Speaking to a gathering of Republican National Committee members and other party dignitaries on Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago private club, former President Donald Trump excoriated Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for allowing the January 6 certification of the 2020 presidential election: “If that were Schumer instead of this dumb son of a bitch Mitch McConnell, they would never allow it to happen. They would have fought it.”
But if you think this means Trump is on the outs with Senate Republicans, consider the following tweet from National Republican Senate Committee chairman Rick Scott of Florida.
This weekend I was proud to recognize President Donald Trump with the inaugural @NRSC Champion for Freedom Award.
President Trump fought for American workers, secured the border, and protected our constitutional rights. https://t.co/4jjy88FRVr pic.twitter.com/A9I2sATdkn
— Rick Scott (@ScottforFlorida) April 12, 2021
Trump was impeached twice, both times with good justification for illegal interference in the constitutional electoral process. He has a heaping list of legal problems that touch on everything from rape to treason. He’s authored an insurrection on the Capitol that risked the life of his own vice-president. And he’s attacking the leader of the Senate Republicans.
Yet, the Senate Republicans have just given him an award for being a champion of freedom and protecting constitutional rights.
On February 13, seven Republican senators voted to convict Trump of “incitement of insurrection.” Less than two months later, they’re presented him with a silver bowl.
I’d like to point out that Rick Scott was the CEO of Columbia/HCA when it committed what was then the largest Medicare fraud in history. In 2000, the company settled with the Justice Department and paid $840 million in criminal fines, civil damages and penalties.
The government settled a second series of similar claims with Columbia/HCA in 2002 for an additional $881 million. The total for the two fines was $1.7 billion.
On Scott’s 2010 campaign website, he admitted to the $1.7 billion fine, though the link is no longer on the site.
I’m still struggling to understand why anyone would vote for Rick Scott. It confused me that he was twice elected the governor of Florida despite being a crook. Then he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018. I also don’t get why McConnell put him in charge of the RNSC. Maybe he can see now why that was a poor decision.