Yesterday, Rick Scott told Tampa business leaders about his latest partisan ploy: “I think this concept of career politicians is one of the reasons why we don’t get change in Washington.”
But tonight and tomorrow, Rick Scott — a career politician himself, a two-term governor and a longtime chair of political action committees — will be fundraising with some of Washington’s longest-serving politicians.
What did Rick Scott say when a Tampa Bay Times reporter pressed him on his obvious hypocrisy? Four times in a row, Rick Scott awkwardly dodges and refuses to answer the question.
“This is exactly the kind of self-serving hypocrisy that Floridians have come to expect from Rick Scott,” said American Bridge spokesperson Joshua Karp. “Scott is literally raising campaign cash from career politicians to run ads condemning career politicians. It doesn’t get swampier than that.”
Watch the cringe-worthy clip yourself here:
Transcript
Steve Contorno: “You mentioned in the meeting that you want to get career politicians out of office, yet you’re fundraising with Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, some of the longest term politicians. How can you say that on one hand and do that on the other?”
Rick Scott: “Well I’m clear I think this concept of career politicians is one of the reasons why we don’t get change in Washington. I think we don’t have term limits as you know in this state in our House and our Senate. Most states don’t have it for Governors. We don’t have it for President. We should have term limits for those, Governors and Presidents. And I really do believe that we’ve got to bring in new ideas, fresh ideas people that they are saying I’ve got a limited time and I’m going to get something done. That’s how I think about this job. I had a certain number of days. Every day I had to get something done.”
Contorno: “How do you take money from career politicians if you want to get rid of them?”
Scott: “My focus has been very clear. I don’t like the concept of career politicians and I believe we ought to have term limits.”
Contorno: “Do you think this should be Senator Rubio’s last term then?”
Scott: “Well look, they’ll, eventually people will figure out exactly how many years. I really believe that we have you know it should be people should be up there for a limited period of time. They’d be very focused on getting something done. I was, you know, I’d probably have something like 12 years for Senators and same sort of time frame for Congressmen and women.”
Contorno: “At the end of this term it will be 12 years for Senator Rubio. Do you think that should be the end for him?”
Scott: “I believe we ought to have term limits.”
Published: Apr 18, 2018