Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR)

Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR)

Groups like the Islamic State collaborate with drug cartels in Mexico who have clearly shown they’re willing to expand outside the drug trade into human trafficking and potentially even terrorism. They could infiltrate our defenseless border and attack us right here in places like Arkansas.

But, as Time magazine reports, federal officials have repeatedly stated that there is no active plot or operational threat that would entail ISIS infiltrating the southern border. Congressman Cotton’s version seems to go a step further, envisioning an active, ongoing collaborative effort between the Islamic State, and Mexican drug cartels who are looking to diversify by branching out into terrorism, whose end goal is to kill Americans on U.S. soil.

Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton is out on the campaign trail sounding like one of Breitbart's more unhinged writers, pushing this fearmongering conspiracy theory on the dangers of an insecure border:Yes, I'm sure that if Islamo-Mexican drug terrorists infiltrate the border, they're making a beeline for Arkansas. Greg Sargent explains how outlandish this theory is:Given the hysterical rhetoric Republicans have applied to migrant kids looking for safety, I guess it shouldn't be a shock that, as Election Day approaches, they'd be struggling to find ever-scarier things to threaten about the border. Mexican drug cartels? Scary, but Tom Cotton is in a close race for Senate. He needs something more. ISIS? Cotton needs even more fear. Thus you get, in Cotton's telling, Mexican drug cartels and Middle Eastern Islamic fundamentalist terrorists somehow joining forces for a long-term partnership to attack Arkansas. The only kind of sense this makes is desperate Republican campaign sense.