My opinion of Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has been rather reserved.
Sometimes he leaves me to wonder if he really has a grasp on the issues facing the nation, then, other times, I find myself agreeing with him, in total.
This would be one of those times.
While Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, and President-elect Trump have voiced favor for Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who put American lives in danger in Afghanistan in 2010, and who currently is hiding out in Ecuador, to avoid sexual assault charges in Sweden, Cotton has a different opinion.
“I have a lot more faith in our intelligence officers serving around the world, very smart and experienced analysts that we have here in the nation’s capital, than I do in people like Julian Assange,” Cotton said on MSNBC.
Cotton’s comments come after President-elect Donald Trump earlier in the day sent a tweet siding with Assange over the intelligence community regarding Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election.
Trump has clung to every word from Assange, as far as his denial of Russia being the source of the WikiLeaks document dump.
Democrats believe that Russia meant to influence the election, in favor of Trump, by hacking into Democrat emails and releasing them to the public through WikiLeaks.
We’ll set aside, for the time being, that had there been nothing incriminating in the emails to reveal in the first place, there would be nothing to use against them.
Democrats aren’t heroes in this, either.
That being said, when you have Americans – whether they be Democrats or Republicans – openly expressing more admiration for a regime like that of Vladimir Putin’s Russia than they do the hardworking men and women of our nation’s own intelligence community, there’s a big problem.
President Obama last month ordered a full intelligence report on Russian hacking of political groups and individuals.
Cotton said Wednesday he thinks it “reasonable” for people to wait and see what comes out in the intelligence report, adding he doesn’t see a need to jump to conclusions before looking at that report.
He also said he doesn’t dispute the intelligence community’s report from last year that said Russia was behind the attack on the DNC.
“That’s to be expected from Russia. That’s what they do,” Cotton said.
“And one reason they felt emboldened that they could do that for the last eight years is because Barack Obama has not just been weak on Russia, but he’s even tried to stop people like me and other members of Congress in drawing a firmer line on them.”
Indeed.
Russia didn’t become a threat until Democrats felt that they had become a target. That doesn’t, however, make them the “good guys,” or “heroes” in all of this.
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