Cotton criticizes GOP speakers at Democratic convention: ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real thing’

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) criticized Republicans who spoke at the Democratic National Convention last week, saying they were suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” in a Sunday interview on ABC News’s “This Week.”

“What I make of them is that Trump Derangement Symptom is a real thing,” Cotton said when asked what he makes of the GOP speakers. Cotton was referring to a fabricated “condition” to which former President Trump frequently ascribes the attacks of some of his toughest critics.

Several Republicans spoke at the Democratic convention last week, including former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), who served on the committee investigating the Capitol attack; Stephanie Grisham, former White House press secretary in the Trump administration; and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who helped resist Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results in his state in 2020.

Asked about Democrats’ strategy of trying to appeal to Republicans who are “uneasy” with Trump atop the party ticket, Cotton brushed off concerns.

“Well, in every election … you have some members of one party endorsing a candidate of the other party. That’s a very traditional aspect of American politics,” Cotton told ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl.

“I mean, look at what just happened this week. The Democratic Party under Kamala Harris has gone so far to the left that you actually had a Kennedy endorse a Republican. That’s pretty remarkable that the Democratic Party has become so radical under Kamala Harris that a member of the Kennedy family has come out to endorse a Republican,” Cotton continued.

Former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ended his campaign for president Friday and endorsed Trump for president.

Kennedy began his campaign challenging President Biden for the Democratic Party’s nomination but then ran as an independent. Kennedy, throughout the campaign, had become more popular among right-leaning voters than left-leaning voters.

Kennedy has frequently diverged from his family on policy issues. After the former 2024 presidential candidate announced his endorsement of Trump, Kennedy’s family blasted that decision, calling it a “betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear.”