Republican Sen. Tim Scott fired back at former President Barack Obama on Sunday for saying that people are “rightly skeptical” of the 2024 presidential candidate’s rhetoric on racism.
“There’s no higher compliment than to be attacked by President Obama,” Mr. Scott, who is Black, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Whenever the Democrats feel threatened, they … drag out the former president and have him make some negative comments about someone running, hoping that their numbers go down.”
Mr. Scott strikes an upbeat and optimistic tone on racism on the campaign trail, prompting recent criticism from Mr. Obama on his hopeful messaging.
“If a Republican, who may even be sincere in saying, ‘I want us all to live together,’ doesn’t have a plan for how do we address crippling generational poverty that is a consequence of hundreds of years of racism in this society, and we need to do something about that. If that candidate is not willing to acknowledge that, again and again, we’ve seen discrimination in everything from … getting a job to buying a house to how the criminal justice system operates,” Mr. Obama said during a podcast interview with his former White House senior adviser David Axelrod. “If somebody’s not proposing, both acknowledging and proposing, elements that say, ‘No, we can’t just ignore all that and pretend as if everything’s equal and fair. We actually have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.’ If they’re not doing that, then I think people are rightly skeptical.”
Other Democrats and left-leaning activists have also questioned Mr. Scott’s views on race.
“Here is what people need to know: the truth of my life disproves the lies of the radical left,” Mr. Scott said.
He went on to cite the issue of education and inequalities as a major area of disagreement with Democrats, saying that the “radical left and the teachers’ unions refuse to allow quality education in big blue cities.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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