What’s all the commotion over the Arkansas junior senator’s huge secret?
Cotton was singled out by Roger Stone, the devoted longterm political counselor to President Donald Trump, on Wednesday with a mysterious tweet revealing a secret that could destroy him.
I could be forced to find a Republican to run against Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas in the primary. He would be brought down by hard-hitting advertisements that exposed the hidden truth about him.
Given that Tom Cotton has put in more effort than nearly any other Republican in the Senate to demonstrate his loyalty to Trump, why is Roger Stone targeting him? Although it’s unclear, the dispute revolves around Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic representative from Hawaii and Director of National Intelligence.
Cotton, the Senate Intelligence Committee chair, has proposed a bill that would reduce Gabbard’s office personnel by over half. That seems to have triggered Stone. He subsequently tweeted at Cotton, “I will find you a Republican primary opponent if you continue to harass Tulsi Gabbard.” You can be defeated, according to early polling, and I will welcome the chance to do so.
I’ll find you a Republican primary opponent if you continue to attack Tulsi Gabbard. Whatever is required to beat you and raise your unconstitutional filing fee, I can do it. I am going to reveal everything about you. According to early surveys, you can be
For Republicans, particularly those (like Cotton) with strong connections to the defense establishment, Gabbard was a contentious choice for the influential cabinet-level role. Gabbard has been a harsh opponent of American military actions abroad. Before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, she had sympathy for the country. She famously embarked on a fact-finding trip to Syria to speak with then-President Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of Iran, back when she was an iconoclastic Democrat.She stated that Edward Snowden ought to be pardoned.
In other words, Gabbard’s America First isolationism and mistrust of the bipartisan Washington consensus on intelligence and international defense spending reflect a new (and yet infancy) MAGA foreign policy vision. On the other end of the spectrum is cotton. One of the last, best hopes of the Republican neocons who previously controlled the party, he is a quintessential hawk. Here’s what former presidential candidate Nikki Haley once said regarding Gabbard’s candidacy as Director of National Intelligence to get an idea of how that wing of the GOP views her: This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, or Chinese sympathizer.
Considering that Cotton has been friendly with Gabbard in public, all of this may sound odd. He fought for her in the Senate in February, which helped her get confirmation.He commended her for cutting expenses in the Office of Director of National Intelligence and presented his proposal to drastically reduce the office’s budget as merely an attempt by the government to control the rise of bureaucracy.
Stone and other people in MAGA-world don’t think so. He linked to an article on a site called The Conservative Treehousesavaging Cotton for the measure in a tweet earlier this week, framing the potential cuts as the deep state retaliating against Gabbard. What it says is as follows:
We anticipated this. Rogue actors inside the ranks of the Intelligence Community are disliked, particularly if they have access to other silos. The Deep State is intended to be protected by the silo system. The company is at risk from any party that has the ability to cross-reference the information that has been inserted.
Tulsi Gabbard cannot be directly opposed by Senator Cotton without being exposed. Therefore, Tom Cotton merely advances the legislative modifications to the Intelligence Community regulations and procedures that are written by someone other than the [Senate Intelligence Committee]. That’s how DC does things.
Despite his rise to prominence among Senate Republicans, Cotton is regarded with extreme mistrust in many Trumpian circles. Consider the controversy surrounding Elbridge Colby’s nomination earlier this year for a senior policymaking position at the Pentagon. Some Republicans, including Cotton, felt that Colby was not aggressive enough against Iran, which prompted MAGA advocates like Charlie Kirk to attack the senator from Arkansas on social media.
Regarding the Elbridge Colby controversy at the time, MAGA mainstay retired Gen. Mike Flynn, the fervent national security advisor in the first Trump administration, stated: Cotton has other issues that he doesn’t want made public. He will stand by Colby. (In fact, Cotton eventually retreated, as he often does when confrontation with Trump-affiliated individuals seems imminent.)
Cotton doesn’t want his other issues to be known. He will stand by Colby.
Even if Roger Stone and Mike Flynn are two of the last politicians in America to be trusted, their tweets’ resemblance raises questions. What precisely are they discussing? Are they privy to information concerning Tom Cotton that we are not?
Regarding Gabbard herself, there were rumors that she had lost favor with Trump when he issued an order for strikes against Iran last month.But now that she has fabricated claims of a treasonous conspiracy by the Obama administration against Trump in the 2016 election, she is apparently back in the good graces of Trump and company.
For now, Gabbard seems to have regained Trump’s support, which is ideal for a president who is in dire need of a diversion from his big, ongoing Jeffrey Epstein problem. However, the internal party politics are still going on.
The Democratic Party of Arkansas appears to be enjoying themselves, whatever is going on.
Well, @TomCottonAR, what’s this like? Do you have anything to say to Arkansas voters?rO4qsp6aOg pic.twitter.com/
It’s dragon-slaying time!
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