EXCLUSIVE – Senator Rick Scott predicts that Democrats – who are just days away from controlling the Senate, the House and the White House – will exaggerate over the next two years, giving the Republican senator from Florida a “great opportunity” as he works to win back the Party Republican Majority in the Senate in the mid-term elections of 2022.
And Scott – speaking to Fox News hours before his first full day as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the reelection arm of Senate Republicans – has not ruled out a role for President Trump in helping Senate Republicans resume the majority in the intermediate exams.
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Scott was interviewed as a Democratic congressman and even some Republicans pushed for the immediate removal of the president from office – whether by resignation, impeachment or the use of the 25th Amendment, after Trump on Wednesday encouraged thousands of supporters at a rally near the White House marching on Capitol Hill to protest Congress’s certification of the election of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College. The incitement helped trigger the attack on the Capitol, which left five people, including a Capitol police officer, dead. The invasion of the Capitol forced the building to close, and the House and Senate were suspended for six hours until the building was cleared of intruders.
(AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana)”/> Supporters of President Trump climb the western wall of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, in Washington.
(AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana)
“I think what happened last week was bad for our country. It was horrible,” emphasized Scott.
Asked if he could imagine any role for the future ex-president in helping the Republican Party’s effort to retake the Senate majority in 2022, Scott said: “There will probably be places where he can be useful, and there are places where he will not be useful. It depends on him. He got 74 million votes. He continues to have support. He had a record online fundraiser. “
But in the wake of the attack on Capitol, the NRSC president – recognizing Trump’s diminished influence over a party he reformed and ruled for four years – noted that “I know there will be some people who will disagree with this. My job is to try to navigate through all of that. “
While lamenting the attack on the Capitol, Scott does not see this weighing on the GOP in the 2022 intermediate races.
“In 22, what people will focus on is what is good for the family,” he predicted. “My job is to explain to them that what Democrats want to do is not as good for their family as what Republicans want to do. I think that’s what will matter.”
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The Capitol insurrection came hours after Democrats won two Senate run-off elections in Georgia, regaining a majority in the House for the first time in six years.
Senator Rick Scott, R-Florida, speaks during a campaign rally for Republican candidates for Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue on Friday, November 13, 2020 in Cumming, Georgia. (AP Photo / Brynn Anderson)
Scott, a two-term former Florida governor who won the Senate election in 2018, sees a silver lining in the Republican Senate’s two defeats in Georgia.
“I would prefer to win these two seats in Georgia, but I think we will see a clear choice,” said the senator. “In the next two years, Democrats will try to do a lot of things that the public doesn’t want. They don’t want to pack the Supreme Court. They don’t want higher taxes and more regulation. They don’t want the police to be defused. I think Democrats now have the ability to do a few things. I think it will help to define them and I think it will help us to have a great victory in 2022. “
As they did in 2020, Senate Republicans will once again face a challenging map in two years.
The Senate will be split 50-50 between the two parties, but Democrats will have a very small majority, due to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaker vote. Thirty-four seats in the Senate will be contested in 2022, with Republicans defending 20 of those seats.
The difficult map is not the only obstacle that Republicans face. They are also advocating for vacancies in two crucial battlefield states due to retirements. Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Richard Burr of North Carolina are not running for re-election.
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There is also a possible headache in Iowa, where 87-year-old Republican Senator Chuck Grassley has been silent so far about whether he will run for an eighth six-year term in the Senate. In Wisconsin, Republican Senator Ron Johnson did not say whether he would run for a third term. And in Florida, Senator Marco Rubio is expected to run for a third term, but he has not publicly pledged to run for re-election.
“I have talked to all of them. I am optimistic that everyone will run,” said Scott. “I have a good working relationship with all of them.”
But Scott is not just playing defense.
He pointed to possible pickup opportunities in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire.
In Arizona, Republicans will target Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, who is serving the last two years of the late Senator John McCain’s term after narrowly winning the November special election. It’s a similar story in Georgia, where Democrat Raphael Warnock will run for re-election in 2022, after overcoming nominated Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler last week to serve the final two years of former Senator Johnny Isakson’s term.
Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in her first term is running for re-election in Nevada, which remains a decisive state. Biden narrowly defeated Trump in Nevada in the presidential election after Trump was slightly defeated in the state four years ago by Hillary Clinton. And Republicans also see New Hampshire’s first-term senator Maggie Hassan – who won her election in 2016 by a very slim margin – as potentially vulnerable, especially if popular Republican governor Chris Sununu decides to run for the Senate in 2022.
Scott said he is already looking for recruits.
“I’ve been reaching out to people across the country and I’ve had conversations across the country,” he noted. “It is my job to recruit good candidates, which I will work hard to do. It is my job to raise the money to ensure that they can win the elections.”
In a video sent to donors, Scott emphasized that “there are two things that I don’t do. I don’t waste money and I don’t lose elections ”.
But the new NRSC president may have some immediate headaches, courtesy of Trump.
Trump is promising to support the primary challenges for Republican lawmakers who are running for re-election in 2022, who last week did not support the president’s unsuccessful attempt to reverse election results. Trump’s target was Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the second Senate Republican and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
If Trump fulfills his rhetoric, that list would also include Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Rob Portman of Ohio.
Scott downplayed Trump’s main challenge threat by pointing to his first governor victory in 2010, when he won the GOP primaries, although his rivals have garnered great support. “I’m sure some support matters, but the reality is how you run. I didn’t win my races because I received support ”, he emphasized.
Although Trump is not on the ballots in 2022, there is speculation that his daughter Ivanka Trump could run for the Senate in Florida – and daughter-in-law Lara Trump is flirting with a Senate nomination in her native North Carolina.
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“I didn’t talk to any of them about running for the Senate,” said Scott.
Although North Carolina is vague, Rubio must run for re-election in Florida. “I will clearly support our leaders,” said Scott.
But he noted that “anyone can run for public office” and added that “historically he was not involved in the primaries”.