Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas is facing fierce backlash after he said slavery was a "necessary evil." His comments came while speaking with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette regarding a bill he is introducing that seeks to cut federal funding for any school that includes The New York Times' 1619 Project, which examines the history of slavery in the nation and its role in the country's founding, in its curriculum.
Discussing the bill, called the Saving American History Act of 2020, Cotton said that "we have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can't understand our country." He then went on to discuss how the Founding Fathers viewed slavery, stating, "As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built" and that the "union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction."
His remarks were immediately met with backlash, with Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times correspondent who won the Pulitzer Prize for her essay in The 1619 Project, stating that his comments on slavery, "where it was legal to rape, torture and sell human beings for profit," make it "hard to imagine what cannot be justified if it is a means to an end." Cotton hit back by stating that he was not "justifying or endorsing slavery."
Although Cotton, in multiple tweets, defended himself by clarifying that he was "describing the views" of the Founding Fathers, the backlash did not stop rolling in. Across social media, people slammed Cotton's remarks, many pointing out that his direct quote was "as the Founding Fathers said." Keep scrolling to see what they are saying.