“We need a president who will unite our country,” Sen. Tim Scott (RS.C.) said at a rally Friday, formally endorsing former President Trump as the 2024 Republican presidential candidate.
“We need a president who will unite our country. We need Donald Trump,” Scott told supporters of the former president in Concord, New Hampshire, on the campaign trail.
“We need a president who will protect your Social Security and your mother's Social Security. We need a president who will protect your social security and your mother's social security. We need a president who will stop crime and recklessness on our streets.” We need a president who will restore law and order,” the senator added.
He later quipped, “That's why I came to the very warm state of New Hampshire to support the next president of the United States, President Donald Trump.”
The South Carolina senator paused his bid for the White House in November, but his decision to withdraw from the race has heightened speculation about who he will support.
Scott's endorsement of Trump was expected early Friday and was seen as a jab at the senator's former ally Nikki Haley, another South Carolina Republican and former U.N. ambassador.
Some of Haley's allies, including New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, also dismissed Scott's expected endorsement.
“If it wasn't for Nikki Haley, Tim Scott wouldn't have a job,” Sununu said in a Fox News interview Friday, citing the fact that Scott was appointed to the Senate by Haley in 2012. nodded.
Hogan, meanwhile, said he was not surprised by the support but was “concerned.”
“That's certainly not good news,” he told The Hill's “Daily Debrief” contributor Kevin Cirilli.
The endorsement comes ahead of next week's New Hampshire primary, where Trump leads Haley by just 10.6 percentage points, according to recent polling averages from The Hill/Decision Desk.
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