Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, on Sunday defended President Trump’s assertion about soldiers who suffered concussions after a rocket attack by Iran earlier this month and said the president wasn’t “dismissing” the injury by calling them headaches.
The Pentagon on Friday confirmed that 34 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries as a result of the Jan. 8 attack from Iran responding to the U.S. killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Earlier this week, Mr. Trump said he heard that the troops “had headaches and a couple of other things,” as a result of the attack, “but I would say, and I can report, it is not very serious.”
In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Mr. Cotton, who served in the U.S. Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom, said the president was “describing their injuries. He’s not dismissing their injuries.”
Mr. Cotton rejected the idea that the president should apologize for his comments and said “if they are in fact, all these injuries are not serious, if they’re on the less serious side of the scale than the severe traumatic side of the scale, the president is just describing what happened. And I’m not dismissing them.”
The president had cited the lack of U.S. casualties as a prime reason for his decision not to attack Iran directly in response for the strike on the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq.
• Lauren Toms can be reached at lmeier@washingtontimes.com.
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