Rick Scott: ‘We Need to Listen to the People, Back [Trump’s] Candidacy and Win’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
TAPPER: "After Donald Trump’s overwhelming victory in Florida, the sunshine state’s governor just became the newest trump backer and he wants the rest of his party to fall in line behind trump. Joining me now, Florida governor Rick Scott. Governor, thanks so much for coming."
SCOTT: "Sounds like 2010 in my race. I was not the establishment candidate. I was a businessperson, never having run for office. All the Republican establishment said, oh, get out of the race, we’ve got our candidate already. You’re going to hurt our ability to win. I waited and I listened to the voters. I worked hard. We won. We’ve turned our state around. A million more jobs in five years. Paying down debt. It’s the same thing. Donald Trump is the will of the people. We need to listen to the people, back his candidacy and win in November."
TAPPER: "Governor Scott, let me get your reaction to this meeting among conservative leaders to find anyone but trump. You’re urging the party to fall in line behind him. What are you saying to the Republicans, including your home state senator, Marco Rubio, who think that trump is out there, unlike the way you are, trump is out there appealing to Americans base or instincts and sullying the party’s good name? What’s your response to them? That was not the charge made about you in 2010."
SCOTT: "There’s always going to be something. If you’re not the establishment candidate, they’re going to attack you some ways. I’ll never agree and none of us will ever agree with any candidate out there. But let’s listen to the — I would have always told people listen to the voters and let’s think about where we want to be. In November we want to win so we can turn this economy around, have a person that believes in job growth. We can’t have four more years of Barack Obama. Donald Trump is either going to have the number of delegates that he needs or be very, very, very close. Let’s listen to the will of the people."
TAPPER: "Obviously we’re not going to have four more years of Barack Obama."
SCOTT: "That’s Hillary Clinton."
TAPPER: "I want you to listen to Mr. Trump talking to Chris Cuomo yesterday about the possibility of a contested convention. Take a listen."
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TRUMP: "If we’re 20 votes short or if we’re, you know, 100 short and we’re at 1100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400, because we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically. I think it would be — I think you’d have riots."
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TAPPER: "House Speaker Paul Ryan today said in response, nobody should say such things in my opinion because to even address or hint to violence is unacceptable. What did you make of that comment?"
SCOTT: "I’m not going to agree with how everybody says anything but let’s think about where we are this year. This year people don’t trust party leaders. They don’t trust the establishment right now. They don’t trust our political leaders. So we are going to go to a convention where Donald Trump is going to be — either have the delegates or be very close and then party leaders are going to choose somebody else? I think that would make sure we don’t win in November. We’ve got to win in November. We’ve got to have a president that’s going to win. Our nominee is going to win so we turn this economy around."
TAPPER: "I put out a request on social media for questions that people, that voters would like to ask you. I got a couple. Here’s one from a constituent of yours who wanted to keep his or her name out of it. Quote, 'as a Florida Muslim American Republican who has supported you and many GOP candidates, why haven’t you done more to condemn anti-Muslim statements by candidates you support at a time when anti-Muslim hate crimes in the state of Florida have doubled? Words and statements have consequences,' unquote. Governor, your response?"
SCOTT: "Well, what I’ve tried to do is make our state a state where people are welcome. We had 105 million tourists last year, 365,000 people moved here. We’re at a four and a half year low in our crime rate. I try to make sure everybody that wants to be here feel comfortable living here. This is a wonderful state to live in."
TAPPER: "This is a Republican who supports you or has in the past saying that my not condemning things that Donald Trump has said about Muslims, you are basically being complicit in animosity towards Muslims, including Muslims who live in Florida."
SCOTT: "Jake, people say a whole — candidates say a whole bunch of things that I might disagree with. I’m not going to agree with everybody. But if you listen to what I talk about, I’m trying to make this the state that people want to visit, they want to live here, they can get a job here, their kids can get a great education, they can live in safe communities. No one is going to agree on everything. I’ve tried to make this the state, we have languages spoken here. People are welcome in our state."
TAPPER: "A man named Dustin Moody asked me to ask you what policy of trump’s do you like the most?"
SCOTT: "I think the thing that I like the most about it is he’s got a business background, he understands how to get along with people. He’s very focused on how we grow our economy. If you want to build up our military, you can’t do it without a good economy. In our state we’ve gone from a multi billion dollar deficit to multi billion dollar surplus because we focused on our economy. We have record funding for education. We’re funding the environment. We’re funding all sorts of agencies for people that have needs because we focused on our economy. That’s what Donald Trump will do."
TAPPER: "So no specific policy but just the fact that trump is promising to focus on the economy?"
SCOTT: "That’s part of what you do. You focus on reducing taxes, reducing regulation, streamline the permitting process. One thing about bringing a businessperson in, they know the problems business people have. Often government reduces your ability to bring in jobs and succeed."
TAPPER: "All right. Florida governor Rick Scott from the beautiful state — beautiful sunshine state, thanks so much for taking our questions. We appreciate it."
