Contact: Caroline Rabbitt (202) 224-2353

Washington, D.C.— Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) tonight released the following statement reacting to President Obama’s Oval Office Address on national security: 

“President Obama is a wartime president who doesn't seem to realize it. Fourteen Americans were slaughtered by Islamic terrorists, but the President is dangerously detached from reality, lecturing us about political correctness and ineffective gun control. Radical Islamic jihadists are not contained and are advancing on every front—killing innocent civilians from California to Paris to Mali, blowing an airplane out of the sky in Egypt, and inflaming the entire Middle East from Tehran. Imagine if these terrorists get their hands on uranium instead of gunpowder.  Radical Islam is at war with America; our only choice is to win or lose, and the longer we debate whether we’re at war, the closer we come to losing it. One cannot help but wonder how many more Americans will die before President Obama recognizes this fundamental truth. He must implement a real strategy to defeat the Islamic State and remove Bashar al-Assad, take the handcuffs off our military in Iraq and Syria, and restore and strengthen vital intelligence programs. We needed to hear from the president tonight how to win this war. But we only heard how we will continue losing it.”