“Donald Trump makes Mexicans not important”: Sen. Tom Cotton faces angry constituents at town hall meeting
The trend of Republican legislators receiving grief from their constituents continues with Tom Cotton
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On Wednesday night, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, joined the growing list of Republican legislators who have faced hostility from their constituents when returning for town hall meetings.
Perhaps the most memorable moment was Cotton’s exchange with a 7-year-old about President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.
“So Donald Trump thinks a wall is more important than kids’ [unintelligible] and stuff, but for kids it’s more important. Donald Trump makes Mexicans not important to people who are in Arkansas who aren’t Mexicans, like me and my grandma and all my people,” asked 7-year-old Toby Smith. After a rousing applause, he continued, saying Trump is “deleting all the parts in PBS Kids just to make a wall. He shouldn’t do that.”
Smith’s question referenced both allegations of racism in Trump’s border wall pledge and concerns that Trump will cut funding to public television in order to pay for his proposed border wall.
“I just want to say that, whatever your background, whatever your heritage, whatever your race or ethnicity or religious belief, part of the fabric of America is that we’re a melting pot and we are all one people,” Cotton replied. “And we want Mexico to be a healthy strong partner. We want to help them to deal with the problems they’ve got with drug cartels and crime and grow their economy. And we also have to protect our own citizens from that. And that’s where the wall comes in. So Toby you can still have one and have the other.”
As Cotton responded, the crowd began to boo for his failure to address Smith’s question about PBS funding.