RICK SCOTT

EX-LAWMAKER GETS 3 MONThS for JAN. 6 RIOT

South Carolina Democratic gubernatorial nominee Joe Cunningham is proposing an age limit — 72 — for state politicians.

Republican Sen_ Rick Scott of Florida is criticizing the Texas GOP's new party platform for not being “inclusive” when it described homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice.”.

Angered by the unrelenting toll from gun violence, tens of thousands of people are expected at rallies this weekend in the nation’s capital and around the United States demanding that Congress pass meaningful changes to gun laws.

The mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, are again putting the focus on gun control measures such as waiting periods to buy firearms.

The gunmen in two of the nation’s most recent mass shootings legally bought the semi-automatic rifles they used in their massacres after they turned 18.

NRA-qualified sharpshooter: ‘Let’s start with one simple and bipartisan solution - raise the age to buy a rifle.’ | Opinion

In 2018, Florida banned weapons sales to those under 21, imposed a three-day waiting period and created a “red flag” law. Republicans doubt the same can happen at the federal level.

The longtime Trump adviser says Trump lost so that she can say the race was winnable. Then she echoes the party line on how the election was "rigged."

On this "Face the Nation" broadcast, Sen. Rick Scott and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries join Margaret Brennan.

The following is a transcript of an interview with GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida that aired Sunday, May 22, 2022, on "Face the Nation."

Former United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Senator Rick Scott and more appear on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" this Sunday.

The president says that slowing the rise in prices is his top priority, but he’s not running his administration that way.

The White House keeps doubling down on the false claim that there is brosd support among the GOP to raise middle-class taxes.

Biden and Sen. Scott have been blasting each other to bolster their political positions. This week, the feud turned ugly, as Scott accused Biden of incompetence and the president said Scott "has a problem."

Biden said he could "taste" the country's dissatisfaction, particularly over rising prices, but he sought to channel the anger against the GOP.

President Joe Biden is warning voters unhappy with soaring inflation and his stalled domestic agenda against turning power over to “ultra-MAGA” Republicans in the midterm elections.

In an address from the White House Tuesday, President Biden contrasted his administration's plans to tackle rising costs with what he called Republicans' "ultra-MAGA" plan.

Biden is trying to link the entire GOP with Scott's tax plan, which would increase taxes on the poorest Americans in the name of "skin in the game."

President Biden plans to lash out at Republicans as more bad economic news looms

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) each earn Four Pinocchios for claims they made in recent days about abortion laws.

Top GOP lawmakers emphasized the unprecedented nature of the unauthorized disclosure of the high court's draft ruling on an abortion case instead of the possible impact on women or on the midterms.

The White House has taken an idea proposed by one GOP senator, embraced by no other Republicans, and twisted it into a new policy push to raise taxes on middle-class Americans.

The return of the White House Easter Egg Roll after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic will provide President Biden with a respite from other issues he faces.

With an aggressive fundraising effort and a controversial policy plan, the Florida senator has been upsetting colleagues. He’s okay with that.

McConnell wants his party’s candidates to avoid discussing specific policies. That may make electoral sense, but it can backfire, as his spat with Senator Rick Scott shows.

Mike Gibbons, a leading Republican Senate candidate from Ohio, said at a media event last fall that middle-class Americans don’t pay “any kind of a fair share” of income taxes.

“The top 20% of earners in the United States pay 82% of federal income tax — and, if you do the math, and 45% to 50% don’t pay any income tax, you can see the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share, depending on how you want to define it,” Gibbons said.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott is barely halfway through his first term, but he's already leaning into a fight against his own party’s leadership.

Rick Scott likes to think of himself as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War. Barely halfway through his first Senate term, the Florida Republican is already leaning into a fight against his own party's leadership as he navigates a delicate alliance with former President Donald Trump and pushes a handcrafted policy agenda that many Republicans reject. The 69-year-old former businessman likens his situation to that of Grant during the battle of Vicksburg, when the general ordered multiple bloody assaults on the Southern stronghold before delivering a victory that helped turn the war in the Union's favor.

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell speaks to Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe about the mounting pressure that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is facing after text messages his wife sent in the lead-up to the January 6th Capitol riot were made public.

More than half of Americans paid no federal income tax last year due to Covid-relief funds, tax credits and stimulus, according to a new report.

"We got to make this system where we don't need a big IRS," Florida Republican Rick Scott told Insider in a brief interview.

The Senate has unanimously approved a measure that would make daylight saving time permanent next year.

Here is how senators Marco Rubio, R-FL, and Rick Scott, R-FL, voted in Congress in February.

Venezuela has long been one of America's most bitter adversaries. But amid the crisis with Russia and soaring gas prices, the Biden administration is reaching out to the Latin American country.

Newspaper editorial on Florida Sen. Rick Scott's "rescue plan" shows paper isn't paying attention to Republican Party politics

The centre of Kyiv is deserted, with the soundtrack of the approaching war audible in the distance. But John and Natasha, an American couple who refuse to leave Ukraine, go out quietly to walk their dogs, accepting that it may be their "destiny to die" rather than leave Ukraine.

Scott argued that Republicans "don't deserve to govern" if they don't offer their own agenda, continuing his clash with Mitch McConnell.

It was diplomatic from McConnell. But it was still brutal.

“If we’re fortunate enough to have the majority next year, I’ll be the majority leader," McConnell said Tuesday as he rejected fellow Republican Sen. Rick Scott's agenda that calls for all Americans to pay some form of income tax.

"I'll be the majority leader," declared McConnell as Scott walked away. "That will not be part of a Republican Senate majority agenda."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) later defended attending the conference organized by Nick Fuentes, saying she didn't know he has promoted white nationalist ideas.

The party has learned to play down the details of the conservative economic agenda, but it hasn’t truly abandoned it.

Ten years ago when Trayvon Martin was fatally shot, Florida was one of the few states with “stand your ground” laws that eased use of deadly force in the face of danger.

Some lawmakers worry that pushing future post office retirees' health costs to Medicare could hurt the health program's outlook.

Trayvon Martin was visiting his father in Sanford, Florida, when the 17-year-old Black teen was fatally shot Feb. 26, 2012, during a confrontation with George Zimmerman.

Senate Democrats plan to run ads seizing on Republican plan calling for more Americans to pay taxes.

Senate Democrats plan to run ads seizing on Republican plan calling for more Americans to pay taxes.

Rick Scott has done exactly what Mitch McConnell was trying to avoid.

The GOP has steadfastly avoided putting forward a new agenda. But Scott has now taken a shot -- and wound up pitching a tax hike for half the country.

Former President Trump is no fan of McConnell and recently said the Senate minority leader "does not speak for the Republican Party."

Two widely supported bills are encountering delays in the Senate.

There's no doubt Senate approval is inevitable, sooner rather than later. One measure would relieve much of the financially strapped Postal Service’s huge debt. T he other would avoid a government shutdown this weekend.

President Biden endorsed changes to the filibuster, so that Democrats would be able to pass voting rights legislation.

Because of redistricting, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 seats in the U.S. Senate are back up for grabs.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other leading Republicans are intensifying a personal late-stage push to persuade Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to run for the Senate.

President Joe Biden’s pick to run the nation’s highway safety agency is pledging to attack a crisis of fatal car crashes by implementing safety rules to deter impaired driving.

Scott tweeted about his hang-up by the Biden administration, blasting the White House for their “shameful cowardice” in not connecting the U.S. senator with the president on the human rights issue.

With Republicans in contention to win back the House and Senate, many corporations and top lobbyists have resumed giving.

The senator danced around questions about Trump's ongoing efforts to undermine democracy.

Critical race theory has become a lightning rod for Republicans and an issue in the Virginia governor's race.

Highlights of this day in history: The Stamp Act takes effect; The U.S. explodes first hydrogen bomb; Sistine Chapel paintings are first shown to the public; Algerian nationalists begin rebellion against French rule; NFL's Walter Payton dies. (Nov. 1)

Fox News SundayFox News anchor Chris Wallace repeatedly pressed Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) over his supposed concerns about the national debt and deficit, asking the Florida lawmaker if he would support repealing the 2017 Trump tax cuts to help balance the budget.With Republicans uniformly opposed to the Biden administration’s Build Back Better social spending agenda, Wallace welcomed Scott onto Fox News Sunday to react to the growing possibility that Democrats may finally pass a pared-down version

Former President Donald Trump struggled during his first year in office to get his nominees confirmed in a timely fashion in the Senate.

The president’s decision could cost Democrats in 2022 and 2024. He doesn’t care.

A Florida judge has ruled the state cannot enforce its ban on mask mandates in public schools to guard against the coronavirus while an appeals court sorts out whether the ban is ultimately legal.

Congressional bargainers say they’ve agreed to a bipartisan framework for overhauling policing procedures.

The head of the Senate Republican political arm says he expects former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt to challenge Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada next year.

Republicans are fighting to seize control of Congress.

Before Matt Gaetz rose to national prominence as an ardent backer of Donald Trump, the now-Florida congressman carved out an unusual reputation as a Republican state lawmaker who wanted to liberalize marijuana laws.

The Senate has confirmed Bill Nelson, a former Florida senator who once flew on the space shuttle, to be the next NASA administrator.

The No. 2 House Republican says party leaders would “take action” against Rep. Matt Gaetz if the Justice Department formally moves ahead with legal action against him.

Florida’s two Republican senators are steering clear of voicing support for Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Former President Donald Trump is staking his claim to the Republican Party in a closed-door speech to donors Saturday night, casting his populist policies and attack-dog politics as the key to future Republican success.

The Republican Party is bringing hundreds of donors and several presidential prospects to the former president’s doorstep in south Florida this weekend.

– Not waiting for more federal help, states have been approving their own coronavirus aid packages, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help residents and business owners devastated by the the pandemic's economic fallout. Directing federal money to state governments has been so contentious that the idea was stripped from the previous congressional aid package passed in December. “The cascading effect, it’s actually a problem that most states are grappling with ... waiting for the relief money out of the feds,” she said. They also are still figuring out how to spend another $1.8 billion in federal money that Congress approved in December. And for some of those who do receive it, the extra state money represents just a fraction of the financial hit they have taken during the pandemic.

The GOP already faces a difficult Senate map in 2022, when 14 Democratic-held seats and 20 Republican ones will be on the ballot. That includes at least two open seats that Republicans will be defending because of the retirements of GOP Sens. One of those lawmakers, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, is the new chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a post that makes him the public face of the Senate Republican fundraising efforts. But two senior Republican strategists involved in Senate races say the cumulative effect of the companies' decisions could have a bigger impact. That puts more pressure on the NRSC and the leading Senate Republican outside group, Senate Leadership Fund, to cover the difference.

Florida accounts for about a fifth of the country’s wetlands and includes the Everglades, among the state’s most important environmental jewels. “The fact is that Florida’s proposed program to take over wetlands permitting doesn’t comply with federal environmental laws,” she said. Florida becomes the third state to gain broader permitting authority of wetlands under the federal Clean Water Act. Florida's request to gain sole permitting authority was launched under the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, took on that mantle and earlier this year formally petitioned the federal government to transfer that authority.

Scott, 67, has been quarantining at home all week after coming into contact in Florida on Nov. 13 with someone who subsequently tested positive. Scott, a Republican, said he was “feeling good” despite the mild symptoms and would be working at his home in Naples. “I want to remind everyone to be careful and do the right things to protect yourselves and others,” Scott said in a statement. House members could be regularly tested in the Capitol starting this week, but there is still no testing protocol for senators. The absence Scott and Grassley on Tuesday helped Democrats block the nomination of Judy Shelton, Trump’s controversial pick for the Federal Reserve.

Georgia would like a few moments of presidential campaign time. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas senator widely viewed as having presidential ambitions, will campaign in central Georgia on Friday. Meanwhile, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley has sent a flurry of fundraising emails coaxing rank-and-file Republicans to bankroll the Georgia runoff campaigns. That popularity makes it politically risky for Republicans with White House ambitions to call out Trump’s falsehoods. On Cotton’s future plans, Colas said, “The senator remains focused on 2020.”For Democrats, there’s less future presidential intrigue to blend into the Georgia campaign.

Instead, the sprint to the Jan. 5 runoffs for two seats in Georgia will determine whether the Senate becomes a Republican-held check on Biden's agenda or a Democratic partnership with the new White House. With a Democratic Senate, Biden would have allies to easily confirm his nominees, including for cabinet positions, and shape passage of legislation. If Republicans keep control, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell can block Biden's agenda. Senate Republicans need Trump — and his voters — on board for the Georgia race. Loeffler and Perdue stunned many this week when they jointly called their own state election system an “embarrassment" as Biden was leading over Trump.

State leaders eliminated computer punchcard ballots, implemented statewide recount laws and made it easy to cast and process ballots before Election Day. Though there are other scenarios that make elections officials nervous, the computer punch-card ballots that fueled 2000's chaos are buried in history's landfill. Casting valid ballots and processing them is now easier, even before Election Day, and the Legislature has enacted clearer laws governing recounts. If the statewide margin then is within a half-percentage point — likely about 55,000 votes — a machine recount would occur. These voters are notified and have until two days after the election to prove their identity, but many won’t respond.

COLUMBIA, S.C. With one stroke, President Donald Trumps abrupt reversal on offshore drilling this week has loosened a political vise that was tightening around three Republicans senators running for reelection in coastal states where drilling is widely opposed. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue of Georgia, all Democratic targets. Brian Kemp, another Trump ally, and his Republican predecessor, Nathan Deal, have opposed drilling off the state's 100-mile (160 km) coast. The decision by President Trump to include South Carolina meets the desires of our coastal communities and states leadership, Graham said. I very much appreciate President Trump for listening to our state and delivering for our people.___Ben Nadler in Atlanta contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON Republicans this week are focused squarely on their convention's star, President Donald Trump, and securing his reelection in November. Theres a lot happening behind the scenes already," said Republican strategist Alex Conant, who worked for the 2016 campaign of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Also allotted time slots: Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and Donald Trump Jr. "Theres others out there, but nobody else is even close in that stratosphere.Much will depend on whether Trump secures a second term. In her convention speech Monday night, Haley gave an unabashed endorsement of the president while spending time introducing herself to viewers.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A far-right social media provocateur whose hate speech got her banned from social media won her Republican primary on Tuesday and will challenge Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel for Congress in November. Laura Loomer also won praise from President Donald Trump early Wednesday, who tweeted that she has a great chance." Loomer received 43% in a six-candidate Republican field, garnering 14,500 votes. Frankel, running against a political newcomer, received 75,000 votes, or 86% in the Democratic primary, which had 87,000 votes cast. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Medium, PayPal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Uber and Lyft have banned her, but her messages get out through tweets by supporters and other workarounds, the Palm Beach Post reported.

She burned through her savings while awaiting financial relief from Floridas unemployment office. DeSantis has acknowledged that the unemployment system known as CONNECT was like a jalopy in the Daytona 500 being left in the dust." And that relates to management of the system.Florida's unemployment woes add to the troubles for Trump five months from Election Day. In April, Floridas unemployment rate hit 12.9%, up from 2.8% in February. Its one of those things where once the issue is solved, its going to disappear, said Florida Republican Party chairperson Joe Gruters.