Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina on Sunday avoided questions about former President Donald Trump’s false claims that he feared for his life during an FBI raid on his Florida home last year, and who hopes to join the former president in November’s presidential election.
Last week, Trump said that “the FBI was ready and waiting to get rid of me” after FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago estate for missing classified documents — a comment that drew swift backlash from the Justice Department and criticism from Democrats.
Scott did not mention the term Sunday when questioned by CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” who noted that President Biden faced a similar search for classified documents.
“I saw the video of the FBI SWAT team raiding Mar-a-Lago, and I’ve never seen the same video of them raiding Joe Biden’s garage, so I’d love to compare,” Scott said. “But more importantly, again, we’re reinforcing this two-tiered justice system, where a different standard is applied to Republicans, and a different standard is applied to Donald Trump in particular.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland called Trump’s comments last week “extremely dangerous,” adding that Trump was simply stating the FBI’s standard policy on investigations.
Bash pointed to comments made by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who called the raid an “assassination attempt,” and pressed Scott for a response. Scott again evaded the question.
“When you look at how the justice system has treated Joe Biden, who has been deemed too frankly elderly and with declining memory to stand before a jury of his peers, this is not the simple and fair justice system that Americans expect,” Scott said.
“So it’s very difficult to see this justice system functioning in the way that it is right now. [unfair] “The brazen way Joe Biden and his family have been treated and isolated shows that we need fairness from both Donald Trump and the Republican Party,” he continued. “We all want fairness without question, especially when Lady Justice has to wear the blinders. But Dana, I don’t see that happening.”
President Trump’s Republican Party often argues that the Justice Department is giving special treatment to Democrats, but two Democrats, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Mich.) and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), are facing federal indictments.
Scott is considered a finalist for Trump’s running mate. A former rival of Trump’s in the primary, he has become one of Trump’s most staunch supporters in the media, appearing almost weekly on Sunday shows to defend the president.
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