Tim Scott Is Not An Honorable Man
Judge someone by their actions not their website bio.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina sells a graven image of himself, one of a reasonable Republican who promotes a message of “unity” and “optimism.” You see, Tim Scott is an honorable man.
When Scott launched his own presidential campaign a few months ago, he suggested that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represented the Confederate side of the Civil War. Wait, that’s not honorable at all. It’s the exact opposite.
Yet, Tim Scott is an honorable man, at least that’s what he claims before telling his supporters on his “Faith in America” tour, “If you believe we need a little more A-B-Cs and a little less C-R-T, let me hear you scream! Hallelujah.”
So much honor we can barely stand it.
Non-MAGA Republicans, a species facing terminal extinction, shared their collective disappointment over Scott’s response to Donald Trump’s third indictment this year (so far). When Scott repeated absurd talking points, straight from Trump’s horse face, about President Joe Biden’s “weaponized DOJ,” former Rep. Adam Kinzinger said, “Tim I know you. I know your heart. Trust me, it feels way better to do right. I know you want to and I know you know better.”
Does he? Kinzinger voted for Trump twice, which is hardly admirable, but January 6 was enough for him to knowingly sacrifice his political career in service of holding Trump accountable for his coup. He suffered a single political death, while Scott will die a million times defending Trump.
Scott, unlike Kinzinger, refused to take that last exit ramp to decency. Instead, he voted against Trump’s second impeachment and continues to minimize Trump’s responsibility for January 6. Just a couple weeks ago, Scott said, “I was targeted on that day … I hold the folks who broke into the Capitol with ill will in their hearts … responsible for their actions. I don’t hold the former president who didn’t show up at the Capitol and threaten my life as responsible.”
Scott should’ve paid attention to the January 6 committee hearings, which he blew off as a “made-for-TV” spectacle. Liz Cheney said in her opening statement that “Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.” There is no Capitol attack without Trump’s lies and specifically his rage fest at the Ellipse, when he said, “… we're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.”
That kind of sounds like a threat, but perhaps Scott’s honor clouds his sense of self-preservation.
Fellow Republican primary candidate Chris Christie, whom Trump almost killed with COVID, said Scott’s January 6 comments were “disappointing” while insisting, “I like Tim a lot. I think Tim is a good man. I don’t have a bad thing to say about him.”
Shouldn’t you, though?
Dispatch editor Stephen Hayes tweeted on Wednesday, “Tim Scott is an honorable man and a good public servant. If you wanted to provide a role model for elected Republicans, he'd be one of a handful you'd recommend. This is pathetic. And he knows better. Exceptionally disappointing.”
Tim Scott is honorable and a role model. That’s what everyone says, yet his actions are somehow consistently disappointing.
Writing for MSNBC, Scott’s former Senate colleague Claire McCaskill said:
Maybe the saddest thing for me Tuesday night after the indictment was unsealed was seeing Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., attack the so-called weaponization of President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice.
We were watching in real time someone lose their moral compass. Someone sacrificing their character at the altar of political ambition. Someone who knows better, who was there, who saw what happened on Jan. 6, who saw people running for their lives, who knows what Trump did was wrong and has said it wrong.
This all assumes that Scott ever possessed a moral compass to lose. How much can one value their character if they’d sacrifice it for Mike Pence’s old job? Nonetheless, Scott’s friends act as if he’s the lead in a Greek tragedy and they’re shouting at the stage, “No, don’t … Oh, God, man, that’s your mother! This is so disappointing! You know better!”
Although, the original motherfucker didn’t know better. That’s the whole point. If Tim Scott does know better than his public behavior demonstrates, well, he’s obviously made a choice, and it doesn’t make him honorable.
[MSNBC / Twitter, Damnit]
Follow Stephen Robinson on Bluesky and Threads.
Subscribe to his YouTube channel for more fun content.
Catch SER on his podcast, The Play Typer Guy.
This is one hell of a soliloquy.
I'm white as a fucking ghost, so maybe I don't get everything in play, but I really don't understand being a black Republican right now.
Party of Lincoln my freckled ass.