By Jack Phillips
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) weighed in on the war-of-words between former President Donald Trump and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), noting that Trump has the most sway of any political figure in the United States.
“I still believe that President Trump is the most powerful political figure on either side,” Scott told Fox News on Wednesday. “The news loves President Trump, or they hate President Trump, which gives him plenty of coverage. What we need, in fact, is a unified message from the Republican Party. We don’t need personalities driving your future. The policy positions of President Trump led to the lowest unemployment rates for African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, for women in 70 years.”
Without weighing in on McConnell, Scott argued that Trump’s policies are what’s important.
“What we need is more President Trump policies that focused on an inclusive economy, focused on HBCU funding, focused on the lowest tax rates we’ve seen in a generation that led to the fastest increase in employment and in wages at the bottom faster than the top because President Trump’s policy positions literally transformed the American economy,” Scott said. “That is what’s at stake in the future. Do we want a private sector driven by economic mobility and opportunity, or do we want a private sector driven by socialism and control from Washington, D.C.?”
On Tuesday evening, Trump released a scathing missive that denounced McConnell’s leadership and argued that Republicans won’t re-capture the Senate majority with the Kentucky Republican at the helm. McConnell previously stated in an opinion article for the Wall Street Journal that Trump was responsible for the loss of two Georgia seats and claimed the former president could face civil or criminal prosecution for the Jan. 6 incident.
McConnell, however, isn’t even close to being as popular as Trump. A slew of recent polls among Republican voters show that Trump is by far the most popular figure in the GOP. Another poll went even further, revealing that a significant number of Republicans would consider joining a Trump-led political party.
“If Trump were to split from the GOP and create his own party, polling suggests he might well create the second largest political party in the country, knocking the GOP down to third place,” Dritan Nesho, CEO and chief pollster at HarrisX, told Hill.TV earlier this week.
Trump, meanwhile, announced he would promote Senate candidates who espouse his agenda, which came after McConnell earlier this month threatened that he wouldn’t support pro-Trump candidates who he described as “not credible.”
