Tom Cotton Quotes

Trying to balance the budget through defense cuts is both counterproductive and impossible.

- Tom Cotton

No officer wants to be involved in a justified use of force proven unnecessary after the fact, any more than soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan wanted to make what proved to be the wrong decision in a shoot-don't-shoot situation. Those decisions, even if justified, live with you forever, believe me.

- Tom Cotton

The IAEA should be worried, as I am worried about it, because North Korea is now a nuclear power state with a ballistic missile program.

- Tom Cotton

I can assure you that I'm not very close to Hillary Clinton. I think she's disqualified herself from Commander-in-Chief by her cavalier attitude towards our nation's secrecy laws.

- 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

Guantanamo Bay is a first-rate detention facility that's kept terrorists off the battlefield and kept America safe. It's critical role in our national security cannot be overstated.

- 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

I will say that there are genuine and serious concerns about what Hillary Clinton did before the Benghazi attacks, during them, and after them. I think her extremely careless handling of classified information, to use FBI Director Jim Comey's term, disqualifies her from being president.

- 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

Feminists say no-fault divorce was a large hurdle on the path to female liberation. They apparently don't consult the deepest hopes or greatest fears of young women.

- Tom Cotton

The military budget must reflect the threats we face, rather than the budget defining those threats.

- Tom Cotton

Vladimir Putin is decisive. He's committed to victory, and he now has aircraft and surface-to-air missiles and main battle tanks in Syria.

- Tom Cotton

It would be very dangerous and unwise to proceed with the Senate Judiciary bill, which would lead to the release of thousands of violent felons.

- 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

We're not responsible for the domestic security of every one of our allies.

- Tom Cotton

Unless we get serious about addressing Iran's regional ambitions in places like Syria, then our allies are never going to be confident that we have a strategy for the region.

- Tom Cotton

We need to quit appeasing our adversaries, and we need to stand with our allies.

- Tom Cotton

Our enemies and allies alike must know that aggressors will pay an unspeakable price for challenging the United States. The best way to impose that price is global military dominance.

- Tom Cotton

If men have easy access to divorce, many will choose it thoughtlessly. They may not gain true happiness with their new trophy wives, but they certainly will not slide into the material indigence and emotional misery that awaits most divorced women.

- Tom Cotton

If we had maintained a small, residual force in Iraq, I don't think the Islamic State would have risen to power as it has.

- Tom Cotton

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

What you did do with your grocery card, discount card is much more invasive to your privacy than what the NSA does.

- Tom Cotton

Hillary Clinton exposed our nation's most sensitive national security secrets to foreign adversaries.

- Tom Cotton

Terrorists need no excuse to attack us here. They've shown that for decades and decades. We should be proud for the way we treated these savages at Guantanamo Bay and the way our soldiers conduct themselves all around the world to include the people doing the very hard work at Guantanamo Bay.

- 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

The Islamic Revolution of Iran has been killing Americans, hundreds of Americans, for 35 years in Iraq and Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

- Tom Cotton

Police officers put the badge on every morning, not knowing for sure if they'll come home at night to take it off.

- Tom Cotton

The forces that led to radical Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, Islamic State, can ultimately only be defeated by moderate Muslims around the globe, countries like U.A.E. that have led the fight within their own border to promote tolerance.

- Tom Cotton

Today, few terrorist organizations still employ the 'al-Qaeda model' in which individuals travel to terrorist training camps overseas and then are deployed to the West to inflict atrocities.

- Tom Cotton

No man wants more war if he's planned memorial services for fallen comrades, carried their flag-draped caskets off a plane, and buried them at Arlington National Cemetery.

- Tom Cotton

Under the cover of encryption, terror masterminds provide recruits with the tactics and tools necessary to carry out attacks using small arms and explosives. None of this requires any overseas travel.

- Tom Cotton

The problem of end-to-end encryption isn't just a terrorism issue.

- Tom Cotton

I decided early on, very early, that the best role I could play is to speak in my own voice, assume my own voice and my own ideas. Even if you support a candidate who ultimately wins, what you say and do is seen through the filter of that candidate.

- Tom Cotton

We need to force Iran to dismantle its nuclear program entirely or face the threat of military force to destroy that program.

- Tom Cotton

Jimmy Carter proposed withdrawing the troops from South Korea. He was stopped by the United States Congress.

- Tom Cotton

We need to significantly increase the number of bombing runs we're conducting in Iraq and Syria.

- Tom Cotton

I can't comment on what every single presidential candidate is saying or doing.

- 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

We should have imposed new sanctions in 2013 and maintained the strength of our negotiating position, which is what brought Iran to the table in the first place.

- Tom Cotton

Ambition characterizes and distinguishes national officeholders from other kinds of human beings.

- Tom Cotton

Donald Trump may occasionally say things that are controversial or even objectionable to some, but those are words.

- Tom Cotton

It's humiliating for Barack Obama and, therefore, the United States to have American sailors held hostage during his final State of the Union.

- 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

What the United States needs to do at this point is reaffirm our commitment that Assad must go and that Iran and Russia cannot be granted a sphere of influence in Syria, and that we will not sit down at the negotiating table to help broker Assad's victory in this fight.

- Tom Cotton

If the Islamic State is losing, if they are defeated in Iraq and Syria, or in Libya, which is maybe their most dangerous and most well-developed cell today, then they won't inspire nearly so many attacks.

- Tom Cotton

The acronym ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. But increasingly, we see that it's not limited there. We see it in Egypt. We see it in Libya. We see it in Afghanistan.

- Tom Cotton

Inflammatory passion and selfish interest characterizes most men, whereas ambition characterizes men who pursue and hold national office. Such men rise from the people through a process of self-selection, since politics is a dirty business that discourages all but the most ambitious.

- Tom Cotton

Most of who's left in the administration now are all these yes men and fanboys who were van drivers or press flacks for Barack Obama in Iowa and New Hampshire in 2008.

- 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

I don't believe we should allow thousands of violent felons to be released early from prison, nor do I believe we should reduce sentences for violent offenders in the future.

- Tom Cotton

Guantanamo Bay can be and has been visited repeatedly by the International Red Cross and other human-rights groups for observation in an open, regular, and transparent manner. Detainees receive the same medical care as the guard force and are able to participate in their daily prayer sessions.

- Tom Cotton

The Iranian people, if you look at their demographics and their level of education, could be a strong source for stability in the Middle East. The problem is they're run by an apocalyptic cult of ayatollahs.

- Tom Cotton

In our globalized world, our domestic prosperity depends heavily on the world economy, which, of course, requires stability and order. Who provides that stability and order? The U.S. military.

- Tom Cotton

I have spoken to Donald Trump about this. He understands the dramatic budget cuts our military has faced.

- Tom Cotton

The critical role of Congress in the adoption of international agreements was clearly laid out by our Founding Fathers in our Constitution. And it's a principle upon which Democrats and Republicans have largely agreed.

- Tom Cotton

I spent several months patrolling Al Dora district in Baghdad in 2006 with the 101st Airborne. It's a tough neighborhood. There's a lot of militias operating there, including a lot of Shiite militias, which are backed by Iran.

- Tom Cotton

In my opinion the only problem with Guantanamo Bay is there are too many empty beds and cells there right now. We should be sending more terrorists there for further interrogation to keep this country safe.

- Tom Cotton

When he was running, my thinking was, 'I can't believe my governor is running for president.' By the end of Clinton's first year in office, I was like, 'Wow, I must not be a Democrat.'

- Tom Cotton

Our warriors and their families don't ask for much. But there are a few things we'd like. A commander-in-chief who speaks of winning wars and not merely ending wars, calls the enemy by its name, and draws red lines carefully but enforces them ruthlessly.

- Tom Cotton

Donald Trump, like most Americans, like most Republicans, believe in protecting America's core national interests.

- Tom Cotton

I have introduced legislation - with other senators from both parties, like Bob Corker and Bob Menendez and Joe Manchin - called the 'Countering the Iranian Threats Act', specifically to clamp down on a lot of Iran's nefarious activity throughout the region.

- Tom Cotton

Given the devastation that crime can visit on families and communities, I will err on being a little too tough on crime than being too soft on crime.

- Tom Cotton

Law and order in our communities doesn't arise spontaneously.

- Tom Cotton

My thesis was a defense of our Constitution on the terms that the founding fathers wrote specifically in the Federalist Papers. They hoped that our form of government would draw forward men and women who are the wisest, most prudent, and most experienced.

- Tom Cotton

Donald Trump can ultimately make the case for himself.

- Tom Cotton

I'm not going to respond to every single thing that Donald Trump has to say or that Hillary Clinton says.

- Tom Cotton

It's the job of the president to negotiate, but it's the job of Congress to approve.

- Tom Cotton

We're simply trying to say that Congress has a constitutional role to approve any deal, to make sure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Not today, not tomorrow, not ten years from now.

- Tom Cotton

The Senate must approve any deal President Obama negotiates with Iran by a two-thirds majority vote.

- Tom Cotton

I and many other senators, Republican and Democrat, have expressed our sincere and long-held intent that Congress must approve any nuclear deal with Iran for months.

- 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

Teenagers are kinda the same wherever you find them in America.

- Tom Cotton

As a Republican Party, we're going to have to have a conversation about it. But I think, ultimately, a majority of Republicans, like a majority of Americans, don't want to let violent felons out of prison.

- Tom Cotton

I think it's important that the Republican Party remain the home of conservatives and that the best way to advance conservative principles is to elect Republicans up and down the ballot.

- Tom Cotton

The world probably wishes that Great Britain had rebuilt its defenses and stopped Germany from reoccupying the Rhineland in 1936.

- Tom Cotton

Our national-security strategy must drive our military budget, rather than the budget setting our strategy.

- Tom Cotton

At Harvard College, I discovered political philosophy as a way of life.

- Tom Cotton

Information obtained from detainees at Guantanamo has been described by the CIA as 'the lead information' that enabled the agency to recognize the importance of a courier for Usama bin Laden, a crucial understanding that led to Bin Laden's secret hideout in Pakistan and the U.S. raid that killed him.

- Tom Cotton

I learned one of the very important lessons in life in the 9/11 attacks. It's good to have a plan for your future; it's even better to write your plan in pencil.

- 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

I think that the public debate that we had on the Iran deal was very important. That's probably one of the most consequential things most of us will ever vote on ; a nuclear arms control agreement with a mortal enemy. And the White House - despite all their efforts - failed miserably.

- Tom Cotton

There's been a lot of disappointments with the Iraqi army, no doubt about that. Some units have performed well, especially their special operations units. But a lot of their units have not.

- Tom Cotton

I've said all along: I'll support the nominee, because we can't afford another term of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy or, for that matter, economic policy at home.

- Tom Cotton

As a senator, I play an important role in crafting foreign policy.

- Tom Cotton

The truth is you cannot decrease the severity and certainty of sentences without increasing crime. It's simply impossible.

- 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

It's clearly the intent of the Islamic State to strike us here in the United States. And that's why we have to go on offense in the war against the Islamic State to fight them where they are before they fight us here in the United States.

- Tom Cotton

The Congress plays a central role in our constitutional structure.

- Tom Cotton

We have to remain vigilant, and we have to continue to take the fight to the terrorist.

- Tom Cotton

The purpose of our common defense, after all, is to protect our people so that we can enjoy the blessings of peace, faith, freedom, family, prosperity.

- Tom Cotton

I joined the army after 9/11, after the Iraq war was started. I joined in part because I wanted to go fight on the front lines.

- Tom Cotton

The NSA is not listening to anyone's phone calls. They're not reading any Americans' e-mails. They're collecting simply the data that your phone company already has, and which you don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy, so they can search that data quickly in the event of a terrorist plot.

- Tom Cotton

The use of encrypted communication and data storage to shield terrorist coordination from intelligence and law-enforcement authorities is known as 'going dark.'

- 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

The Islamic State is using medieval tactics.

- 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

I do not take my obligations as a senator lightly.

- 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

There are still plenty of fighting forces inside of Syria who want to see Assad go. We should have been helping them from the very beginning.

- Tom Cotton

My heart goes out, as does every American, when I see the videotape of Jason Rezaian and Amir Hekmati and Saeed Abedini coming back to their families.

- Tom Cotton

Some people say I'm a young man in a hurry. Well, guess what: they're right.

- Tom Cotton

Islamic terrorists do not need an excuse to attack the United States. To attack us is what they do; they attack us for what we are.

- 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

Against the wishes of my family, I gave up my legal career, and I volunteered for the Army. I became an infantryman. I went to Iraq and Afghanistan.

- 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

I am focused on the work that the people of Arkansas sent me to do.

- Tom Cotton

In Arkansas, we believe in religious freedom.

- Tom Cotton

Waterboarding isn't torture. We do waterboarding to our own soldiers in the military.

- Tom Cotton

America does not torture. We never have, and we never will.

- Tom Cotton

The nuclear deal with Iran is fundamentally flawed.

- Tom Cotton

Two-thirds of the American people realize just how bad the nuclear deal is with Iran.

- Tom Cotton

Our goal is simple: to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

- Tom Cotton

Obviously, the United States military can destroy any of Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

- Tom Cotton

Any deal that's not approved by Congress won't be accepted by Congress. Not now and certainly not in the future.

- Tom Cotton

You never know what kind of challenges are going to be thrown in your way or opportunities will arise.

- Tom Cotton

I have always had confidence in our front line F.B.I. personnel as well as the F.B.I. leadership.

- Tom Cotton

Fundamentally, we have to recognize that Iran is not a partner.

- Tom Cotton

The U.S.-Israel alliance is a core part of our strategic position in the Middle East.

- Tom Cotton

I'll tell you the truth, even in an election year, and that's what people are ready for.

- Tom Cotton

I don't do stairs. And I don't do groups.

- 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

Actions have consequences.

- 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

I think that Americans - and this is not true just now, but over the years - are not fundamentally opposed to war. They're fundamentally opposed to losing wars.

- Tom Cotton

There are nothing but hardliners in Iran.

- 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

We want the president to act to keep America safe.

- Tom Cotton

There's nothing good about Russia's activity in Syria.

- Tom Cotton

Are we fighting too many wars? And I would say no. We're fighting one war. And it's a war against radical Islamic Jihad.

- Tom Cotton

We're going to make America a better place.

- Tom Cotton

We need to be tough once again in the world.

- Tom Cotton

If anything, we have an under-incarceration problem.

- Tom Cotton