Cotton: Harris is the ayatollahs’ ‘handpicked candidate’

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) called Vice President Harris “the ayatollahs’ handpicked candidate’ in an interview on Sunday morning.

“From the very beginning, they’ve appeased and conciliated the ayatollahs,” Cotton said of Harris and President Biden on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” to the outlet’s Robert Costa. “Kamala Harris, for instance, opposed Donald Trump’s strike that killed Iran’s terrorist mastermind in 2020. Over the last four years, they’ve given away tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief.”

“They’ve looked the other way as Iran violates sanctions,” Cotton continued. “They’ve continually put more pressure on Israel than they put on Iran’s terrorist proxy. That’s why Kamala Harris is the ayatollahs’ handpicked candidate, and why the ayatollahs are hacking into Donald Trump’s campaign and trying to kill him.”

Cotton’s comments come amid rising tensions in the Middle East between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. On Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had been killed in a Friday strike by the Israelis.

The supreme leader of Iran, Sayyid Ali Khamenei, said Saturday that Israel hadn’t done “any significant harm to the strong structure of the Lebanese Hezbollah” in a speech shared by the Lebanese state-run National News Agency.

Trump’s campaign said earlier this week that the former president was briefed by intelligence officials about Iran’s alleged assassination threats against him.

“President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said in a statement.

The Hill has reached out to the Harris campaign, the vice president’s office and the White House for comment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.