Early on, when my wife and I were dating, we went to the grocery store, and I told her that sometimes I just buy birthday cakes, and I eat them. And she said: ‘Really? I do, too.’ – Tom Cotton
By the time the 2008 election arrived, we had finally won the Iraq War, or we were on the road to winning it. We won starting in the summer of 2007 going into late 2011. – Tom Cotton
We have taught Iran’s leaders and the world a very bad lesson: that there is a price on the head of Americans to be held hostage. – Tom Cotton
If Iran wants their money back and wants to be treated like a normal nation, they need to act like a normal nation. – Tom Cotton
The Senate must approve any deal President Obama negotiates with Iran by a two-thirds majority vote. – Tom Cotton
Bill Clinton worked with a Republican Congress. They certainly had their differences on many issues, but look at what they also accomplished. Welfare reform – that was maybe the most significant social policy achievement in two generations. – Tom Cotton
We need to significantly increase the number of bombing runs we’re conducting in Iraq and Syria. – Tom Cotton
Unlike President Obama, I would say that I support the long-standing bipartisan post-war belief that American global strength and leadership secures our national-security interests, and it also promotes order and stability in the world. And it gives us immense influence in the world and deters our adversaries and reassures our allies. – Tom Cotton
What I can do as the member of the United States Senate is try to do everything I can to keep America safe. – Tom Cotton
The claim that too many criminals are being jailed, that there is over-incarceration, ignores an unfortunate fact: For the vast majority of crimes, a perpetrator is never identified or arrested, let alone prosecuted, convicted and jailed. – Tom Cotton
Ambition characterizes and distinguishes national officeholders from other kinds of human beings. – Tom Cotton
What you did do with your grocery card, discount card is much more invasive to your privacy than what the NSA does. – Tom Cotton
The Middle East and South Asia have a lot less in common with America than 18-year-old kids in Boston have with 18-year-old kids in Arkansas. – Tom Cotton
The West has been calling for years for the forces of moderate Islam to stand up to the very small percentage but very large number of radical Muslims all around the world. When countries – the U.A.E. or Egypt or Jordan – do that, we need to highlight it, we need to celebrate it, and we need to continue to encourage it. – Tom Cotton
I’m very proud and happy to be serving the people of Arkansas and the Senate, and I look forward to continue to serve them. – Tom Cotton
I was in Iraq in the worst period, 2006, but from 2006 to 2008, and especially through 2011, the American military and the government of Iraq made huge strides in making that country a source of stability with a relatively representative government that was seeking pluralistic engagement from all the factions within the government. – Tom Cotton
Why would you codify a set of safeguards you might want to change as technology evolves and you face new risks of privacy, in addition to changing safeguards that might need to be relaxed in an emergency situation? – Tom Cotton
The president has largely taken a hands-off approach in Syria and granted it as a legitimate sphere of interest to countries like Iran and like Russia. This is very bad policy, and it’s going to lead to very dangerous consequences for our partners in the region, which is why so many of them are so opposed to U.S. policies. – Tom Cotton
Before the surge started, frankly, after I left Iraq towards the end of 2006, I was worried that we were losing the war. But after the surge, I felt that we succeeded. – Tom Cotton
We only have one president and one secretary of state, but our founding fathers very clearly insisted that Congress play a significant role in foreign policy. – Tom Cotton
It’s important to remember that whatever the presidential candidates of either party say, they will have to interact with the United States Congress, particularly the Senate, when it comes to crafting policy… we play an important role. And I’m going to continue to play that role, whoever is president. – Tom Cotton
With Iran, we negotiated privately in 2012-2013 from a position of strength, not a position of weakness. The secret negotiations in Oman. This ultimately led to the Joint Plan of Action of November 2013. – Tom Cotton
Roadside bombs that Iran sent to Iraq to blow up over 500 American soldiers cost a lot less than $1.7 billion. – Tom Cotton
What I believe is that a lot of the NSA’s telephone metadata program is the result of misinformation spread by a traitor, Edward Snowden. – Tom Cotton
President Obama likes to say Guantanamo Bay is a terrorist recruiting tool, and while that may be an easy excuse, it’s simply not true. The reality is the motivations of radical Islamic jihadism existed before Guantanamo Bay. The ideology is premised on a narrative of conquest, in the spiritual as well as the earthly world. – Tom Cotton