Florida Senator Rick Scott joined me this AM:

Audio:

05-13hhs-scott

Transcript:

HH: I am joined now by Florida Senator Rick Scott. Good morning, Senator. How are you?

RS: Good morning. Boy, Hugh, you can tell we have a new president. Look at all the problems we have around the world.

HH: Well, I am astonished. I am astonished by the fact that Andrew Yang, who would be mayor of New York, had to walk back his comments in support of Israel. What are your comments on the attack on Israel, Senator Scott, and the Democratic reaction to it?

RS: Well, first off, it’s disgusting. I’ve had a lot of time, I’ve been in Israel quite a bit, and I was right next to the Gaza Strip, and I was in the bomb shelters. They were showing me. Fortunately, there were no missiles when I was down there, but they showed me how the Iron Dome worked. They’ve shown me what their security is for all their citizens, and it’s disgusting what’s going on. We need to stand up for Israel. We need to stop trying to make friends with Iran. They’re not our friends. We need to tell Iran you want to talk to us? You’re going to stop being a state sponsor of terrorism. Stop talking to the Palestinians. They’re not out there to help create peace. All they do is cause havoc. So stand up for Israel. I mean, quit being, Biden’s just this weak president that’s, he wants to be everybody’s friend, which means he’s nobody’s friend.

HH: Now you are the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in this cycle, which means you’re responsible for getting the majority back. I always go over with you Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire and Nevada. Those are the four Democratic major vulnerabilities. But I am curious whether or not the Biden administration initial failure in policy, jobs number very low, inflation very high, they’re trying to throw more fuel on the fire, is that encouraging people to come to you and explore races?

RS: It’s doing two things. One, there’s more people that want to run. Two, there’s more people who want to help make sure we get, we win. We had, I think, 390,000 donations just the first four months of this year to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. And I can tell you our incumbents are raising money. They’re getting out there talking to their citizens, and there’s a lot to talk about. You know, open borders, closed schools, men playing in women’s sports? Look at the inflation numbers. Hugh, this is a Biden inflation. Look at the bust in job growth. I mean, it’s the Biden attack on business. He doesn’t understand you’ve got to help businesses prosper if you want to get more jobs. You don’t go attack them. You don’t go and increase the regulations, make it harder to get a permit, raise their taxes. I mean, that’s not how you get more jobs in this country, and you’re seeing it very quickly. Just like that, you’re seeing unbelievable change in, what, about 100 days. Look at all the problems in this country that Biden has created.

HH: #BidenInflation is extraordinary to have four months into an administration, but he continues to say he wants to spend $4.5 trillion additional dollars. Leader McConnell was at the White House with him yesterday. Have you had a report back from the Leader, yet, as to whether or not he’s serious about doing away with the tax increases or curbing his spending in the face of this inflationary pulse?

RS: No, Biden is in for spending every dime he can get passed. He’s in for raising every tax he can raise. Leader McConnell said look, we are not going back and changing the tax policy from 2017. It worked. We had the best economy in our lifetime right before the COVID hit. Part of it was we reduced taxes. Look, people keep their own, it’s their money. It’s not government’s money. The Democrats act like this is their money. And by the way, when Joe Biden says he’s only going to raise the tax on people making over $400,000 dollars, it’s a lie. He already did it to the Uber drivers and Door Dash drivers. And by the way, when you look at how much money he wants to spend, there’s not enough money with the people that make over $400,000 dollars a year. He’s got to tax all of us a lot. I mean, Hugh, I mean, this, you look at the numbers, it’s going to be thousands of dollars more in taxes for all of us to pay for all of Biden’s agenda. I mean, the Democrats want to give you everything, and then tell you how to lead your life and take all your money. That’s their plan.

HH: Well, talk to us about, then, those four states. Every month, I ask you about Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire, Nevada. Let’s start with Arizona. I had a friend who’s very, very well-connected in Arizona tell me Attorney General Brnovich is looking at the Senate, not governorship. I was surprised by that. Chris Landau is looking at the Senate. There are a lot of people looking at the Senate. What do you know about the Senate seat? And what do you think about Mark Kelly’s vulnerabilities? My Arizona friend said to me the NRSC has got to give us the tools of every vote Mark Kelly takes, because he’s voting against Arizona and in favor of the hard left Democrats.

RS: Well, Mark Kelly works for Chuck Schumer. That’s basically, so if Arizona wants to have, you know, do everything for New York, then they’ve got the right guy. That’s what Mark Kelly’s doing. We already had ads up against Mark Kelly with regard to the border. We have billboards all across the state of Arizona. This is his crisis. He voted three times against more border security. He has done nothing to secure the border. He goes along with everything that Joe Biden’s doing with regard to the border, and it’s not good for Arizona, and people are mad. Number two is we’ve got, he’s very supportive of the Democratic takeover of the election system with HR1 and S1, and so we’ve had ads up against that. So we’ve got so many people that want to run, we’re going to have a great primary. We’re going to get somebody really good out of the primary. And Mark Kelly will be a two-year, he’ll be gone in November of ’22.

HH: Now Senator Scott, the problem in Arizona which has plagued Republicans forever is a late primary. They have the governorship in Doug Ducey, who is a friend of mine. They have majorities in both house and senate. Can they move their primary to the spring so they don’t continue a civil war in the GOP up to the primary day?

RS: You know, they could, you know, I had a late primary. And you know what’s on the other side of it is you get a lot of energy clear up to, in my primary in 2010 was nine weeks before the election. So I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. If they move it, that would be great, but look, we’re going to have a great candidate come out. Arizona is a state that we should win. Mark Kelly doesn’t represent Arizona. He represents New York. So I think we’re going to have a big win there.

HH: How about Georgia? You lost one candidate. Former Congressman Doug Collins bowed out. I don’t know who you’ve got in the wings. Are you happy with the Georgia recruitment situation?

RS: Oh, there’s a lot of people that are talking about running. We’ll see. You know, a lot of people are looking at what’s Herschel Walker going to do. We’ll see what Herschel does. But there’s a lot of people that want to run there. And Warnock, we already have ads up. In Arizona, our ads were in English and Spanish. In Warnock, we’re just doing English ads there against election security. We’ve got billboards up about he’s the one that wanted to get the All-Star game moved out of Georgia. So we have $100 million dollars’ worth of money that would have come into Georgia, and he said no, go someplace else. That’s not very popular. So Warnock is, I mean, he is so far to the left, that’s not where, that’s not where Georgia is. So we’ve got to do, we’ve got to run great campaigns there. We’ve got, we’re going to build grassroots. We’re going to get a great candidate. We’re going to define, constantly define Warnock. We have people every day at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, they’re defining these Democratic in English and Spanish every day. That’s what they do, because we’re going to make sure when people go to the polls in November, ’22, they know exactly what these Democrats are voting for.

HH: I hope you’re calling Governor Chris Sununu every day, Senator Scott, in New Hampshire. Are you talking with him a lot?

RS: I call everybody to try to make sure that I want Chris to run. I want, but look, I hope Chris is going to run. If he doesn’t, there’s other great people up there. We’re going to win. Hassan only won by a thousand votes four years ago. She’s not very popular. Again, she just works for Chuck Schumer. Whatever he says, she votes that way. So she’s a far left liberal. That’s not where New Hampshire is. You can see how popular Chris Sununu is. They’re not clear, they’re not close from a politics standpoint. Hassan and Sununu are not very close, and Sununu is very popular, and Hassan is not. So we’re going to win there. I hope it’s Chris Sununu, but if there’s somebody else, we’re going to get the great candidate and win there.

HH: And where are the reach races? Nevada? New Mexico? Where are you most optimistic now of a reach race?

RS: Well, Nevada, we have every chance to beat Cortez-Masto. We are already running ads against her. She only won by 2% four years ago, and I think this is going to be a wave election. I think this is going to be an anti-Biden agenda election. So I think we have opportunities there. I think we have opportunities in Washington against Murray. So if you look, the country is not where Chuck Schumer is, and all these Democrats are voting, I mean, just whatever Chuck Schumer says, that’s how they vote. So I think we’re going to have great opportunities all around the country.

HH: Now last question, Senator Scott. Elite media has latched onto the Liz Cheney-Elise Stefanik story. And that’s all they’re covering, even though we have a war in Israel and we have inflation and economy. It’s like 90% is devoted to an inside the Beltway, inside the House Republican caucus struggle. How much does that impact the NRSC’s work to get the Senate back, and therefore check the radical nature of, for example, the Biden judicial appointees or future inflationary spending?

RS: You know, the DC and New York media loves to pin GOP against each other. But go out into your state. What are they talking about? They’re talking about their families, their jobs, their schools, their law enforcement, inflation. That’s what they’re talking about. They’re not talking about, you know, they generally don’t know who, they’ll know their senator, they’ll know their House member, but they’re not going to know who’s in leadership in D.C. That’s not what they’re thinking about. They’re thinking about their own family. They’ve got bigger problems than figuring out who is leading the party up in D.C.

HH: Senator Rick Scott, thank you for all of the news about the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Just Google that, National Republican Senatorial Committee, or go to WinRed. Senator Scott, good to talk to you.

End of interview.