South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott got the last word after he was torched by the hosts of ABC’s “The View.”
Scott formally announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election on Monday, and told NBC’s Tom Llamas what he believes the voters are looking for in a GOP leader.
“The truth is what people really want is an optimistic positive conservative who has a backbone, but also believes that the best is yet to come,” he remarked.
“I don’t think you have to be a pessimist to be strong.”
Joy Behar suggests Tim Scott and Clarence Thomas don't know what it means to be black in America.
Raise your hand if you think Joy Behar should be fired from The View. pic.twitter.com/UsvzYl2wAj
— TEAM USA 🇺🇸 (@__TEAM_USA) May 23, 2023
After airing a clip of the interview, Joy Behar snarkily dubbed Scott “professor positive,” and accused him of “hedging his bets” by not “coming out” and saying that he’s not pro-life.
“He’s one of these guys who, you know, he’s like Clarence Thomas,” Behar remarked.
“Black Republican who believes in pulling yourself by your bootstraps, rather than, to me, understanding the systemic racism that African Americans face in this country, and other minorities.”
“He doesn’t get it. Neither does Clarence. And that’s why they’re Republicans,” she quipped, which drew laughter from the audience.
The day prior, Sunny Hostin complained about Scott’s messaging during his declaration speech.
“I think one of the issues that Tim Scott has, is that he seems to think, ‘because I made it, everyone can make it.’ Ignoring again, the fact that he is the exception and not the rule,” Hostin dismissed.
“And until he is the rule — then he can stop talking about systemic racism.”
“He has Clarence Thomas syndrome,” Whoopi Goldberg spat.
Former Trump staffer, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who Trump called a “sleazebag” and “loser,” after commenting that he was “a ranting, raving lunatic” during his CNN town hall, noted that Scott had “championed” policies in support of minority communities.
Whoopi Goldberg on Tim Scott:
“He’s got Clarence Thomas syndrome.”
No racism to see here. 🫣 pic.twitter.com/ZFTfJwzkty
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) May 23, 2023
“Those are all great,” Goldberg dismissed. “Look he’s done some good stuff. Okay.”
“But if you are running for president, you gotta do more than that. You have to represent us as a nation and then say, and as a Black man, this is also how I feel.”
“But you can’t pretend that it’s not there and that it’s not an issue for the people you are running for — the party you are running for,” she concluded. “They are, in part, the problem.”
Scott responded to the morning talk show hosts’ remarks during an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.
“Meekness is not weakness. I believe in the Gospel. I believe Matthew 5:44 says ‘Love your enemies’ — [but] if you break in my house, I also believe in the Second Amendment’,” he clapped back.
“We have to ignore the far left by disproving their lies by our actions.”
He specifically took aim at Hostin for targeting him because he’s Black.
“Here’s the funny thing: The host, Sunny, she wants to be judged by the content of her character, not the color of her skin,” Scott noted.
“The fact of the matter is America is a story of evolution – a never told story of evolution in too many of our schools that are indoctrinating our kids instead of educating our kids.”
The hosts of “The View may not like his messaging, but the South Carolina Senator is already invigorating donors.
According to Fox News, Scott raised $2 million in fundraising since announcing his presidential bid on Monday.
Scott’s coffers already started out with a hefty sum, after the $22 million left over from his 2022 Senate re-election will be transferred over to his 2024 campaign.