Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) refused to condemn former President Donald Trump’s racially charged and inflammatory comments about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his wife, Elaine Chao, who served as the 45th president’s first and only transportation secretary until the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Scott was pressed repeatedly on the 45th president’s aggressive remarks over multiple Sunday show appearances, which he was making to discuss Hurricane Ian leaving his home state in ruins. While stressing unity, Scott declined to chastise Trump publicly for ratcheting up his rhetoric against two of his most powerful GOP foes in a stunning statement Friday. In it, Trump claimed McConnell has a “death wish” for supporting some Democratic, albeit bipartisan, legislation and referred to Chao as “China loving” before offering her the racist moniker “Coco Chow.”
FORMER TRUMP STAFFER DENOUNCES HIM FOR ‘DESPICABLE’ ATTACKS ON ELAINE CHAO
The Florida senator began his defense of the comments to CBS’s Face the Nation by trying to pivot to remarks he objected to from Vice President Kamala Harris about equity factoring into hurricane aid distribution, to which host Margaret Brennan brought the discussion back to Trump directly.
“I think we all have to figure out how do we start bringing people together and have a common goal to give every American the opportunity to get a great job, their kids to have an education [so] they believe they can be anything and make sure everybody lives in a safe community,” Scott responded. “That’s what I do every day, and I’ve tried to bring people together to do that.”
Asked if he thought Trump’s language was bringing people together, Scott attempted to explain the former president’s intentions with his message on McConnell.
“I believe that what President Trump was talking about is the fact that we can’t keep spending money,” the GOP senator said, again attempting to pivot to Democrats. “We’re going to hurt our poorest families the most with this reckless, Democrat spending, and we cannot — we got to stop it. We can’t cave into their spending.”
Scott then tried to present himself as unphased by Trump’s comments on Chao, stammering a bit before telling Brennan: “Look, he likes, for, you know — he gives people nicknames. I’m sure he has a nickname for me, all right? So you can ask him what he means by his nicknames.”
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The senator went slightly further when speaking on CNN’s State of the Union about Trump’s love of nicknames, telling host Dana Bash: “It’s never, ever OK to be a racist. I think you always have to be careful if you’re in the public eye with how you say things. You want to make sure you’re inclusive. You want to make sure — yesterday, the neighborhood I was in, we had people probably from 10 countries that lived there. That’s what’s great about this country.”
“I know what I try to do is make everybody, everybody, especially all their kids, believe they have hope and live the dream of this country,” he continued. “I hope no one is racist. I hope no one says anything that’s inappropriate.”
