Sen. Tim Scott called out Democrats for blocking a Republican-authored police reform measure, arguing party lawmakers refused to debate the measure simply because it was written by the GOP in a presidential election year.
Scott, who is black, delivered an impassioned floor speech denouncing Democrats for blocking the JUSTICE Act, which would have banned police chokeholds, expanded police body camera use, and required new reporting by law enforcement on the use of force.
“They’ve decided to punt this bill until the election. You know why?” he said. “Because they believe the polls reflect a 15-point deficit on our side, therefore, they can get the vote they want in November. All they have to do is win the election, then roll in January and get the chance to write the police reform bill without our support at all.”
Scott called out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, for accusing the GOP in a CBS interview of “trying to get away with murder, actually — the murder of George Floyd.”
He called the comment “one of the most heinous things I can imagine” and said Pelosi “knows she can get away with that” because the Democratic Party has a monopoly on black voter support.
Scott is the only black Republican in the Senate. There are two black Senate Democrats.
Scott said in the floor speech that he understood racial profiling and described being followed around by store clerks and avoided by people while walking down the street.
“But what I missed in this issue is that the stereotyping of Republicans as unhelpful to the black community is just as toxic and poisonous to the outcome of the most vulnerable communities in this nation,” he said. “That’s the issue.”
Scott, who grew up poor, said debating the JUSTICE Act would have sent a message to poor minority children that “you matter so much we’ll stay on this floor as long as it takes and as many amendments as it takes to get to the issue that yes, you matter.”
He said Democrats would have been able to offer many amendments to the GOP bill to try to change it, but the party still refused to allow the measure to move to the floor. It failed by a vote of 55-45, five short of the 60 needed to begin debate.
“Because the ‘who’ matters, they cannot allow this party to be seen as a party that reaches out to all communities in this nation, and unfortunately, without the kind of objectivity in the media that is necessary to share the message of what is actually happening, no one will ever know,” Scott said of the Democrats.
Scott described dreading a meeting with President Trump following the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 but that Trump surprised him by seeking his advice on how to reach out to communities he offended with comments he made about the rioters.
Scott said Trump was eager to work on providing funding to improve economies in impoverished black communities, medical research for diseases that impact the black community, and providing funding for historically black colleges and universities.
“I didn’t expect him to listen, but he did,” Scott said. “He leaned in and said, ‘Tell me how to help the folks I have offended.’”
