Saying that he will “never back down in defense of the conservative values that make America exceptional,” Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina on Wednesday took a major step towards running for the White House as he launched a presidential exploratory committee.
Showcasing his message of faith, hope, and unity, Scott emphasized in a video that was shared first with Fox News that “this is the fight we must win. And that will take faith. Faith in God, faith in each other, and faith in America.”
The senator recorded his video by Fort Sumter National Monument, the island fort that long protected Charleston, South Carolina, where the first battle in the Civil War was fought. Scott, who grew up in the Charleston area, is launching his presidential exploratory committee on the 162nd anniversary of Civil War’s start.
“On this day, April 12, 1861, in this harbor, the first shots of the Civil War were fired and our country faced the defining moment: Would we truly be one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. America’s soul was put to the test – and we prevailed,” Scott said at the top of the video.
But he lamented that “today, our country is once again being tested. Once again, our divisions run deep and the threat to our future is real.”
And taking aim President Biden and Democrats, the senator argued that “Joe Biden and the radical left have chosen a culture of grievance over greatness. They’re promoting victimhood instead of personal responsibility and they’re indoctrinating our children to believe we live in an evil country.”
Scott, a rising star in the GOP and the only Black Republican in the Senate, charged that Democrats “weaponize race to divide us to hold onto their power,” and highlighted that “when I fought back against their liberal agenda they called me a prop. A token. Because I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control. They know the truth of my life disproves their lies.”
Scott spotlighted his modest upbringing, noting that he “was raised by a single mother in poverty. The spoons in our apartment were plastic, not silver.”
In announcing his exploratory committee, Scott vowed that he’ll “defend the Judeo-Christian foundation our nation is built on, and protect our religious liberty.” And he pledged to “stand up to Communist China, and restore opportunities for hardworking Americans to thrive and prosper” and “fight to give every parent a choice in education so their children have a better chance in life.”
Scott also said he’ll defend the nation’s borders as well as “our neighborhood streets” and emphasized he’ll “protect our most fundamental right -the right to life itself.”
Scott, who cruised to re-election last November to what he has said will be his final six-year term in the Senate, is expected to court evangelical Christian voters, who play an outsized role in GOP politics in Iowa and his home state. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who also appears to be moving toward a 2024 campaign, has long been a champion to social conservatives and is also expected to heavily court evangelicals in Iowa and South Carolina.
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