Cotton is considered politically conservative. The American Conservative Union's Center for Legislative Accountability gives him a lifetime rating of 86.06.
2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill Cotton was one of 18 Republican senators to vote for the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that former President
Donald Trump criticized. The bill earmarked $45 billion more for
Ukraine to defend itself against
Russia, but prohibited funding for more immigration barriers in the U.S. and did not raise border enforcement spending past current inflation levels.
Race relations Cotton drew scrutiny for columns he wrote for
The Harvard Crimson about race relations in America, calling
Jesse Jackson and
Al Sharpton "race-hustling charlatans" and saying race relations "would almost certainly improve if we stopped emphasizing race in our public life." In 2016, Cotton rejected the claim that too many criminals are being jailed, that there is
over-incarceration in the United States, as "Law enforcement is able to arrest or identify a likely perpetrator for only 19 percent of property crimes and 47 percent of violent crimes. If anything, we have an under-incarceration problem". Cotton said that reduced sentencing for felons would destabilize the United States, arguing that "I saw this in Baghdad. We've seen it again in Afghanistan." Arguing against the bill in question, the
FIRST STEP Act, Cotton asserted that "convicts of certain sex-related crimes could accrue credits making them eligible for supervised release or 'pre-release' to a
halfway house". A spokesperson for
Mike Lee responded that "just because a federal offense is not on the specific list of ineligible offenses doesn't mean inmates who committed [a] non-specified offense will earn early release". The bill passed 87–12 on December 18, 2018. Cotton voted against it. in August 2018 Following the
murder of George Floyd, Cotton rejected the view that there is "
systemic racism in the
criminal justice system in America". Amid the
ensuing protests, Cotton advocated on Twitter that the military be used to support police, and to give "no quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters". In the military, the term '
no quarter' refers to the killing of lawfully surrendering combatants, which is a
war crime under the
Geneva Convention. Cotton subsequently said he was using the "colloquial" version of the phrase and cited examples of Democrats and the mainstream media using it. A few days later,
The New York Times published an opinion piece by Cotton titled "Send in the Troops", arguing for the deployment of federal troops to counter looting and rioting in major American cities. Dozens of
Times staff members sharply criticized the decision to publish Cotton's article, calling its rhetoric dangerous. Following the negative response from staffers, the
Times responded by saying the piece went through a "rushed editorial process" that would be reexamined. Editorial page editor
James Bennet resigned days later. Cotton criticized the
Times for retracting his piece, saying, "
The New York Times editorial page editor and owner defended it in public statements but then they totally surrendered to a woke child mob from their own newsroom that apparently gets triggered if they're presented with any opinion contrary to their own, as opposed to telling the woke children in their newsroom this is the workplace, not a social justice seminar on campus".
Statements about slavery In July 2020, Cotton introduced the Saving American History Act of 2020, proposed legislation preventing the use of federal tax dollars for the teaching of
The 1619 Project, an initiative of
The New York Times. In an interview with the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Cotton said of slavery, "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."
Joshua D. Rothman, a history professor at the University of Alabama, responded that slavery was neither "necessary" nor on the way to "extinction" when America was founded, because it "was a choice defended or accepted by most white Americans for generations, and it expanded dramatically between the Revolution and the Civil War". 1619 Project director
Nikole Hannah-Jones tweeted: "If chattel slavery—heritable, generational, permanent, race-based slavery where it was legal to rape, torture, and sell human beings for profit—were a 'necessary evil' as [Tom Cotton] says, it's hard to imagine what cannot be justified if it is a means to an end." Cotton responded, "more lies from the debunked 1619 Project" and said he was "not endorsing or justifying slavery" because he was relaying what he believed were the "views of the Founders". Georgetown University historian Adam Rothman said Cotton's phrase is "really a kind of shorthand way of describing the complex set of attitudes of the founding generation and it's not really accurate."
COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act Cotton was one of six Republican senators to vote against advancing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which would allow the
U.S. Justice Department to review hate crimes related to
COVID-19 and establish an online database.
Gun laws In January 2019, Cotton was one of 31 Republican senators to cosponsor the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, a bill introduced by
John Cornyn and
Ted Cruz that would grant individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home state the right to exercise this right in any other state with concealed carry laws while concurrently abiding by that state's laws. Cotton has an A grade from the
National Rifle Association (NRA), which endorsed him in the 2014 election. The NRA's Chris W. Cox said, "Tom Cotton will always stand up for the values and freedoms of Arkansas gun owners and sportsmen." In response to the
2017 Las Vegas shooting, Cotton said the weapon sounded like a belt-fed machine gun and that he did not believe any new gun control legislation would have prevented the shooting. When it was later established that the shooter had used semi-automatic rifles with a
bump stock attachment, he said he was "willing to entertain" regulation of bump stocks. In June 2022, Cotton introduced the "Stop Gun Criminals Act", which sought to increase minimum sentences for existing offenses but provided no new regulation. In May 2022, People.com listed Cotton as one of the U.S. lawmakers who had received the most funding from the NRA.
Immigration Cotton's 2012 campaign website stated, "We cannot afford to grant illegal aliens amnesty or a so-called 'earned path to citizenship'." In July 2013, after the Senate's bipartisan
Gang of Eight passed the
Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, an immigration reform proposal, House Republicans held a closed-door meeting to decide whether to bring the bill to a vote. Budget Committee chairman
Paul Ryan spoke at one podium arguing for its passage; Cotton spoke at another arguing against it, even exchanging terse comments with Speaker Boehner. On February 7, 2017, in the presence of President Trump, Cotton and Senator
David Perdue proposed a new immigration bill, the
RAISE Act, which would limit the family route or
chain migration. The bill would set a limit on the number of refugees offered residency at 50,000 a year and would remove the
Diversity Immigrant Visa. Senators
Lindsey Graham and
John McCain expressed opposition to the bill. Cotton, a supporter of Trump on immigration, was present at a January 11, 2018, meeting at which Trump is alleged to have called
Haiti and
African nations "shithole countries". Cotton and Senator David Perdue said in a joint statement that "we do not recall the President saying these comments specifically". In a statement, the White House did not deny that Trump had made the comment, although Trump did in a tweet the following day. Cotton reiterated on CBS's
Face The Nation, "I certainly didn't hear what Senator Durbin has said repeatedly". "Senator Durbin has a history of misrepresenting what happens in White House meetings, though, so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by that", Cotton added.
Slate magazine asserted that Cotton was referring to a misquotation
Dick Durbin made of a 2013 gathering at the Obama White House at which Durbin was not present, nor had he claimed to be present. Durbin was not the only person at the meeting to confirm Trump's words; another was Lindsey Graham. In December 2018, Cotton placed a senatorial hold on H.R.7164 – A Bill to add Ireland to the E-3 Non-immigrant Visa Program. The bill did not create new non-immigrant visas, but rather allowed Irish college graduates to apply for any surplus E-3 visas in Specialty Occupations that had gone unused by Australians within their annual cap of 10,500. The bipartisan bill had passed the House of Representatives on November 28, 2018, and had also received the backing of the Trump administration. Because of Cotton's hold, it did not reach the Senate floor for consideration. Cotton's immigration positions have led to protests at his Washington office. In January 2018, five demonstrators were arrested for obstructing his office while they were protesting his position on
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. They were released after paying a $50 fine. In February 2021, in a speech at
CPAC, Cotton criticized the Democrats' and Joe Biden's immigration policies. Cotton claimed, "They have halted deportations for all illegal aliens. Murderers, rapists, terrorists, MS-13 gang members are not being deported."
PolitiFact rated Cotton's claim as "False" and elaborated that the "Biden administration ordered a 100-day deportation pause, but it did not apply to criminals such as murderers, rapists, terrorists, or gang members." In September 2021, the Senate voted along partisan lines to reject Cotton's amendment that sought to curtail assistance to Afghan refugees after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and hinder the refugees' ability to obtain federally recognized identification cards without proving their identity.
Health and social issues Cotton opposed the
Affordable Care Act, saying in 2012 that "the first step is to repeal that law, which is offensive to a free society and a free people". In April 2019, Cotton called the
Southern Poverty Law Center a "political hate group" and asked the IRS to check whether it should retain its tax-exempt status. In 2012, Cotton said, "Strong families also depend on strong marriages, and I support the traditional understanding of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. I also support the
Defense of Marriage Act." In 2013, Cotton voted against reauthorizing the
Violence Against Women Act, saying that the federal powers in the act were too broad.
Abortion and related issues In June 2013, Cotton voted for the
Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill to ban
abortion after 20 or more weeks following fertilization. He has said that
Roe v. Wade and
Planned Parenthood v. Casey were "wrongly decided as a constitutional matter" and that the legality of abortion should be up to politicians in the individual states. He was one of 183 co-sponsors of the version of the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act introduced in 2013. After
Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, Cotton called
Roe a "tragic mistake" that had been "corrected" and said he "highly commends the millions of Americans who toiled for years to achieve this great victory for unborn life and self-government.” Cotton has said, "I oppose the destruction of human embryos to conduct stem-cell research and all forms of human cloning."
Animal welfare On animal protection issues, Cotton has received a score of 0 out of 100 in 2025 from the Humane World Action Fund, the political affiliate of
Humane World for Animals. Cotton co-introduced the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act, which would limit the ability of states to regulate the sale of meat from animals raised on farms that do not meet animal welfare standards. In a statement, Cotton said, "States like California shouldn't regulate how producers in Arkansas manage their farm."
Student loans In August 2013, Cotton voted against the
Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013, which sets interest rates on
student loans to the 10-year Treasury note plus a varying markup for undergraduate and graduate students. He preferred a solution that ended what he called the "federal-government monopoly on the student-lending business", referring to the provision of the
Affordable Care Act that changed the way the federal government makes student loans.
January 6 On January 6, 2021, Cotton released a statement repudiating the attack on the Capitol: Last summer, as insurrection gripped the streets, I called to send in the troops if necessary to restore order. Today, insurrectionists occupied our Capitol. Fortunately, the Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies restored order without the need for federal troops. But the principle remains the same: no quarter for insurrectionists. Those who attacked the Capitol today should face the full extent of federal law. He subsequently repeated his earlier description of those involved as "insurrectionists" and said they should be brought to justice. On May 28, 2021, Cotton voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the
2021 United States Capitol attack.
Ranked-choice voting After Democrat
Mary Peltola won the
2022 Alaska's at-large congressional district special election, defeating former Alaska governor and Republican
Sarah Palin, Cotton blasted the
ranked-choice voting system that Alaska used to conduct its election, writing: "60% of Alaska voters voted for a Republican, but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion—which disenfranchises voters—a Democrat won".
Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 Cotton was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against the final passage of the
Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, citing a provision in the bill that would limit defense spending increases to a rate below inflation. Cotton said, "Unfortunately, this bill poses a mortal risk to our national security by cutting our defense budget, which I cannot support as grave dangers gather on the horizon."
Whistleblowers and the press Cotton blocked the
Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act.
Foreign policy views 2014 Cotton, through his foreign policy views, has been characterized as a
war hawk. During a February 5, 2015,
Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Cotton called for housing more prisoners at
Guantanamo Bay instead of closing it. He said of the detainees in the camp, "every last one of them can rot in hell, but as long as they don't do that they can rot in Guantanamo Bay". The following June, he was one of 21 Senate Republicans to oppose an amendment to the 2016 Defense Authorization Act that would impair any future president's ability to authorize torture. The amendment, which passed, had bipartisan support and was sponsored by
John McCain and
Dianne Feinstein. In September 2016, Cotton was one of 34 senators to sign a letter to
United States secretary of state John Kerry advocating that the United States use "all available tools to dissuade Russia from continuing its airstrikes in Syria" from an
Iranian airbase near
Hamadan "that are clearly not in our interest" and saying the US should clearly enforce the violation of "a legally binding Security Council Resolution" on Iran. In July 2017, Cotton voted in favor of the
Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that grouped together
sanctions against
Russia,
Iran and
North Korea. In December 2018, after Trump announced the withdrawal of
American troops in Syria, Cotton was one of six senators to sign a letter expressing concern about the move and their belief "that such action at this time is a premature and costly mistake that not only threatens the safety and security of the United States, but also emboldens ISIS, Bashar al Assad, Iran, and Russia." In January 2019, Cotton was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to advance legislation intended to block Trump's intent to lift sanctions against three Russian companies. In August 2019, it was reported that Cotton had suggested to Trump and the Danish ambassador that the U.S. should buy
Greenland. Cotton supports U.S. withdrawal from the
Open Skies agreement, which lets nations use special aircraft to monitor each other's military activities. In 2018, he asserted that the agreement was outdated and that it favored Russian interests.
China In 2018, Cotton was a cosponsor of the Countering the Chinese Government and Communist Party's Political Influence Operations Act, a bill introduced by
Marco Rubio and
Catherine Cortez Masto that would grant the U.S. secretary of state and the director of national intelligence (DNI) the authority to create an interagency task force with the purpose of examining attempts by China to influence the U.S. and key allies. In August 2018, Cotton and 16 other lawmakers urged the Trump administration to impose sanctions under the
Global Magnitsky Act against
Chinese officials who are responsible for
human rights violations in western
China's
Xinjiang region targeting the
Uyghur ethnic minority. They wrote in a bipartisan letter, "The detention of as many as a million or more Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in 'political reeducation' centers or camps requires a tough, targeted, and global response". In February 2019, Cotton was one of the group of Senate Republicans who signed a letter to
Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi requesting that Pelosi invite
President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen to address a joint meeting of Congress. The request came amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and China and was expected to anger Chinese leadership if granted. In May 2019, when asked about the impact of tariffs on farmers in Arkansas, Cotton said there would be "some sacrifices on the part of Americans, I grant you that, but I also would say that sacrifice is pretty minimal compared to the sacrifices that our soldiers make overseas that are fallen heroes that are laid to rest in Arlington make", and that farmers were willing to make sacrifices in order for the U.S. to fend off Chinese attempts to displace the U.S. globally. In May 2019, Cotton was a cosponsor of the South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act, a bipartisan bill reintroduced by
Marco Rubio and
Ben Cardin that was intended to disrupt China's consolidation or expansion of its claims of jurisdiction over both the sea and air space in disputed zones in the South China Sea. In July 2019, Cotton and Senator
Chris Van Hollen were the primary sponsors of the Defending America's 5G Future Act, a bill that would prevent Huawei from being removed from the "entity list" of the Commerce Department without an act of Congress and authorize Congress to block administration waivers for U.S. companies to do business with Huawei. The bill would also codify Trump's executive order from the previous May that empowered his administration to block foreign tech companies deemed a national security threat from conducting business in the United States. In April 2020, Cotton said that Chinese students in the United States should be restricted to studying the humanities and banned from studying science-related fields. In an interview with Fox News, he said, "It is a scandal to me that we have trained so many of the Chinese Communist Party's brightest minds." On August 10, 2020, the Chinese government
sanctioned Cotton and 10 other Americans for "behaving badly on Hong Kong-related issues". In February 2021, Cotton released a report, "Beat China: Targeted Decoupling and the Economic Long War", that called for the U.S. to sever most economic ties with China and invest in scientific, technological, and manufacturing fields China is ahead in. The report called for economic restrictions on China despite the costs, saying the "costs of targeted decoupling with China pale in comparison to the costs of passivity"; more sanctions against theft of U.S. intellectual property, controls on U.S. technologies exported to China; barring "Chinese nationals in graduate and post-graduate programs in the United States from studying or conducting research in sensitive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields"; and expanded trade relations with allied countries to mitigate the impact of decoupling with China. In a speech detailing the report, Cotton said, "We need to beat this evil empire and consign the Chinese Communists ... to the ash heap of history". Cotton and Britt introduced the bill again in January 2025. In July 2023, Cotton criticized President
Joe Biden's efforts to diplomatically engage with China, saying: "Biden administration officials should stop chasing after their Chinese communist counterparts like lovestruck teenagers. It's embarrassing and it's pathetic". In January 2024, Cotton questioned TikTok CEO
Shou Zi Chew during a Senate hearing on child safety on social media, repeatedly asking Shou whether he was a member of the
Chinese Communist Party. Shou said he was not, as he was a citizen of
Singapore and did not hold Chinese nationality. Cotton continued to question Shou about his nationality and politics. Shou continued to affirm his Singaporean nationality. Cotton received backlash, especially from
Singaporeans, for this incident. In February 2025, Cotton criticized
Elon Musk for "chasing Chinese dollars" and having "shamefully supplicated China's Communist rulers" in his book, ''Seven Things You Can't Say About China''.
COVID-19 On January 28, 2020, in the context of the emergence of
COVID-19, Cotton urged the Trump administration to halt commercial flights from China to the United States. On January 31, spurred in part by Cotton's warnings, the Trump administration banned most travel from China. In a February 16, 2020, Fox News interview, Cotton said that the coronavirus may have started at the biosafety level 4 super laboratory in
Wuhan, China. "Now, we don't have evidence that this disease originated there", Cotton said, "but because of China's duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning we need to at least ask the question". Articles published by
The New York Times and
The Washington Post the same day reported that scientists had dismissed claims that the Chinese government created the virus.
The Times said this was because of its resemblance to the
SARS virus, which originated with bats.
The Post called Cotton's comments "debunked" and "conspiracy theory" for 15 months until issuing a correction: "The term 'debunked' and
The Post use of 'conspiracy theory' have been removed because, then as now, there was no determination about the origins of the virus." Molecular biologist
Richard Ebright said
The Post had omitted his views supporting the
lab leak hypothesis and "materially misrepresented" his views, adding, "Watching 'the first rough draft of history' being written as a partisan exercise, rather than a journalistic exercise, was dismaying." Cotton tweeted around March 2020: "we will hold accountable those who inflicted it on the world" for what it had done. To a tweet reading "China will pay for this", he responded, "Correct." In late April 2020, Cotton said in a Fox News interview that the non-containment of the pandemic was a "deliberate" and "malevolent" attack by the Chinese government on the rest of the world. "They did not want to see their relative power and standing in the world decline because the virus was contained [in China]", he said. In early 2023, the
United States Department of Energy assessed that a "lab leak was to blame" for the emergence of COVID-19. The assessment, which mirrored a similar assessment by the FBI, was made with a "low confidence" level. In response, Cotton said, "being proven right doesn’t matter. What matters is holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable so this doesn’t happen again."
Israeli–Palestinian conflict In July 2017, Cotton co-sponsored the bipartisan
Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S.270), which amended existing federal law that criminalized foreign-led boycotts of U.S. allies by specifically prohibiting support for foreign governments or organizations that impose a boycott on Israel. The proposal generated controversy, as some interpreted it as a restriction on private citizens' activities and a potential violation of constitutional rights. Others viewed it as a clarification of the existing
Export Administration Act of 1979 in response to the 2016
United Nations Human Rights Council resolutions that called on corporations to reassess business activities that may impact
Palestinian human rights. In October 2023, Cotton condemned
Hamas's actions during the
Gaza war and expressed support for
Israel and its right to self-defense. He denied that Israel was committing
war crimes in the
Gaza Strip, saying, "If Hamas uses schools and kindergartens and mosques for military purposes, Israel has every right under the laws of war to strike back." He added: "As far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza. Anything that happens in Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas." On November 9, 2023, Cotton asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether journalists working for international news outlets "committed federal crimes by supporting Hamas terrorists". On February 28, 2024, three days after United States airman
Aaron Bushnell self-immolated outside the D.C. Israeli Embassy in protest of U.S. support of Israel, Cotton sent a letter to Defense Secretary
Lloyd Austin calling Bushnell's death "an act of horrific violence" that was "in support of a terrorist group [Hamas]." He went on to ask about internal efforts to address extremism in the military. In April 2024, Cotton threatened to cut U.S. funding to the International Criminal Court (ICC), sanction ICC employees, and bar the employees and their families from entering the U.S. if the
ICC issues arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. After the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and
Yoav Gallant on November 21, 2024, Cotton called it a "
kangaroo court" and the prosecutor,
Karim Khan, a "deranged fanatic." On Twitter, he called for
The Hague to be invaded should Netanyahu be arrested, writing: "Woe to [Khan] and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants. Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as
The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it."
Iran in July 2018 In 2013, Cotton introduced legislative language to prohibit trade with relatives of individuals subject to
U.S. sanctions against Iran. According to Cotton, this would include "a spouse and any relative to the third degree", such as "parents, children, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandparents, great grandparents, grandkids, great grandkids." After Cotton's amendment came under harsh criticism regarding its constitutionality, he withdrew it. In March 2015, Cotton wrote and sent
a letter to the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, signed by 47 of the Senate's 54 Republicans, that cast doubt on the Obama administration's authority to engage in
nuclear-proliferation negotiations with Iran. The next president, they asserted, could reject it "with the stroke of a pen". The open letter was released in English as well as a poorly translated
Persian version, which "read like a middle schooler wrote it", according to
Foreign Policy. Within hours, commentators suggested that the letter prepared by Cotton constituted a violation of the
Logan Act. Questions were also raised about whether it reflected a flawed interpretation of the
Treaty Clause of the United States Constitution. President Obama mocked the letter, calling it an "unusual coalition" with the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as an interference with the ongoing negotiations of a comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear program. In addition, Obama said, "I'm embarrassed for them. For them to address a letter to the Ayatollah—the Supreme Leader of Iran, who they claim is our mortal enemy—and their basic argument to them is: don't deal with our president, 'cause you can't trust him to follow through on an agreement ... That's close to unprecedented." Cotton defended the letter amid criticism that it undermined Obama's efforts, saying, "It's so important we communicated this message straight to Iran... No regrets at all... they already control Tehran, increasingly they control Damascus and Beirut and Baghdad and now Sana'a as well." He continued to defend his action in an interview with
MSNBC by saying, "There are nothing but hardliners in Iran. They've been killing Americans for 35 years. They kill hundreds of troops in Iraq. Now they control five capitals in the Middle East. There are nothing but hardliners in Tehran, and if they do all those things without a nuclear weapon, imagine what they'll do with a nuclear weapon." Cotton received extensive financial support from pro-Israel groups due to his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and for his hawkish stance toward Iran. Several pro-Israel Republican billionaires who contributed millions of dollars to
William Kristol's
Emergency Committee for Israel spent $960,000 to support Cotton. In July 2018, Cotton introduced the Iran Hostage Taking Accountability Act, a bill that would call for the president to compose a list of Iranians that were "knowingly responsible for or complicit in...the politically-motivated harassment, abuse, extortion, arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing, or imprisonment" of Americans and have those on the list face sanctions along with enabling the president to impose sanctions on their family members and bar them from entering the United States. Cotton stated that Iran had not changed much since 1981 and called for Americans to avoid Iran and its borders as there were "many friendly countries in the region that you can visit where you'd be safer". In May 2019, Cotton said that in the event of a
war with Iran, the United States could easily win in "two strikes. The first strike and the last strike".
Russia On March 13, 2018, in an interview on conservative commentator
Hugh Hewitt's radio show, Cotton said he expected
Russian officials to "lie and deny" about the
poisoning of Sergei Skripal, an ex-Russian spy on British soil. After
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May gave Russia 24 hours to respond to the poison, Cotton said, "I suspect the response will be the typical Russian response. They’ll lie and deny." He went on to suggest retaliatory measures that the U.K. and the U.S. could implement in response to Russia's alleged actions, including renewed sanctions on oil. == Reception ==