Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton slammed Pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked traffic on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge while he appeared on Fox News’ “America Reports” on Monday.
“I feel very deeply for all those people who are trying to get to work or trying to pick up a kid,” Cotton told Fox. “Very worried about the diversion of police resources when it needs to be stopping crime in cities like San Francisco, or firefighters who are having to go there when they might have calls for fires out.”
Sen. Tom Cotton endorses throwing protesters off bridges pic.twitter.com/PFSDPW8C8m
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Cotton was commenting on a series of protests taking place across the U.S. on Monday as pro-Palestinian activists block streets and bridges. His comments centered particularly on San Francisco, where activists blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in an “economic blockade to free Palestine,” organizer Rifqa Falaneh told The Associated Press.
“If something like this happened in Arkansas on a bridge there, let’s just say I think there would be a lot of very wet criminals that would be tossed overboard, not by law enforcement, but by the people whose road they are blocking. If they glued their hands to the car or the pavement, well … probably pretty painful to have their skin ripped off,” Cotton stated. (RELATED: Senator Challenges Tom Cotton For Senate GOP Conference Chair)
“But I think that is the way we would handle it in Arkansas,” he continued. “I would encourage most people, anywhere, if they get stuck behind criminals like this who are trying to block traffic, to take matters into their own hands. There’s only usually a few of them and a lot of people being inconvenienced. It is time to put an end to this nonsense,” Cotton concluded.
Protests rattled commerce across the country Monday in what appeared to be a coordinated Tax Day effort. Besides the San Francisco disruption, Chicago’s O’Hare Airport experienced delays after Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked runways.
Protesters also blocked traffic in Tampa Bay, Florida and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to local outlets.