President Trump may be the political figure who has attracted the most controversy for his reaction to the sometimes violent protests that have broken out since George Floyd died in police custody, but Sen. Tom Cotton is a close second.

The Arkansas Republican has been the highest-profile public defender of Trump’s proposal to use the military to suppress rioting in cities where state and local authorities can’t or won’t do so themselves. Cotton’s New York Times op-ed calling for invoking the Insurrection Act against the “orgy of violence” seen in multiple major cities sent the newspaper’s staff into open revolt.