Tim Scott Had Saddest Moment Of GOP Debate — Followed By WTF Moment On Slavery Education

Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) had two of the saddest moments of the second GOP debate, one of which had to do with a head-scratching assertion about slavery education.

Seven qualifying candidates took the stage Wednesday night for the second GOP debate, this time airing on Fox Business Network and once again proceeding without the Republican frontrunner, ex-President Donald Trump.

There were a LOT of sad moments — as well as disgusting moments like Chris Christie attacking First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and cringey moments like Mike Pence trying to get in on that hilarious action with the worst callback in history.

But two of the saddest were sandwiched in between the Christie/Pence Stick-Up-The-Ass Vaudeville routine.

The first was Scott muttering offscreen to the moderators, “Are you guys having trouble seeing me?”

It was made all the sadder when, seconds later, he managed to grab some screen time — and utterly shamed himself.

Scott made his plea for attention as the moderators were asking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis about his defense of a new Black History curriculum that includes teaching the “personal benefit” of skills learned under slavery.

DeSantis has been consistently defending the newly-approved Florida curriculum on Black history — which includes teaching that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit”  — and even offered the example of a hypothetical person “parlaying” their enslavement into a blacksmithing career “later in life.”

That defense morphed into flatly lying about it, claiming the standard says the skills were learned and used “in spite of” slavery.

Through it all, Scott has been calling DeSantis out, to his mild credit. Mild because it’s such an obvious truth that every Black Republican of any prominence had to call it out as well. Former congressman and Republican candidate for president Will Hurd told CNN, “Slavery was not a jobs program!” and ripped Ron DeSantis for defending it, while Trump-friendly Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) also criticized the standard, as did Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX).

Creditable (mildly) because telling the truth in a party that is actively campaigning on racial hostility is a tiny bit brave — but much less brave than leaving that party and fighting its bigotry.

So that’s the fight into which Senator Scott waded — but then inexplicably shoehorned a truly baffling slam on Vice President Kamala Harris:

CALDERON: Governor DeSantis, I have a question for you. Governor DeSantis, I have a question for you. This new black history curriculum says quote, “slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit.”

You have said slaves develop skills in spite of slavery not because of it. But many are still hurt. For descendants of slaves, this is personal. What is your message to them?

DESANTIS: So first of all, that’s a hoax that was perpetrated by Kamala Harris. We are not going to be doing that.

SCOTT: Take the line out! Just take the line out!

DESANTIS: Second of all, that was written by descendants of slaves. These are great black history scholars. So we need to stop playing these games.

Here’s the deal. Our country’s education system is in decline because it’s focused on indoctrination, denying parent rights. Florida represents the revival of American education. We’re ranked number one in the nation in education by US News and World Report.

My wife and I, we have a six, five and three-year-old, this is personal to us. We didn’t just talk about universal school choice, we enacted universal school choice. We didn’t just talk about Parents Bill of Rights, we enacted the Parents Bill of Rights. We eliminated critical race theory and we now have American civics and the Constitution in our schools in a really big way, just like President Reagan asked for in his farewell address back in 1989.

Florida is showing how it’s done. We’re standing with parents and our kids are benefiting.

CALDERON: Senator Scott, you oppose — oppose to this new standards. What is your message for Governor DeSantis?

SCOTT: There is not — there is not a redeeming quality in slavery. He and Kamala should have just taken the one sentence out. America has suffered because of slavery, but we’ve overcome that. We are the greatest nation on Earth because we faced our demons in the mirror and made a decision. So often we think that all the issues — you talked about crime and education, and healthcare, we always think that those issues go back to slavery.

Here’s the challenge though. Black families survived slavery. We survived poll taxes and literacy tests. We survived discrimination being woven into the laws of our country. What was hard to survive was Johnson’s Great Society where they decided to put money where they decided to take the black father out of the household to get a check in the mail. And you can now measure that in unemployment, in crime, in devastation. If you want to restore hope, you’ve got to restore the family, restored capitalism and put Americans back at work together as one American family.

Our nation continues to go in the right direction. It’s why I can say I have been discriminated against. But America is not a racist country. Never ever doubt who we are. We are the greatest country on God’s green earth. And frankly, the city on the hill needs a brand-new leader. And I’m asking for your vote.

Fact check: VP Kamala Harris had nothing to do with including a line about the benefits of enslavement in Florida’s guidelines and has no authority to remove it.

WTF?

Watch above via Fox Business Network.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.