In my opinion, the only problem with Guantanamo Bay is there are too many empty beds and cells there right now.

We should be sending more terrorists there for further interrogation to keep this country safe.

As far as I'm concerned, every last one of them can rot in hell.

But as long as they don't do that, then they can rot in Guantanamo Bay.

That's Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton.

Let me contextualize that clip for you real quick.

It's from a 2015 congressional hearing on closing Guantanamo Bay, a notorious military prison in Cuba where terrorists and alleged terrorists, some of whom have been subjected to cruel and unusual treatment and torture are being held indefinitely,

and which President Obama had promised to close during his presidency.

Cotton had just seen evidence that, in addition to those accused of committing or plotting acts of terror,

Guantanamo also held innocent men.

He'd heard that the facility is used in propaganda made by extremist terrorist groups who characterize it as the epitome of the evil and hypocrisy of Western imperialism.

Islamic terrorists don't need an excuse to attack the United States. They don't attack us for what they do. They attack us for who we are. It is not a security decision. It is a political decision based on a promise the president made on his campaign.

To say that it is a security decision based on propaganda value that our enemies get from it is a pretext to justify a political decision.

Cotton's criticism of the effort to close Guantanamo was an implicit attack on President Obama.

And Obama wasn't Cotton's only target.

In 2018, when members of Ozark Indivisible

and Arkansas-based political activist group, his constituents,

wrote to Cotton about concerns with his policy,

Cotton wrote his own letter.

This letter is immediate notification

that all communication must cease and desist immediately with all offices of U.S. Senator Tom Cotton.

All other contact will be deemed harassment and will be reported to the United States Capitol Police.

...