Florida Gov. Rick Scott isn't endorsing anyone yet for the GOP nomination, even Floridians Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, but he said Thursday that he does understand why Donald Trump is winning in the polls as the 2016 primaries approach.
"Whether it's Obamacare, taxes, regulation, the anti-business attitude, we need a big change, and Donald's talking about it," the Republican leader told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
"There's a lot of great candidates I'm not endorsing today, but they need to talk about the frustration of Americans to get this economy going again."
He pointed out that 365,000 people moved to his state last year, and are attracted there because "we have no [state] income tax, and by the way, we're going to cut out, starting next week, cut taxes another billion dollars this year . . . We've added a million jobs in five years because we made dramatic changes in our state."
And like with Scott's state, where "we're going to go after every business in the world to get after Florida, we need a person that's going to do the same thing."
The governor's comments echoed those he made in a Wednesday op-ed piece for
USA Today, where he compared Trump with his own race in 2010, when he won as an outsider candidate
.
He said in the article that he knows Trump personally, but has no plans to endorse a candidate before the state's primary election in March. Scott does have
similarities with Trump, as he is a former businessman who in 2010 spent $70 million of his own money to win the governor's race.
"There is no doubt that Donald is a man who speaks and tweets his mind freely," said Scott. "But I don't think his ability to give the most interesting interviews or speeches is the only thing that has him leading in the polls.
"I think he is capturing the frustration of many Americans after seven years of President [Barack] Obama's very intentional government takeover of the U.S. economy."
The next president, Scott said in the op-ed, will be chosen "because he or she has a believable plan for robust job creation in America. Yes, foreign policy and defense will be front-burner issues in this election, but let's not forget that without a thriving economy, we will never be able to afford the kind of vigorous defenses that our country must have."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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