Cotton brushes aside CIA talk

Senator heads to California,‘the Land of Reagan,’ for GOP event

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton will offer encouragement to a beleaguered and long-suffering po- litical minority this evening: California Republicans.

“I’m going to … the Land of Reagan,” the Dardanelle Republican said.

Before heading to the Golden State, Cotton brushed off talk of a new role in President Donald Trump’s administration.

His focus, Cotton said, is on the job he currently holds.

The Arkansan, who joined the Senate in 2015, has spoken at Republican fundraisers across the country, including a trip earlier this year to Iowa, where the first presidential votes are cast every four years.

In a written statement, California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte said that Cotton and the other speakers “will remind us that Republican values are California values” and “provide a vision for Republicans moving forward.”

Currently, the state sends 39 Democrats and 14 Republicans to the House; both senators are Democrats. Republican presidential candidates haven’t won there since 1988. In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Trump there by more than 4 million votes.

Republicans may be outnumbered, Cotton notes, but they’re far from extinct in a state with 39 million residents.

“Given its size, there’s still a lot of Republicans there,” he said. “They’re a critical part of our [congressional] majority, and California’s our largest state. It ought not to be neglected.”

Arkansas’ junior senator, who has been mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in 2020 or beyond, was asked to speak at the California party’s fall convention in Anaheim.

He quickly accepted. “When they invited me, I was eager to come out and share a little bit about what I think is happening in our country and what our party has done back home in Arkansas,” he said. “If we can gain the offices that we’ve won over the last 10 years in Arkansas, then there’s no reason that any state can’t do something similar.”

He was referring to Arkansas being a Democrat-majority state in state and regional offices for more than a century.

Earlier this week, the website Axios, and then CNN, said Cotton may be headed for the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency if Trump fires Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaces him with current CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

Tillerson reportedly called Trump a moron earlier this year; the former Exxon CEO hasn’t denied making the statement.

Cotton consulted with Trump at the White House earlier this month. The lawmaker’s spokesman declined, at the time, to discuss the purpose of the meeting.

Asking about claims that he may be the next CIA director, Cotton laughed. “I’m very happy to be in the Senate serving the people of Arkansas. I think the CIA has a director right now who’s doing a pretty good job,” he said.

Pressed about whether the reports were credible, Cotton said, “I don’t pay much attention to the Washington parlor game debates. I focus on what I’m doing here in the U.S. Senate for the people of Arkansas, and Mike Pompeo’s a great friend and he’s a great director.”

Late Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said unequivocally that Cotton won’t be taking the reins at the CIA.

“Pompeo [is] not going anywhere,” she said via email.

Cotton, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee, has been considered for administration posts before. In November, days after Trump’s election, Cotton was summoned to Trump Tower in New York City to meet with the then president-elect. At the time, the New York Republican was interviewing candidates for various administration posts, including secretary of defense.

Asked Thursday about reports that Cotton could head the CIA, U.S. Sen. John Boozman said, “I don’t know if there’s anything to it.”

The Republican from Rogers said his colleague, a veteran of military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, is up to the task if called upon.

“I know Tom is very capable,” he said. “I think he would be really very well qualified to lead the agency — or any agency — in government.”