We are disappointed in U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton’s lame statement regarding the deplorable comment by President Donald Trump about countries such as Haiti.
There is no need to rehash the words Trump used other than to say they could not have been used in this family newspaper.
While Trump denies using the specific obscene words, by now it has become clear that he indeed utter them in a meeting with several members of Congress held to discuss immigration.
While Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin said the president did use the offensive and obscene phsrase, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham did not dispute it, Cotton and Sen. David Perdue of George said they did not recall Trump’s remarks.
The two were quoted as saying in a joint prepared statement, “President Trump brought everyone to the table this week and listened to both sides. But regrettably, it seems that not everyone is committed to negotiating in good faith. In regards to Senator Durbin’s accusation, we do not recall the President saying these comments specifically but what he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest.”
You “do not recall?” Are we to believe that Cotton and Perdue attended a high-level meeting at the White House and do not recall when an explosive statement was uttered by the president? They did not say Trump didn’t say it. Instead they waffled by saying they did “not recall” it.
By Sunday, the two had appeared on Sunday news shows and changed the “do not recall” statement to downright denial with Cotton implying that Durbin lied about the whole thing.
Cotton and Perdue’s statement and later escalating not recalling to denial are frankly unbelievable. Our U.S. senator from Arkansas has been a rising star on the national political stage. We wish he had shone a little brighter on this occasion.