Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., on Tuesday spoke out about former President Donald Trump's latest indictment, saying the nation's legal system is "being weaponized against political opponents."
Scott called such actions "un-American and unacceptable" while promising to restore confidence in the government if he's elected president.
His comments came during a campaign appearance at the Iowa State Fair on Tuesday, where he sat with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for an interview about his campaign against Trump and several other candidates for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, the Washington Examiner reported.
"We need a better system than that and I, frankly, hopefully, will be the president of the United States where we have an opportunity to restore confidence and integrity in all of our Departments of Justice in the country," Scott said while responding to a question from NBC News' Ali Vitali.
Vitali further asked Scott if he's listened to Trump's 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump had told the state official that he wanted to "find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state."
Scott told Vitali that he listened to the call, but said that "we've just drawn different conclusions" about it.
For the most part, Trump's rivals for the nomination haven't commented on his latest indictment.
One candidate, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, spoke out on social media platform X, before the Atlanta grand jury returned the indictment Monday night, and again during a NewsNation town hall Monday.
"These are politicized persecutions through prosecution, and I say this as somebody who's running in some polls third, and some polls, like today's, second," Ramaswamy said. "It would be a lot easier for me if Donald Trump were not in this primary. But that is not how I want to win this election."
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a frequent critic of Trump, said on X after the news that the former president "has disqualified himself from ever holding our nation’s highest office again," but still, he expects voters "will make the ultimate decision on the future of our democracy."