Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) encouraged people who are inconvenienced by protesters blocking bridges to “take matters into their own hands” and throw them overboard.
Cotton’s comment comes as activists protesting the Israel-Hamas war and calling for a ceasefire shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, and near Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on Monday.
“If something like this happened in Arkansas on a bridge there, let’s just say I think there would be a lot of very wet criminals that would be tossed overboard, not by law enforcement, but by the people whose road they are blocking. If they glued their hands to the car or the pavement, well … probably pretty painful to have their skin ripped off,” Cotton told Fox News.
He continued: “But I think that is the way we would handle it in Arkansas. I would encourage most people, anywhere, if they get stuck behind criminals like this who are trying to block traffic, to take matters into their own hands. There’s only usually a few of them and a lot of people being inconvenienced. It is time to put an end to this nonsense.”
Cotton doubled down in a post on X/Twitter writing: “I encourage people who get stuck behind the pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic: take matters into your own hands. It’s time to put an end to this nonsense.”
Cotton edited the post minutes later, writing that people should “take matters into your own hands to get them out of the way.”
