JONESBORO -- U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton on Friday urged attendees of the largest-ever Northeast Arkansas Political Animals gathering to "not believe" what anonymous sources tell the media, after he was asked whether he's concerned about reported meetings between President Donald Trump's campaign staff and Russian officials.
The Republican from Dardanelle was in Jonesboro as part of a string of public events that includes a town hall-style meeting today in Heber Springs, the type of event that some congressional Republicans have avoided lately. Since Trump's election, people have packed such gatherings to ask direct questions of elected officials.
Cotton, whose F̶e̶b̶.̶ ̶2̶6̶ Feb. 22* meeting in Springdale attracted 2,000 attendees, spoke Friday before a sold-out, mostly friendly crowd of about 200 people in a hotel ballroom. He spent 20 minutes answering questions about health care, immigration, the U.S. military and the environment. Applause followed each pointed question but was louder after Cotton's answers.
After a 26-minute speech about U.S. intelligence gathering and spy agencies, the first question Cotton fielded was about whether he was concerned over recent news reports that multiple members of Trump's campaign team, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, met with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. before Trump took office.
"I know there's been a lot of media reports about that," Cotton said. "I will simply say, based on my knowledge, you should not believe allegations in the media based on anonymous sources. That doesn't mean they're all false and that doesn't mean they shouldn't be properly reviewed by the right people."
Tracey Thompson, a civics teacher at KIPP Blytheville Collegiate High School, attended the luncheon with some of her students. After the speech, Thompson said Cotton's characterization of anonymous sources was "irresponsible."
"Anonymous sources have been a part of journalism throughout history," Thompson said. "Like [someone] pointed out, Watergate was broken because of an anonymous source. You should do research as a responsible citizen and determine the validity of anything that you read and not just necessarily believe everything. But to say in general that anonymous sources have no believability is, I think, an irresponsible statement."
The Washington Post on Wednesday evening first reported that Sessions twice met with the Russian ambassador during the presidential campaign. Its news story cited unnamed Justice Department officials.
Sessions on Thursday said he had met with the ambassador on two occasions, but he couldn't recall whether the campaign was discussed. He also said he would recuse himself from any Justice Department investigation into the Trump campaign's relationship with Russia.
Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, resigned after a separate report from The Washington Post that, citing unnamed sources, contradicted Flynn's statements on what he discussed with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office.
Cotton previously said the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which he is a member, is investigating Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election. U.S. spy agencies have agreed in their conclusions that Moscow meddled in the election, to at least undermine integrity in American democracy, but they have not released detailed evidence to support those conclusions.
L.J. Bryant and Andrea Allen, co-chairmen of the Northeast Arkansas Political Animals Club, said this was the highest-attended luncheon meeting they've hosted and the first time they've had to move the meeting to a larger space to accommodate the crowd.
Bryant, who called Cotton the "highest-profile Arkansas politician since Bill Clinton," said the national political climate is encouraging people to seek out their politicians directly. Allen said Cotton's Springdale town-hall meeting, which drew national media attention, was a factor in the increased interest for the luncheon.
Evelyn Hamilton, 58, grows soybeans on her Greene County farm and said this was the first political meeting she's attended in decades.
Hamilton said her primary concern is what Congress will do with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which allowed her to individually obtain health insurance after she had been previously denied because of pre-existing conditions.
"I was deemed too fat and too old," Hamilton said. "I wouldn't have insurance [without the Affordable Care Act]."
Hamilton, who didn't ask Cotton a question, said she was dissatisfied with his answers on most of the issues.
"There's a lot of facts we don't agree on," Hamilton said.
Cotton, when answering questions, said Sessions' recusal was a "prudent step," although he disagreed with an audience member who suggested Sessions lied about the meetings with the Russian ambassador during his confirmation hearing.
The state's junior senator said he supports health-care change that allows insurers to sell policies across state lines and grants tax credits to purchasers.
"If people had $18,000 laying around in Arkansas, they wouldn't have to worry about insurance in the first place," Cotton said.
Cotton also said he supports spending more taxpayer money to "rebuild the military," which he said faced funding cuts during President Barack Obama's administration. He also said wartime expenses during President George W. Bush's administration siphoned money away from military development programs. Cotton said he supports expanding the naval fleet and investing in next-generation stealth bombers.
Cotton said Trump's much-publicized wall along the U.S.-Mexico border will not "solve all problems" but that walls and fences can be effective.
"If they didn't work, there wouldn't be one surrounding the White House," Cotton said, adding that enforcing U.S. immigration laws must be a priority before broader immigration changes can progress.
After the question-and-answer session, Cotton answered one-on-one questions and posed for pictures with people who approached him individually. He then met with the media for a 13-minute news conference. All told, he spent about two hours at the event.
Cotton later spoke to students at Westside High School and visited the Jonesboro Human Development Center.
Cotton and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Jonesboro Republican, are to host an hourlong town-hall-style meeting today in Heber Springs. It is to begin at 8 a.m. in the Heber Springs Community Center at 201 Bobbie Jean Lane.
Metro on 03/04/2017
*CORRECTION: U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton held a town hall meeting with constituents in Springdale on Feb. 22. The date of the meeting was incorrect in a previous version of this article.