Two things that are the same to Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR): Demonstrators in Portland, Oregon protesting against racist police brutality, and pro-slavery insurgents in the South breaking from the Union to preserve slavery.
“These insurrectionists in the streets of Portland are little different from the insurrectionists who seceded from the Union in 1861 in South Carolina and tried to take over Fort Sumter,” Cotton argued during a “Fox and Friends” interview on Tuesday morning.
“And just like President Lincoln wouldn’t stand for that, the federal government today cannot stand for the vandalism, the fire bombing or any attacks on federal property,” the senator added.
Cotton has fervently pushed for militant crackdowns on anti-police brutality protests that have emerged across the country in wake of George Floyd’s death in May. Last month, the hardline conservative called on the government to “send in the troops” as a response to the protests in a widely criticized New York Times op-ed, which the Times later disavowed due to the “rushed editorial process” that led to the column’s publication.
Under Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf’s direction, anonymous federal agents have been occupying Portland against state and city leaders’ wishes in the name of combating “violent anarchists,” which has included tactics like whisking away nonviolent protesters in unmarked vans.
Watch Cotton below:
Sen. Tom Cotton compares protesters in Portland to Confederate secessionists. pic.twitter.com/YX3uOX6RMn
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 21, 2020
