Critics are ripping former presidential candidate and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., over his praise-filled exchange with Donald Trump during the former president's Tuesday remarks in New Hampshire, with many emphasizing how "humiliating" Scott's admiring comments to Trump were.
“It was humiliating to watch what Tim Scott did as a sitting senator,” Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader, said during an appearance on "Morning Joe" Wednesday, per The Guardian. "And at one time … he wasn’t even on the script, he interrupted Trump to pay homage.”
In Nashua, New Hampshire, Trump asked Scott if he ever thought opposing candidate Nikki Haley, his last notable foe in the race for the GOP nomination, "actually supported" him.
"And you’re the senator of her state. And [you] endorsed me. You must really hate her," the former president said.
Scott interjected, "I just love you."
“That’s why he’s a great politician,” Trump told the crowd in response.
Sharpton told MSNBC that he believes Trump, whom he predicts will be the Republican nominee, is "demanding people bow to him."
“There are few moments in my life [when] I’ve been more embarrassed than to watch Tim Scott. You know, I know Tim and I are both practicing Christians, but I don’t know if he could pray like that to the other side," the MSNBC political analyst said.
"It’s not a good day in my life to watch [Scott] do that. To think that we fought to see people like him, Black, become high-elected in the south … he has a right to be Republican, he has a right to [endorse] Donald Trump, but to do it in such a way that is so humiliating was troubling," Sharpton added. "Let’s put it that way. I’m going to try to be as nice as I can.”
Scott, who is the only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate and was appointed to the seat by then-Gov. Haley, suspended his bid for the presidency in November and endorsed Trump before New Hampshire's primary.
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Other political commentators offered harsher criticism of the South Carolina lawmaker.
"I hold Tim Scott in contempt, but the depth of self-abasement here is hard to look at," author and Dartmouth professor Jeff Sharlet added. "All the more so for understanding how Trump's supporters see it, a racist innoculation against charges of racism that in turn 'permits' more racism."
“Who’s worse? Trump or his court jester enablers?” Tara Setmayer, a senior advisor of the Lincoln Project and former Republican operative, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hosts also lambasted Scott over his loyalty for Trump, expressing their distaste as they aired a clip of the exchange, according to Mediaite.
“And my God, who is Tim Scott!?” host Joe Scarborough asked rhetorically, the disgust audible in his tone as co-hosts Mika Brzezinksi and Willie Geist groaned. “And who is Tim Scott?!”
“He’s supporting a guy right now who defended Nazis in Charlottesville," Scarborough continued. "He’s defending a guy that supports the replacement theory. He’s defending a guy and supporting a guy — happily, happily. — that's easily the most racist president in our lifetimes.
"It just goes without saying," Scarborough added. "He’s inspired racism across his country. Just — all you have to do is go on social media and see what his supporters are saying.”
Other commentators argued that Trump prompted the exchange in an effort to humiliate his fallen challengers in the GOP race.
“The humiliation is so naked at this point, to ask Tim Scott to go up and directly sort of demean the person who gave him his Senate seat in 2012,” said MSNBC host Alex Wagner on Tuesday evening, per Mediaite.
Host Joy Reid chimed in, highlighting Trump's tendency during his presidency to "force people to ritually praise him or to ritually humiliate him."
"I think that he saw this night as just a night to ritually humiliate people like Tim Scott," Reid continued. "Maybe [Vivek Ramaswamy] had to get up there and grovel. Like literally he just wants to see his former rivals grovel."
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MSNBC's Chris Hayes then criticized the condition Trump put on Ramaswamy's invitation to speak — to do so "in a minute or less."
"Even when he said ‘we’re gonna put one minute on the clock,’ it’s like I’m gonna make sure that you know your place,” Hayes added.
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During a Wednesday appearance on Fox's "The Ingraham Angle," Scott responded to the criticism of his heartfelt exchange with the former president, jokingly saying he loves it and clarifying he was not expecting the reactions.
"I expect the left to lose their minds because Donald Trump did more for minorities than Joe Biden will ever do," he continued before providing a list of what he says are things Trump has done for people of color and claiming liberals have made some of the most "bigoted" statements he has heard.
When host Laura Ingraham if Trump's dig at Nikki Haley was "uncomfortable" for Scott because of his friendship with her, the senator gave Haley brief praise before criticizing her position on Social Security and funding for Ukraine.
“Listen, she served our state well as a conservative governor,” Scott responded. “She has decided to be a moderate Republican presidential candidate.”
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