The massive National Guard presence at the inauguration of President Joe Biden was an “overreaction” that turned the Capitol into an “armed camp,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Sunday.
In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Cotton said the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6 was “in part a failure of senior security leaders on Capitol Hill to anticipate the kind of violence we saw from the mob that broke into the Capitol.”
“We had a major reaction, one might say an overreaction of bringing 26,000 National Guard troops in for the inauguration,” Cotton asserted. “The inauguration is behind us. These troops did a great job. I respect their service… If there is threats, if the threat reporting warrants it, we can always bring troops back.
“But we don't need to turn the People's House, the center of our republic, into an armed camp.”
According to Cotton, the new Biden administration also needs to speak out against China’s announced sanctions on some officials in the administration of former President Donald Trump.
“This is not so much designed to punish Trump administration officials but to send a shot across the bow to Biden administration officials,” Cotton said.
“The Biden administration needs to denounce it forcefully,” he added. “They need to impose reciprocal sanctions. We can't tolerate China trying to influence government officials at the highest levels of American government.
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