Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) avoided a question on Sunday about Trump’s false claims that he was in grave danger when the FBI raided his home in Florida last year. The South Carolina Republican wants to run with Trump in November and wants to join him on the ticket.
Last week, Trump said that the FBI was “locked & loaded and ready to take me out” when they searched his Mar-a-Lago estate for missing classified papers. The Department of Justice quickly pushed back on Trump’s comments, and Democrats criticized him.
Saturday, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Scott about the language on “State of the Union.” Scott didn’t say anything about it. Bash said that President Biden had to do the same thing to find secret papers.
It was on tape that the FBI’s SWAT team broke into Mar-a-Lago. “I haven’t seen the same video of them breaking into Joe Biden’s garage, so I’d love to see that one too,” Scott said. “But what’s more important is that we’re reinforcing this two-tiered justice system, where Republicans are judged differently and Donald Trump is judged differently.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Trump’s words last week were “extremely dangerous.” Garland also said that Trump was talking about how the FBI usually searches people.
In order to get an answer from Scott, Bash brought up comments made by Steve Bannon, a former Trump aide, who called the search an “assassination attempt.” Scott dodged again.
“Seeing how the justice system has treated Joe Biden—telling him he can’t stand in front of a jury of his peers because he’s too old and can’t remember things—that is not the simple, fair justice system that Americans expect,” Scott said.
“So it’s hard to see how this justice system could work in a way that is unfair to both Donald Trump and Republicans since we’ve seen how softly and quickly the government has treated Joe Biden and his family,” he said. We all want things to be fair, especially when Lady Justice should put on a blindfold. Dana, we don’t think that will happen.
Republicans, led by Trump, often say that the Justice Department treats Democrats differently. However, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), two Democrats in Congress, are being charged by the federal government.
Scott is one of the last candidates left to run for vice president against Trump. Scott used to run against Trump in the primary election, but now he is one of his biggest supporters in the media. He defends the former president on Sunday shows almost every week.
