Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said he was baffled by Democrats’ decision to shutdown the government and thinks they overplayed their hand, Tuesday on “Fox and Friends.”
“It’s mystifying to me,” Cotton said. “I think what we learned is that the American people don’t want to have the government shut down for illegal immigration.”
“What we have seen is that the Democrats’ obsession over amnesty for illegal immigrants simply is not popular,” he continued. “I think that’s significantly strengthened our hand going into these immigration negotiations to have a responsible bill for the DACA population while also controlling for those side effects, building a wall, securing our border and ending chain migration. The Democrats badly overplayed their hand here.”
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Cotton said he is open to bipartisan negotiations on immigration with any member who is willing to talk, specifically citing Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Joe Manchin.
“I tried to sit down with Senator Durbin in the past. Senator Durbin hasn’t moved very far in the past. I’m happy to work with people like Joe Manchin or Doug Jones,” he said. “We have to do that responsibly by building the wall, securing the border and ending chain migration.
The Arkansas Republican said Democrats shut down the government out of spite because they weren’t able to get full amnesty for illegal immigrants.
“Democrats shut down our government because they didn’t get the kind of amnesty with no strings attached for illegal immigrants that they wanted. I could have predicted that wasn’t very popular,” Cotton said. “I’m glad that it only lasted three days and that they came to their senses. The government can go back to work serving the American people and we can get on with the serious business of negotiating a generous, but responsible immigration bill.”
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