Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) turned the tables during a tense on-air exchange with CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday, bringing up Sen. Kamala Harris' past comments about “demilitarizing” schools.
Senator Cotton appeared on CNN's “State of the Union” to discuss last week's tragic shooting at Apalachee High School that left two teachers and two students dead. The Republican Senator sought to set the record straight after being questioned by Senator Bash about an Associated Press headline from last week that suggested Rep. J.D. Vance was downplaying school shootings as a “fact of life.”
The Associated Press headline was later changed after Vance's team and online critics deemed it clearly misleading. At a rally in Phoenix last week, Vance said of school shootings, “I hate that this is real…” and called for increased security in schools.
Senator Tom Cotton appears on CBS' “Face the Nation.” (CBS)
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“Do you acknowledge that these school shootings are now commonplace?” Bash asked Cotton.
“Absolutely not, and neither is J.D. Vance,” the Republican countered, accusing the Associated Press of distorting the quote.
Cotton also praised the school police officers who approached and detained the 14-year-old shooter at the scene, and highlighted Sen. Kamala Harris' recent comments in support of removing police officers from schools.
“We are still gathering all the facts, but here's what we know about this shooting: It wasn't as bad as it could have been because there were police officers on school grounds and they were able to neutralize the shooter. Kamala Harris wants to remove police officers from schools and has said so in the past,” Cotton said.
A memorial is dedicated at Apalachee High School on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, following Wednesday's school shooting in Winder, Georgia. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Last week, a 2019 video was made public in which Harris, as a California senator, declared her support for efforts to remove police officers from schools in an effort to “demilitarize” campuses.
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“That's her position,” Cotton told Bash. “As a career San Francisco liberal, she has consistently taken positions against law enforcement, so it's not surprising. If that officer hadn't been there, if Kamala Harris had had her way, more students and teachers could have been killed.”
Families of school shooting victims, including Ryan Petty and Andrew Pollack, who lost their teenage daughters in the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, condemned Governor Harris' 2019 comments.
“Reckless. Radical. Kamala wants to make our schools less safe. Your kids will not be safe with Kamala Harris as your president,” Petty, who lost her 14-year-old daughter, Alaina Petty, in a 2018 shooting, wrote on X.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event in Detroit, Michigan, USA, Monday, September 2, 2024. (Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This is sickening. My daughter was killed because of insufficient security at Parkland. We need more school security, not less!” Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter, Meadow Pollack, was also killed in the same shooting. I wrote it.
Governor Harris quickly called for action on gun violence after the shooting.
“Our hearts are with the students, teachers and families affected by this shooting and we thank the first responders and police who responded to the scene,” Harris wrote on X. “This is a senseless tragedy and it doesn't have to be this way. We must end the epidemic of gun violence in this country for good.”
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It's unclear whether Harris still supports removing police from schools; her campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Emma Colton contributed to this report.
