Republican Senator Tom Cotton Is Again Promoting Violence
Shorter Tom Cotton: That dang free speech is for white Republicans, NOT you, hippies!
Chris Hayes takes the story from here:
CHRIS HAYES (HOST): Back in 2020, during the George Floyd protests, a United States senator penned a controversial op-ed in the New York Times, calling for the US military to be brought in to crush the protests in the streets, claiming those demonstrations were shot through with, quote, cadres of left-wing radicals like Antifa.
That was, of course, Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
And that essay was hugely controversial, led to a revolt among staff at the Times, where leaders concluded it should not have been published. The top opinion editor ultimately resigned over the publishing of it.
We would later find out from an editor who actually worked on Cotton's essay, a self-identified conservative editor, that he had to soften Cotton's first draft by deleting, quote, several objectionable sentences, and adding that Cotton's desire for, essentially, mass violence on American streets by the state should not apply to, quote, peaceful protesters.
The result was still pretty objectionable, raised the question, how much worse is Tom Cotton when he doesn't have an editor trying to save him from himself?
Turns out there is an answer.