Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., tore into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Friday, telling Fox News Radio’s “The Guy Benson Show” that her remark accusing the GOP of “trying to get away with … the murder of George Floyd” was “the most outrageous, sinful comment I’ve heard as a public official.”
On Tuesday, Pelosi criticized Scott’s police reform bill, the JUSTICE Act, in an interview with CBS Radio, calling it “unsalvageable” and saying it won’t make “any difference.”
“For something to happen, they’re going to have to face the realities of police brutalities, the realities of the need for justice in policing, and the recognition that there’s many good people in law enforcement, but not all,” Pelosi said of Republicans. “And that we have to address those concerns. So, when they admit that, and have some suggestions that are worthy of consideration — but so far they were trying to get away with murder, actually — the murder of George Floyd.”
In response, Scott told host Guy Benson: “I thought to myself, ‘How in the world does this woman, standing in front of a $24,000 refrigerator, have the sense to jump into the bottomless pit of race politics? Why in the world would she want to do that?’
“There’s only one answer, by the way, one answer,” Scott continued. “It’s because she’s lived so long in a state of privilege that she has forgotten that it’s the Republican Party that voted more for the Civil Rights-era legislation than the Democrats.
“It’s because she’s forgotten that it was President Trump and the criminal justice reform done in 2018 that made up for the Democrats’ 1994 crime bill. She’s forgotten that it’s the school choice movement that frees more kids in poverty from the poor education system brought to us by the Democrats and the teachers’ unions then they’ve ever seen,” Scott went on.
“She has forgotten so much about reality that she spends too much time in an alternate universe. But the facts are simple,” Scott added. “Why in the world would she stoop so low? And it’s simply this: They believe — and I truly believe this — they believe that campaigning on police brutality is more important than solving police reform.”
Scott’s JUSTICE Act failed to receive the 60 votes necessary to open debate on the measure Wednesday, falling five votes short. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Doug Jones, D-Ala., and Angus King, I-Maine, supported debate on the measure. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., initially supported debate on the bill, but changed his vote for procedural reasons.
Democrats had objected to the bill not ending police chokeholds or qualified immunity for police officers.
The Senate vote effectively halted the progress of federal police reform legislation, despite the House approving its own measure Thursday.
“That tells me that their issue is not police reform, their issue is not helping the kids in the poorest neighborhoods, their issue is a political issue … so that, they for the next four months have a chance to campaign on police reform without exactly solving the issues of police reform,” Scott told “The Daily Briefing” earlier Friday, calling that realization “devastating for the young souls across the country.”
