Tuesday night's Democratic Party debate in South Carolina was an "embarrassing performance" that was "patronizing" to African-American voters and left President Donald Trump as its winner, Sen. Tim Scott said Wednesday.
"I thought it was a hot mess," the South Carolina Republican told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "So embarrassing for the Democratic Party. No one on that stage was presidential."
Scott, who is black, also lambasted the all-white slate of candidates for their comments that were "pandering to African Americans."
"What you saw on the stage yesterday was as if there were no white folks watching seven white candidates talk about black people," said Scott. "Listen to Amy Klobuchar's praising of the First Step Act (passed by Trump) and then watch how they denigrated each other," said Scott. "(Tom) Steyer owned personal prisons, private prisons. They talked about (Joe) Biden passing the 1990s crime bill. They talked about (Mike) Bloomberg. They bombed Bloomberg on the stop and frisk policies."
The candidates also "talked about African-American homeownership, up under President Trump," said Scott. "It was a really good night for Republicans...and a pathetic performance from my perspective."
He added that African-American voters don't want to hear about reparations, or difficulty in getting loans, or many of the Democrats' other talking points.
"The rearview mirror is so small and the windshield is so big on the car," said Scott. "We want to focus on the future. I did a panel this month for Black History Month and on the left and the right of the panel they all said we need to focus on the future, economic future of this nation...the issues that we care about as African-Americans are the same issues that every other American cares about."
He predicted Biden will win the Democrats' primary with about 26% of the voters, following Sanders at 20% to 23%.
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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