Tim Scott: ‘No Doubt’ Trump Not a Racist

Appearing Monday on Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) rejected the notion that President Donald Trump is a “racist” and said the Democrats are “overusing” the smear because they lack policy proposals that appeal to voters.

“There’s no doubt that President Trump is not a racist,” Scott, the sole black Republican in the Senate, told guest host Jason Chaffetz. “The facts are very simple that the same folks that voted for me voted for President Trump because President Trump made promises to the voters and he’s keeping the promises.”

The South Carolina lawmaker went on to note the president’s economic policies have benefited minority communities across the country, arguing record-low unemployment for black communities is proof he is not prejudiced.

Scott said:

A racist would never talk about criminal justice reform and how the benefits disproportionately help African-American men. President Trump signed that legislation into law. You would never hear a racist talk about Opportunity Zones and how he came on board full throttle because he wanted to help poor, disadvantaged communities, most of them were consistently African-American and Hispanic communities.

You would not ever hear a racist — never would you hear a racist talk about providing more research authority, and more resources towards the sickle cell anemia, a disease that impacts disproportionately African Americans in this country. And yet President Trump signed that legislation.

Scott then said Democrat presidential candidates deploy the “race card” to exploit “fear and division.”:

It’s a different dimension that I don’t understand, and frankly, the more you use the concept of racism, the more we grow ‘ism fatigue’ in this country, and that is a terrible place for us to be. The greatest threat by overusing racism is that when there is an actual challenge, you cried wolf in the wilderness one time too many.

Last week, President Trump made similar remarks about the Democrats, saying their continuous attempts to smear him as a racist demonstrate how “desperate” they are.

“They call anybody a racist when they run out of cards,” the president told reporters before departing the White House for a fundraiser in New York City.

His comments came in response to a question about what he thought of Democrats accusing him of being a white nationalist. Various Democrats, including several running for the White House, called President Trump a white nationalist in the wake of the El Paso, Texas, shooting that left 22 dead.

The suspected gunman, Patrick Crusius, 21, of Allen, Texas, is believed to have authored shared a manifesto online in which he railed against Hispanic immigrants. Democrats and the corporate media raced to claim President Trump inspired the shooter, though the president condemned the alleged gunman and the contents of his manifesto, declaring Americans “must condemn racism, bigotry,

“These barbaric slaughters are an assault upon our communities, an attack upon our nation, and a crime against all of humanity,” he added. “We are outraged and sickened by this monstrous evil.”