Republican Tom Cotton refuses four times to condemn Trump on Ukraine

Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, is a military veteran and foreign policy hawk with reputed presidential ambitions from the hard Republican right. Photograph: Reuters

The Republican senator Tom Cotton refused four times on Sunday to condemn or even comment on Donald Trump’s repeated praise for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

“If you want to know what Donald Trump thinks about Vladimir Putin or any other topic,” Cotton told ABC’s This Week, “I’d encourage you to invite him on your show. I don’t speak on behalf of other politicians. They can speak for themselves.”