US Sen. Tom Cotton Calls Out Failed Iran Predictions of Isolationist Online Influencers: Report

US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) mocked recent arguments against the US intervening in Iran promoted by populist-nationalist podcaster Tucker Carlson during a closed-door meeting with legislative colleagues this week, according to a new report.

On Tuesday at the Senate Republican lunch closed to reporters, Cotton provoked laughter among attendees when he listed a number of Carlson’s predictions about the Iran-Israel conflict which had thus far failed to materialize, Axios reported.

The Arkansas politician reportedly insisted that fellow Senate Republicans should marginalize the former Fox News host. He also encouraged them to ignore online advocates of isolationism — going so far as to compare them to the left-wing opinion hosts of the cable news network MSNBC — while pointing to polling demonstrating solid Republican support for the US bombings of Iranian nuclear facilities.

Cotton did not identify Carlson by name; however he did reportedly read items from a 768-word X post the podcaster shared on June 4 and which has now received 7.8 million views.

“So why is [conservative media personality] Mark Levin once again hyperventilating about weapons of mass destruction? To distract you from the real goal, which is regime change — young Americans heading back to the Middle East to topple yet another government,” Carlson wrote earlier this month. “Virtually no one will say this out loud. America’s record of overthrowing foreign leaders is so embarrassingly counterproductive that regime change has become a synonym for disaster.”

Carlson proclaimed that “it goes without saying that there are very few Trump voters who’d support a regime change war in Iran. Donald Trump has argued loudly against reckless lunacy like this.”

A CNN poll released on Tuesday showed that 56 percent of respondents disapproved of the Iran strikes while 44 percent did; likewise, 60 percent feared the attacks would increase the Iranian threat to Americans, while 27 percent believed the opposite. On the broader question of deploying ground troops into Iran, only 9 percent favored such a move, with 68 percent opposing and 23 percent unsure.

Partisan divides also appeared in approval of US President Donald Trump’s decision, with 60 percent of independents and 88 percent of Democrats disapproving while 82 percent of Republicans backed the president. Differences in ages among Republicans also signaled greater skepticism for the strikes with only 20 percent of under-45 Republicans strongly approving compared to 53 percent of older Republicans. The younger cohorts of the GOP also believed more that the bombings increased the Iranian threat to America, and they doubted Trump’s military judgment in the conflict.

Carlson also predicted a US strike on Iran would lead to a third world war.

“The first week of a war with Iran could easily kill thousands of Americans,” he wrote earlier this month. “It could also collapse our economy, as surging oil prices trigger unmanageable inflation. Consider the effects of $30 gasoline. But the second week of the war could be even worse.”

Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel less than 48 hours after the US military bombed three of Iran’s key nuclear facilities. The war between the two Middle Eastern adversaries had lasted for 12 days, with Israel decimating much of Iran’s nuclear program, military leadership, and ballistic-missile capabilities.

On Monday, Cotton appeared on Fox News to defend Trump’s decision to attack Iran.

“Iran did not become a terrorist state because Donald Trump bombed their nuclear bunkers,” Cotton wrote on X. “Donald Trump bombed their nuclear bunkers because they are a terrorist state, and they cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.”

The Algemeiner contacted Cotton’s office for comment and did not receive a response at press time.

On Tuesday, reports emerged of an early intelligence assessment suggesting that the three US strikes may not have completely destroyed the Iranian nuclear program, only delaying development of a nuclear weapon back a few months.

The White House pushed back, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling CNN that “this alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community. The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a criminal investigation to uncover the identity of the leaker of the intelligence assessment.

Trump said of his attack on Iran that “it was very severe. It was obliteration.”

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained to Politico that “the bottom line is, they are much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action.”

“That’s the most important thing to understand — significant, very significant, substantial damage was done to a variety of different components, and we’re just learning more about it,” Rubio emphasized.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) told CNN that “I’ve been briefed on this plan in the past, and it was never meant to completely destroy the nuclear facilities, but rather cause significant damage.”

He added, “It was always known to be a temporary setback.”

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