Republican Sen. Tom Cotton opposes the 1619 Project: “As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.”
More lies from the debunked 1619 Project. Describing the *views of the Founders* and how they put the evil institution on a path to extinction, a point frequently made by Lincoln, is not endorsing or justifying slavery. No surprise that the 1619 Project can’t get facts right. https://t.co/nLsb73X3Gi Cotton’s view was quickly repeated by conservative media. Cotton appeared this morning on Fox & Friends, which displayed his quote. Cotton gave a fake laugh and replied, “Well that’s fake news, Brian. That is not what I said.” (It was, in fact, a word for word transcription of his entire quote, which he has not denied.) Of course it is possible to attribute beliefs to the Founders without endorsing them. However Cotton has previously praised the beliefs of the Founders in unstinting terms. His previous attacks on the 1619 Project defended the “noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded.” His bill proclaimed, “The self-evident truths set forth by that Declaration are the fundamental principles upon which America was founded.” It is a little hard to square these statements with Cotton’s current stance that he is not fully onboard with the Founders. Cotton’s mistake was to go beyond merely trolling the 1619 Project to offer his own historical analysis, which led him into explaining the decisions of the Founders and thereby to justify their acceptance of slavery.
