Tom Cotton puts on masterclass to shut down CBS anchor connecting Paul Pelosi attack to political rhetoric

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) decisively shut down a CBS News anchor on Tuesday for trying to connect Republican rhetoric to the attack on Paul Pelosi.

What happened?

Speaking on "CBS Mornings," anchor Tony Dokoupil asked Cotton about the attack. At first, Cotton described it as "just one more example of what we should always do with violent criminals, which is throw the book at them."

"We should do the same thing to the person who tried to assassinate Brett Kavanaugh. The same thing to all the agitators who are protesting in violation of federal law outside of justices' [homes]," he added. "We need to crack down and get tough on crime in this country."

Then Dokoupil got to his point, claiming that Republicans are voicing the concern that "the temperature in the country is just too high, the misinformation is just too much, and that we’re going to see more, not less political violence going forward."

Cotton, however, did not take the bait, explaining Republicans should still campaign on legitimate election issues.

Well, you see, deranged lunatics attack both Democrats and Republicans alike. I don’t think John Boehner 12 years ago pointing out that Nancy Pelosi passed Obamacare, or Kevin McCarthy now pointing out she passed trillions of dollars of spending that causes inflation led to this apparent nudist activist breaking into her home. The simplest way to stop crimes like this is to get tough on crime. It’s not to try to stop campaigning in the middle of a campaign seven days before an election on legitimate issues of public concern.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton discusses midterm elections and new bookwww.youtube.com

But Dokoupil did not stop there.

He followed up to confirm whether Cotton does not see a connection between the Paul Pelosi attack and "people denying the results of the 2020 election." The question itself presupposed a connection exists.

"You don’t see a connection between the political rhetoric and the acts of this individual and other individuals?" Dokoupil asked.

"No more connection than Chuck Schumer going to the steps of the Supreme Court and saying that Brett Kavanaugh wouldn’t know what hit him if he issued rulings that Chuck Schumer disagreed with," Cotton fired back.

"And what do you have? A left-wing hitman showing up at Brett Kavanaugh’s house to assassinate him," he added. "The answer to all of these crimes is to get tough on crime and throw the book at these criminals."

Dokoupil then dropped the topic and moved on to discussing Cotton's latest book.