Cotton: ‘We Have to Be Prepared for Iran to Retaliate’

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the United States should be prepared for the Iranian regime to retaliate against the military strikes on their nuclear facilities.

Partial transcript as follows:

KARL: You heard the president say this was a spectacular military success. He said, obliterated, is what has happened to the Iranian nuclear program. What is your sense? It sounded to me from Vice President Vance that it hasn’t been thoroughly destroyed.

COTTON: Well, I think we heard from General Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that obviously, we have a few days left of battle damage assessment, but there’s no doubt that because of the president’s decisive action, we have severely damaged Iran’s critical nuclear infrastructure, which is what the president has said he would do for 10 years if we thought Iran was getting close to a nuclear weapon. Remember, this is a regime in Iran that has terrorized Americans for 46 years. For 25 years, American presidents have worried about them getting a nuclear weapon, have said that they’d never be allowed to. Finally, President Trump has taken decisive action to ensure that they’re not going to get nuclear weapons on his watch.

KARL: So, what should we be prepared for in terms of a response from Iran? As you said, they’ve sponsored terrorism for nearly half a century. I mean, what should we be prepared for?

COTTON: I think we have to be prepared for Iran to retaliate. And I join the president in his warning to the supreme leader of Iran, that if he targets Americans, the military force he will see, will make last night look like child’s play. We have troops in the region. Iran has targeted Americans around the world and Marine barracks in Beirut and barracks in Saudi Arabia. They’ve targeted embassies of countries around the world. For all we know, they may have gotten sleeper cells into the country during Joe Biden’s wide-open border.

So, the threats are serious, and we take them seriously. President Trump has no higher priority, as do I, than the safety of the American people. And again, the supreme leader and the Ayatollahs in Iran need to understand that President Trump means business. They have a chance to sue for peace here, to dismantle whatever remnants of their nuclear program remain, and to continue to actually survive. Because we haven’t targeted the supreme leader; we haven’t targeted their energy infrastructure. We haven’t targeted other critical infrastructure. That’s an implicit message that Iran still has things that they hold dear that neither the United States nor Israel has struck. Iran needs to heed President Trump’s warning.

Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN