Former Rep. Trey Gowdy urged Sen. Tim Scott, a fellow South Carolinian and a good friend, to run for president in the future.
With the announcement of Scott’s upcoming book, Opportunity Knocks: How Hard Work, Community, and Business Can Improve Lives and End Poverty, Gowdy alerted social media followers to his desire that Scott run for president. “Best person in all of politics. Incredible story of hope and perseverance. He’d make an amazing POTUS one day,” Gowdy wrote in a Thursday Facebook post.
Gowdy told the Post and Courier that he felt Scott’s voice was one “desperately needed” in the present political climate. “I think he views himself as a preacher trapped in the United States Senate, and I view him as someone whose message is desperately needed in the political environment and the one going forward,” Gowdy said.
The former member of Congress also spoke favorably of Scott’s book, asserting it was important for the country to hear his story. “It’s not a Republican book. It’s a book for people who want to be inspired,” the Republican said.
Scott’s book is a mixture of policy and memoir, sharing the stories throughout his life that molded his character. At one point, Scott writes about his interactions with President Trump in the aftermath of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“No matter what happened in this meeting, I could not stand down from my belief that Trump’s actual comments had shown a real insensitivity to the racial history of our country. But I knew I had to keep these swirling emotions at bay,” the book reads. “You have to be dispassionate if you want others to listen. You must purge the emotional toxicity out of the equation.”
Scott outlines the pressures he faced talking to Trump as the only African American Republican in the Senate. “Were the black faces looking back at me applauding me? Hoping I would stand up for their invisible pain? Wondering if I would succeed?” he writes.
“Did the white faces understand why I had to be there? Did they understand why this was important not only to me but to all people of color, as well as to the spirit of our country?” he adds.
Scott’s book is being published by Center Street Book, the same group that published Donald Trump Jr.’s book Triggered, and is set for release on April 14.
