Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said Friday that former President Donald Trump’s controversial remark about “Black jobs” during the presidential debate last month was taken “out of context.”
During the debate on June 27 against President Joe Biden, Trump blamed Biden’s open border policy as the cause of inflation.
“His big kill on the Black people is the millions of people that he’s allowed to come in through the border. They’re taking Black jobs now, and it could be 18 — it could be 19 and even 20 million people,” Trump said.
“They’re taking Black jobs and they’re taking Hispanic jobs, and you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re gonna see something that’s going to be the worst in our history,” he added.
The comments baffled people on social media and didn’t sit right with some Black lawmakers, such as Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).
But in an interview with The Root on Friday, Scott attempted to defend the former president.
“I think what he meant to say was the fact that two-thirds of the jobs he created … went to African Americans, Hispanics, and women,” Scott said. “I think we should take a whole look at the picture, and I don’t think that happens.”
He added that when looking at inflammatory comments, “a lot of people close their eyes if it’s a Democrat,” later mentioning a conversation Biden had with “The Breakfast Club’s” Charlamagne Tha God during his 2020 presidential bid where he told voters, “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”
Scott was one of the handful of potential candidates on Trump’s shortlist to be his running mate. The South Carolina senator has previously defended or avoided condemning Trump, such as when the former president made a false allegation that Biden was prepared to kill him during the 2022 raid of his Mar-a-Lago estate.