-berrien">The Daily Wire</a> both reported, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his pitch for formal U.S. recognition directly to National Security Advisor John Bolton. At a joint press conference with Bolton, Netanyahu stated, &#8220;Tomorrow, if whether permits, we will go up to the Golan Heights &#8212; it is tremendously important for our security. When you are there, you&#8217;ll be able to understand perfectly why we will never leave the Golan Heights and why it is important that all countries recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.&#8221;
Sens. Cruz and Cotton followed the Netanyahu-Bolton press conference by reiterating, in a <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/cotton-cruz-washington-should-take-long-overdue-step-of-affirming-israeli-sovereignty-over-golan-heights/">joint statement</a>, their call for formal U.S. recognition of Israel&#8217;s annexation of the Golan Heights. The <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&amp;id=4251">statement</a> read:
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Israel&#8217;s northern border has become increasingly dangerous in recent weeks with the discovery of Hezbollah&#8217;s terror tunnels and Bashar al Assad&#8217;s continued efforts to consolidate control of Syria with the assistance of Iranian shock troops. Responding to the threat posed by Iran and its proxies requires ensuring that Israel can defend its territory and its citizens from attacks. To support Israel&#8217;s right to self-defense, Washington should take the long overdue step of affirming Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
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Now, some veteran Democratic lawmakers are also coming around to provide Cruz and Cotton with bipartisan support. As Andrew Kugle of The Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/dem-reps-signal-support-for-u-s-recognition-of-israeli-sovereignty-over-golan-heights/">reported</a>, New York Democratic congressmen Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney have both indicated their tepid, cautious support. &#8220;The only thing the Golan has ever been used for by the Syrians is to bombard Israel,&#8221; Nadler <a href="http://jewishinsider.com/15522/reps-nadler-maloney-signal-support-golan-recognition/">told</a> Jewish Insider. &#8220;They can&#8217;t have that again. It&#8217;s unsafe.&#8221;
Similarly, Maloney indicated her stance that, &#8220;If our [Democratic] leadership supports it, I don&#8217;t see what the problem is.&#8221;
The Golan Heights recognition issue has the potential to drive a wedge through Speaker Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s (D-CA) House Democratic caucus. While older, more establishment-oriented Democratic members such as Nadler and Maloney often default to support for pro-Israel policies, the caucus has been riven by the emergence of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42998/ocasio-cortez-omar-tlaib-take-democrats-anti-ryan-saavedra">anti-Israel &#8220;progressive&#8221; stars</a> such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) &#8212; the latter two of whom openly support the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bds-is-continuing-to-spread-hate-and-anti-semitism_us_592dab59e4b075342b52c080">anti-Semitic</a> &#8220;Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions&#8221; movement against the Jewish state.

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