Tom Cotton
I can't comment on what every single presidential candidate is saying or doing.
What I can do as the member of the United States Senate is try to do everything I can to keep America safe.
The forces that led to radical Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, Islamic State, can ultimately only be defeated by moderate Muslims around the globe, countries like U.A.E. that have led the fight within their own border to promote tolerance.
The West has been calling for years for the forces of moderate Islam to stand up to the very small percentage but very large number of radical Muslims all around the world. When countries - the U.A.E. or Egypt or Jordan - do that, we need to highlight it, we need to celebrate it, and we need to continue to encourage it.
We want the president to act to keep America safe.
The Islamic State is using medieval tactics.
We need to be tough once again in the world.
We need to quit appeasing our adversaries, and we need to stand with our allies.
I joined the army after 9/11, after the Iraq war was started. I joined in part because I wanted to go fight on the front lines.
Before the surge started, frankly, after I left Iraq towards the end of 2006, I was worried that we were losing the war. But after the surge, I felt that we succeeded.
We're going to make America a better place.
My thesis was a defense of our Constitution on the terms that the founding fathers wrote specifically in the Federalist Papers. They hoped that our form of government would draw forward men and women who are the wisest, most prudent, and most experienced.
I am focused on the work that the people of Arkansas sent me to do.
By the time the 2008 election arrived, we had finally won the Iraq War, or we were on the road to winning it. We won starting in the summer of 2007 going into late 2011.
The world probably wishes that Great Britain had rebuilt its defenses and stopped Germany from reoccupying the Rhineland in 1936.
With Iran, we negotiated privately in 2012-2013 from a position of strength, not a position of weakness. The secret negotiations in Oman. This ultimately led to the Joint Plan of Action of November 2013.
Why would you codify a set of safeguards you might want to change as technology evolves and you face new risks of privacy, in addition to changing safeguards that might need to be relaxed in an emergency situation?
I decided early on, very early, that the best role I could play is to speak in my own voice, assume my own voice and my own ideas. Even if you support a candidate who ultimately wins, what you say and do is seen through the filter of that candidate.
Donald Trump, like most Americans, like most Republicans, believe in protecting America's core national interests.
It's important to remember that whatever the presidential candidates of either party say, they will have to interact with the United States Congress, particularly the Senate, when it comes to crafting policy... we play an important role. And I'm going to continue to play that role, whoever is president.
In Arkansas, we believe in religious freedom.
I can assure you that I'm not very close to Hillary Clinton. I think she's disqualified herself from Commander-in-Chief by her cavalier attitude towards our nation's secrecy laws.
I have always had confidence in our front line F.B.I. personnel as well as the F.B.I. leadership.
It's humiliating for Barack Obama and, therefore, the United States to have American sailors held hostage during his final State of the Union.
I have introduced legislation - with other senators from both parties, like Bob Corker and Bob Menendez and Joe Manchin - called the 'Countering the Iranian Threats Act', specifically to clamp down on a lot of Iran's nefarious activity throughout the region.
The Congress plays a central role in our constitutional structure.
Bill Clinton worked with a Republican Congress. They certainly had their differences on many issues, but look at what they also accomplished. Welfare reform - that was maybe the most significant social policy achievement in two generations.
I don't believe we should allow thousands of violent felons to be released early from prison, nor do I believe we should reduce sentences for violent offenders in the future.
It would be very dangerous and unwise to proceed with the Senate Judiciary bill, which would lead to the release of thousands of violent felons.
Actions have consequences.
Donald Trump may occasionally say things that are controversial or even objectionable to some, but those are words.
I was in Iraq in the worst period, 2006, but from 2006 to 2008, and especially through 2011, the American military and the government of Iraq made huge strides in making that country a source of stability with a relatively representative government that was seeking pluralistic engagement from all the factions within the government.
The Middle East and South Asia have a lot less in common with America than 18-year-old kids in Boston have with 18-year-old kids in Arkansas.
Inflammatory passion and selfish interest characterizes most men, whereas ambition characterizes men who pursue and hold national office. Such men rise from the people through a process of self-selection, since politics is a dirty business that discourages all but the most ambitious.
Islamic terrorists do not need an excuse to attack the United States. To attack us is what they do; they attack us for what we are.
I think that the public debate that we had on the Iran deal was very important. That's probably one of the most consequential things most of us will ever vote on ; a nuclear arms control agreement with a mortal enemy. And the White House - despite all their efforts - failed miserably.
Some people say I'm a young man in a hurry. Well, guess what: they're right.
Waterboarding isn't torture. We do waterboarding to our own soldiers in the military.
The NSA is not listening to anyone's phone calls. They're not reading any Americans' e-mails. They're collecting simply the data that your phone company already has, and which you don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy, so they can search that data quickly in the event of a terrorist plot.
Vladimir Putin is decisive. He's committed to victory, and he now has aircraft and surface-to-air missiles and main battle tanks in Syria.
The Islamic Revolution of Iran has been killing Americans, hundreds of Americans, for 35 years in Iraq and Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
At Harvard College, I discovered political philosophy as a way of life.
Ambition characterizes and distinguishes national officeholders from other kinds of human beings.
I'll tell you the truth, even in an election year, and that's what people are ready for.
I've said all along: I'll support the nominee, because we can't afford another term of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy or, for that matter, economic policy at home.
I think it's important that the Republican Party remain the home of conservatives and that the best way to advance conservative principles is to elect Republicans up and down the ballot.
Two-thirds of the American people realize just how bad the nuclear deal is with Iran.
I think that Americans - and this is not true just now, but over the years - are not fundamentally opposed to war. They're fundamentally opposed to losing wars.
The Iranian people, if you look at their demographics and their level of education, could be a strong source for stability in the Middle East. The problem is they're run by an apocalyptic cult of ayatollahs.