Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., slammed The New York Times on "Fox & Friends" Monday for saying the American flag is a "divisive symbol," adding that Americans "should be proud of our heritage and our founding principles."

SEN. TOM COTTON: Over the weekend, you saw The New York Times running a long story about how the flag, for goodness sake, is now a divisive symbol for many Americans. Look, we should be proud of our heritage and our founding principles. Two hundred and forty-five years ago this weekend, our founding fathers declared our independence not just because of local grievances over taxes or the quartering of soldiers, but because they wanted to found a new republic dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, as Abraham Lincoln said at the Gettysburg Address.

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Now, we haven't always achieved that practice, but our history has been one of continuingly struggling to realize those ideals. That's exactly what Dr. Martin Luther King said in his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in which he explicitly and repeatedly invoked the declaration and said that we are the – our work is the full realization of America's founding principles. We should teach our children, whether it's in the schools or in our movies and television or our comic books, to be proud of and celebrate America's traditions.

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Sen. Cotton slams NYT for suggesting the American flag is divisive

We should teach our children ' to be proud of and celebrate America's traditions,' Sen. Cotton says