Washington, Jun 5 (AP) Freshman Sen Tom Cotton has risen to the ranks of potential 2024 Republican presidential contenders by making all the right enemies. By lining up behind President Donald Trump's law-and-order recipe for controlling civic unrest, he's making even more.

“One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers,” the 43-year-old Arkansan wrote this week in a New York Times opinion column.

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That infuriated Democrats and liberals, whom his column thumped by calling protests rocking cities “carnivals for the thrill-seeking rich as well as other criminal elements.” For good measure, Cotton lambasted the Times — a favorite conservative target — after it released a subsequent statement saying Cotton's essay did not meet its standards. Times employees had rebelled, expressing shame and anger about the piece.

“If the @nytimes allows woke 'journalists' to bully it into submission, why should any reader trust that the reporting by the @nytimes is fair and objective?” Cotton tweeted Friday.

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Seldom acknowledging reporters' questions as he strides through Capitol hallways, Cotton is known for bellicose stances on issues that thrill Trump's conservative supporters. He's been a hard-liner on immigration, Iran and most recently China, including accusing that country of developing the coronavirus in a secret lab. He's edged away from that charge but asserts he was among the first to warn of “the looming pandemic.”

Cotton's office declined to make him available for this article. But a person close to him, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the lawmaker's thinking, said Cotton would consider serving in the Cabinet for a second Trump term if he's reelected in November and running for president himself in 2024.

An Army combat veteran and Harvard Law School graduate, Cotton's ambition is no surprise in Washington or Arkansas. Notice has been taken of his unusually high profile for a first-term senator and his frequent appearances on the network of choice for Trump and his followers.

“Cotton is out there every night, and he's winning the Fox GOP primary for 2024,” said Scott Reed, senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“Everything he's doing looks like what a very ambitious person who wants to run for president at the next available time does,” said GOP consultant Liz Mair, who says she's “not a fan.” With some protests over police killings of black men veering into violence in New York and elsewhere, Cotton took to Fox on Thursday to reprise his frequent role as one of Trump's chief defenders.

He disputed Defense Secretary Mark Esper's comment that this week's urban turbulence didn't justify deploying troops in cities, saying that was Trump's call. And to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' stunning assertion that Trump was dividing the country and violating the Constitution, Cotton said, “He's wrong on this one.” None of that went over well with Democrats. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)