Midterms Not a 'Complete Disappointment' for GOP, Says Sen. Cotton

The midterm elections were not a "complete disappointment" for Republicans, as strong GOP leaders who ran on positive records of accomplishments won "very big victories," and the lessons from those wins can be used in places where votes fell short, Sen. Tom Cotton said Sunday. 

"We need to focus on serious substantive accomplishments and issues like crime, like our wide-open border, like addressing runaway inflation," the Arkansas Republican said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

He pointed out that there were still big wins by GOP Govs. Ron DeSantis in Florida, Brian Kemp in Georgia, Mike DeWine in Ohio, Kim Reynolds in Iowa, and Greg Abbott in Texas, and by Sens.  Marco Rubio in Florida, Tim Scott in South Carolina, and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin.  

"Even in places where we came up a little bit short, like Lee Zeldin's race for governor in New York, he performed very well compared to Republicans in recent elections, and he probably helped save the House of Representatives by bringing four new Republican Congressman-elect across the finish line in New York," said Cotton.  

Meanwhile, Cotton rejected the idea of former President Donald Trump being the sole leader of the Republican Party, as when a party is out of power, there is not a single leader. 

"The former president is obviously very popular with many of our voters but we also have important other leaders as well, like some of those victors I just mentioned earlier, like Brian Kemp in Georgia, Ron DeSantis in Florida," he said. "Last year, you had Glenn Youngkin have a great victory in a bluish democratic state like Virginia."

Cotton has already said he is not planning to run for president in 2024, and on Sunday said he thinks it's too soon to focus on that race.

"I just want to remind everyone that we're still in the middle of the 2022 midterm because we're in overtime in Georgia," said Cotton. "The most important thing we can do is elect Herschel Walker to make sure that we can keep the pressure on Democrats in the Senate not to veer far to the left, as they have over the last two years. That's where I think everyone should remain focused for these next three weeks."

However, Cotton said he does not agree with senators who want to delay GOP leadership elections, as five or six of the posts are uncontested, and that he supports Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to remain in place. 

The senator also commented on President Joe Biden's meeting with President Xi Jinping Monday and said that the United States must avoid conflict with China in the military sense, but he doesn't think it can avoid diplomatic or economic tension. 

"I would urge the president to be very firm in drawing those red lines," he said. "We don't want to see a repeat of what happened last summer in Russia when Vladimir Putin walked away from their summit in Europe.

The simplest thing the United States can do for Taiwan, meanwhile, is to do what should have been done for Ukraine, and that is to provide them with the weapons they need to stop an invasion. 

"It's urgent that we do so now because, unlike Ukraine, Taiwan is an island, which means China could blockade it, and we might not be able to resupply them once China might start military conflict," said Cotton. 

• 5 Reasons DeSantis Won Big in Florida
• Pelosi: No Plans to Leave Congress