Tom Cotton says Republicans didn’t do a coup, the other guys did!
On Sunday, Cotton tweeted that “Joe Biden succumbed to a coup by Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Hollywood donors, ignoring millions of Democratic primary votes.” In an interview Tuesday, the GOP senator from Arkansas was called out by CNN’s John Berman over his hypocritical language.
“You used the language ‘coup,’” Berman told Cotton. “You’ve never said that for January 6. And as far as I know, no cops were beaten up, no one defecated in the Capitol, there was no criminal trespass in terms of changing the Democratic candidates, were there?”
Cotton answered with a blank stare and dodged the question. “No, but what you get with Kamala Harris is a failed prosecutor who wouldn’t seek the death penalty for cop killers.”
John Berman to Tom Cotton: "You used the language 'coup.' You've never said that for January 6. And as far as I know, no cops were beaten up, no one defecated in the Capitol, there was no criminal trespass in terms of changing the Democratic candidate, was there?" pic.twitter.com/9dMGlUbU3m
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2024
For the record, Cotton is right that San Francisco police hated Harris for years, but he’s wrong on everything else. And the CNN interview made it clear he has no good explanation on how exactly Biden dropping out is a coup.
The Republican senator is one of many right-wingers using the coup line without any hint of irony, including J.D. Vance, Trump, Trump’s campaign adviser, House Speaker Mike Johnson (who tried to avoid using that exact word), Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Representative Paul Gosar.
Republicans claim that the Democratic Party has been “lying to us” about Biden. “[Harris] was not just part of the conspiracy of silence about Joe Biden’s decline, she was the leader of it,” said Cotton. “The American people deserve to know: What did Kamala Harris know, and when did she know it?”
