Senator Tom Cotton has ramped up his rhetoric against Vice President Kamala Harris, labeling her the “Ayatollah’s handpicked candidate” during a recent interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” In what many are calling fear mongering, Cotton claimed that Harris and President Biden have consistently appeased Iran.
“From the very beginning, they’ve appeased and conciliated the ayatollahs,” Cotton said of Harris and President Biden on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
Cotton pointed to Harris’s opposition to former President Donald Trump’s 2020 military strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani as part of a broader trend of concessions.
“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,” said Cotton.
“They’ve continually put more pressure on Israel than they put on Iran’s terrorist proxy,” he charged. “That’s why Kamala Harris is the Ayatollah’s handpicked candidate, and why the ayatollahs are hacking into Donald Trump’s campaign and trying to kill him.”
Cotton’s comments come amid rising tensions in the Middle East, especially following Hezbollah’s confirmation of the death of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an Israeli strike. Iranian Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei responded by claiming that Israel has not inflicted significant damage on Hezbollah, as reported by the Lebanese National News Agency.
In a related note, Trump’s campaign announced earlier this week that the former president was briefed on specific assassination threats from Iran. “President Trump was briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran,” said campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, further fueling the atmosphere of fear surrounding the issue.
