Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) ripped progressive critics of his Wednesday night rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s speech to Congress.
Scott, who is black, trended on Twitter Wednesday night and Thursday morning under the moniker “Uncle Tim,” a slur suggesting a black man is being overly submissive to white masters. The GOP lawmaker responded to the slur on Fox News on Thursday morning.
“It is stunning in 2021 that those who speak about ending discrimination want to end it by more discrimination,” Scott said.
“Look at the COVID package. The COVID package itself discriminated against white farmers,” he continued. “We had the Pickford settlements in the early 90s so that black farmers would be treated fairly by the federal government, now we are going to reverse that and discriminate against white farmers.”
“Did we not learn the lesson the first time around? I’ll just tell you that it has been an amazing morning with so many good people calling. But the Left, they have doubled down. They are not going to attack my policies, but they are literally attacking the color of my skin. You cannot step out of your lane according to the liberal elite Left,” Scott said.
In one example of the attacks on Scott since his speech, “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin claimed that Scott was picked to deliver the GOP rebuttal to Biden because he is black.
“Why was he chosen to give this rebuttal? He was chosen because he is the only black Republican senator,” she said. “He is that person. He is the person that Republicans want to put out front because of the problem of racism in this country and he knows that. So I was sort of disappointed that he was used in this way and didn’t take that opportunity to address that type of — this type of issue head-on. That was a disappointment to me.”
During his speech, Scott said that “America is not a racist country” and attacked the identity politics of the Left. Scott said, in part:
When America comes together, we’ve made tremendous progress. But powerful forces want to pull us apart. A hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic — and if they looked a certain way, they were inferior.
Today, kids are being taught that the color of their skin defines them again — and if they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor. From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress at all, by doubling down on the divisions we’ve worked so hard to heal.
You know this stuff is wrong. Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country. It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.