Tom Cotton, neo-con candidate for the Arkansas U.S. Senate seat held by conservative Democrat Mark Pryor, has been nailed for using graphic propaganda footage from a 55-minute terrorist-recruitment film produced by the extremist group ISIS in a campaign ad:
The ad about ISIS uses footage directly from the group — a 55-minute long ISIS video, “Flames of War,” which was professionally made and features graphic content that includes a mass execution of a group of men who fall into a ditch.
“In the Middle East, radical terrorists are on the march, destabilizing our allies, beheading Americans, and crucifying Christians,” says Cotton in the ad. “President Obama admits he underestimated them. We need a senator who will hold the president accountable and make America safer. I made tough decisions as an Army Ranger in Iraq. I’ll make them again as your senator.”
Politifact has been unable to verify that ISIS has crucified Christians, or anyone else — the story is originally sourced to the persistently truth-challenged Republican Texas senator, Ted Cruz.
In the early post-9/11 years, Republicans had great success using fear of terrorism as a political cudgel, but by 2006, in the wake of the neocons’ overreach in Iraq, voters had become inured to the tactic. Now, eight years on, by redeploying the neocons’ fear-of-terror tactic, Cotton risks turning off moderate voters who’ll abhor being barraged with ISIS recruitment imagery as the election approaches in a cynical effort to drive his party’s easily manipulated base to the polls. It’s a puzzling gambit since, at the moment, Real Clear Politics has Cotton up over Pryor by an average of 5.5 percentage points.
Speaking of extremists, Cotton is best known for his retrograde views on women’s rights. For example, he holds extremist views advocating government regulation of pregnancy, including having sponsored legislation declaring that constitutional rights start at the moment a human egg is fertilized. If elected, he’ll join the Senate’s tea party caucus headed by Cruz of Texas.
