Reporter Recalls Asking Tim Scott If He’s a Virgin as Senator Announces 2024 Bid
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
It’s interesting which details and interviews re-emerge about a presidential candidate as they announce their run for office.
Washington Post reporter Ben Terris remains in the process of writing his soon-to-be released book The Big Break: The Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying to Win in Washington While America Loses Its Mind. The book is described on Amazon as a profile on Washington power players who have tried to navigate the raucousness and political upheaval DC has seen in the last several years.
The book features an anecdote about Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), who has now entered the 2024 Republican primary with campaign message based upon his religious convictions and an optimistic outlook for America. Since this all makes Scott’s input that much more interesting for the book, Terris promoted it by recalling details from an interview with Scott where he asked him if he was still a virgin.
“I’m not talking about my sex life with Ben Terris,” Scott reportedly said before excusing himself to use the restroom. Terris also included an explanation for why he asked the question.
Because Terris admitted it was an “awkward question” to say the least, he added that he scripted himself on how to approach Scott on the subject. That’s what led to Scott’s suggestion that he did not save himself until marriage.
As Terris explained in a Twitter exchange with Washington Monthly’s Bill Scher, the interview took place during a 2012 profile where Scott hinted to Terris that he was no longer a virgin.
The 11-year-old profile noted Scott’s opposition to pre-marital sex and his claims from early in his political career that he never had sexual contact with a woman before. Scott was asked if his vow of abstinence until marriage had survived his political career, and he admitted that it did not.
“The Bible’s right. You’re better off to wait. I just wish we all had more patience,” Scott said. He did not condone his own behavior, however, since he added “At the end of the day, the Bible is very clear: abstinence until marriage. Not to do so is a sin.”
Correction: A previous version of this post misrepresented when Ben Terris asked Scott about being a virgin. The earlier version represented that Terris’s question to Scott was new, but the author was, in fact, referencing the exchange he had with the South Carolina Senator back in 2012. This post has been updated. We regret the error.
