Sen. Tom Cotton, who is already being floated as a potential presidential candidate in 2024, Friday deflected questions about any such plans while turning the conversation to praise President Donald Trump for his influence on the Republican Party and saying his own focus is on finishing out the 2020 race.
"We did not win control of the Senate, we did not gain seats in the House or pick up legislators in spite of Donald Trump, we won because of Donald Trump, who brought millions of new voters into our party, first in 2016 and again this year," the Arkansas Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" host Sandra Smith after she asked him about his future plans.
"He did so by changing a lot of Republican orthodoxies and opposing bad trade deals and importation of cheap foreign workers, by standing up to mobs in our streets," said Cotton. "That is the agenda of the Republican Party going forward. Anyone who thinks that we'll go back to the pre-Trump era of bad trade deals and open borders, they aren't thinking clearly about things."
When Smith pushed further, Cotton responded that he would "like to put 2020 on the books" and that he will "work hard to reelect my two colleagues in Georgia before we move on to the next election."
Meanwhile, the Georgia runoff elections, which will pit Republican Sen. David Perdue against Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff and GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler against Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock, put "everything at stake" for control of the Senate, said Cotton.
"If the Democrats elect Ossoff and Warnock, Chuck Schumer will be the majority leader," said Cotton, calling attention to Schumer's recent comment that Democrats will take over the country and world by winning Georgia.
It is also important for Georgians to review Warnock's record because he is a "true radical," said Cotton. "It is a widely known secret in Washington that Chuck Schumer and Democrats didn't want him as their candidate. Stacey Abrams forced him in because he is so radical. He celebrated Fidel Castro, celebrated Jeremiah Wright, and was even arrested for obstruction of justice into an investigation of child abuse at his summer camp. He has not answered questions about that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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