‘You Don’t Reverse Discrimination [With] More Discrimination’: Sen. Tim Scott Says America Needs More Opportunity Not Retaliation

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) talks with Fox News host Trey Gowdy Fox News

DAVID KRAYDEN
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF

June 06, 2021
10:10 PM ET

Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said Sunday that discrimination in America won’t be conquered with “more discrimination.”

“Here’s the one thing you don’t do when you’re confronting your challenges together. You don’t reverse discrimination to have more discrimination to end discrimination,” Scott told Fox News’ “Sunday in America.”

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“You actually work on a plan that expands opportunity,” he said.

The senator said if he was presenting an address to the nation, he would remind Americans that they “are the most compassionate, capable, courageous people on the planet. Sometimes we forget that and the first thing I would do is remind us of who we are.”

Scott said he would also tell his listeners that “America is not a racist country” even though he has been the target of discrimination in his past.

“The thing I would do next, is close with something more optimistic, that the next American century starts here, it starts now and it starts with you and it starts with me,” Scott said, adding that America has endured both a bloody civil war and a persistent pandemic.

“We came out stronger and more resilient because when we stick together there is no place on Earth like home.”

The senator insisted that despite the upheaval of the last year and the division that defines the nation today, “I am very much excited about the American spirit, our ethos, and what’s is next for us. I actually think our best days … are ahead of us.”

Rep. Karen Bass, Sen. Tim Scott and Sen. Cory Booker are leading discussions on a police reform package. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Rev. Al Sharpton claimed that Scott “embarrassed himself” when the senator delivered the official Republican rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress in April. Sharpton said Scott delivered “talking points” and “bowed to the throne of Donald Trump.”

Of late, Scott has been heavily involved in the creation of a bipartisan police reform bill.