Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said Thursday that he sees Mitch McConnell’s decision to pull him off the Senate Commerce Committee as retribution for challenging the Kentucky senator’s position as leader of the GOP conference.
“He completely opposed me putting out a plan,” Scott said to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, referencing his “Rescue America” platform announced last year that would have subjected all federally elected officials to a 12-year term limit, closed the Department of Education and created a slew of other initiatives. “I believe that everybody up here – this is not a Republican-Democrat issue – we all ought to be putting out our ideas and fight over ideas up here.”
McConnell defeated Scott in a secret-ballot leadership election in November following the midterm elections.
“He didn’t like that I opposed him because I believe we have to have ideas – fight over ideas. And so, he took Mike Lee and I off the committee,” the former Florida governor said on “CNN This Morning.”
McConnell released a list Wednesday of Senate Republicans’ assignments. While Scott was removed from the Commerce committee, he serves on four other Senate panels. He said he plans to keep doing his job although he doesn’t think McConnell’s decision “made any sense.”
“I don’t know why,” Scott told CNN.
The pair have had a long-simmering conflict – over messaging, outlook and how to spend resources – that boiled over after Senate Republicans failed to win back the majority in the midterms.
Scott announced his decision to challenge McConnell for the Senate GOP leader post just weeks after the midterm elections, saying he was “not satisfied with the status quo and so I think we ought to have an option.”
“Some feel pressured to vote for bills that are either against their core…
Read the full article here
