Wednesday, during an appearance on CNN’s “The Source,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) put CNN host Kaitlan Collins on defense during a contentious segment about former President Donald Trump.
Earlier in the day, Trump criticized his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris at a gathering of the National Association of Black Journalists on numerous grounds, which drew the ire of the mainstream media.
When pressed Collins to respond to Trump’s remarks, Cotton argued Collins should be asking Harris questions.
Partial transcript as follows:
COLLINS: I’m joined, tonight, by Republican senator, Tom Cotton, of Arkansas.
And Senator, it’s great to have you here.
As I noted, a second ago, you’ve worked alongside Vice President Harris, when she was in the Senate. Donald Trump is standing by his comments, tonight. In your view, are those comments defensible, Senator?
COTTON: Kaitlan, of course.
First off, it’s refreshing to see a presidential candidate, who’s willing to go in front of the media. Something that Donald Trump knew would be a tough interview. It turned out to be a hostile adversarial interview. But he’s been doing that for nine years.
Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has been hiding out for the 10 days that she’s been a presidential nominee. Before then, she used to do interviews every five days or so. But now, she hasn’t faced any media at all. I guess she thinks she can hide out for a 100 days until this election.
More fundamentally, the issue isn’t what race Kamala Harris identifies as. It’s the fact that she identifies as a San Francisco liberal. She has a long record, not just as Vice President, of being Joe Biden’s border czar, standing by the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, but running for president herself.
She said she was going to take away your health insurance on the job, while she was going to give health insurance to illegal aliens, and that we’d have a lot more of them, because she promised that she would decriminalize illegal immigration.
She cast the deciding votes, as Vice President, in the Senate, for the trillions of dollars of spending that has unleashed inflation on families that make it harder for them make ends meet.
Kamala Harris is a dangerous San Francisco liberal. And that’s what really matters to Americans.
COLLINS: Yes, I didn’t hear Donald Trump bring up any of her policy positions, today, or stances, when he was on that stage.
But your argument is that just because she hasn’t done an interview, since she became the top of the ticket that it’s OK to question what her race is?
COTTON: Well, Kaitlan, if you didn’t hear Donald Trump talking about her positions, and his record, then you didn’t watch the interview. It went on for more than 30 minutes. The vast majority of it was–
COLLINS: I did watch the interview, Senator.
COTTON: –was Donald Trump talking — the vast majority of it, Kaitlan, was Donald Trump talking about his record, contrasting it to the Biden-Harris record, of higher inflation, and wide open borders, and war and chaos around the world.
And pointing out that she has said things, like she wants to eliminate the immigration police, and that she believes that illegal immigration should be decriminalized, and she wants to confiscate private firearms. These are all indisputable things on her record, Kaitlan. There’s videotape of them.
Have you shown that videotape, in the last 10 days, since she became the presidential nominee, for the Democratic Party?
COLLINS: Yes, Senator. Senator, we have. We have.
COTTON: When she promises to rip away health insurance?
COLLINS: We have talked about her past positions, and the reversals of those, and we’ve delved into all of that, because that’s actually what voters care about.
But when your party’s nominee is on stage, telling a panel of three black women that the first black woman to serve as Vice President, hasn’t always identified as black. How does that help your party win elections?
COTTON: Well, Donald Trump said that what matters is that she identifies as a dangerous San Francisco liberal. It’s not what race she identifies as. What she identifies politically. What’s going to make a difference?
COLLINS: He solely focused on race in that comment, Senator.
COTTON: Kaitlan, the interview was more than 30 minutes long, which is 30 minutes longer than Kamala Harris has had an interview, with anyone, since she became the presidential nominee.
The vast majority of the interview was talking about Kamala Harris’ dangerous record, on our wide open border, on higher taxes, on taking away health insurance on the job, and giving health insurance to illegal aliens.
The vast majority of that interview was contrasting the Biden-Harris record, and Harris’ record from the first time she ran for President, to the Trump-era record. That’s a contrast that Donald Trump will win, every day of the week.
COLLINS: I know you don’t like her policies. And you talk about — you call her the San Francisco liberal. I saw you saying that with Jake Tapper, the other day.
But that was not Donald Trump’s main point today, when he was asked about your Republican colleagues on the Hill, who refer to her as a DEI hire. He was asked if he believes that she’s only on the ticket because she’s a black woman. And then, he said that she doesn’t always claim to be black, which is not true.
But does anything that she has or hasn’t said about her heritage have anything to do with her qualifications to be in the Oval Office?
COTTON: Well, no, Kaitlan, that’s not what President Trump said. He said he didn’t even know what Rachel Scott meant by DEI hire. And he had no idea why Joe Biden hired her.
What really matters is whether the American people want to hire her, given her record. And I promise you, if you think things have been bad, for the last four years, under Joe Biden, the worst is yet to come, if Kamala Harris is the President.
COLLINS: I just want to quote his words to you, Senator.
He said, I didn’t know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. And now she wants to be known as black. So, I don’t know. Is she Indian? Or is she black?
You can defend those comments, tonight?
COTTON: And he also said either — either is fine, both is fine. He loves African-Americans. He loves Indian-Americans. He loves all Americans.
The point is that we don’t know where she stands politically, because she spent her entire life as a dangerous San Francisco liberal. And now, in the last 10 days, she’s tried to flip-flop on every single position.
Well, I should say she hasn’t tried to flip-flop, because she’s sending out anonymous campaign aides, to say that she no longer holds views that she held, when she ran for president, in her own right.
When is she going to come on Kaitlan Collins’ show, or Jake Tapper’s show, or go on 60 Minutes, or have an unscripted press conference, and answer to the American people, where she stands on the issues that matter to them?
On whether or not they can pay the bills on July 31, at the end of the month? Whether or not they’re going to be able to pay them next month? Whether or not we’re going to have another 10 million illegal aliens in our country–
COLLINS: But Senator?
COTTON: –under a Kamala Harris presidency.
COLLINS: We have had that conversation about her policy views.
But how does her changing her views on her policy justify having the presumptive — the Republican nominee questioning her race? How does that — does that increase or decrease your party’s chances of winning in November?
COTTON: Well, Kaitlan, you haven’t had that conversation with Kamala Harris, because she has been hiding out for the last 10 days.
COLLINS: I want to have this conversation with you, Senator.
COTTON: Just like Joe Biden hid out before her.
I’m — and my point is when are you, and the rest of the media, going to demand that Kamala Harris come out, and answer questions, in an unscripted format, about where she stands for this country, as opposed to continuing to focus on what Donald Trump said today.
Four years ago, Joe Biden said, if you don’t vote for him, you ain’t black. Could you imagine a more insulting comment? Joe Biden is presuming to judge the political views of–
COLLINS: OK. You — OK.
COTTON: –one-eighth of our fellow citizens based on their skin cover — skin color. Did you — did you ever ask Kamala Harris to condemn his remarks?
COLLINS: There are 33–
COTTON: Did you ever ask him, or ask her if that was racist?
COLLINS: But Senator, this is a question.
COTTON: Did you ask — did you ask–
COLLINS: You’re a Republican senator.
COTTON: Did you ask — Kaitlan, did you ask — Kaitlan, did you ask Kamala Harris–
COLLINS: So, I would ask you about the Republican — the Republican nominee.
COTTON: Kaitlan, did you ask Kamala Harris why she’s willing to serve as a vice president, for a man she essentially called racist and a segregationist?
COLLINS: OK. Well–
COTTON: Have you or anyone else in the media asked Kamala Harris, those questions, Kaitlan?
COLLINS: Senator, trust me. I covered the Biden-Harris White House. We obviously have asked for her to come on.
But my question is for you about this.
Donald Trump’s pick for VP once questioned whether he was America’s Hitler.
But Senator, before you go, I do want to ask you a question, on Israel, tonight. Because before everything happened today, in Chicago, a top Hamas leader was killed, in the Iranian capital, overnight.
Israel has not yet claimed responsibility for Ismail Haniyeh’s death. But they have vowed to eliminate Hamas, its leaders, after October 7th.
And I do — I’m curious, given your position in the Senate, what you believe the impact of this is, on the region, and if it risks triggering a wider war?
COTTON: Well, the impact is justice, not just for Israeli victims of Hamas, but the American victims of Hamas. Hamas has much American blood on its hands, still holding American hostages to this day.
Israel did take credit, though, for the strike, in Beirut, yesterday, against not only someone who was a top Hezbollah commander, but someone who had the blood of more than 240 Marines on his hands, because he was responsible, in part, for the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing.
That’s a strike that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, worked overtime, for three days, to convince Israel not to undertake. Thank goodness that Israel didn’t listen to Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, and actually got vengeance, not just for the Israeli victims of Hezbollah, but also the American victims.
That’s what we got, for instance, when President Trump killed Qasem Soleimani, what we won’t get if Kamala Harris becomes president.
COLLINS: OK. The question was about whether or not it risks triggering an all-out war. We’ll see what happens in that region.
Senator Tom Cotton, thank you for your time, tonight.
COTTON: Thank you, Kaitlan.
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