U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, appointed by former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley to the U.S. Senate in 2012, endorsed former President Donald Trump late Friday in a New Hampshire rally as the Granite State heads to a Tuesday primary.
It was a political slap in the face to Haley, who is Trump’s only real competition in the New Hampshire primary. Scott, who ran for the GOP nomination for months, dropped out of the race in November.
Republican political analyst Chip Felkel of Greenville said he was surprised by Scott’s endorsement.
“Haley handed him a Senate seat, after all,” Felkel said. “If he is angling for VP consideration, I am not sure electorally exactly how that equates but whatever his reasons, it seems unnecessarily disloyal and suggests some bad blood over them [Haley and Scott] competing in the [presidential] race.
“In politics, you make allies, not friends. Allies break treaties,” he said, noting how politicians often do what’s in their interest as priorities change.
So who might be a running mate?
As speculation intensified about whether Trump would pick Scott as his running mate if he won the GOP nomination in 2024, Haley categorically said she wouldn’t take the number two spot on a Republican ticket.
“I don’t want to be anybody’s vice president,” she told voters at a diner in Amherst, N.H., on Friday night, according to media reports.
Trump said recently that he had settled on a running mate, but has not provided details, according to The New York Times. Also accompanying him on the Concord visit was another oft-mentioned possibility, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.
But Trump did suggest Friday night that it wouldn’t be Haley, who he attacked at the Concord rally: “She is not presidential timber. Now, when I say that, that probably means that she’s not going to be chosen as the vice president.”
But also on Friday, Trump appeared to confuse Haley with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, when he erroneously claimed Haley was in charge of security during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol: “We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that.”
Scott whips up the crowd
On Friday, Scott reportedly flew to Florida to catch a jet ride with Trump to the New Hampshire rally in Concord.
After being introduced by the former president, Scott whipped up the crowd.
“Is this Donald Trump country?” Scott shouted at the rally in Concord, N.H. “ I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you,” he said as the crowd roared.
What followed was a series of statements from Scott, the nation’s only Black senator, about why the country needed Trump to return to office – with reasons ranging from Trump being the person who could close the southern border, unite the country, protect Social Security and take on foreign adversaries.
Scott, 58, grew up in North Charleston. He served on Charleston County council from 1995 to 2009, when he took a seat in the S.C. House of Representatives. He won a seat to Congress in 2010 and served until Haley tapped him for the Senate two years later to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
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