“It’ll take a miracle for Trump superfan Rick Scott to convince Floridians he’s turned from Trump. Good luck!” said American Bridge spokesperson Amelia Penniman.
MSNBC: Rick Scott Runs From Trump
“Heck, we’ve even seen Rick Scott, who’s running for Senate in Florida, not be as cozy with the president as he has for months and years before this. And I’m sure he has an eye on this trend.” [MSNBC, 9/11/18]
Watch the full clip here.
Politico: Rick Scott plays ‘keep away from Trump’
By Marc Caputo | September 10, 2018
- “Florida Republican Rick Scott is as close as any governor with Donald Trump. Yet it’s former President George W. Bush, no friend to Trump, who will join Scott at two fundraisers for a super PAC backing Scott’s Senate campaign Friday. It’s the latest instance of the Florida governor visibly tying his political fortunes to a prominent Republican other than the current president.”
- “Scott — who was frequently by Trump’s side at the White House and at his resorts in Palm Beach and Bedminster, New Jersey, in 2017 — began putting more distance between himself and the unpopular president this year as he geared up for a Senate run that Trump himself had repeatedly urged him to make.”
- “Scott also chaired the super PAC backing Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.”
- “Now Scott seldom mentions the president and won’t commit to having an event with him specifically. ‘I want everybody that believes in what I’m going to do to come help me win,’ Scott told a Tampa Bay Times reporter last week when asked if he would like having Trump campaign for him.”
- “In contrast to his closeness to Trump in 2017, Scott’s distance from the president this year as the midterm election comes into focus provides a glimpse into Trump’s standing in the nation’s largest swing state, which he won by just 1.2 percentage points.”
- “Another Republican familiar with the political operations of both Trump and Scott said it’s a ‘keep-away-from-Trump strategy. But Scott doesn’t want to be in-your-face about it. And you never know: He could announce a fundraiser tomorrow.’”
Read the full article here.
Orlando Sentinel: Rick Scott keeps Donald Trump at arm’s length despite early support. Can he keep it up?
By Steven Lemongello | September 10, 2018
- “In January 2016, as Floridians Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio sparred for the GOP presidential nomination, Gov. Rick Scott sang the praises of another candidate – Donald Trump.”
- “‘Donald Trump has America’s pulse,’ read the headline in Scott’s USA Today op-ed.”
- “A year and a half into the Trump administration and months into his run for U.S. Senate, Scott laid out his ideals and plans before crowds of supportive Republicans at an Orlando GOP unity rally and a luncheon with Vice President Mike Pence. Not mentioned in his speech? Donald Trump.”
- “Despite being one of Trump’s earliest supporters…Scott has so far been campaigning from the middle against moderate Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.”
- “Scott did not attend a Trump rally for DeSantis in Tampa last month and so far has avoided questions about Trump’s tariffs and whether he wants the president to campaign with him. White House officials did not include Florida on the list of states where they expect the president to campaign before the November election.”
- “I believe that thousands of people died in Puerto Rico [after Maria], and the major responsibility was President Trump’s inability to manage FEMA,” Torres Velez said. “And we get the usual silence from Rick Scott [about that]. It’s not going to work this time.”
- “Meanwhile, at least one GOP voter at the unity rally noticed Scott’s positioning.‘Rick Scott, yeah, he has distanced himself,’ said Rick Sarmiento of Mount Dora. ‘I don’t know exactly what’s going on.’”
Read the full article here.
Published: Sep 11, 2018