A Look Inside Senator Tim Scott’s Voicemail Box

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wherever you listen to podcasts. All right, because the Senator is the greatest booking producer in the history of podcasts. I am joined by Senator Tim Scott. He is really good at what he does, not just in podcast world, but in their all worlds. I am so glad. First of all, Senator Cruz, thank you for bringing Senator Scott on. Senator Scott, you are behind you or the author behind probably the most significant piece of legislation that the Senate

is considering right now. That would be the Justice Act. Yes, listen, I'm excited about the Justice side. I wish our Democrat colleagues were more excited about not the Justice Act only, but about actually serving the community that has been wed to the Democrat Party for generations. And they continue to under deliver while overpromising. Instead of taking eight today, giving them an opportunity to say to the people and the communities across the country, we hear you, we see you,

we are fighting for you. We could have gotten eighty percent delivered today. They gave the community zero. They decided to make an an election year issue, an election in November issue, presidential election issue. And that's just so unfortunate for so many kids living in underserved communities, worried about making it from their house to the school, always having in the back of their consciousness whether or not an interaction well in poorly for them. We could have said

we see you today. I think what would be helpful to podcast listeners and viewers. Is knowing some of your personal story. This this is a faith journey in a life journey for me. Yes, absolutely, And and so you know you grew up, you had you had a pretty tough upbringing. Absolutely. I grew up in a single parent household who mired in poverty. My mother and father got divorced when I was about seven years old. I felt like this nation, my community, had nothing to offer me.

So from seven years old, when you come to that decision at seven, it's a bad thing. You drift, and all drifting leads in their own directions. So by seven, from seven to fourteen, I was completely a draft her. I flunked out of high school. As a freshman, I felt world geography and Civics. Now, Civics is the study of politics, So God has a sense of humor. You can't failing civics in name while arriving in the body

that the most deliberative body in the history. Right. I also realized that after being here seven years, I'm not the only one failing civics in the US. I also felt Spanish in English that year. When you feel Spanish and English two languages, no one considers you bilingual. They all call you by ignorant because you can't speak in any language. But I had two major blessings, a mother who believed that the power of prayer would deliver her child, and a mentor, a white guy who said, you haven't

yet discovered was in you. You're looking around at your circumstances. He said, that's a wrong view. Your vision has to be bigger than the vision you see on the outside. And he said, if you look at the mirror and you start blaming yourself, don't blame your dad because he's not around. Do not blame your mother because she's working sixteen hours three days a week and eight hours two more days a week to put food on the table. He should blame yourself. He said. The beauty of it is,

if you're the problem, the promise is in here. If you see the opportunities from the inside, the obstacles from the inside, the opportunities manifests on the osite. And yet, what do you make of seeing churches now going up in flames. There's a prominent BLM activist on Twitter. He said that people need to smash stained glass windows at churches. That doesn't seem productive to me. Well, it's also the

opposite of productive. I would say that that person. I wonder what Martin Luther King Junior would say that that person. I wonder what John Lewis, who was beaten within an inch of his life and never struck back, what would he say at the Pettis Bridge when he's nearly bleeding out. He would say this because he said it to me. Don't get better, get better, Embrace your nation. Know that

if you continue on your journey, it will happen. We took a five thousand year leap in the last fifty years, mostly because of non violent protesters who believed in America. Frederick Douglas did the exact same thing. Yeah, he said, I'm not fighting against the Constitution. I'm fighting on the constitution. Right. I'm going to make the nation live up to what

it says in the Constitution. You know, last week we had a number of Senators who went to the floor and read doctor Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham jail, which I did last week as well. Him and I both participated. Yes, it's bipartisan Democrats and Republicans, and it's it's so powerful. You know, we've all read it in school. Yeah, but it's different when you hear it, and frankly it's different when you read it out loud, and to read

it on the Senate floor. It is incredibly important, particularly now. And and you know, one of the points people forget is doctor King wasn't just doctor King, he was Reverend King. The letter from the Birmingham Jail was written to my fellow clergyman. It was a call to the church. One of the things he says in that letter is for the church to be a thermostat and not a thermometer. Don't just reflect the bigotry of your community. Change it.

Speak up. It's a call to action. And you look at these riots and vandals and tearing down George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln because you know, Abraham Lincoln was such a Confederate percenta. But you know doctor King and Frederick Douglas, they made explicit appeals to the founding principles of our country. They said, look, we haven't reached it yet. But as doctor King said, the arc of

history bends towards justice. Well, speaking of this justice, I do I do want to get to this on this exact point, Senator, you have an admirer. I guess in the audience this is from Prey who said, other than Republican senators like Cruise and Scott and Cotton, where is the rest of the Senate gop on justice as we have? And the phrase that they used is anarcho communist insurrectionists tearing down our country's culture and history. That must be a fan of Ted, just is Trey Gotti. I'm sure

Trey Gotti fan. Take Trey g I did tell him the call, so I'm glad he called. Yeah, listen, I think our conference is I think we're coming closer and closer to the plate. I think many issues we were almost shy in our response to some of the challenges that we saw in the streets. We just said, and know what to do. One of the things that causes that kind of paralysis is when you think you have to make a choice between law enforcement and communities of color.

That is not the binary choice on the table today. Yeah, the binary choice is for America or against America. In order to have that as the actual choice, we have to say I am for law spent and I'm for community's scholor. No conjunction called or it's and when that happens, I think we all rise up. And I've been thankful to see the conference coming closer and closer, not into the microphone, but to the plate. We had fifty three

Republicans say, let's start debating. I can't imagine that five years ago, because five years ago I can get Democrats to come to the debate. Well. And Tim's point about and is really important protecting civil rights. That doesn't just protect American American citizens. That protects police officers, because police officers to do their jobs, they've got to have the trust of the community. And I've I've heard from so many cops right now who are right now they're demoralized.

I mean, they're they're painted as as as the demon. And I think Tim's Justice Stack was an effort to help help the police. Officers said. I have called every time there has been a shooting in South Carolina where the officer loses his life, I try to make sure that I'm the first person to call the spouse or the parent. Gregor Lea and outside of Columbia, South Carolina lost his life because someone murdered him. The suspect that he was pursuing killed him. Left a eighteen month old,

a little boy, and a beautiful wife, Cassie. I showed up at the wake, the viewing and had a conversation with her and her parents, and they're surprised to see me. I didn't want any cameras around it, don't want anybody there. I just wanted to say, I'm so sorry that someone killed your husband. Several months later, she called my office and she started nonprofit organizations for police officers. I've contributed, We've helped, we stay in touch. She's a blessing to

our community. Here's the point. So many officers lose their lives not because they're making thirty thousand dollars a year and they're getting rich. It's because when you look at Romans thirteen, there's this notion of mission, that there are government officials who can be a ministers of the gospel carrying a sword a weapon for what purpose? For a righteous purpose. Her husband lost his life for a righteous purpose,

and we should celebrate law enforcement. When when I had a major car accident, it was law enforcement that showed up and said to me, son, I was laying on the side of the road, I went through the windshow came back in my car fell asleep on the Interstate twenty six, literally on an interstate, rolling through traffic in my car. I'm laying there with glass in my backside and my back and he looks down at me and said, son, your mom is going to be so happy you're alive.

And I looked at it and say, sir, you don't know my mama. But what he was trying to tell I didn't hear. What he was trying to tell me was that your mother values you right more than this car. Yeah, he was saying to me as he bent down and said, son, you're so much more valuable. Yeah, you have intrinsic worth, far beyond any material possession. He was speaking words of affirmation to who I was, well, speaking of words of affirmation.

I'm glad to hear that you got a nice phone call at your office, because I understand you get many phone calls that are not very nice at your office. You know, I, unfortunately get a lot of phone calls that are not that nice, and unfortunately I have learned to deal with it. But there are not always words of encouragement. You know. This is kind of a this is a safe space. We like to think about it. I mean this is we try to keep this pretty personal. Yes, seriously,

could we listen? Yeah. A quick note for our loyal audience. What you are about to hear are some profane voicemails received by the office of Senator Tim Scott that reflect the ongoing racism by certain individuals in this country, specifically against black conservative Because it's an important part of the context for this episode, we have chosen to play it the uncensored sound. If you do not wish to hear these recordings, you may choose to tune out. Now, Uncle Tim,

you're uncle WILLI you coon? Motherfucker you. I hope you're choking your fucking tongue in late. Bitch, I don't wish sitting good for your motherfucking ass. You are the lowest so shit this country ever produced. You sell out, motherfucker Your mamma no good, your sperm mother. He's even fucking worse, he said, shot to your fucking Mamafaith dot Com catching bitch once again. Thank you. This is from the Sunshine State. Also, Lisa Grammas, your bitch. You fucking him and he fucking you.

You sucking him, He's sucking you. Michael Rubens a little bitch, he turns on people and motherfucker rich sconsin god damn crook. So all you motherfucker's gonna burn in hell together. So take your ticket one way to track the hair, you sucking motherfuckers. Have a great day and enjoy your evening. Bye. This is one imagine being uh, this is the next one. My new staff assistant, just graduated from college, first job, gets to hear this, bitch, if you had a bill,

don't you fucking cut You're probably sucking his date. You're nasty, bitch. You Oh you fucking folk is nasted. I'm gonna keep on calling along that that motherfucker wants to I'm gonna sucking my first bit were right, So fuck you motherfuckers, you pieces of ship to all come buckets. And then later on another one calls to see it's got me in the cross errors. That's pretty explicit threatening language. Absolutely, there's a level of hate that gets directed at Tim

that that frankly is different from other members. Acme, why is that? I think I know the answer, but unfortunately, you know being obviously the racial uh if the racial overtones, the the racial words, the slurs, the challenges are being a black conservative where you were out of sync with the with the he what he thinks is the black cause. It incites the kind of rage and anger that could lead to violent outcomes in a way that very few

things I've seen in my life has ever done. And you know, when you get sixteen to these, you your your your staff, assistance, your your front line folks start wondering what in the world. Two eleven, we literally shut our phones down because the number of racial slurs that we were getting from around the country. Off Calina else.

I started this journey five years ago because of the Walter Scott murder in North Charleston, South Carolina, my hometown where I grew up in Frankly, Walter Scott was running away from the police. He was shot five times, shot out eight times, that shot five times in the bag.

The officer falsified the police report and said that he took his taser when the video came out, which it was a few weeks A few weeks later, literally no one there was not even a conversation about what happened in the incident because we had an incident report, right, had it not been for some guy literally walking by at the exact right moment the exact right street with

his phone out capturing the actual interaction, the engagement. Without that video, we would not have known Walter Scott's name at all. Well, you know, I think the Walter Scott won for a lot of us. Sometimes these are complex situations. Sometimes the officers used to forces justified the Walter Scott one. Everyone looked at that and said, this is outrageous. It's just so clear. Yes, And I know there are some people in this debate who say that we need to

abolish the police. The police are hopelessly corrupted. We got to I don't know, they're the anarchists in Seattle right now. And then there are some people who say the police don't need any kind of reform at all. You do have an interesting perspective here because you're one of the most prominent black politicians in the country and you're the

author of this criminal criminal justice reform bill. Yeah. And one of the reasons why I think I have credit building on the topic is not just because I'm an African American. That's helpful, especially when so many of these incidents are African American men having challenges with law enforcement.

I'm the guy that got stopped seven times as an elected official just driving while bligh stop nine times I believed that year seven times for doing nothing, two times for speeding, so yeah, speeding prigs, but the other seven times for nothing. Eighteen unnecessary stops in the last two decades. I would like to just put a pause there for a moment, because I actually didn't know that. Yes, this is a this is a personal experience of an elected

US senator. Well, this year, this US senator was stopped by police form failing to use my turn signal early enough in the lane change. I didn't know that was the thing. Yeah, I didn't know, but literally pulled over. I got a warning ticket thingfully, but how do you full over it? I called the police chief at another department, and they said, basically, what they're trying to do is get your windows down so that you can see they smell any weed or anything in the air. Get a

look inside your car. He said, this is what we call racial profiling. Tom I said, I should have dawned on me that the reason for the stop was to take a look inside. It just didn't. It didn't occur to me, even though that was my eighteenth stop. The seventeen stop was last year. For having my blinkers on while helping someone find their telephone. And you know this. You can't make this up right up. And so fortunately for me, I've walked away from each one of those unscathed.

I mean I've got some scar tissue emotionally, but none physically, because it's it's a sort of preposterous thing and you can laugh about it, Okay, they pulled you over for the blinker, but this is this is a real harassment that you have personally experienced. One Walter Scott was pulled over for a bust at tail light. There's a video at least as a scene. I think it was a last AGAs Divide where the guy was riding his bicycle and it was pulled over. So what we're talking about

is real. But what you said it is so important, and I think that you've focused on it the importance of the body camera. One of the reasons why five years ago I started talking about increasing funding for body cameras by one hundred million dollars per year for five years is because if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video should be worth a thousand pictures, right right, Because we have an opportunity not only to see it, but to watch it unfold. That is really important and

I think that dynamic. Had it just been a picture of the law enforcement officer on George Floyd's neck, yeah, you could debate how long. Yeah, you don't know if he's fighting, if it's a violent situation. Without the video, you don't understand the country, don't, Yes, don't. You don't appreciate it. But eight minutes of forty six seconds left later, no one had a question, and you can hear him gasping for his breath, saying I can't breathe, pleading for

his life. I mean, it makes a real difference. Yes, right, and if we that united our country, this tells me something that's really important. Our country. It is the most remarkable country on earth, all the racial divisions we've had in the last several years. We saw that picture, and because there's something in our instinct that says, that's just wrong. We are a nation built on fairness. We've been we've we've we've always been a nation that was going to progress.

We've been making progress for the entire time. We saw that was a wait a second, that cannot that cannot be. People were shocked stunned, they said that's not actually happening, and once they understood that it was, the entire conversation around police reform became real. I'm afraid that our friends who are playing presidential politics, they're willing to waste the moments hoping for an outcome, so they'd rather I could be wrong. I think they're willing to run campaign on

police brutality, maybe more than solve it. We just saw Senate Democrats filibuster the Justice Act, and they did it. I think it's exactly what Tim said. They want a political issue. They want to set campaign in November, rather than actually make meaningful progress towards addressing the problem doing it responsibly. Look, one of the things Tim did a very good job of also is understanding the objective here is not to tear down cops. It's not to destroy

the police officers are keeping vulnerable community's safe. Well and frankly to as you just alluded to that, there's no doubt in my mind that the people who want character driven law enforcement, though most our communities of color, sure, the people who are saying whin down nine one one, I want someone coming immediately our communities of color, why

not because they're always crime ridden neighborhoods. It's because your grandmother, who may not be able to move out of a bad neighborhood economically, should always be in a good neighborhood. From a social perspective, they want, I want our family members, are loved ones, ourselves to always have a responsive law enforcement department. And so this defund police and this autonomous own concept is anathetical to everything that we believe is dear in the communities of color. You know, one of

the frustrating things. I mean, race, Slavery is our country's original sin. Yes, and race is an issue a lot of people demagogue on a lot of Republicans are uncomfortable talking about it. Away from it too much. We see Democrats this week in the Judiciary Committee, there were several Democrats who said, we haven't moved one inch since the nineteen sixties on race and what utter garbage, rebated enormous strides Jim Crow laws, you had segregated schools. We're making

a journey now, We've still got a long way to go. Yes, But you know, and I think understanding the perspective so many people have of why they feel the justice system isn't treating them fairly. I think that's important. And Tim has spoken up a lot, particularly in the last couple of weeks in the conference, sharing his perspectives. But one

thing that I thought was particularly powerful. People were asking Art, what do we do with the Confederate statues and renaming in all of this controversy, And your answer, which which almost immediately was echoed by just about every Republican senator right, I thought was really powerful. Well, thank you can repeat it for me since I don't remember it. But if yeah, I don't think the country's better off trying to create

the future than reframe the past. Yeah, we spend almost too much time in the rearview mirror and not enough time in the windshow. It's hard not to get into an accident when all your focus is on yesterday. So for us to reframe the past doesn't benefit almost anyone. So if we want to reframe the past, however, put up more statues. Put up a statue not of just Martin Luther King Jr. What about Rosa Parks or our book or two at Washington, Washington, Carbor. There's a lot

of folks that we could celebrate. But tearing something down does not necessarily build you up. Number one? Number two, Why aren't we spending the time on economic mobility? Why are we not spending the time on educational outcomes and the poor zip goes in America? Why are we not spending the time creating financial literacy and frankly literacy to

break the pipeline between education and incarceration. If you want to spend all the money in the world on something, please let it not be on tearing down a statute. Let us spend the dollars and the resources on building the future where every single American says, yes, that's my country. We have just seconds left. But I have to know, yes after that, I have to know, with all these terrible things in the news, and with particularly awful things being directed at you, how do you stay so cheery?

I mean, why do you keep doing it? Why would you sign up for this job? You know? I don't think I signed up for this job. I think I was called into this job. I think when I became a Christian born again believer in nineteen eighty three, the Lord had a plan for my life. Jeremiah one five talks about before you were in your mother's womb, he had a plan for us. I think I was hardwired for public service. Why I don't know, the fact that I find great joy in serving others is something that

I think I'm hard wired to do. And frankly, if you think about Matthew twenty two thirty seven through thirty nine, loving the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. The second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. How better do we do that by making sacrificial offerings of our time, our talent, or our treasure. I was a poor kid, no treasure, time, time, talent, not enough. So I went into the one area where I knew I could make a difference and hopefully make

Mamma proudly. Senator, you mentioned a frustrated preacher. I think maybe a not so frustrated preacher. I think just an honest to God inspiring preacher. I can't beat that. Thank you, Senator, Thank you, Senator. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security Pack, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations,

and candidates across the country in twenty twenty two. Jobs, Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.