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Tag: Tim

  • Tim Scott’s Capitol Hill fans question his chances in 2024

    Tim Scott’s Capitol Hill fans question his chances in 2024

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    “Tim Scott is going to have a very appealing story and message,” added the Florida Republican, whose 2016 campaign Scott endorsed. “But again, sometimes the environment determines whether that’s what people are looking for. And who knows where we’re going to be a year from now.”

    Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee, was more pointed in his assessment of Scott: “The Trump lane, the anti-Trump lane, the more-than MAGA, I don’t think he fits in those things.”

    The uncertainty over whether Scott can sell what Romney called “his own vision” sums up his unique place in the potential 2024 field: embodying optimism in a party more prone to elevating partisan fighters and grievance politics. Scott is the unquestionable primary frontrunner among fellow GOP senators who see him harkening back to the Ronald Reagan years — but the party’s base last responded to that tone in significant numbers when Reagan himself was on the ballot.

    Still, Scott’s advisers bet that his hopeful authenticity will be his ticket to the Oval Office. Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate, talks often about his own life story, as well as his faith. But he’s also doing less and less unscripted talking as he edges closer to a White House campaign launch: Scott recently stopped doing hallway interviews with reporters, often a telling sign of a future presidential candidate looking to more tightly control his message.

    While most of his fellow senators expect him to eventually jump in, Scott is keeping his plans close among a small circle of advisers. For now, his colleagues are hesitant to place him in a specific lane — even potential endorsers-in-waiting like Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz).

    Schweikert praised Scott but said he isn’t sure if voters are looking for what the senator would offer: “Is there a constituency that wants someone conservative but that still believes in the country?” the Arizonan asked in an interview.

    Trump’s indictment on charges related to a hush-money payment to a porn actress may yet shake up the GOP primary electorate, carving out space for a less polarizing contender. But for the moment, the Republican electorate is split between two men quite focused on grievance and culture wars: Trump and his chief potential primary rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

    As Romney put it: “There are a number of voters who are tired of all the sturm und drang and the anger and the vituperative comments. On the other hand, the base is still with folks who are adept at those things.”

    Scott would enter the race as a staunch conservative. The right-leaning group Heritage Action currently gives him an 84 percent on its scorecard, higher than the average GOP senator. He also has an “A” rating from Gun Owners of America, a 100 percent rating from National Right to Life and an “A” from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. He’s known as a defense hawk, most recently opposing a measure that cut off approval for the Iraq War. Scott also backed a Ukraine aid package in May.

    While Scott supported bipartisan criminal justice reform, he’s voted against several major bipartisan bills in the past two years, including a $550 billion infrastructure package, a gun safety proposal, same-sex marriage protections and last year’s government funding deal.

    The South Carolina Republican is perhaps best known for his work on opportunity zones, a bipartisan proposal included in Republicans’ 2017 tax cut law that offered tax breaks to wealthy individuals who invest in certain designated areas. The program was originally designed to boost low-income communities; Scott is expected to tout it, if he ends up running for president.

    Although proponents of the program argue it brings an influx of private investment to economically distressed areas, Democrats and academics have dinged opportunity zones as mainly geared to help places that are already gentrifying.

    In addition to opportunity zones, Scott’s a big proponent of expanding charter schools and giving parents public money to allow them to pay for tuition at private schools. He also played a central role in police reform negotiations with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), which fell apart amid disagreements over qualified immunity and other policies. The two have also partnered on anti-lynching legislation, which became law last year, and a law that changed certain sentencing guidelines.

    “We’ve worked to do everything from help expand sickle cell anemia funding to working on funding for [historically black colleges or universities],” Booker said. “Obviously, I’ve had frustrations, but in terms of just productivity he’s one of my more productive partners.”

    Scott is also getting extra visibility of late as as the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee. As Congress scrutinizes the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, Scott hasn’t raced to propose any specific policy response.

    Instead, he has focused on committee oversight efforts and pressing regulators on what went wrong. He’s blamed the bank’s downfall on the Federal Reserve for supervision lapses and the Biden administration for policies that may have contributed to inflation and rate hikes.

    Scott has hosted so-called listening tours in Iowa and South Carolina as he prepares for a potential run, and he’s planning to hold a donor summit in Charleston in April. Even as some Republicans like fellow South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham say that Scott would be a strong vice presidential candidate, his advisers insist that’s not the end goal.

    Should he enter the GOP presidential primary, it would be his toughest race to date. Scott’s closest Senate election was in 2016, when he won by about 24 points. Recent 2024 polls show him at only 1 or 2 percent, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s presidential bid is also a complicating factor. Yet Scott’s also proven a prolific fundraiser, with nearly $22 million cash on hand and strong support from Republican donors like Oracle’s Larry Ellison.

    “I think they all got a slim chance,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who has endorsed Trump. “President Trump and DeSantis are the two guys, they would really have to run into a brick wall for somebody else to nudge them out. Now, anything can happen, but that’s the reason you run.”

    Zachary Warmbrodt, Brian Faler, Michael Stratford and Natalie Allison contributed to this report.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Tim Scott to attend presidential forum alongside Haley

    Tim Scott to attend presidential forum alongside Haley

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    Scott, who has planned a “listening tour” to begin Thursday in Charleston, followed by a multi-day visit to Iowa next week, is building out a staff of potential presidential campaign aides and making calls to donors. But he has so far held off on making his plans explicit or putting a campaign team on the ground in South Carolina, as Haley has. His participation in the “Vision ‘24” forum is one of the surest signs yet that he is, indeed, plotting a White House run.

    Scott would start a presidential run with significant financial resources. His Senate campaign had more cash on hand at the end of 2022 — nearly $21.8 million — than any other federal campaign account. All of that money could roll over into a presidential campaign.

    Scott’s political operation also includes two cash-flush super PACs that started the year with $16 million in the bank. The groups, Opportunity Matters Fund and Opportunity Matters Fund Action, have been funded by a number of Republican megadonors who are fans of Scott, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who has sent $35 million to one of the super PACs over the last two and a half years. The super PACs also have an aligned nonprofit, Opportunity Matters Network, which can raise and spend unlimited money and does not have to disclose its donors.

    Dave Wilson, president of the Palmetto Family Council, noted the high stakes in South Carolina this year, as frontrunners like Trump and, potentially, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may have to contend with two well-liked homegrown Republicans. South Carolina is one of the GOP’s earliest presidential primary states.

    “The fact that this year you have the potential of two South Carolinians in the race completely changes the dynamic,” Wilson said. “We expect people to show up in our state. We expect them to come to our restaurants and go to our meetings and attend our churches and have those handshake conversations that really put people to the test.”

    Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has visited South Carolina nearly 10 times since leaving the White House in January 2021, served as keynote speaker for the Palmetto Family Council’s annual dinner that year.

    In addition to Trump, DeSantis and a handful of other prospective presidential candidates, the group has invited other conservative leaders to fill speaking slots at the North Charleston event. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is also scheduled to speak.

    Both Haley and Scott are also expected to attend a private forum in Austin next week where top GOP donors will hear from a cast of potential presidential candidates who aren’t named Trump.

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    #Tim #Scott #attend #presidential #forum #Haley
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Dems fret policing talks will be tangled with Tim Scott’s presidential hopes

    Dems fret policing talks will be tangled with Tim Scott’s presidential hopes

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    Neither Scott nor any other congressional Republican was invited to what’s seen as the opening act of policing discussions after Nichols’ death last month following a brutal beating by Memphis officers: Thursday’s Black Caucus meeting with President Joe Biden. The all-Democratic invite list went out despite the House’s record-high four Black Republicans in office — a group that could be influential in steering the GOP majority. And there’s no guarantee they’ll agree with Scott, who reiterated Wednesday on Twitter that he’s opposed to Democrats’ Floyd bill but cracked the door to other options.

    A Scott spokesperson pointed to the senator’s tweet when asked whether he would take part in negotiations, and did not respond to follow-up questions about whether Scott’s presidential aspirations affected the talks.

    Underscoring the hot-potato nature of a topic of critical importance to many Black voters, it’s not clear that all four of those Black House Republicans even want a seat at the table on policing legislation.

    “We don’t look at it in terms of, ‘Well, we’re Black members, so we should be leading the talks,’” said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.). “We need to have people who have expertise in law enforcement and what policy ideas up here mean for local agencies — they have to be a part of that conversation. They should, frankly, be leading good chunks of that conversation.”

    In meetings this week as they prepared to sit down with Biden, many Black Caucus members came to the conclusion that the legislative plan would need to be a scaled-back version of the Floyd bill that stalled in the Senate last term. Talks on a compromise had reached an impasse, mostly over changing qualified immunity, a protection that shields officers from being held personally liable for certain actions on the job.

    “The idea that qualified immunity, if y’all aren’t going to give us that going at minimum, let the departments be held accountable. And I do think that that could be something that is conceivable,” said a senior Democratic aide familiar with the conversations who was granted anonymity to describe the group’s position.

    Working with Republicans would be a balancing act. Democrats need to give in to certain demands to see any action at all, but they’re leery of signing off on a bill with little to no teeth that Congress can cite as evidence of progress.

    However, some Democrats are ready to embrace legislation they’ll sell as a temporary fix, optimistic they could earn back a House majority next Congress and pass more robust legislation later.

    Scott’s “view is not as far as mine,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), a former Black Caucus chair. “But if that’s what we have to settle for, and get something else later, that’s what I’m going to do.”

    And Carter, the Louisiana Democrat, said that while he thought the Floyd bill was a “solid one,” being “pliable enough to hear other ideas is smart.” He cited how he departed from other Democrats on how much to reform qualified immunity.

    There’s hope within the Black Caucus that Scott’s coming back to the table would signal a possibility of actually passing a bill that would earn the necessary 60 Senate votes, even if the Republican-controlled House declined to take it up.

    “That doesn’t mean he’s going to pass it, because he will ultimately say, ‘I did my part. The House is not ready.’ But he can show that, look, I can do hard things,” the same senior Democratic aide said.

    But there’s no guarantee negotiators won’t experience a severe case of deja vu. The last round of talks collapsed after both parties were unable to close the gap on a few major sticking points, including changes to qualified immunity and restrictions on the use of force. Negotiators ended up trying to craft a more narrowly focused package before discussions totally fell apart.

    After a nearly two-hour meeting with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, CBC Chair Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) said they and the White House were “in agreement” on plans in three categories: legislation, possible executive action and community-based solutions. He wouldn’t expand on what those agreements looked like.

    “We’re not drawing lines in the sand,” Horsford told reporters. “We understand that it is about the culture of policing and keeping communities safe. All of us should be able to agree that bad policing has no place in any American city or community.”

    Going into the meeting, CBC members planned to push the president to use the bully pulpit to bring the issue back into the forefront of the political arena, specifically using next week’s State of the Union address to zero in on the issue.

    While lawmakers wouldn’t say whether Biden made any commitments, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said that “you’ll certainly hear from the president … in the days ahead.”

    “We are sick and tired of human beings being turned into hashtags. This has got to stop,” he added.

    Biden told lawmakers he wanted to “talk about whatever you want to talk about … how to make progress on police reform of consequence and violence in our community.”

    Still, some Democrats remain optimistic about working with Scott and other Republicans again. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called preliminary talks with Scott a “productive, useful first start.”

    And as Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) observed: “It’s not going to all happen in one fell swoop. But public sentiment shifts pretty quickly sometimes.”



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    #Dems #fret #policing #talks #tangled #Tim #Scotts #presidential #hopes
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Tim Dowling: I found a secret loft in our house. Foolishly, I also told my wife about it …

    Tim Dowling: I found a secret loft in our house. Foolishly, I also told my wife about it …

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    Our house contains a secret mystery room I didn’t even know was there until almost a year after we moved in. One day I was sitting alone in the garden looking up at the little round window near the peak of the back roof, when it occurred to me that I had never seen the view out of that window.

    I went into the house and up the stairs, only to discover that the window didn’t exist from the inside. I made the trip to the garden and back a few times, the final time leading my wife outside by the wrist.

    “What room does that window look out from?” I said, pointing up.

    “Huh,” she said. “I’ve never noticed that window.”

    After a while it became clear – sort of – that the window belonged to a little loft above the oldest one’s bedroom, although there was no access to it: the ceiling of the bedroom below is completely plastered over.

    Sometimes I reflect on what might be up there – some gold bars perhaps, or a colony of protected bats. But I mostly don’t think about it because it gives me the creeps. The mystery of the secret room hadn’t crossed my mind in at least a year, until my wife started making plans.

    “I’m going to have a big cupboard here,” she says, spreading her arms along a section of kitchen wall.

    “There’s already a cupboard there,” I say. “Aren’t we looking right at it?”

    “That’s freestanding,” she says. “I want built-in, and all the way along.”

    “Won’t it block the door?” I say.

    “Halfway then,” she says.

    “Won’t that look weird?” I say.

    “I knew you’d be like this,” she says.

    “I’m just worried it will make the space seem smaller,” I say.

    “We have no storage!” she shouts. “No place to put anything! What do you suggest?”

    “I suggest we throw away half our stuff,” I say.

    “Or we could just throw away all your stuff,” she says.

    “If it prevents this cupboard, I will consider it,” I say.

    A lot of my wife’s improvement proposals are predicated on the fond hope that our children will finally leave home in 2023. This is why the sudden need for extra kitchen storage perplexes me.

    “Seriously,” I say. “When they’re gone we’ll only need, like, a frying pan and two forks. We can share a mug.”

    “You understand nothing,” she says.

    My wife’s plans also include moving us into the oldest one’s former bedroom, which was instantly colonised by the middle one when the oldest one moved out, and will probably be commandeered by the youngest one eventually.

    “But if they both go this year, we should probably be in there,” my wife says. “It’s the biggest room.”

    “It could be even bigger,” I say. “Don’t forget about the mystery room above it.”

    “I hadn’t thought of that,” my wife says. Little lights go on behind her eyes, and I realise I have inadvertently rekindled her lust for additional storage space once more.

    I am sitting in my office shed when I suddenly notice something: our neighbour’s rear extension has an identical round window in the same spot.

    Two days later my wife returns from next door with a load of pictures on her phone, of a dimly lit space filled with junk.

    “She’s got folding stairs going up there, and you can just about stand up in the middle,” she says.

    “Does it have a floor?” I say. My wife stops scrolling through the photos to stare at me.

    “Of course it has a fucking floor,” she says.

    “I mean, did she have to put a floor in, or was there already one?”

    “Oh,” my wife says. “I didn’t ask.”

    “Because we don’t really know what we’ll find until we get up there,” I say, thinking about the possibilities: a mummified cat; a skeleton in an Edwardian wedding dress.

    “She said the folding stairs were expensive, but you shouldn’t skimp.”

    The next day I find myself browsing through high-end folding loft ladders, wondering how much we’re going to end up spending, or how many evil spirits we’re going to unleash, in order to have somewhere to keep our Christmas lights.

    Then I think: this is all your fault, because you saw that little round window, and you couldn’t leave well enough alone.

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    #Tim #Dowling #secret #loft #house #Foolishly #told #wife
    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )