U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) is under fire after telling a local Arkansas newspaper that slavery was a “necessary evil.” On Monday Cotton, who has been repeatedly accused of being a racist and using racism, claimed a direct quote of his remarks was “fake news.”
On “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade read the Cotton quote from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette:
“We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country. As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction,” he said.
Cotton did not say, “the Founding Fathers said slavery was a necessary evil,” he said: “As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil,” meaning he agrees with that falsehood.
But Cotton on “Fox & Friends” did not even try to claim he was “just” quoting the Founding Fathers.
After Kilmeade read the quote and told Cotton “some say that was insensitive,” Cotton paused, smirked, then laughed.
“Well that is fake news, Brian,” Cotton claimed. “That’s not what I said.”
The Arkansas Republican lawmaker then tried to spin a different version of his remarks. He did not claim he was misquoted, he did not say he’s asked the local paper to print a correction.
“Of course slavery is a evil institution,” Cotton added, not calling it a “necessary evil” as he told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
Cotton is pushing his bill that would essentially ban the teaching of The New York Times’ “1619 Project” in schools, by cutting off federal funding to any school that teaches the project’s tenets.
Cotton also falsely claims “‘The 1619 Project’ wants to indoctrinate America’s kids and teach them to hate America.”
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