Cotton: Political elites out of touch

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton gave the keynote speech Monday at Hillsdale College’s eighth annual Constitution Day celebration.

The private, liberal arts school commemorates the day that the Constitution’s drafters finished their work and added their signatures.

The federal observance, officially known as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, was created by Congress in 2004.

In the speech, Cotton suggested that Americans no longer trust the nation’s political elites.

Voters supported businessman Donald Trump, Cotton said, “because they’ve lost confidence in our governing class — of both parties, in both its competence and its intentions.”

“If you don’t understand this, if last year’s election came as a complete shock to you, then you truly need to spend more time outside of Washington, D.C.,” he said. “The multiplying failures and arrogance of our governing class are what created the conditions for his victory.”

The Dardanelle Republican argued that the nation’s ruling elites are especially out of touch when it comes to immigration.

Trump won, in part, because he rejected “what’s commonly called ‘comprehensive immigration reform,’ which is Washington code for amnesty, mass immigration and open borders in perpetuity,” Cotton added.