One of the most prominent conservative senators in the Republican Party made his choice on Friday.
Tim Scott, who some thought may endorse Nikki Haley since they are both from South Carolina, went to New Hampshire and announced that he’s backing former President Donald Trump for the 2024 nomination.
We need a president who will close our southern border.
We need a president today who will stop the crime in the streets.
We need Donald Trump!
That is why I am officially endorsing Donald J. Trump for President of the United States.
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) January 20, 2024
NBC News writes:
“I came to the very warm state of New Hampshire to endorse the next president of these United States — President Donald Trump,” Scott said.
He is the latest in a string of former Republican presidential rivals to support Trump, following Vivek Ramaswamy’s decision Monday to drop out of the 2024 race and back Trump after the Iowa caucuses. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum also recently gave Trump his support.
But Scott, of South Carolina, is a bigger prize ahead of his home state primary on Feb. 24. He endorsed Trump over Haley, who as governor of the state appointed him to his Senate seat in 2012 before Scott then won re-election multiple times in his own right.
“Interesting that Trump’s lining up with all the Washington insiders when he claimed he wanted to drain the swamp,” Haley said earlier Friday in response to Scott’s plans to endorse Trump. “But the fellas are gonna do what the fellas are gonna do.”
Scott was likely one of the bigger names who had not thrown his weight behind one of his former rivals. The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Trump has pursued Mr. Scott’s endorsement since the senator exited the race last year. His endorsement not only lifts Mr. Trump in New Hampshire, which hosts its primary on Tuesday, but also in South Carolina, the home state of one of Mr. Trump’s top remaining Republican rivals, Nikki Haley. The Trump team is hoping to force from the race both Ms. Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida with a decisive win in South Carolina’s primary on Feb. 24, avoiding an expensive fight for delegates that would otherwise extend through March after Super Tuesday.
Mr. Trump has made collecting prominent endorsements a key part of his attempts to project inevitability now that the nomination fight has begun, and for months he has worked behind the scenes to lobby for formal backing. Mr. Scott’s support comes on the heels of two endorsements from Mr. Trump’s former rivals from 2016: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas backed Mr. Trump after he won the Iowa caucuses on Monday and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said he supported Mr. Trump the day before Iowa voted.”
Surveys last fall from Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican firm that has worked with the DeSantis operation, showed Mr. Scott with a 78 percent favorability rating in South Carolina and a 67 percent favorability rating in New Hampshire.”
Some have speculated that Scott may be the perfect running mate for the former president, especially because of his youth.
The South Carolina senator’s pick came at the same rally that startled some Trump supporters because, like his rival, Joe Biden, the former president, 77, seemed to be confused.
The Daily Caller writes that “former President Donald Trump appeared to confuse former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with GOP presidential rival Nikki Haley over claims of “destroyed and deleted” Jan. 6, 2021 evidence Friday at a New Hampshire campaign rally.
Trump incorrectly told an audience in Concord the former U.N. ambassador was in charge of the law enforcement response to the Capitol riot in an apparent moment of confusion.”
“You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know they— do you know they destroyed all of the information and all of the evidence?” Trump told the New Hampshire crowd. “Everything. Deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of, lots of things. Like, Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people.”
The Biden campaign was quick to hit Trump for his strange gaffe.
A deeply confused Trump confuses Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley multiple times: Nikki Haley was in charge on January 6. They don’t want to talk about that pic.twitter.com/f3lhWgAzUw
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) January 20, 2024
This was the second time in just over a week that supporters of Donald Trump have expressed concerns over the president’s health. In Iowa, several reporters pointed out that Trump looked strangely tired and wasn’t campaigning at the same “torrid” pace that he did in 2016 or 2020.
Biden has also had several instances in which he appeared to be a confused old man.
A few weeks ago, after marking what has become a national holiday for liberals–the mobbing of the Capitol on January 6, 2021–the president appeared to need to be led off the stage by First Lady Jill Biden.
Biden's first speech after his 13-day vacation ended just as bizarrely as you'd expect. pic.twitter.com/1sdAeuLPt0
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) January 5, 2024
Voters have expressed multiple times that they have concerns over the age of both frontrunners for the presidency, but neither party has shown the ability to elevate anyone else.
This article originally appeared on New Conservative Post. Used with Permission.
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