Tom Cotton on the defensive over effort to 'make common cause with the hardliners in Iran'
It seems like Sen. Tom Cotton's open letter to Iran is not getting the reception he expected, and now the Arkansas Republican is on the defensive. President Obama and Vice President Biden both condemned the letter—predictably enough—with Obama
suggesting that the letter showed the 47 Senate Republicans who signed on "wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran" and Biden
calling it "beneath the dignity of an institution I revere."
Cotton had to expect that
. But he may not have expected the public pushback he's getting from the seven Senate Republicans who did not sign onto his letter:
“It’s more appropriate for members of the Senate to give advice to the president, to Secretary Kerry and to the negotiators,
” [Sen. Susan] Collins said. “I don’t think that the ayatollah is going to be particularly convinced by a letter from members of the Senate, even one signed by a number of my distinguished and high ranking colleagues.”