Cotton at RNC: Chinese Communist Party 'rooting' for Biden to defeat Trump

Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said at the Republican National Convention that the Chinese Communist Party is "rooting" for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the presidential election.

"Joe Biden aided and abetted China’s rise for fifty years with terrible trade deals that closed our factories and laid off our workers.  President Trump stands up to China’s cheating and stealing and lying," Cotton said on Thursday evening, the final night of the four-day convention.

"Joe Biden allowed Chinese fentanyl to flood across our southern border. President Trump sanctioned Chinese drug dealers for poisoning our kids," said Cotton, an Army captain in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and one of Trump's biggest congressional supports. 

Cotton said Trump is "clear-eyed about the Chinese threat and he is making China pay" for the coronavirus.

"But China’s not giving up. In fact, they’re rooting for Joe Biden. America’s other enemies won’t give up either, but Joe Biden would be as wrong and weak over the next four years as he has been for the last 50," he said.

Cotton explained that “Stands Alone” was "the motto" of his old Army unit, the 506th Infantry, "the original Band of Brothers."

"From the Normandy beaches to the Iraqi desert, we fought alongside each other, but we were always prepared to stand alone," he said. "And so it is with our nation. We lead the free world but we’ll stand alone if we must to defend America. Donald Trump understands this. He puts America first; that’s why America is safer now than four years ago."

Cotton argued that Biden, the Obama administration's vice president, would "return" the U.S. to "a weak and dangerous past."

"Barack Obama’s own secretary of defense said Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every major national security decision over the past four decades," he said. "Joe Biden slashed defense spending again and again. President Trump rebuilt our military and added the Space Force."

Cotton said Trump's foreign policy record and Biden's differ in some key areas. 

"Biden let ISIS terrorists rampage across the Middle East. President Trump eliminated ISIS’s leader and destroyed its caliphate," Cotton said. "Joe Biden opposed the mission to kill Osama bin Laden. President Trump avenged the murder of hundreds of Americans by killing Iran’s terrorist mastermind, Qassim Soleimani."

During the speech, Cotton said Trump’s "strength has kept us out of war."

"No one who’s seen the face of war desires to see it again. Too many of our fellow Americans are already honored at the hallowed grounds of Arlington," he also said.

Referring to the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, the first-term senator said that "Biden sent pallets of cash to the ayatollahs" while Trump withdrew from the agreement. 

"Joe Biden treated Israel like a nuisance," Cotton said. "President Trump moved our embassy to Jerusalem and brokered peace deals in the Middle East. Joe Biden coddled socialist dictators in Cuba and Venezuela. President Trump fights against communism in America’s backyard and around the world."

Cotton said the U.S. needs a "president who stands up for America, not one who takes a knee."