Fox News "Sunday Morning Features" - Transcript Interview with Tom Cotton

Interview

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And joining me right now is Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton. He sits on the Senate Intel, Banking and Armed Services Committee.

Senator, it's good to have you this morning. Thanks so much for joining me.

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Hey, good morning, Maria. It's good to be on with you.

BARTIROMO: How are you doing this morning? Your colleagues have tested positive.

And it looks like it was that Amy Coney Barrett gathering at the White House to introduce her to lawmakers that really was the place where so many people were exposed. What can you tell us?

COTTON: Yes, Maria, thanks for the question.

I'm doing fine. I extend my deepest wishes to the president and the first lady and every American who has been affected by this virus to get well very quickly.

I have been in contact with my colleagues who are -- either tested positive or who have been exposed, someone who tested positive. And, to my knowledge, as of last night, everyone remains either asymptomatic or has mild symptoms that hasn't required hospitalization.

What I can say is that everyone is eager to be at work when they need to be at work that are on the Judiciary Committee, a week from tomorrow, either in-person or virtually, to have the confirmation hearings for Judge Barrett, and then to have the vote on Judge Barrett this month.

The president has nominated an outstanding jurist to be on the Supreme Court. I visited her this week. It only confirmed my high opinion of her. I suspect that's going to be the case of the American people when they see Judge Barrett at her confirmation hearings starting a week from tomorrow.

And none of this should have any impact on the schedule of the Senate, either the Judiciary Committee or the Senate as a whole.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

I want to just point out that we showed video of the event with Amy Coney Barrett. Not everybody at the event has contracted COVID-19, obviously, but three senators have. And that's why I mentioned that event.

But tell me about the proceedings. You say you are confident that you will be able to, in fact, have the nomination hearings for Judge Barrett. You think this will not impact the schedule or the agenda, sir?

COTTON: No doubt about it, Maria.

Several of the senators who are in isolation right now would come out of isolation before those hearings begin.

But the Senate Judiciary Committee has also conducted 20 hearings this year that have either been in part or in whole virtual. Many Senate Democrats who are now saying we couldn't possibly do a virtual hearing were demanding throughout this year, going back to March, that all committees be conducted over Zoom or Webex or some other kind of virtual hearing.

So, the hearing is going forward, no doubt in my mind, starting a week from tomorrow, Maria, and then on the Senate floor later this month. First off, I think every senator who has currently tested positive or is in isolation will be back to work, under normal conditions, as other senators have been as well, like Rand Paul or Tim Kaine.

But, if that's not the case, Maria, there is a long tradition of venerable tradition of ill or medically infirm senators being wheeled in to cast critical votes on the Senate floor.

Most recently, Robert Byrd in 2009 repeatedly rolled in, in a wheelchair just months before his death to vote for Obamacare.

BARTIROMO: Wow.

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COTTON: So, I'm confident that every senator will be in attendance when his or her vote is needed.

BARTIROMO: So, what are you expecting from these hearings?

We know how contentious the hearing was for Brett Kavanaugh, particularly Kamala Harris, when she was questioning him. What are you expecting from vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris?

COTTON: Well, Kamala Harris in the hearings with Brett Kavanaugh revealed just what a terrible politician she is, just as she did last year, when she lit $100 million of her donors' money on fire, without even making it to the starting line for the Iowa caucuses.

In the hearings with Brett Kavanaugh, she repeatedly insinuated that there was some kind of nefarious connection between him and a law firm and Russian agents, without any evidence, and then dropped it, without ever following it up.

In another hearing for a Catholic judge who was a member of the Knights of Columbus, she attacked him for belonging to that Catholic social organization, criticizing him, as if his faith impacted the way he would rule and he couldn't overcome that.

So I expect she will launch the same kind of attacks that she did in the past, just like her fellow senator from California, Dianne Feinstein, attacked Amy Coney Barrett, saying, "The dogma lives loudly within you."

Now, when I spoke with Judge Barrett, I said I regretted these attacks in the past, but, unfortunately, I thought more of them were going to come in the future.

I mean, just last weekend, you had some Democratic voices attacking her for adopting two Haitian children on social media. I'm afraid we are going to see more of that. We ought not see it, but it's probably what the Democrats have up their sleeves.

BARTIROMO: Mm-hmm.

Well, I mean, why are there -- they so upset about this? They don't want the president to name another Supreme Court justice.

COTTON: Well, that's the bottom line, Maria.

It's why Joe Biden won't reveal his potential Supreme Court nominees, putting out a list the way Donald Trump does, because it would expose the radical left-wing agenda of the Democrats. Any judge that Joe Biden nominates would impose his views on the American people, taking critical questions away from them, not protecting their Second Amendment rights...

BARTIROMO: Right.

COTTON: ... or, in many cases, their First Amendment rights.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

COTTON: That's what the Democrats want from the courts, to achieve by litigation what they can't achieve by legislation.

BARTIROMO: All right, Senator, let's take a short break.

When we come back, I want to get your take Chinese state media and the reaction to the president's coronavirus diagnosis, what it says about their global ambitions.

We're talking with Senator Tom Cotton this morning.

Stay with us. We will be right back.

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BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

We are back with Senator Tom Cotton.

And, Senator, Beijing has already chosen sides in the 2020 election, with the Communist Party backing -- the Communist Party-backed Global times endorsing Joe Biden last month, calling him -- quote -- "smoother" to deal with than President Trump.

Now they are mocking the president's positive coronavirus test, writing in this since deleted tweet that he -- quote -- "paid the price for his gamble to play down COVID-19," from the Global Times.

Senator your reaction?

COTTON: It sounds like foreign election interference, Maria, with the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece endorsing Joe Biden.

Of course, there's a reason why they endorse Joe Biden, because Joe Biden's record on China is terrible. He shipped our factories and our manufacturing jobs to China. He stood idly by while China stole our intellectual property and militarized its islands in the South China Sea and spread its communist tentacles of influence through our universities and Hollywood studios and major news organizations.

Their mockery of President Trump, though, calls to mind what I have said since early January, when I was the first person in Washington sounding the alarm about this virus, which I have said from the beginning is serious and highly contagious, that there is one party and one party only that is responsible for all of the Americans who have been affected by this virus, to include President Trump, those who have lost a job, or fallen ill, or even lost a loved one.

And the responsible party is the Chinese Communist Party for unleashing this plague on the world and lying about it from the beginning, as they still lie about it today.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

Unfortunately, we're not hearing the same upset from the critics of President Trump, even from your Democrat colleagues. They just refuse to call out China, and instead have plenty to say that's wrong with President Trump.

COTTON: Well, I mean, look, Maria, back in late December, about a week or so after I'd called for a travel ban from China, and I had consulted with the president about it, and he made the decisive announcement that he would shut down travel, what did Joe Biden say?

Joe Biden said, this is just another example of Donald Trump's hysteria and fearmongering and xenophobia.

If Joe Biden had been president in January and February, we would have still had tens of thousands of people landing in this country from mainland China while the virus was running rampant through mainland China for weeks.

That would have -- mean that the impact of the pandemic here would have been much greater, much earlier than it was. It's just another example of how Joe Biden has always been soft on China and, if he's elected president, will surrender all of the gains we have made over the last four years standing up to China, finally.

BARTIROMO: Well, it's -- of course, President Trump is the first leader to really poke back on China's behavior, in particular, stealing intellectual property for so long from this country.

What's your take on what they're stealing now? You were not only the first to call out China and call out the seriousness of this disease, but you also were among the first -- you were the first on this program to say they were stealing our research on COVID-19, as we speak.

COTTON: Yes.

BARTIROMO: Is that still going on? How do you stop it?

COTTON: Well, yes, Maria, China -- the Chinese Communist Party continues to try to steal everything that's not bolted down to the floor.

And after they have gotten all of that, they will bring bolt cutters back and try to take the rest of the stuff too.

I mean, look, in Arkansas, they have bribed a university professor for esoteric, but essential engineering techniques that have military applications, and stolen rice genomes. As you said, there's evidence and the intelligence community has made public its concern about the threats that the Chinese Communist Party would be stealing research related to coronavirus vaccines.

They continue their campaign of industrial and commercial and military espionage. We finally have a president that has taken it seriously and imposing costs on them. I'm afraid that we will backslide if Joe Biden is elected president.

BARTIROMO: All right, we will leave it there.

Tom Cotton, it's good to see you this morning, Senator. Thanks so much.

Senator Tom Cotton joining us.

COTTON: Thank you.

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