Transcript: Sen. Tom Cotton on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Sept. 29, 2024

The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Sept. 29, 2024.

ROBERT COSTA: We are joined now by Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican. He sits on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees. Good morning, Senator. We appreciate you being here. What’s next? Senator Cotton, do you believe there will be an expanded war between Israel and Iran on the horizon? 

SEN. TOM COTTON: Well Bob, I’m not sure that Israel is expanding the war so much as it is trying to end the war, I think it’s important to stress just sort of huge blow the last two weeks have been against Hezbollah. Iran is behind all of these terror networks, but Hezbollah is its most potent weapon. Hezbollah has over 100,000 rockets and missiles and mortars aimed at Israel. Iran has used that threat to deter Israel for years, going back probably 20 years or so, and now that Israel has absolutely devastated the entire leadership structure of Hezbollah, whether it’s at the attacks that came just late last week, killing not only Hassan Nasrallah and all the other leaders, or some of their other actions, or hitting their weapons depots and manufacturing sites in Syria. Now is not the time for a ceasefire or to de-escalate, as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want. Hezbollah is on its knees. The United States should help Israel drive Hezbollah to the mat and choke it out and finish it off once and for all. That means for the first time in decades, Iran would be exposed on its flanks with no terror proxy capable- capable of devastating Israel or our troops and our friends in the region. That’s what we should do. Not demand that we have a cease fire. De-escalate at a time when Israel is trying to win. We should let Israel win.

ROBERT COSTA: Senator Cotton, when you say, drive Hezbollah to the mat, would that mean a ground invasion of Lebanon by Israel? And would you support that kind of incursion?

SEN. COTTON: If that’s what Israel needs to do to eliminate the remnants of Hezbollah’s leadership and its arsenal, then yes, of course. Again, Hezbollah had over 100,00 missiles and rockets and mortars. Now a lot of those have probably already been destroyed. Israel needs to destroy all of them. A lot of Hezbollah’s leadership has been destroyed as well. This guy that y’all just cited there, maybe he’s the leader, I don’t know who’s in charge of Hezbollah. I’m not sure anyone else does either. It’s probably someone who wasn’t important enough to have a beeper or a walkie talkie as recently as two weeks ago. But all of Hezbollah’s leadership needs to be eliminated, just like all of its arsenal needs to be eliminated, just like the United States needs to be much more forceful in attacking Iran’s terror army in Yemen, where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have had our sailors resting like sitting ducks in the Red Sea for months. When we finish mopping up all of these terrorist proxies, that means Iran, once again, is totally exposed. It no longer can threaten Israel and the United States and our friends throughout the region. That’s why we need to back Israel to the hilt and let Israel win, rather than continue to make these feckless demands for ceasefires and de-escalation that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have been doing for a year now. 

ROBERT COSTA: You sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Is there an alarm sounding in your ranks about any potential threats to Americans in the Middle East or to US targets at this point? 

SEN. COTTON: Well, from the minute Joe Biden and Kamala Harris got to the White House, there’ve been threats to Americans. Iran and its proxies have attacked our troops over 100 times– 

ROBERT COSTA: – but in the wake of this latest news–- 

SEN. COTTON: — and we barely ever struck back. There’s been continued attacks on us again, just like we should support Israel in striking back against these terrorists, we should be striking back harder again. But that’s not Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s policy. From the very beginning, they’ve appeased and conciliated the Ayatollahs. Kamala Harris, for instance, opposed Donald Trump’s strike that killed Iran’s terrorist mastermind in 2020. Over the last four years, they’ve given away tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief. They’ve looked the other way as Iran violates sanctions. They’ve continually put more pressure on Israel than they put on Iran’s terrorist proxy. That’s why Kamala Harris is the Ayatollah’s handpicked candidate, and while the ayatollahs are hacking into Donald Trump’s campaign and trying to kill him.

ROBERT COSTA: Turning to Ukraine, former President Donald Trump- you’re a big supporter of his. He met with President Zelensky in recent days in New York. He talked about a potential deal to end the war. What kind of deal would that be? How would it exactly look? You’re close to Trump and this process. 

SEN. COTTON: Well, he hasn’t been specific, and I think that’s for a reason. One, he doesn’t know what the world is going to look like in another three months when he takes office. He doesn’t know how much more Joe Biden Kamala Harris might screw things up. But here’s what we do know, this never would have happened on Donald Trump’s watch because it didn’t happen on Donald Trump’s watch. Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine twice, both times with Joe Biden in the White House. First as Barack Obama’s understudy, second with Kamala Harris in the White House with him. That came just a few months after the disastrous collapse in Afghanistan. Those things are not unrelated. When you project weakness, as Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have, and you suggest to your enemies that they can push you around and walk all over you, you get the kind of conflicts we see in Europe and that we see in Israel, and you get the chaos we see at our southern border. Bob- the administration-  Bob the administration, just acknowledged– 

ROBERT COSTA: I know- I know- on Ukraine for a second. Just pause on this for a second, Senator. Senator Vance, who’s going to be at the vice presidential debate on Tuesday, hosted by CBS News. He’s talked about on a recent podcast a demilitarized zone as a part of a potential peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. He said it could look like something like the current line of demarcation between Russia and Ukraine that becomes a demilitarized zone, heavily fortified so the Russians don’t invade again. The details matter here. Would a demilitarized zone be something as part of a peace deal that you would be comfortable with as a Republican senator? 

SEN. COTTON: The details do matter. But Donald Trump has said he’s not going to negotiate against himself or against Ukraine in advance. Once he takes office, that’s the time to start hammering out the details in private and to make sure that something like this can’t happen again, which didn’t happen when he was president after the first invasion of Ukraine. But again, I just want to say the chaos that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have unleashed across this world, isn’t limited to the other side of the world. It happens right here. The administration just acknowledged that they released more than 13,000 convicted murderers who illegally entered this country. More than 15,000 convicted sex offenders. That’s 28,000 rapists and murderers who illegally entered our country who Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have let roam our streets. That’s the kind of chaos that they have unleashed for the last four years, and that Donald Trump will put an end to. 

ROBERT COSTA: You’re confronting the Democrats here on this show. You’re bringing up all of your different arguments. Former President Trump, even though there are just a few weeks left in the campaign, has so far said he does not want to participate in another debate with Vice President Harris. Is that a mistake? Do the American people deserve to hear more from former President Trump and the Vice President about their views? 

SEN. COTTON: Well, I think they deserve to hear a lot more from Kamala Harris, because she’s been lying to them for the last three months. If you look at her record– 

ROBERT COSTA: — So why not debate again? — 

SEN. COTTON: — she’s been trying to run. She’s been trying to run away from it from the very moment she took the nomination from Joe Biden. She wants to ban gas powered cars. She wants to give reparations based on race. She wants to ban fracking. She wants to take away private health insurance on the job. These are not positions that she took as a teenager in high school. These are positions she took as a 54 year old woman running for president in her own right. That’s the true Kamala Harris, a weak, dangerous San Francisco liberal. Kamala Harris is the one who owes the American people a lot more answers. Donald Trump can simply point at his record and say, for four years when I was president, we had peace, prosperity, a secure border, and we were respected around the world. That’s what the American people remember. That’s what they’re going to get when they elect him again to the White House. 

ROBERT COSTA: But should Trump debate again?

COTTON: There’s no- he’s already debated twice, and JD is going to debate Tim, and he’s going to do a great job telling his story and pointing out what a radical record Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Have the American people know what Donald Trump will do in office. Kamala Harris is still trying to fool them.

ROBERT COSTA: Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, thanks for being here on Face the Nation. We appreciate it, and we will be back in one minute. Stay with us.