WSJ Publishes New Version of Tom Cotton’s Infamous ‘Send in the Troops’ Op-Ed That Roiled the New York Times
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) breathed new life into his June 2020 argument to “send in the troops” to American cities to deal with unrest, writing in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday to “ Send In the Troops, for Real.”
Cotton grabbed headlines in the summer of 2020, during the George Floyd protests, with his call in the New York Times to “send in the troops” and the subsequent staff revolt the op-ed created.
“At the risk of again sending liberals to their fainting couches, it may indeed be time to send in the troops. Let’s look at the facts for some context,” Cotton wrote in the Journal after a lengthy summation of the ongoing anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles and now around the country.
Cotton went on to parrot some of President Donald Trump’s greatest rhetorical hits on the topic of immigration, writing, “President Biden permitted—even encouraged—a slow-motion invasion of America that allowed murderers, rapists and other violent criminals to enter our country illegally. In November, the American people elected Donald Trump and a Republican Congress to secure our border and deport violent illegal aliens. That’s exactly what the president is doing.”
“The solution now is the same as I said then: an overwhelming show of force to end the riots,” Cotton argued, adding:
As always, local police are the first line of defense, but when the police can’t restore order—or aren’t allowed to by Democratic mayors—the National Guard must be called out. We reached this point in Los Angeles, where the police chief has said that the “disgusting” violence has “overwhelmed” his forces, adding that “there’s no limit to what they’re doing to our officers” and “we’ve seen violence at a level that disgusts every good person.”
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell also said that federal agents and their actions in the area had slowed his officers’ ability to approach the rioting as it broke out. “The possible arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles — absent clear coordination — presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city,” he said in a statement ahead of Trump federalizing the National Guard. McDonnell also said that the LAPD was confident it could handle the situation and contain any level of escalation.
Notably, Trump had congratulated the National Guard over the weekend on a “job well done” in quelling the protests, before the National Guard troops had even arrived on the scene.
“Mr. Newsom—incompetent and ideological all at once—refused to mobilize the National Guard, leaving Mr. Trump little choice but to federalize the California Guard to protect federal law-enforcement agents and restore order,” claimed Cotton in his op-ed.
Cotton then made the case for Trump’s legal right to federalize the National Guard, which Newsom has taken the administration to court over.
“In addition to the overwhelming show of force, Congress also needs to show our support for federal law enforcement. This week, I’m introducing legislation to stiffen penalties for rioters who attack law enforcement and to make riot-related crimes a deportable offense for noncitizens,” added Cotton.
Read the full op-ed here.
