GOP Senator Cotton: Violent protests 'need to end tonight'

Arkansas GOP-member Tom Cotton, a former Army captain, on Monday offered some of the most forceful words in the call for the violent protests across the county to stop, saying “they need to end tonight.”

The protests across the country for the past six nights, sparked by the George Floyd death, have included widespread violence and vandalism. 

Some of the mayhem has been linked to militant far left-wing groups such as Antifa. 

“We always respect the rights of peaceful protests. But the anarchy, rioting and looting we have zero tolerance for,” Cotton, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, told Fox News. “Let’s see how these anarchists respond when the 101st Airborne is in the air on the other side of the street.”

The violent protesters have smashed, set on fire and looted stores across the country – from a Target store in Minneapolis, where the protests started after Floyd died in police custody, to luxury stores in such places as Santa Monica, California, and New York City’s SoHo neighborhood.