Tom Cotton gives up the game, saying he hopes LA protests fuel support for 'Big Beautiful Bill'
The 1,037-page Republican budget bill appears to be on life support in the U.S. Senate after multiple Senate Republicans have spoken out against it. But one Republican senator thinks the ongoing protests in Los Angeles could help resuscitate it.
Axios reported Monday that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who is chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, believes the L.A. protests may have breathed new life into the GOP's efforts to revive H.R. 1 (also known as "The One Big Beautiful Bill Act"). The nation's second-largest city has seen massive demonstrations over the weekend in response to several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, and Cotton believes the legislation's provisions regarding immigration could help win over GOP holdouts.
"This gives us an opportunity to remind Americans how extreme the Democratic party is on immigration," Cotton wrote in an email to GOP communications staffers. "Americans have a choice between Republicans' law & order vs. the Democrats' car-burning, illegal alien rioters."
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"So far, every Senate Democrat who has spoken out has backed the rioters," the email continued.
Cotton's belief that the protests are an "opportunity" to shift the conversation about the budget bill from being about costly tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy to one about increased immigration enforcement. The Arkansas Republican is also hoping to cast California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) as the chief antagonist of the L.A. protests.
"What kind of governor blames police officers and the National Guard for 'inciting' this violence," Cotton tweeted.
The Senate Republican Conference is still attempting to unite all of its members in support of H.R. 1 despite loud criticism from Trump-supporting senators like Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Punchbowl News reported Monday that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has identified as many as 16 senators whose states could be negatively impacted by the policies in the bill, namely its cuts to Medicaid funding by hundreds of billions of dollars.
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Click here to read Axios' full report.
