Sen. Rick Scott: ‘We Have to Condemn the Violence,’ and Then ‘We Have to Make Sure People Feel Comfortable About These Elections’

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Sunday condemned the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband, calling it “disgusting,” and he proposed giving political candidates and politicians campaign money to pay for security.

“This violence is horrible. That’s happened. We had a door knocker in Florida that was attacked. I mean, this stuff has to stop. One thing I did when I took over the NSC a year-and-a-half ago is, I went to the Federal Election Commission to say, could our candidates and our senators use their campaign dollars to pay for security? Because, as you know, House and Senate members don’t have security, most of them, outside of D.C.,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“So, a lot of it, we got to say, let’s have a — we can have a heated conversation about the issues, but this violence has got to stop. This is horrible, and my heart goes out to Paul Pelosi, and I hope he has a full recovery,” Scott said.

When asked whether President Biden is right in saying that you can’t condemn the violence unless you condemn those who argue that the election was stolen, Scott said, “I think what we have to do is, one, we have to condemn the violence, and then we have to do everything we can to get people — make sure people feel comfortable about these elections.

“We have got to do everything we can to get people comfortable that this election in nine days is going to be free and fair, that people’s votes are all going to be counted fairly, they’re not going to be diluted, and so that’s one thing I have tried to do at the NRSC is get people to make sure we’re ready. I tell people, go to the polls, vote,” he said.

“Go to the polls and be poll watchers, so you can see that these elections are going to be fair, and we have got to work on it every cycle and get it better every cycle,” Scott said.

“To be fair, Senator, most of your Republican colleagues, even those in the Trump White House, said that the 2020 election was free and fair, and that has not stopped the conspiracies from flying,” host Dana Bash said.

“So, is it important for people from the top of your party, the former president on down, to tone down the rhetoric about the conspiracies that might instigate somebody who was unhinged, like the man who went into the Pelosi home?” she asked.

Scott said what is important is that “everybody do everything we can to make these elections fair.”

“We have got Hillary Clinton saying the ’24 elections could be stolen. We have got Stacey Abrams saying she didn’t lose. You know, so my job is do everything I can to get people to feel comfortable that these elections are fair and then tell people, get out to vote, go be a poll watcher, and when we have the opportunity, let’s make our election laws safer,” he said.

“Let’s make sure that you have voter I.D., you don’t have ballot harvesting, you have monitored ballot box. That makes people feel more comfortable that the elections are going to be fair,” the senator said.

On the subject of anti-Semitism, Bash asked, “I do want to move on to something that’s happening — happened in your home state of Florida, which is reporting that there were anti-Semitic displays around yesterday’s Florida-Georgia football game in Jacksonville. There are photos on social media of people holding anti-Semitic signs along the highway.

“The message ‘Kanye is right about the Jews’ was apparently projected on the side of the stadium. What’s your reaction?” she asked.

“It makes you mad. I became governor in January in 2011, and we were dealing with this at one of our universities. We have dealt with it — I have had — I have dealt with it as governor, and this anti-Semitism, one, I mean, it’s disgusting. It’s wrong. We have to push back against it, and, I mean, we have got to understand, we are blessed,” Scott said. 

“We live in a country where we need to accept people. We need to do — we can cherish our differences, but let’s accept people and let’s all live in a country that we have got — we have got the best opportunity in the world. So, let’s quit dividing ourselves and quit attacking other people, and just talk about how we make this a better place. So, I — this stuff is disgusting to me. I have never understood it, and it’s disgusting to me,” he said.

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