The Senate was in session yesterday, although Senator Rick Scott missed some of the proceedings at the Capitol. It wasn’t due to illness or family matter, but rather, the Florida Republican decided to attend donald trumpin criminal trial In New York City.
Scott was not a witness or party to the case in any way. Instead, he apparently wanted to show his support for the former president – he reportedly drove with Trump from Trump Tower yesterday morning – partly by being present, sitting in the front row of the courtroom, and partly by holding a press conference. from the court where he sold pro-Trump talking points to reporters.
In fact, the Republican senator had a lot to say. Scott condemned the accusation as “despicable.” His rhetorical aim was Daughter of judge Juan Merchan. He complained the order of silence. The senator even argued, “If they can go after the former president, they can go after you,” which is true: If prosecutors have proof that you falsified business records after making secret payments to a porn star, you should probably expect to be indicted too.
But that wasn’t the interesting part. Instead, it was Scott’s claims about his own victimization that stood out to me. Rolling Stone reported:
“I’m full,” Scott told reporters. “I watched what happened to me and my company.”
Scott: I’m done. I watched what happened to me and my company. I have talked to business people over the years and about what happens to them when there is political persecution. pic.twitter.com/hMJ04gp13L
-Acyn (@Acyn) May 9, 2024
As part of the same Q&A, Scott stated that he was an opponent of the Clinton administration’s health care reform initiative in the early 1990s, adding: “After it was defeated, [Hillary Clinton] I used the Department of Justice to persecute me and my company.”
The Republican senator apparently made the same statement on Fox News a few hours earlier, claiming that his Medicare scandal was the result of a conspiracy because he “fought Hillarycare.”
If Scott, who is running for re-election this year, really wants to reignite this, we can, but it seems like an issue he should want to avoid.
For those who would benefit from a refresher: Before becoming a far-right politician, Scott led a company called Colombia/HCA, which faced a federal Medicare fraud investigation. As the FBI investigation progressed, Scott resigned as CEO, although he faced considerable scrutiny – including an infamous civil deposition in which the Republican asserted his Fifth Amendment rights 75 times.
Scott’s former company ultimately pleaded guilty to 14 crimes and was fined US$1.7 billion. It was, at the time, the largest case of Medicare fraud in American history.
Although the article is no longer online, The Miami Herald reported in 2010 that federal investigators “discovered that Scott participated in business practices at Columbia/HCA that were later found to be illegal – specifically, that Scott and other executives offered financial incentives to doctors in exchange for patient referrals, in violation of federal law, according to with lawsuits filed by the Department of Justice against the company in 2001.”
As the Rolling Stone report added, the Florida Republican even often expressed a degree of contrition on the issue, telling voters in 2010: “I’ve made mistakes in my life. And the mistakes were certainly done in Columbia/HCA.”
That was 14 years ago. Now, of course, Scott has taken on an entirely new position: He was the victim of a secret Justice Department conspiracy orchestrated by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.
Even by contemporary Republican Party standards, this is terribly strange, although the Republican incumbent is generally seen as likely to win re-election anyway.
This article was originally published in MSNBC.com
