Tim Scott shrugs off Trump’s birther attacks on Haley, claims her rhetoric goes ‘further’
Sen. Tim Scott brushed aside former President Donald Trump’s withering attacks on Republican rival Nikki Haley Sunday and suggested her rhetoric has been even worse.
Fox News host Shannon Bream asked Scott (R-SC) about Trump’s peddling of birth conspiracies that Haley, 52, might not be able to run, questioning the whereabouts of her deployed husband, and calling her “Bird brain.”
“We see the Haley camp and the family referring to me as Judas Iscariot,” Scott shot back on “Fox News Sunday.”
“We’re hearing a lot of chatter out of the Haley camp, not only just matching the rhetoric from the Trump side, but actually going further.”
Earlier this month, Haley’s son Nalin referred to Scott, 58, as “Senator Judas – excuse me, Senator Scott” during a rally.
That jab was a reference to how Haley appointed him to fill a Senate vacancy in 2013 during her time as governor of the Palmetto State.
Scott, who dropped out of the 2024 race last November, threw his weight behind Trump, 77, last month. He is widely perceived as jockeying to be Trump’s VP pick.
“I’m not sure what Nikki’s doing right now. I think she’s desperate without question,” Scott said. “There’s not a state coming up that she can win.
“Even in New Hampshire, she lost women voters to Donald Trump,” he added. “She lost millennials to Donald Trump. She lost seniors to Donald Trump.”
Scott further predicted that Trump will go on to sweep his home state of South Carolina, which is set to hold its primary on Feb. 24.
The senator did a Sunday morning sweep, where he made appearances on multiple marquee shows and opined on a handful of different hot-button issues.
On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Scott was coy when asked about what he believes to be the vice president’s role on the day of the Electoral College vote count during a joint session of Congress.
“Here’s what I’m not going to do is answer questions that are hypothetical about the past,” Scott replied — before adding “the constitution is very clear.”
When asked if he stands by his decision to certify the 2020 election, Scott replied, “Of course I do.”
The South Carolina Republican also evaded a question about whether the Republican National Committee should pick up the tab for Trump’s mounting legal bills.
“The American people are more focused on their future than Donald Trump’s past,” he said.
Trump was ordered to pay advice columnist E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation case and ordered Friday to pay roughly $355 million in a New York fraud case that includes other penalties such as interest that could push the price tag up over $450 million.
Moreover, Trump is facing a total of 91 criminal counts spanning four indictments, the first of which is set to head to trial on March 25, regarding the alleged falsification of business records to conceal hush money payments.
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Scott defended Trump from criticism over his suggestion that he wouldn’t protect NATO allies that don’t meet their defense obligations and the 45th president’s silence on the death of Russian dissident Alexia Navalny.
“When President Trump was our president, there was no incursion in Ukraine, like there was under President Obama,” he said.
“When Trump left office, there was an actual all-out war in Ukraine,” before arguing that under Trump, “Ukraine was safer, the world was safer, and America was certainly safer.”
When confronted over remarks Scott made three months ago declaring that “NATO partners safe from the Russian military is absolutely essential,” the senator replied, “I was 100 percent right then.”
