Sen. Tom Cotton said Tuesday that the media have been complicit in hiding the most radical parts of a white paper that circulated with the Green New Deal, arguing it amounts to a “Stalin-like or 1984 technique of disappearing it.”
Cotton was referencing the seven-page frequently asked questions document put out by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s office that accompanied the Green New Deal, which her chief of staff tried to retract. Among the topics in the white paper was a promise that “all people of the United States” would have a job, which included those “unwilling to work.”
In the interview with Hugh Hewitt, the conservative radio host asked the Arkansas Republican whether he believed his colleagues knew what they were endorsing.
“Sure. I mean, Hugh, it’s pretty remarkable that when these Democrats put out the Green New Deal last week that you had many Democrats running for president leap onto a proposal that was going to confiscate every privately owned vehicle in America within a decade and ban air travel so we could all drive or ride around on high speed light rail, supposedly powered by unicorn tears, yes,” Cotton responded.
“I understand the Democrats that proposed this immediately tried to retract that white paper that went along with their resolution,” he continued. “And too many people in the media have been complicit in the Stalin-like or 1984 technique of disappearing it, sending it down the memory hole.”
According to the Washington Post, more than 70 Democrats in the House and a dozen in the Senate have backed the resolution, including multiple Democratic candidates for presidents, such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand.
“This is where their heart lies,” Cotton said of the Democrats who support the Green New Deal. “They believe that Americans driving around in trucks on farms, or commuting from the suburbs where they can have a decent home into the city to work are a fundamental threat to the world, and they have to have the power and the control of those Americans’ lives to implement their radical vision for humanity.”