Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sat down on Monday with CNBC’s Squawk Box anchors to talk about the media/Democrat-driven controversy over Georgia’s new voting law, Major League Baseball pulling the All-Star Game from the state, as well as the corporate CEOs from Georgia-based companies like Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola who were weighing in with hypocritical woke statements condemning the law.
As per the norm, Cotton remained calm, cool, and collected as all of the anchors threw left-wing talking points at him about how the law was crafted to solve problems that critics say didn’t exist, how it allegedly made handing food and water to voters standing in line a misdemeanor offense, as well as how it supposedly made voting access more difficult for Georgians.
One by one, Cotton debunked each claim the anchors made, but it seemed that he took particular delight in knocking down every attempted “gotcha” argument made by co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin, who Cotton has gone toe to toe with (and won) before.
We’ve got several clips to share, including this first one where Sorkin tried to pin Cotton on how the number of absentee ballot drop boxes decreased in certain locations in comparison to how many were in existence last year. Cotton’s answer was to explain that the drop boxes last year were not some “longstanding practice of American election law.”
Instead, he noted they were put where they were last year at the height of the pandemic when many were afraid to vote in person. He also pointed out that the Georgia law mandated the use of the drop boxes in all Georgia counties now, no fewer than one box per 100,000 voters. He informed Sorkin that voters still had the option to go into the clerk’s office to drop off a ballot or can simply put it in their mailbox. In contrast, Cotton pointed to President Biden’s home state of Delaware which “only has 5 drop boxes.” The state of New York, Cotton said, doesn’t use drop boxes at all. Cotton then wondered if the MLB would move their HQ out of the state over that “issue”:
CEOs in Georgia have caved to the left’s lies about the state’s new election law, without reviewing the facts for themselves.
Voting will now be more accessible and more secure. Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t read the bill. pic.twitter.com/AzfpvIYtHF
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) April 5, 2021
In this next clip, Sorkin asked Cotton why was there an urgency to pass the law since there were no court cases he could recall where it was found that there were problems with Georgia’s elections last year. Cotton countered him and said there were many inefficiencies and delays last year not just during the general elections but in the summer during the primaries, including people having to wait in long lines for way too long. Cotton then went on to call out the CEOs who were getting on their “moral high horses” about the law while at the same time lobbying against a slave labor bill for China’s religious minorities:
The CEOs at Coca-Cola and Delta are rallying against this bill in Georgia, yet are lobbying against a slave labor bill for China’s religious minorities and partnering with a Chinese Communist Party-owned airline.
This really is the height of moral hypocrisy. pic.twitter.com/FTRsMRXNA0
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) April 5, 2021
One of the more unintentionally hilarious moments, however, was when Sorkin — who sounded clearly flustered by this point — brought up the fact that some of the businesses that were speaking out against the bill (like Walmart and BOA) were donors to Cotton’s campaign, and asked him how he would “square that.” Without missing a single beat, Cotton smoothly turned the tables on Sorkin, telling him that his donors endorse his agenda, not the other way around:
“It’s very simple, Andrew, I don’t endorse my donors’ agenda. They endorse my agenda,” Cotton answered. “They know that when they contribute to me, whether $5 or $5,000, that I’m going to do what’s right for Arkansas and what’s right for America.”
“And what’s right for America is to have safe, convenient, accessible elections, and that’s exactly what this Georgia law has done. What’s not right is to have these moral corporate hypocrites weighing in on public policies when they don’t have any specific knowledge about them, they don’t have any particular expertise, and they haven’t taken the time to inform themselves about the facts,” he concluded.
Watch:
I think if there’s one thing Republicans and Democrats alike can agree on about Cotton, it’s that he is not someone to be trifled with. The guy knows his stuff and he understands exactly how to make Democrats and liberally biased journalists squirm.
With Republicans like Cotton and others like Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, and former NJ Gov. Chris Christie out there correcting the record every time the opportunity presents itself, the GOP has a real shot at shifting the false narrative Biden, Stacey Abrams, the activist left, and the media have crafted about this law.
There’s something to be said for persistence in these matters, and so far we’re seeing a lot of it — including via pushback on the Biden administration even by some in the White House press corps, which is a welcome sight and a sign that some reporters are finally listening to Republican complaints about the politically calculated left-wing disinformation campaign surrounding this law.
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