Sen. Tim Scott Dodges Tucker Carlson Question on Deportations

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) suggested Friday that if he was elected to the White House, he would allow President Joe Biden’s illegal migrants to get and keep American jobs — but would bar them from getting ballots that decide which politicians keep their jobs.

If “you become president, sworn in January 2025, and you’ve got, let’s say, seven million people who’ve come in in the last four years, what do you do with them?” Tucker Carlson asked at the July 14 Family Leadership Summit in Iowa. “Do you deport them?”

“That’s a very difficult task to deport them all at one time,” Scott dodged, before pivoting, “But here’s what we make sure they never do: You never break the law and become an American citizen by breaking the laws.”

However, most of Biden’s economic migrants can tell judges that they complied with Biden’s interpretation of the border laws when they apply for legal status. They can make that claim because Biden’s deputies are reinterpreting the parole laws and refusing to enforce mandatory detention rules while migrants’ asylum claims are slowly processed.

Tucker pushed back:

Wait a second. The federal government knows where everyone is because everyone has a smartphone and they’re tracking you. So we know [when] anyone is using a fake social security number. Why not just drop them off in Tijuana, bye-bye?”

Scott dodged, again, saying, “I’m going to appoint Tucker Carlson as my bye-bye ambassador, to figure this out. So we’re all working together on this.”

Scott continued dodging Tucker’s deportation question:

What we have today is a president who does not mind our border being insecure, unsafe, and wide open. If I was president, we would shut that down. and we would stop folks. We would put back to place the asylum policy that requires you to request asylum in countries that are contiguous to [your home country] —  which doesn’t include America — and we would also reinstate the Stay in Mexico policy. So we would find a better path forward by just finishing the wall, reinstating policies that work, and stopping that [inflow].

Scott has a record of supporting migration to help employers, even as he also opposes illegal migration.

Scott also downplayed the economic impact of migration on ordinary Americans. Instead, he portrayed migration as a national security threat to the nation, saying “Our southern border is the major national security issue our nation faces — closing our southern border because of the national security risks that it poses is absolutely in America’s best interest, period.”

Scott’s home state of South Carolina is one of the lowest-wage states in the nation, partly because employers can easily hire migrants instead of Americans. “As of Jun 23, the average annual salary in South Carolina is $48,106 … Most salaries in South Carolina range between $34,000 (25th percentile) to $59,607 (75th percentile) annually,” according to Ziprecruiter.com.

Carlson asked Scott about his donors:

There must have been 10 stories this morning about “Tim Scott shooting in the top!” and all comments were super, super complimentary, and all these big Republican donors [saying] “Tim Scott is amazing!” and a lot of support from some of the big money centers in the Republican Party.  Congrats. I mean, every candidate wants that. But it got me thinking — and I’ll ask all the candidates this — what are the big issues on which you disagree with your donors?

Scott dodged and then launched into a stump speech where he quoted the Bible, opposed transgenderism, and described his childhood:

So [the] good news is I’m glad to hear they’re all flocking to me –I wish they would go out and write the check to because we haven’t seen that yet.

I will simply say that the issue that I strongly support is: I believe America can do for anyone what she has done for me.

… We are living at a time when there is this pervasive force — radical left, parts of corporate America — that continues to force this culture of grievance on the American people, and along with a culture of grievance comes a drug of victimhood, the narcotic of despair. Folks actually have figured out that you can make a profit off of conflict. I want to stand in the gap and say the truth of my life disproves the lies of the radical forces that believe that we should be in constant conflict with each other.

America needs. positive, powerful, Biblically-sound leadership to regain the high ground. It’s one of the reasons is one of the reasons why when I became a Christian [on] September 22 of 1983, I started reading the Gospel and understood that I’m a part of a bigger family, that a guy who grew up in a single-parent household mired in poverty, who wanted to know who am I? … I found in Galatians 3:28 that I’m actually adopted a joint heir in the family of God and as part of that family, all things are possible.

And there are forces in this nation that hate objective truth. Here’s an objective truth: Two genders, one truth.

You see, here’s where we have to get to. We have to get to a place where we are willing to understand and appreciate the strong foundation on which we stand and whoever doesn’t like that, count me as a force for the good of his nation, count me as a guy who believes that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you ask or imagine, and if you write a check, and you don’t like that, you can have your money back, because I don’t stand for donors.

I don’t stand for folks who contribute [donations]. I stand because there was a man who walked on this Earth for 33 years, who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. And if I’m going to do my job, my job is — according to Matthew 25:21 — “Well done my good and faithful servant.” That’s the job I have. That’s the place I look for my support. If you play for an audience of one, it doesn’t matter who makes the contributions.

And frankly, I don’t know those donors that you’re talking about who are flocking into my campaign. I’m looking forward to that. I really am. I look forward to it. I’ve heard the stories myself, but what I haven’t seen is the millions and millions that you’re talking about.

I will accept your check too, by the way, thank you very much, Tucker.

Carlson responded:

Can you just name one [case] where the donors would come to you and said,”I really like you, but this is the [disagreement] issue I really care about,” where you said, “I actually disagree with you.”

Scott offered an example:

I’m the leading Republican on the Banking Committee. I think when banks go belly up and leave the bag for the American taxpayer, we should call back the money from those bank executives. I led that legislation to get that done.

“As President United States, I will work for the people,” Scott said.