MAGA Sen. Rick Scott resorted to a contorted response after CNN anchor Jake Tapper cornered him on President Donald Trump’s broken promises about foreign wars.
Tapper wasted no time putting Scott on the defensive during his Saturday afternoon show over how Trump’s unauthorized strikes against Iran could alienate MAGA voters who believed in the president’s pledge to end U.S. entanglements abroad.
“What would you say to a member of the MAGA coalition who comes to you and says, ‘Senator, this is not what I voted for. President Trump said he was going to end regime change wars. He was going to end military entanglements abroad. And this is the exact opposite of what he said he was going to do?’” Tapper asked the Florida Republican.
“Well, what this president wants to do is he want—he doesn’t want forever wars,” Scott, 73, began, sidestepping Tapper’s question. “He’s against forever wars. If you look at what he’s trying to do, he’s trying to make the world a safer place.”
Scott proceeded to counterproductively rattle off two of Trump’s foreign interventions that have caused major rifts in the MAGA camp—the airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities in June and the deposing of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last month—to argue that Trump is “making the world a better place.”
“So if you look at this, Trump, he wants peace,” said Scott, who served in the Navy.
The senator also defended Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran without authorization from Congress, claiming that the president “didn’t have any option” other than to carry out Saturday’s attack because Iran was threatening Israel and American troops with missiles.
But Democrats and some Republicans have branded Trump’s strikes as illegal and a blatant violation of the Constitution and international law.
Tapper, 56, noted that the self-proclaimed “peace president” remarked after the strikes that there may be American casualties because “that often happens in war.”
“Don’t you think that if there is the potential loss of American life, that Congress should at least exercise and have some skin in the game to authorize the president to do what he’s doing?” Tapper asked.
Scott claimed that Congress would be briefed on strikes and said, “The president has the right, and I’m glad he took the right, to use military action.”
The senator, whose estimated net worth is $549 million, according to NewsNation, said he would oppose Democrats’ push for a war powers vote, which would restrict Trump’s ability to carry out further attacks in Iran.
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