U.S. Sen. Tim Scott said neither Gov. Ron DeSantis nor former President Donald Trump has a winning message in 2024. Speaking to a Republican gathering in the state both pols call home, Scott said only he delivers the optimistic vision the GOP needs.
"We need a total focus on Joe Biden, a conservative warrior who created a red wave up and down the entire balance," Scott said, "and we must win back the White House."
The South Carolina spoke at the Florida Freedom Summit in Orlando, a home state crowd for some of his biggest competitors for the Republican nomination. There, he was among the only candidates on the stage to call out competitors by name.
He suggested both DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy wrongly suggested America had entered a state of decline. While he praised DeSantis' record as Governor of Florida, he said that message hasn't played nationwide, and with good reason.
"He doesn't have a forward-looking aspirational vision about where our country should go," Scott said of DeSantis.
As for Donald Trump, Scott said he was happy to work during the former President's first term to advance a social conservative agenda. That included fighting to put 300 conservative judges on the federal bench. But it's clear, he said, that Trump can't advance the interests of Republican nationwide.
"Our party has been underperforming for three consecutive national elections," he said. He blamed that on Republicans losing not only the presidential race but Senate contests in 2020 in once-red states like Georgia and Nevada.
Scott also attacked fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley, a former Palmetto State Governor and Ambassador to the United Nations. While he worked on numerous issues with his now-competitor, he suggested Haley now was running as a moderate in the "Never Trump" lane.
"We can't win with a moderate," Scott said, saying that will divide the party.
He said his own life as a Black conservative winning a Senate seat in the Deep South undermines the message of liberals that all minorities are victims. Now he's ready to take that message to every part of America.
"I don't just want to win the battle against Joe Biden," Scott said. "I want to win the war for Christian conservative values that transformed my life and transformed and built America."
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