Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Tom Cotton

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

INGRAHAM: The last 24 hours have revealed what can happen when activists turn aggressive. Representative Andy Harris of Maryland was harassed at his congressional office by two pro pot activists. I thought they were supposed to be calm because of pot. Mitch McConnell was harassed at Reagan National Airport by the same Soros-funded group that cornered poor old Jeff Flake in the congressional elevator.

And suspicious packages were sent to the Pentagon, Senator Ted Cruz's Texas campaign office and the White House. So where is all this leading? To answer that, we're joined by Senator Tom Cotton. Senator, thanks so much for being here. You've been very vocal about this Kavanaugh circus. So how is this political division, the acrimony, now this aggression over the nomination fueled some of these perhaps increasingly dangerous situations?

SEN. TOM COTTON, R--ARK.: Well, Laura, the Democrats will stop at nothing to defeat Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. They are not doing that because of the allegations they've trotted out over the last two weeks. They are doing it because they don't want to have a conservative majority on the Supreme Court and that's why you've seen some of the most outlandish wild out claims rolled out, with immediate demands that he withdraw.

He's not withdrawing, where voting on him. Everybody will have to put their cards on the table for God and country later this week. Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed because the more we learn, I suspect the FBI investigation will simply corroborate this. His denials are the things that are supported by evidence, not the allegations against him.

INGRAHAM: Senator, the security in the Senate seems to me to be a bit of an issue when you can have people -- clearly this is all orchestrated and planned. They had the cameras already to go and they work for Soros Center for Democracy, co-executive director was the one who was shouting most in the beginning.

They corner Flake and Flake is like melting and he was like he needs a pair of Depends or something. He doesn't know how to deal with like two women yelling at him. And he's like no, no, don't -- and it's screaming at him and I don't know if they stood in the elevator, but they couldn't get out - - he was like stuck in the elevator. Is this now going to incentivize other such organized protesters to do the same thing? And then they get their moment of viral shame?

COTTON: Well, you are right, a lot of these protesters are professional left-wing activists at D.C. community organizing groups or even Democratic staffers. They are yelling and screaming in the hallways, or stalking senators not just in the Senate but at airports and even to their homes.

The young staffers in Susan Collins offices have received death threats and rape threats. They walk around disrupting business in the Senate. This is a result in part of the kind of wild eyed radical claims that Democrats have made about Brett Kavanaugh from the very beginning.

And remember Laura, it wasn't that long ago when a madman, a former Bernie Sanders supporters showed up at a baseball field in Alexandria to commit mass murder against congressional Republicans. Thankfully, Capitol Hill police officers were there because Steve Scalise police were present and they were able to neutralize the threat but not before Steve Scalise were badly wounded and still walks on crutches to this day because of it.

So I think some of our Democratic colleagues need to reconsider their rhetoric and the kinds of incentives that they are giving to people that frankly are a little bit around the bend.

INGRAHAM: Senator, three takeaways from Christine Ford's ex-boyfriend, and again, it's an ex-boyfriend so you have to take it with a grain of salt -- obtained by Fox News tonight. Blasey Ford helped prepare a friend to take a polygraph test. She fancies herself something of an expert in polygraphs but she had that history. Apparently she had no fear of flying in small airplanes, a number of trips that he was I guess on with her or aware of and she had no aversion to tight or closed spaces.

She claimed that she had become claustrophobic because of this event 36 years ago. There were other comments of a sexual nature that I'd rather not get into, but he was never told about her assault in any way, shape, or form and anyway, I don't want to talk about more of the sexual stuff but there is that out there as well.

COTTON: Yes Laura, so I haven't seen that letter, I only heard your reporting on it earlier. I will say this. I assume the FBI will consider that matter. I also assume the FBI will seek the therapist notes that Ms. Ford cited as corroborating evidence from 2012. Nobody has seen those yet, she refused to turn them over to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

What little we do know comes from "Washington Post" reporting. If anything, it is exculpatory for Brett Kavanaugh. It corroborates his account and creates internal inconsistencies in Ms. Ford's account. So, I hope the FBI has had a chance to review those therapist notes as part of their supplemental background check.

INGRAHAM: Senator, your predictio, will he get confirmed?

COTTON: Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the Supreme Court later this week. It will be a majority. I hope it is a bipartisan majority. I hope many of the senators last week that went over the top in their rhetoric will reconsider what they said.

Recognize that even though they lost the election, even though a Republican president is appointing a justice of his choice and being confirmed by a Republican majority Senate, that they need for the long-term health of the Senate and the Supreme Court to reconsider their rhetoric about the legitimacy of this process.

If anything, Chuck Grassley, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump have bent over backwards to be transparent and provide all the information that's necessary to prove that Brett Kavanaugh is both highly qualified and that there is no corroboration or proof for any of the allegations against him.

INGRAHAM: Senator Tom Cotton, thanks so much for being with us tonight.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source