GOP senator: Trump ‘a more serious leader’ than Clinton

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) says he’d rather see Donald Trump in charge of America’s military than Hillary Clinton.

“I think he could be commander in chief,” he told host Willie Geist on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

{mosads}“He’s one of our leading candidates, and, as I said, any of our candidates right now would be a better commander in chief, they’d be a more serious leader for our country than Hillary Clinton is,” he added.

“[Clinton] has not only been the architect for Barack Obama’s foreign policy which has left the world aflame, but also shown such a casual disregard for the handling of sensitive national security secrets that I believe she’s disqualified from being commander in chief.”

Cotton said any Republican would make a better president than Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.

“There are more days ahead of us than there are behind us, so we don’t know who our nominee will be,” he said. “I know whoever that nominee is, though, will be more qualified to keep Americans safe than Hillary Clinton.

“She likes to portray herself as a safe, steady, experienced hand who’s ready to answer the 3 a.m. phone call. She got one of those once. It was called Benghazi. She slept through it. Four Americans died.”

Cotton slammed the ongoing feud between Trump and GOP presidential rival Ted Cruz over their wives, calling it a distraction from serious security issues.

“I would just say that I think Melania [Trump] and Heidi [Cruz] are both very successful, accomplished women,” he said.

“We should respect them as capable advocates for their husbands’ campaigns and leave it at that and then we can get serious. Americans want to know what their elected leaders are going to do to keep them safe.”

Cotton on Monday attended a meeting between Trump and various GOP lawmakers past and present in Washington, D.C. He has not yet endorsed a Republican presidential contender.