CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Tom Cotton

Interview

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TAPPER: I want to bring in Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. He's a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He's also an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The senator is also out with a brand-new book out today, "Sacred Duty: A Soldier's Tour at Arlington National Cemetery."

Senator, I will get to the book in a second, and it's really a great read. Congratulations on the book.

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: But I do want to ask you, because you're something of a hawk on the Iran issue, do you think the American people would support American troops getting involved in another war in the Middle East?

COTTON: Well, we don't seek conflict with Iran. We want Iran to change its behavior and rejoin the civilized world and stop supporting terrorism and supporting armed insurgencies across the Middle East that undermine our allies.

We will always defend ourselves so and defend our allies in the Middle East or anywhere else across the world. And that includes, in addition, not just Iran, but its proxy forces throughout the region.

TAPPER: But do you think that the American people are up to speed and prepared for more troops to be sent?

COTTON: I think, for 40 years, the American people have known that Iran chants death to America. We have had military conflict with Iran before, when they tried to shut down tankers coming out of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf in the late 1980s.

I hope it doesn't come to that. It would only be in response to Iranian provocations. That's why those provocations would be a grave miscalculation by the ayatollahs.

TAPPER: You're a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which just issued a subpoena a few weeks ago to Donald Trump Jr. Do you support the subpoena?

COTTON: We've got to remember that what we're doing is a counterintelligence inquiry, not a criminal investigation.

Senator Burr has already said, there's no collusion found by our committee. That's because there was no collusion. What we're trying to do is get to the bottom of exactly what Russia was up to, so we know what techniques Russia uses, so we can make sure that they don't do it again in the future.

I know that Senator Burr and Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyers are trying to work out some kind of compromise where we can get that information necessary, while also respecting his position.

TAPPER: Your colleague Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, again today reiterated that Donald Trump Jr. should ignore the subpoena. Take a listen.

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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): If I were his lawyer, I wouldn't put him back into this circus. He's been to the committee, two, three different committees. He's testified under oath.

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TAPPER: Would you agree that Donald Trump Jr. should ignore a subpoena from your committee?

COTTON: Well, I hope that the committee can get the information that the committee needs to figure out exactly what Russia was up, to clear up any discrepancies created by other testimony or other evidence that has come forward, so we can make sure that Russia doesn't interfere in our elections again.

TAPPER: OK.

It sounds like you're saying, no, you wouldn't support it, dodging a subpoena. But I want to move on to your book.

So you served in Iraq, and you served in Afghanistan. But this book is about the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery, the people who make sure that the funerals go as planned, whether they're at Arlington or elsewhere.

Why? Why not write about your war experiences? Why was this important to you?

COTTON: Well, Jake, the Old Guard of Arlington holds a special place in the hearts of Americans.

I see that all the time. Arkansans come to visit me, they tell me almost always that the highlight of their trip was Arlington National Cemetery. More than four million people a year go through the gates of the cemetery.

And they come away with a sense of awe and inspiration and reverence for that place and for our American -- our fellow Americans who lay down the ultimate sacrifice. But no one's ever told the Old Guard story before. There's never

really been a book-length treatment about what these young men and women whose job it is to perform military honor funerals and guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier do exactly In Arlington, how every painstaking detail is all designed to achieve perfection for that fallen hero and their family members, to show them the honor and the love that all Americans hold for them.

TAPPER: And you write in your book -- quote -- "We live in politically divided times, to be sure, yet the military remains our nation's most respected institution. And the fields of Arlington are one place where we can set aside our differences."

And I have to say, I'm a little -- you are a partisan Republican, proudly so. You're a sharp Washington player. I -- and the book is not that at all. The book is entirely for anybody.

COTTON: Yes. Well...

TAPPER: Not for Republicans, not for conservatives, for anyone.

COTTON: I hope so.

And I have plenty of time to share my ideas for our country. But Arlington is a special place. It has been from the very beginning. It's ironic that Arlington is a place of unity and reconciliation, because, as I write in "Sacred Duty," it was born in the ashes of the Civil War.

Arlington used to be the plantation of Robert E. Lee and his wife, Mary Custis Lee. The Union army occupied it and turned it into a graveyard. And, ultimately, it became our national cemetery.

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And it has been that -- that place of unity and reconciliation ever since. So it's somewhat ironic that it's such a special place for all Americans of all races, and religions, and regions, and political viewpoints, but it really is a place as Abraham Lincoln said in the first inaugural, the mystic chords of memory stretch from every patriot grave to every heart and hearthstone across our nation.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And it's a lovely tribute to them. Good luck with the book Sacred Duty. Senator Tom Cotton, thanks for being here. I really appreciate it.

COTTON: Thanks, Jake.

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