05/29/2023
You have to feel sorry, sort of, for GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott, the black senator from South Carolina, who was Affirmatively Acted into the Senate by the appalling Nicky Haley in 2013 to replace Jim Demint: his announcement last week was completely stepped on by Ron DeSantis. But Scott boasts the support of many powerful Republicans and donors who boneheadedly believe his being black is a plus. This despite the fact that Scott is probably the worst candidate in the field: His goal is for the GOP/GAP to abandon the Historic American Nation and embrace multi-culti America. No immigration patriot should want him anywhere near a GOP presidential ticket–even as vice president, the real threat.
Scott’s opening pitch on video hurled boilerplate Republican platitudes. America is the land of opportunity, he said. “Made in America” is his story. We should emphasize patriotism over pity, he averred, and victory over victimization. He highlighted five trends the left promotes in the country: crime in our streets, inflation in our economy, a culture of victimhood, and indoctrination in our schools. Not a bad list, but immigration wasn’t on it.
I’m living proof that America is the land of opportunity.
Made in America. That’s my story.
To the radical Left that says we’re an evil declining country, I say the truth of my life disproves your lies.
I have faith in America & our president should too. pic.twitter.com/pERJgVIjGY
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) May 23, 2023
But he did address immigration, sort of, at his launch rally in North Charleston. “If you don’t control your back door, it’s not your house,” he said. “And if our southern border is unsafe and insecure, it’s not our country. Hundreds of people on our terrorist watch list are crossing our borders.” He also discussed deploying the military against the cartels.
It’s a decent stance on the issue, but of course he didn’t mention legal immigration.
Scott’s overall pitch: “What would happen if we put the rocks down and stopped being red and blue and black and white and we literally just became one American family?” he asked NBC News’s Tom Llamas [Read the full transcript of NBC News’ exclusive interview with Sen. Tim Scott, May 22, 2023].
It’s corny. It’s tone deaf. And, unfortunately, it appeals to many normie Americans.
What Scott has said so far doesn’t raise much concern, but his past record and what he represents must worry immigration patriots. Scott is bad on crime, horrible on racial matters, and supports the political persecution of dissidents in America. In many ways, he is a man of the left.
The senator has led GOP efforts on “criminal justice reform” aka letting black criminals out of jail. He vocally supported Jared Kushner’s First Step Act. Scott said it “an amazing opportunity to ensure the scales of justice are weighted equally for all Americans” [Violent criminals and sex offenders released early due to ‘First Step Act’ legislation, by Gregg Re, Fox News, July 23, 2019].
But that wasn’t enough for Scott. He pushed for the GOP to adopt even more drastic changes to make Americans unsafe. In the wake of George Floyd’s death, the senator proposed the JUSTICE Act, which would require police departments to report use of force and share officer disciplinary records. It would discourage chokeholds and other tough police tactics and establish civilian commissions to probe how law enforcement affects blacks and suggest more “reforms.”
Despite carrying many Democrat-favored items, the opposing party didn’t back the bill because it didn’t end qualified immunity for cops. That positively insane idea, which would expose police to all kinds of frivolous lawsuits and jeopardize their effectiveness, is a must-have for Democratic “criminal justice reform.”
The setbacks haven’t deterred Scott. He still touts the JUSTICE Act on his official Senate page:
Following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, I led the charge to build a comprehensive package in the United States Senate that focused on police reform, transparency and accountability.
[Balancing the Scales of Justice, Scott.Senate.gov]
Scott did help pass one tough-on-crime bill. It just didn’t pertain to any crime committed in the modern era. He was the lead Republican in ushering in the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act.. It punishes a non-existent crime and simply expands the power of the federal government, which can be used against political dissidents.
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, one of only three no votes against the bill in Congress, outlined why he opposed the bill when it was passed in early 2022.
(1) The Constitution specifies only a handful of federal crimes, and leaves the rest to individual states to prosecute.
(2) This bill expands current federal “hate crime” laws. A crime is a crime, and all victims deserve equal justice. Adding enhanced penalties for “hate” tends to endanger other liberties such as freedom of speech.
(3) Lynching a person is already illegal in every state. Passing this legislation falsely implies that lynching someone does not already constitute criminal activity.
(4) The bill creates another federal crime of “conspiracy,” which I’m concerned could be enforced overbroadly on people who are not perpetrators of a crime.
Here are the reasons I voted NO on the Anti-lynching Act last Congress and why I voted NO tonight:
(1) The Constitution specifies only a handful of federal crimes, and leaves the rest to individual states to prosecute.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 1, 2022
The bill carries potential to punish minor acts such as vandalism — someone who paints over a Black Lives Matter mural could face several years in jail if leftist bureaucrats deem that a “lynching.”
Last year, Scott said the “backdrop of increasing hate crimes around this country” makes it important to pass a law [Senator Scott Speaks Out Against Hate Crimes at Senate Judiciary Hearing, Scott.Senate.gov, March 8, 2022]. He cited dubious allegations of threats against historically black colleges and universities as proof this country suffers a hate problem.
But those threats turned out to be the work of one underaged prankster, whose race and name was, curiously, left either unrevealed by the authorities or omitted from stories by the leftist Mainstream Media [Minor will be charged with making dozens of racist threats to HBCUs, FBI says, by Jessica Schneider, CNN, November 17, 2022].
Scott has a habit of falling for race hoaxes and anti-white libels. Besides getting weepy over Floyd and wanting to handcuff police to honor that drug-addled criminal’s legacy, Scott propagates the Tulsa libel. “A century ago, one of the most thriving Black neighborhoods in American history was devastated,” he said on the 100th anniversary of the race riot. “We remember these families, churches, and businesses of the Greenwood district who once flourished in economic prosperity.”
Scott also buys into leftist myths about immigration. “The American family was born from immigrants fleeing persecution and poverty and searching for a better future,” he declared in a 2018 statement condemning Trump for not wanting immigrants from “s***hole” countries.
Continued Scott:
Our strength lies in our diversity, including those who came here from Africa, the Caribbean and every other corner of the world. To deny these facts would be to ignore the brightest part of our history.
[Tim Scott reacts to Trump ’shithole’ controversy: ’Our strength lies in our diversity,’ by Daniel Chaitin, Washington Examiner, January 11, 2018]
In fact, the “American family was born” when hardy Virginia Company Englishmen settled Jamestown, and others landed at Plymouth Rock, but anyway, Scott has appointed himself the Tone Police on GOP racial commentary. He criticized Trump for his “both sides” comment on the Unite the Right Rally Charlottesville in 2017, and privately lectured the then-president on racial sensitivity. He called Trump’s criticism of anti-American Rep. Ilhan Omar for being “unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language.” During the 2020 race, he called on Trump to explicitly disavow white supremacy and the (Alt-Lite) Proud Boys. “White supremacy should be denounced at every turn,” he insisted [Trump should correct his statements on White supremacists, GOP Sen. Tim Scott says, by Kevin Breuniger, CNBC, September 30, 2020].
Even worse, in 2018 Scott killed two of Trump’s judicial nominations over racial concerns. He canceled Ryan Bounds for his criticism of multiculturalism in his college days. He shot down Thomas Farr for working on Jesse Helms’s campaigns because Scott felt those campaigns relied on “racial intimidation” [Sen. Tim Scott tells fellow Republicans: Do better on judicial nominees, by Sean Sullivan, Washington Post, December 8, 2018].
In 2021, he joined a new initiative to force the Republican Party to be more “diverse.” The goal of the group, dubbed “Right Leaders Network,” is to prioritize “electing more women, as well as candidates from communities of color and diverse backgrounds” [Haley, Scott, Rubio advising group pushing for GOP diversity, by Meg Kinnard, Associated Press, October 7, 2021].
While Scott is greatly concerned that fellow Republicans night offend minorities, he isn’t that concerned with the FBI’s witch hunt against Trump. Scott refused to condemn the FBI’s raid on Trump’s residence and said we should let the investigation play out. He doesn’t get the important issues [GOP Sen. Tim Scott on FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home: “We need to let this play out,” by Nelson Oliveira, CBS, August 9, 2022].
Scott could be even worse on the campaign trail. Some professional black conservatives are urging the senator to openly embrace identity politics on the campaign trail. They want Scott to ditch “colorblindness,” constantly complain about racism, and appeal directly to black racial interests.
“People say they don’t want to play identity politics, but they do all the time. Democrats have done it for years and won,” GOP political strategist Paris Dennard told The Hill’s Cheyanne M. Daniels. “Quite frankly, I think Republicans need to just embrace it.”
Another black strategist, Felecia Killings, said Scott needs to denounce the GOP’s “anti-black” messages that appeal to white voters. She believes black Republicans need to sacrifice appeals to whites to focus entirely on the interests of black men [Black Conservatives Want Tim Scott to Ditch ‘Colorblind’ Messaging With 2024 Bid, May 21, 2023].
Scott would be unbearable if he adopted this strategy. One could imagine him bursting into tears over Jordan Neely and similar cases. Of course, this would alienate ordinary Republican voters and ensure he never gets the nomination.
Poll numbers suggest he most likely won’t anyway. The Real Clear Politics average has him at 1.6 percent, behind even Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump is killing the competition. He is polling at 53.2 percent — 30.8 points ahead of his closest and most serious rival, Ron DeSantis, who’s at 22.4.
So who supports his run and why? Answers: the GOP Establishment and powerful donors. Senator John Thune (South Dakota), perhaps the second-most powerful Republican in the Senate, endorsed Scott upon his announcement. So did South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds. Several Republican senators have praised Scott on the record when asked about his presidential run. GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell is another big fan.
Above all, Scott is a big hit with donors, entering the field with $22 million in his war chest. So even Republicans exhibit their own form of Affirmative Action [Can Tim Scott actually win with piles of money, lots of faith and a big bet on Iowa?, by Natalie Allison, Politico, May 22, 2023].
Still, Scott’s chances are slim. Trump and DeSantis are the men to beat, and his BLM-friendly message is not what the base wants to hear. Unless Trump and DeSantis drop out, which is unlikely, Scott has no shot.
So the real threat is that the GOP nominee, whoever he is, will choose him as a running mate. Stupid Party Brain Trusters could well bamboozle the nominee into thinking he needs a minority as his running mate. Trump, unfortunately, reportedly likes Scott.
For immigration patriots, that’s a non-starter. Only America Firsters should lead the party of the Historic American Nation.
Washington Watcher II is an anonymous DC insider.
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