CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Tim Scott

Interview

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TAPPER: In our politics lead, make no mistake.

Tonight's Democratic primary debate is in Florida, but the crucial early state of South Carolina could be the decider for Democrats.

Joining me now is a man who knows a lot about winning in South Carolina, Republican Senator Tim Scott.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): Thank you, Jake. Good to be on your show.

TAPPER: Appreciate it.

So you know the voters well in South Carolina. Right now, former Vice President Joe Biden is leading in polls of South Carolina Democrats. It's still early, though.

SCOTT: It's still -- but he has a huge lead really in many ways.

He's done very well with African-American voters in a way that is inconsistent with what we thought would be the case. So it's exciting to see that African-American voters are not focused on identity politics as much as they are on who they think the best candidate is.

Obviously, I'm not going to be voting in that primary.

TAPPER: Right.

SCOTT: But it is interesting. It's interesting to see the engagement from the constituents that I represent and their involvement looking for the best candidate.

TAPPER: Well, 60 percent of the Democratic base in South Carolina, 60 percent is African-American.

SCOTT: Yes.

TAPPER: Are you surprised that your colleagues Kamala Harris and Cory Booker aren't -- and it's early.

SCOTT: Yes.

TAPPER: I want to emphasize it's early. Are you surprised they're not doing better in polling yet?

SCOTT: I am.

I mean, I thought, honestly, with the -- you look at the 60 percent of the African-Americans that make up the Democrat primary, African- American women make up the majority of the African-Americans. Therefore, you would think that, by default, Kamala would have a pretty strong advantage, and Cory would be right behind.

But what's happening right now is a bit surprising that candidates who are running very hard and very strong are folks who are actually white males in the Democratic primary.

And so in South Carolina, that's no different. The facts are very clear that Joe Biden and his reputation, his legacy of service is serving him well with African-American voters. Hence, his lead is a double-digit lead.

TAPPER: It is interesting, especially for a party as diverse as the Democratic Party.

Now, speaking of diversity, you launched a new initiative called Empower -- the Empower America Project...

SCOTT: Yes.

TAPPER: ... which trains and supports diverse conservative candidates to run as Republican candidates.

You're the only African-American Republican senator, and only one of two black Republicans in Congress, period, you and Will Hurd, the House member.

SCOTT: Yes.

TAPPER: The number of Republican women in Congress actually went down.

One of the things I'm told by Republicans off the record is that the party is behind supporting more diverse candidates, whether it's African-Americans, Latinos, women, whatever.

SCOTT: Absolutely. TAPPER: But Republican voters don't necessarily support them in the

Republican primaries.

SCOTT: Well, I don't know about that. I would, of course, disagree with that.

TAPPER: You're an exception, of course.

SCOTT: Well, my first race in Congress, I had to beat the son of Strom Thurmond, and the son namesake of the most popular governor in the last 100 years, Carroll Campbell Jr.. I ran against his son as well.

So the facts are very simple that our candidates on the right can win, even if you are a minority candidate. What you have to do is you actually have to develop a farm team that has spent a lot of time in the communities.

I'm opposed to or think it's more difficult to win by starting out running for the Senate or the House. There are some aberrations out there. And hopefully we will see another one happen this year with the candidate who's running.

But the truth is that building that farm team means planting the seeds in the soil and giving it some time to run. So our hope is that, over the next few cycles, we will have more and more candidates being successful, because we will pick the kind of candidates that already have a strong reputation, a strong legacy of service, and a way for us to help build on their natural gifting.

And if we do that, we will be very successful.

TAPPER: Now, I know President Trump always talks about how black unemployment is at record lows.

SCOTT: Six-point-two.

TAPPER: Latin American...

SCOTT: Four-point-five.

TAPPER: ... unemployment.

But doesn't sometimes the rhetoric that he says, he uses complicate the job that you're trying to do right now?

SCOTT: Well, listen, I wish we had fewer people on Twitter. There's no doubt about that.

But the truth of the matter is that what we can celebrate is the fact that most Americans, I think over 90 percent of Americans, wanting more civil discourse, more civil debate.

I think if we draw the type of diverse candidates to the forum, to the conversation, we will have that more civil society and more civil debate, and each candidate will have to be responsible for their own words.

TAPPER: Now, I don't want to -- this is -- I want to be clear here. I'm not blaming these images I'm about to show on President Trump.

But when there are images like this one of the dad and his daughter drowning on the Mexican border, at a time when President Trump is pushing a hard-line immigration position, does that complicate the job that you're doing?

SCOTT: Well, certainly, I think it makes even more important the job that I'm doing.

Having diverse candidates and diverse figures, having that conversation with our friends on the other side about not taking the issue as their political opportunity, but taking the solution as a political opportunity, I think we have greater credibility when we have different voices, diverse faces, having that conversation.

The truth of the matter is that we today passed humanitarian assistance in the Senate. I think it was 84-8. So we have the votes on a bipartisan piece of legislation.

[16:45:00] And it's already meeting resistance in the House, because, sometimes, it appears that folks prefer the issue than they do the solution.

TAPPER: I do want to ask you about the recent rape allegation made against President Trump. Two of your Republican colleagues Senators Mitt Romney and Joni Ernst say the accusation should be looked into. I'm not asking you to make a judgment but do you agree should it be a look into?

SCOTT: Yes. I mean, I think any allegations made that seem to have merit we should take a look at. I have not seen the allegations so I can't comment on it specifically.

TAPPER: You haven't seen the allegation on the --

SCOTT: I've seen it but I haven't read into the stories because the fact patterns are really important in making a decision on whether or not there should be a legal or criminal investigation into allegations.

TAPPER: Sen. Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, it's always a pleasure to see you.

SCOTT: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.

SCOTT: I look forward to coming back.

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