South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott did not respond directly Sunday to several questions about whether he would accept the results of the 2024 presidential election regardless of who wins.
“Ultimately, the 47th president of the United States will be President Donald Trump,” Scott, a Republican, said the first time he was asked directly whether he would commit to accepting the election results during an interview with NBC News. ‘ “Meet the press.”
Asked again by moderator Kristen Welker to answer: “Yes or no?” to the original question, Scott simply said, “That’s my statement.”
Pressed for a third time to answer the question, Scott said: “I look forward to President Trump being the 47th president – the American people will make the decision.”
Scott ran for president last year, challenging Trump for the Republican nomination. He gave up in November and ended up supporting the former president.
Now, he is widely considered one of Trump’s vice presidential picks.
But after the 2020 presidential election, when Trump questioned the integrity of the election and baselessly alleged that voter fraud occurred in states across the country, Scott offered a different tone.
Ahead of the January 6, 2021 session of Congress to certify the results of the presidential election, Scott he said“The President’s legal team has exercised its right to access the courts by initiating lawsuits in state and federal courts in several states. Some of these lawsuits have even been presided over and ruled on by conservative judges appointed by President Trump. So far, no justice, judge or investigator found evidence indicating that the election results in those states should be overturned.”
He added, “As I read the Constitution, there is no constitutionally viable means for Congress to overturn an election in which the states certified and sent their electors,” and later voted to certify the results of the presidential election.
Even later in the campaign, Scott disagreed with voters who claimed the 2020 election was stolen.
“I don’t believe the election was stolen. I believe the states created a new system, mail-in ballots, that didn’t have signature verification,” Scott said during a June campaign event in Davenport, Iowa.
After questions from an audience member about “cheating” in the election, Scott added, “There was cheating, but was the election stolen? There’s a difference. I think in every election there is cheating.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
