Tom Cotton's tweets about violence against protesters are alarming

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Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton is facing backlash for a post on X that appears to encourage people to carry out violence against pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Since Israel initiated its bombardment of Gaza, following a Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7, Cotton has had no qualms airing his illiberal bigotry on the subject. The senator has advocated for Israel to “bounce the rubble” in Gaza, endorsing an indiscriminate bombing campaign by suggesting "anything that happens in Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas." And he’s called for foreign nationals to be deported from the United States if they protest Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has garnered worldwide criticism. Cotton’s disturbing rhetoric about the conflict continued with a post on X Monday night in which he encourages people “stuck behind pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic” to “take matters into your own hands to get them out of the way.” The senator said “it’s time to put an end to this nonsense.” MSNBC has reached out to Cotton's office to ask the senator to clarify how, exactly, he would propose that people "get them out of the way" and whether he supports violence against demonstrators. (His office did not immediately respond, but we'll update if and when we hear.) That is certainly how some have interpreted his remarks, as critics on X denounced the post and criticized Cotton for conflating pro-Palestinian protesters with "pro-Hamas" protesters. (Read more here about the GOP’s troubling embrace of vigilantes.) Amid that backlash, Cotton shared a video on Tuesday morning that shows men dragging protesters out of the street, to which he added “How it should be done.” In recent years, conservative governors and state legislators have passed laws to shield people from punishment if they hit demonstrators with their cars. Cotton’s post on Tuesday, indicating that he wants people to manhandle protesters who inconvenience them, is of a piece with a movement that has sought to justify — and even glorify — violence against liberal activists and other people seen as enemies to the conservative cause. Cotton has arguably become the GOP’s most outspoken congressperson on the topic of meting out punishment to protesters. In 2020, The New York Times published a controversial op-ed written by Cotton that called for then-President Donald Trump to deploy the military to quell racial justice protests that summer. Civilian crackdowns seem to be his ... thing. For that reason, I think of Cotton as a mouthpiece for the conservative movement’s violent fantasies. No Republican lawmaker in Washington has been more forthright in laying out a vision for how private citizens and government can work hand-in-hand to attack and intimidate those who oppose their agenda.