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As expected, Senate Democrats stalled Republican Sen. Tim Scott’s police reform bill today, blocking the bill from being advanced to the Senate floor for debate:
Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked Republicans from taking up a bill to overhaul policing, calling the legislation flawed and a nonstarter.
A motion to open debate on the measure, which needed 60 votes, failed 55-45.
Ahead of the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Republicans for what he called a “partisan” and “irrevocably flawed” approach to fixing the problem of police brutality …
Scott was even willing to offer concessions, but Democrats still walked away:
Republicans offered several amendment votes to Dems, but that offer was turned down. Dems wanted a bipartisan base at the start. Tim Scott offered to help Dems filibuster the vote on the back end if they didn't get the votes they sought https://t.co/FbMF6errNK
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) June 24, 2020
Like every other Republican working to try and get meaningful police reforms passed in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, Scott understands that the real reason why Senate Democrats rejected debate on the bill is because they don’t want to give off the appearance of giving Republicans and Trump any sort of legislative victory at a time when Democrats are trying to score all the racially-charged political points they can in a critical election year.
He took to the floor of the U.S. Senate after the vote, and gave a blistering speech giving a detailed background on why Democrats were failing on police reforms and why they were so fearful of Senate Republicans leading the way on the issue.
In the clip below, Scott notes that House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) could get away with saying what she did about “Republicans murdering George Floyd” because black voters are loyal to the Democratic party. But Scott also noted that no matter how loyal black voters were to Democrats, that their “return on investment” would always continue to go down, because once “in (political) monopolies, you start devaluing your customer”:
Tim Scott slams Pelosi for saying Republicans are trying to cover up George Floyd's murder with police reform legislation:
"She knows that she can say that because the Democrats have a monopoly on the black vote." pic.twitter.com/qbk5vsAQUd
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 24, 2020
In the below clip, Scott marveled at how Democrats could completely reject getting “80%” of what they wanted, noting that the reality of it was that Democrats did not want Republicans to be seen as a party that reaches out to all communities, especially in an election year:
👀 Every word of this from @SenatorTimScott, who understands the cynical racket and knows the score: pic.twitter.com/7csHV8PJLF
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 24, 2020
Scott also pointed out that this bill was being rejected by Democrats not because they didn’t like what was being offered, but because of who was offering it:
Sen. Tim Scott: Senate Democrats did not reject “what is being offered” but “who is offering it.”pic.twitter.com/EhGhnpC1FY
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 24, 2020
In this clip, Scott said the stereotyping of Republicans has been just as “toxic and poisonous to the outcomes of the most vulnerable communities” as the stereotyping he’s dealt with his whole life as a black American:
Sen. Tim Scott: with Democrats prioritizing “toxic” and “heinous” politics, we all losehttps://t.co/j8rWTf9nCL pic.twitter.com/0OTX6l5TCG
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 24, 2020
Scott concluded by pointing out that Democratic leaders have for decades run the cities and states where the issues between the black community and police have been most prominent, and that those leaders could have acted time and time again at the local level on various police reforms but did not, leaving it to Congress to lead where they have failed. He also again pointed out the “return on investment” for black Democrats was low when you looked at what the Democratic party has not done for the community.
As he finished his speech, Scott literally did a mic drop:
Tim Scott on Dems blocking his police reform legislation:
"Detroit, Atlanta, Minneapolis, LA, Philly, all these cities could have banned choke holds themselves… All these communities have been run by Democrats for decades… I’m willing to compete for their vote. Are you?" pic.twitter.com/LjOHJuDJVh
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 24, 2020
Watch the full speech below. He absolutely went off:
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