Politics and Current
Tim Scott on racism and political divisions in America: “It’s not so much ‘black and white’ as ‘red and blue'”
There are rumors that GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., recently visited CNN tear Donald Trump’s sentencing on 34 felonies in New York hush money trial.
Like most of Trump’s vice presidential nominees, Senator Scott dismissed Trump’s conviction as nothing greater than political bias, arguing that the allegations of falsifying business records amounted to President Joe Biden’s “weaponization of justice,” regardless that Biden had no oversight of the prosecutor Alvin Bragg’s Manhattan district office, which filed the costs.
Scott, the nation’s only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, went further, claiming that it was this alleged weaponization that made black voters more sympathetic to Trump:
“The reason so many African Americans are coming to the Trump campaign is for two main reasons: jobs and equity,” Senator Scott told CNN host Phil Mattingly. “Let me put it simply: As an African-American born and raised in the Deep South who has had concerns about our criminal justice system regarding race, I now see it playing out from a partisan perspective. It’s not as black and white as red and blue.
In the past, Scott has spoken openly about his childhood and adult experiences with racial harassment, but he also insisted that “America is not a racist country.”
Polling shows that a majority of African American voters still support the Democratic Party. According to Pew Research Center, the vast majority of black voters – 83% – are lean Democrats. The Pew poll also shows that 72% of black voters think Trump is a “poor or terrible president.”
Nevertheless, trends point to recent shifts amongst various subgroups of Black voters, including college-educated and Democratic Black voters, who’ve increased from 93% of Black voters in 2012 to 79% in 2023. March poll results By GenForward noted that 17% of black voters would vote for Trump over Biden and 20% would like a third-party candidate.
Republicans like Senator Scott have used the outcomes of such polls to assert that the GOP is making a large inroad into the African American and Latino communities. Trump recently held a campaign rally in a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood of the Bronx, New York, signaling an try to woo voters of color.
Scott also said during his appearance on CNN that “Americans are pissed off with this verdict” and that the day after the presidential election will likely be a “day of reckoning.” However, most Americans surveyed CBS News/YouGov said Trump’s trial in New York was fair.
The South Carolina senator insisted that MAGA supporters’ anger over Trump’s conviction would not result in violence and praised their current unified response in comparison with the 2020 protests against the murder of George Floyd. “You don’t see any riots in the streets like a few years ago,” Scott said.
“In the summer, when there have been riots, the most important riots in the history of our country, with more property damage and deaths – you’ll be able to’t see it today. You can see the main focus and determination to make sure that we, the residents, are heard and noticed on November 5,” the senator added.
“This is good news for the country. And frankly, it brings back greater confidence that the Conservatives, when they are in power, will not see this kind of violence on the streets because we don’t like the outcome.”