NBC host Chuck Todd pressed Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott for seeming “hesitant” to criticize President Trump for his Saturday tweets attacking Democratic Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings and rebuking his Baltimore district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
“The president spends a lot of time on his Twitter feed trying to racially divide the country,” Todd said on Meet The Press on Sunday. “Does that undermine the efforts of the Republican Party in the state of Florida?”
“We have got to do everything we can to bring this country back together,” Scott responded, but Todd interjected, saying “Why doesn’t the president think that?”
Todd went on, saying Trump’s Twitter rant is “just stoking racial resentment” across the country.
“Do you think it’s good politics inside the Republican Party?” Todd asked.
Scott deflected the NBC host’s question, instead bashing Cummings’ critical remarks of Border Patrol agents at a recent House Oversight Committee hearing.
“But that justifies a racial resentment tweet in response? Is that presidential leadership?” Todd pressed.
Scott seemingly struggled to form an answer, saying that he did not write the tweets.
“I can’t talk about why he did what he did,” Scott said. “But I’m very disappointed in the people like Congressman Cummings who have attacked Border Patrol agents that are trying to do their job when the Democrats won’t give them the resources to do it.”
Todd refuted Scott’s response, saying “It’s not lost on me that you’re harsher on Elijah Cummings than on the president and what he has done.”
