Trey Gowdy Goes On a Tear Against Joy Reid for Comments About Tim Scott: Calling Him ‘A Prop or a Token’

Former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy came to the defense of current South Carolina Senator Tim Scott after recent comments from MSNBC’s Joy Reid.

Last week, as Reid was talking about a recent press conference with GOP senators, she showed video of John Thune opposing Democrats’ minimum wage push and made a comment about Scott “standing there to provide the patina of diversity.”

Before interviewing Scott, Gowdy — back for his second week guest-hosting Fox News Primetime — slammed Reid for her comments and said it was “her way of calling Senator Scott a prop or a token.”

“If Joy Reid knew anything about Tim Scott, she would understand full well why he would be participating in a press conference on the minimum wage!” he continued. “Tim Scott was one of three U.S. senators chosen to work on the tax reform legislation because he made himself an expert on the issue, not because he’s Black.”

Gowdy emphatically went through Scott’s record and said, “Tim Scott is at the forefront of issues in Washington because he has earned the right to be there. Through hard work, through learning the issues, through experiencing the issues.”

He went back to Reid and called it “personal and wrong” for her to be making those comments about a sitting senator:

“Tim Scott is too good of a person to respond to the likes of Joy Reid. But I am not. Tim Scott is a United States senator who worked his tail off to be part of nearly every significant policy conversation this country has. He can stand wherever the hell he wants to stand, and any group he wants to stand with. Because he’s earned the right to be there. The fact that you see a Black man as a prop, Joy Reid, says a lot more about you than it does about Tim Scott. I see a United States senator. And if you really were interested in unity or fair treatment or respecting civil discourse, that’s what you would see too.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.