The office of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is known to have sent cease-and-desist letters to constituents who make "harassing and vulgar" phone calls to staffers.
However, one Arkansas resident tells Talking Points Memo that he was given a cease-and-desist order by Cotton's office simply because he said the word "bullsh*t" on a phone call.
Little Rock resident Don Ernst tells TPM that he regularly called Cotton's office last year to ask about his policy positions on the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and on solving the opioid crisis.
Ernst, whose son is battling opioid addiction, grew frustrated when staffers repeatedly failed to answer his questions, leading him at one point to tell the staffers that it was "bullsh*t" that they could not give him the information he wanted.
"It’s excruciating not to get an answer to questions that impact people you care about and you love," he explained.
After he said the word "bullsh*t" on a phone call, the staffer he was talking with abruptly hung up on him. When he called a different number to talk with a different Cotton staffer, he was informed that he had been sent a cease-and-desist letter and that all further attempts to contact the office would be deemed harassment.
He then called the Capitol Hill Police, who said they had been informed of the office's decision to send a cease-and-desist letter.
