LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — U.S. Senator Tom Cotton has called for drivers blocked by pro-Palestinian ceasefire protesters to "take matters into your own hands to get them out of the way" and has also suggested they would be thrown off the bridge "if something like this happened in Arkansas."
The controversial remarks made by Cotton on Monday come as demonstrators blocked several roadways across the county that temporarily shut down travel on the Golden Gate bridge, other bridges, and access to airports.
"It's time to put an end to this nonsense," Cotton continued in his post on social media.
He would also appear on Fox News on Monday to insinuate that there would be "a lot of very wet criminals" if protesters blocked a bridge in Arkansas.
"If they glued their hands to a car or the pavement. Well, probably pretty painful to have their skin ripped off, but I think that’s the way we’d handle it in Arkansas," Cotton said.
Protesters in Chicago that blocked lanes of I-190 said they were joining a global effort as an "economic blockade to free Palestine." Those who protested continue to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war where over 33,000 Palestinians have died, according to the Gaza health ministry.
On Tuesday morning, Cotton would then share a video from another country where two men remove protesters blocking traffic with the caption, "How it should be done."
This is not the first time Cotton has encourage using physical force against protesters. In June 2020 during the George Floyd protest, Cotton said that then President Donald Trump should use the Insurrection Act and the only way to end protests was by using "overwhelming display of force."
He also suggested during those protests that officials should use "whatever it takes to restore order" and "no quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters."
Cotton would say the same of the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, saying that anyone who attacked the Capitol "should face the full extent of federal law."