During a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) sharply criticized Democrats for blocking his police reform bill and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for accusing Republicans of trying to cover up George Floyd’s murder with their bill by stating that Democrats don’t have an issue with what is being offered, but “the who that’s offering this” because Democrats cannot allow Republicans “to be seen as a party that reaches out to all communities in this nation,” and instead of delivering on police reform, Democrats did nothing because they have “a monopoly on the black vote.”
Scott said, “The actual problem is not what is being offered. It is who is offering it. Took me a long time to figure out the most obvious thing in the room. It’s not the what. … I realized, finally, it’s the who that’s offering this. Now, I have dealt with the problem of who before. As a black man, I get the who being the problem. It’s one of the reasons why I went to Sen. McConnell and said, I want to lead this conversation. I’m the person in our conference who has experienced, firsthand, racial discrimination, racial profiling by law enforcement, and I’m still a fan. Because I believe that most law enforcement officers are good. But I’m the guy, I am your guy, Mitch. Because this is my issue. This is an issue for every poor kid growing up in every poor neighborhood in this nation who feels like, when I leave my home for a jog, I might not come back. This is a serious issue. This is an issue for every single kid who says, is this my country? We’ve heard no. This is the issue that we should be solving, not the legislative issue. That’s not the issue. The issue is, do we matter? We had an opportunity to say, you matter so much, we’ll stay on this floor for as long as it takes and as many amendments as it takes for us to get to the issue that says, yes, you matter. But we said no today.”
He later added, “But what I missed in this issue is that the stereotyping of Republicans is just as toxic and poison to the outcomes of the most vulnerable communities in this nation. That’s the issue. When Speaker Pelosi says one of the most heinous things I can imagine: that the Republicans are actually trying to cover up murder, the murder of George Floyd with our legislation, that’s not politics. That’s not a game to win. That’s you lose. You will, sooner or later, lose. But immediately, every kid around the nation that heard that nonsense lost that moment.”
Scott continued, “You see, what’s become evident to me is that she knows something that we all know. She knows that she can say that. Because the Democrats have a monopoly on the black vote. And no matter the return on their loyalty — and I am telling you, the most loyal part of the Democrat construct, black communities. And no matter the loyalty of the people, the return they get will always continue to go down. Because in monopolies, you start devaluing your customer. You see, today, we could have given, at the very minimum, 70% of what they say would be important for the people we say we serve. But instead of having a debate on that today and getting not five amendments, but 20 amendments, a manager’s amendment, instead of going forward and getting what you want now, they’ve decided to punt this ball until the election. … The irony of the story is that today, and through the rest of June and all of July, what we’re going to have here is, instead of getting 70% of what you wanted, or more, you’re going to get zero. How’s that for a return? How’s that for loyalty?”
He further stated, “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’s actually happening, no one will ever know.”
(h/t Guy Benson)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.