Arkansas senator on Israel-Hezbollah conflict and potential second presidential debate
WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA, KECY) - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) spoke with Robert Costa on Face the Nation Sunday about the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
The Israeli military said Sunday that it killed another high-ranking Hezbollah official in an airstrike as the terrorist group in Lebanon reels from a string of devastating blows and the killing of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it killed Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central County, in an airstrike on Saturday. Hezbollah confirmed his death, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader slain in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. They include founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades.
When asked he believes there will be "an expanded war between Israel and Iran," Cotton said:
"I'm not sure that Israel is expanding the war so much as it is trying to end the war, I think it's important to stress just sort of huge blow the last two weeks have been against Hezbollah. Iran is behind all of these terror networks, but Hezbollah is its most potent weapon. Hezbollah has over 100,000 rockets and missiles and mortars aimed at Israel. Iran has used that threat to deter Israel for years, going back probably 20 years or so, and now that Israel has absolutely devastated the entire leadership structure of Hezbollah, whether it's at the attacks that came just late last week, killing not only Hassan Nasrallah and all the other leaders, or some of their other actions, or hitting their weapons depots and manufacturing sites in Syria. Now is not the time for a ceasefire or to de-escalate, as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want. Hezbollah is on its knees. The United States should help Israel drive Hezbollah to the mat and choke it out and finish it off once and for all. That means for the first time in decades, Iran would be exposed on its flanks with no terror proxy capable- capable of devastating Israel or our troops and our friends in the region. That's what we should do. Not demand that we have a cease fire. De-escalate at a time when Israel is trying to win. We should let Israel win."
When also asked what if he would support a "ground invasion of Lebanon by Israel" following his comment, "drive Hezbollah to the mat," Cotton replied:
"If that's what Israel needs to do to eliminate the remnants of Hezbollah's leadership and its arsenal, then yes, of course. Again, Hezbollah had over 100,00 missiles and rockets and mortars. Now a lot of those have probably already been destroyed. Israel needs to destroy all of them. A lot of Hezbollah's leadership has been destroyed as well. This guy that y'all just cited there, maybe he's the leader, I don't know who's in charge of Hezbollah. I'm not sure anyone else does either. It's probably someone who wasn't important enough to have a beeper or a walkie talkie as recently as two weeks ago. But all of Hezbollah's leadership needs to be eliminated, just like all of its arsenal needs to be eliminated, just like the United States needs to be much more forceful in attacking Iran's terror army in Yemen, where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have had our sailors resting like sitting ducks in the Red Sea for months. When we finish mopping up all of these terrorist proxies, that means Iran, once again, is totally exposed. It no longer can threaten Israel and the United States and our friends throughout the region. That's why we need to back Israel to the hilt and let Israel win, rather than continue to make these feckless demands for ceasefires and de-escalation that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have been doing for a year now."
During the interview, Costa and Cotton talked about former President Donald Trump meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York, where the former president talked about "a potential deal to" end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
When asked what kind of deal would it look like, Cotton said:
"Well, he hasn't been specific, and I think that's for a reason. One, he doesn't know what the world is going to look like in another three months when he takes office. He doesn't know how much more Joe Biden Kamala Harris might screw things up. But here's what we do know, this never would have happened on Donald Trump's watch because it didn't happen on Donald Trump's watch. Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine twice, both times with Joe Biden in the White House. First as Barack Obama's understudy, second with Kamala Harris in the White House with him. That came just a few months after the disastrous collapse in Afghanistan. Those things are not unrelated. When you project weakness, as Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have, and you suggest to your enemies that they can push you around and walk all over you, you get the kind of conflicts we see in Europe and that we see in Israel, and you get the chaos we see at our southern border."
Talks then came to a potential second presidential debate between Harris and Trump, with the vice president accepting CNN's invitation to debate while the former president declined to participate, saying it was too late to do another debate.
When asked if that was a mistake on Trump's part, and whether the American public "deserve to hear more from former President Trump and the Vice President about their views," Cotton said:
"He's already debated twice and JD is going to debate Tim, and he's going to do a great job telling his story and pointing out what a radical record Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Have the American people know what Donald Trump will do in office. Kamala Harris is still trying to fool them."
To watch more of Costa's interview with Cotton, click here.
