Today, the Washington Post reported on Senator Rick Scott’s failed leadership at the National Republican Senate Committee and how he is using that position to raise his own political profile ahead of a 2024 presidential run.
Scott hasn’t been subtle about his presidential ambitions. He recently released a “GOP roadmap” for “the Senate GOP if they win back the chamber’s majority.”
Scott’s plan – which all Republicans will have to answer for this cycle, and parts of which many 2022 Republican U.S. Senate candidates have already been echoing on the campaign trail – calls for a tax hike on over half of all Americans and risks sunsetting retirement security programs like Social Security and Medicare (take it from Mitch McConnell), and even the Affordable Care Act and the law’s coverage protection for people with pre-existing conditions.
In addition to releasing this disastrous plan, Scott is aggressively fundraising for himself – so much so that Republican operatives have nicknamed the NRSC the “National Rick Scott Committee.”
By touting an agenda that raises taxes on millions of Americans and positioning himself for a 2024 presidential run, it’s clear that Rick Scott is busy looking out for Number 1 – Rick Scott.
Washington Post: Rick Scott became the Senate GOP’s election general, then went to war
By Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey
4/18/2022
Key Points:
“Florida Sen. Rick Scott has been publicly dressed down by Republican leader Mitch McConnell, privately rebuked by his colleagues and repeatedly accused of running the National Republican Senatorial Committee in a way that benefits his own future over the candidates he was hired to get elected.”
“He has directed a sizable share of his fundraising as NRSC chair to his own accounts, while shifting digital revenue away from Senate campaigns and buying ads promoting himself that look all but identical to spots he does for the national committee.”
- “Scott raised $6.6 million in 2021 for this high-dollar joint fundraising account, the Rick Scott Victory Fund, and diverted about 25 percent of it, or $1.6 million, to accounts that fund his own ambitions, according to federal filings.”
- “Private grumbling about how Scott has turned the NRSC into the ‘National Rick Scott Committee’ has become widespread enough in some Republican circles that other jokes have been added. ‘All this, for four percent in Iowa,’ is the punchline of one.”
- “McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, upbraided Scott publicly days after the plan was released, calling out the parts of it that would raise taxes and impose the five-year sunset on all federal laws. ‘That will not be part of the Republican senate majority agenda,’ he said.”
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Published: Apr 18, 2022 | Last Modified: Apr 21, 2022