Cotton laughs when the journalist revealed his employer
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) repeatedly slapped down an Al Jazeera reporter badgering him with questions about the situation in Gaza, then laughed when he found out where the journalist worked.
The reporter asked Cotton as they walked through the Senate halls why he supports the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund given that the United Nations has said more than 1,000 have died receiving resources.
“You believe the U.N.? Give me a break,” Cotton said. “They run interference for Palestinian terrorists.”
The Al Jazeera reporter then asked Cotton if he was challenging the determination from “the world’s leading experts” that Gaza was facing a famine.
“The world’s leading experts on famine are left-wing clowns who are anti-Semites and anti-Zionists,” Cotton replied.
The author of a U.N.-backed report accusing Israel of causing a famine in Gaza, Andrew Seal, has peddled anti-Semitic tropes and terrorist apologia, compared Israel to Nazi Germany, and accused the Jewish state of killing its own people on Oct. 7, the Washington Free Beacon has reported.
After the Al Jazeera reporter said he’d been filming in Gaza, Cotton asked how he had access to the territory.
“Who’s letting you go in to film in Gaza? That would be Hamas,” the Arkansas Republican said.
When the reporter revealed that he worked for Al Jazeera, Cotton laughed.
“That’s what I thought. Beautiful,” Cotton said. “What do you say about working for a terrorist sympathizing network?”
Al Jazeera journalists have repeatedly been tied to Hamas, with one holding Israeli hostages after Oct. 7. Another, Anas Al-Sharif, was a leader in the terror group—until he was killed by a targeted Israeli strike.
“You’re an embarrassment,” Cotton said. “You got anything more? I’m happy to keep going.”
