Tim Scott’s Cultish Trump Loyalty on Full Display in Cringe Interview
Republican Senator Tim Scott started his week off by getting brutally fact-checked about just about everything. While Scott passed the Donald Trump loyalty litmus test with flying colors, he was only able to do so because he refused to fully answer a single question he was asked during Sunday’s episode of This Week With George Stephanopolus on ABC.
When asked about the Supreme Court’s recent decision to lift a ban on bump stocks, one which was put in place by Trump himself, Scott quickly agreed with the court’s decision, before pivoting to criticizing President Joe Biden about something entirely different.
“Under Joe Biden, we’ve seen the movement to defund the police, leaving communities like the one I grew up in devastated and ravaged by a wave of violent crime that we have not seen literally in five decades,” said Scott.
“Actually, senator as I—as you probably know, the latest stats on violent crime and on the murder rate, they’re actually down this past year,” said ABC co-host Jonathan Karl, before he attempted to go back to his Supreme Court question.
Scott, instead, refused to budge from his point that families are “trapped in their houses” every night because of spiking crime.
TIM SCOTT: Under Joe Biden, communities have been devastated and ravaged by a wave of violent crime that we haven't seen in 5 decades
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 16, 2024
JONATHAN KARL: Actually senator, as you probably know, the latest stats on violent crime and on the murder rate show they're actually down this… pic.twitter.com/Tz2KrUXxgP
Just last week, the FBI released its quarterly crime report, which found that violent crime in the United States has dropped by more than 15 percent since the beginning of the year, including a 26.4 percent decrease in murder, in line with a decrease over the past two years.
It appeared that the South Carolina Republican would rather defer to Trump’s talking points than openly agree with the court’s decision to undo his executive order. Karl then asked Scott if he would support congressional action to ban bump stocks.
“Well, I’m strongly in support of the Second Amendment,” Scott started. “But what we’re going to do in the party, and President Trump said it on Thursday, we’re going to focus—”
“I asked about the ban on bump stocks, not the Second Amendment,” Karl said, cutting Scott off again—but the senator continued undeterred, delivering a short stump speech about violence at the southern border.
Scott continued to cement his position, not as a politician, or even a person capable of independent thought, but as a Trumpian record player, going over and over the same old tracks.
At every turn, Scott skirted the questions being asked in order to deliver talking points for Trump.
Karl then asked Scott how he felt about Trump’s proposal for tariffs on imported goods, which the former president raised during a meeting with House Republicans last week. Scott himself had previously criticized Trump’s approach to tariffs, but—clearly unable to own up to even the smallest defection from his beloved leader—he again pivoted to something else entirely.
“I was in the Senate meeting. But what I can tell you he spoke about during his time with the Senate is actually exempting taxation on tips,” he said, and went on to talk about that plan, which would likely benefit hotel owners such as Trump and hurt workers in their efforts to raise the minimum wage.