Is Tim Scott prepared for Presidency?

Senator Tim Scott welcomes us to the interview with a handshake.

By: Renata Muñoz and Sydney Hastings-Wilkins

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Tim Scott’s candidacy is in full force, leading in the polls and campaigning around the clock.

Tim Scott leans over and extends his hand for us to shake. His Italian blue tie sits comfortably under his blazer. He settles into his chair next to his Foreign Policy Advisor, Alex Koehler.

To kick off the interview, Senator Scott has a little trouble telling us about himself.

“Um… I like to, uh, think of myself as a nice person… I try to, to… make friendships with whoever I can… regardless of their ideologies, I believe that everybody deserves an opportunity and I try to promote that in my work… um I don’t really know where you want me to go here.”

With some guidance from us and a reminder about his brothers from Koehler, he tells us about his personal life.

“Um so… my brothers, I do have two brothers, I love them very much. They came up with me and they really helped me through some hard times in the family. I respect them immensely, they have both gone on, one of them is a major in the army and the other one is in the air force, and I am very proud of them.”

While this insight is helpful, Scott neglects to tell us more about these “hard times in the family” or his plans about kids.  

As for his presidency, Scott hopes to focus on opportunity.

“I really have seen all walks of life, and I’ve seen what opportunity… can bring.”

On how he plans to bring opportunity Scott states, “Opportunity zones are… areas of the community that need… specially tailored education programs to meet their demographics and their needs to ensure they can survive and that they can live and prosper in this country.”

Beyond Opportunity Zones, his policy goals are as follows:

-Reducing regulations for big businesses

-Merit Based Immigration System

-Criminal Justice Reform (though he hasn’t been clear on what these reforms look like)

-School choice

But perhaps his strongest stance is making broad national policies.

“The issues that you’re talking about, while they are valid concerns about the differences from state to state, I still believe that they are not larger concerns than the issue of the ‘one size fits all’ policies. I think that states should be able to, with their legislatures, their full legislatures, their full bodies of voting members, and if issues are brought up, if people feel they are being discriminated against then they can talk to their state legislatures, and they will make steps to, in their state supreme courts.”

By choosing to leave controversial policies up to each individual state, Scott is opening the door for discrimination.

Scott does not seem to understand the complexity of discrimination laws and how difficult it is to litigate a law that is discriminatory.

However, Scott does seem to understand the seriousness of abortion laws by hesitating what he’ll say, “On abortion… see I-I need to choose my words carefully here…” and then continues giving a vague explanation that states should decide the right to abortion.

Throughout the interview, Alex Koehler and Anna Fisher-Lopez, Media Strategist for the Scott campaign, jump in to attempt and guide Scott in the right direction.

When asked why his presence is necessary at interviews, especially ones unrelated to foreign policy, Koehler solely claims he is “monitoring what he [Scott] has to say.”  

The Scott Campaign proceeds with great caution, so much that it is often difficult to decipher Scott’s actual policies.  

For this upcoming election, the Scott campaign seems to have chosen a catchy slogan over actual policy goals.