Democrats are staking exclusive claim on being "sensitive on the issue of race," but a black Republican senator called that "insincere or at least not authentic."
"There is plenty of blame of race on both sides that we need to be more sensitive on the issue of race in this nation," Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. – conspicuously using President Donald Trump's "both sides" phrase from 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, violence – told ABC News' "This Week."
"But in order for us to make progress, I think it's kind of insincere or at least not authentic to suggest that one side has a bigger problem than the other."
Scott has been at the forefront of the Trump administration's work on racial equality in the United States, using the Charlottesville tragedy to work on "opportunity zones" to lift up minority communities economically. Scott pointed to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's checkered past on race legislation and segregationist-like policy proposals.
"Look at the 1994 Crime Bill that [New Jersey Democratic Sen.] Cory Booker himself said to Joe Biden," Scott told ABC's Jon Karl. "This thing locked up a disproportionate share of African-Americans and then he worked with the president, President Trump to get the First Step Act taken care of.
"So we both are working – both sides of the aisle – should be working for a more harmonious union called the great United States of America."
Karl pressed Scott's police reform bill being promoted by the Trump administration and the Republican Party in contrast to the House Democrats' bill – billed by a liberal, black activist group The Root as more likely to "stop cops from killing black people," Karl noted – is ostensibly using the blocking of federal grant money as a de facto way to "defund the police."
"In order to get the law enforcement agencies to improve their data collection, to improve their training, to improve the de-escalation of situations and the duty to intervene, we use resources from the federal level to compel or coerce local behavior," Scott told Karl, explaining the nuance while rejecting activism to defund police and making American less safe.
"It's the exact same thing the House [bill] does because the U.S. Constitution doesn't allow the federal government to take over local police departments."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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