Scott reveals why he challenged Mitch McConnell

Sen. Rick Scott revealed Thursday that he aimed to be the “least popular person in Washington” when he went up against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell last year to lead the Senate GOP.

The Florida Republican delivered a speech Thursday afternoon at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he discussed his losing bid for Senate leadership and alluded to his recent tussle with the Biden administration over the social security and health insurance.

“Everyone in Washington said I was crazy. I could be. But we can’t take this BS anymore,’ he said challenging McConnell.

He hammered “former establishment leaders of our own Republican Party” for lending votes to Democrats to push through legislation, including the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“I’m looking to be the least popular person in Washington and I’m happy to report that I’m making great progress,” Scott told the audience at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. “I have the president lying about me. Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate are lying about me. Pelosi, she says terrible things about me. You have the president’s inconsistent press secretary attacking me, so my plan is working.

Sen. Rick Scott revealed Thursday that he was aiming to be the “least popular person in Washington” when he took on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell last year to lead the Senate GOP.

In November, Scott attempted to challenge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to lead the GOP in the Senate. McConnell easily won

Ahead of November’s midterm elections and again in his State of the Union address, Biden hammered Scott for his plan to “switch off” federal legislation every five years, which, according to Democrats, would include Social Security and Medicare.

Scott said his intention was never to include those programs and claimed the Democrats were lying, but later added a point of clarification to the plan on his website, RescueAmerica.com.

“Note to President Biden, Senator Schumer and Senator McConnell – As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare or the United States Navy,” he wrote. .

McConnell had also criticized Scott’s plan, fearing it would hurt Senate Republicans’ prospects in the medium term.

The Democrats ended up winning a seat in the November election, with Democratic Senator John Fetterman overthrowing the seat held by retired Republican Senator Pat Toomey.

Several weeks later, McConnell easily beat Scott’s challenge to become the Republican leader.

Scott gave a speech Thursday afternoon at the Conservative Political Action Conference

Scott called White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (left) ‘incoherent’ and President Joe Biden ‘incompetent’ in his CPAC speech

Scott said following the vote he was “quietly advised” to apologize to McConnell for hiring him.

“OK, in the infamous words of Conor McGregor: I wouldn’t want to apologize to absolutely anyone,” Scott said to applause.

Scott, 70, also shot Biden, 80.

“Joe Biden projects weakness and weakness invites wolves. Weakness invites wars. Look at Ukraine,” he said.

“Our political system, like our president, has been lost,” he continued. I don’t think any of us can claim to be competent. Sometimes I’m not even sure he’s the president.

Scott claimed that the government was controlled by “incompetent neo-Marxists”.

“Unelected staff writing words for his teleprompter,” he continued. “They are science deniers who can’t tell you what a woman is. They ridicule believers. And they hate the values ​​our great country was founded on. They are hostile to American ideals.

“Meanwhile, our established political leaders have made deals with each other for their own political future, knowing full well that their tired old solutions will continue to fail us,” he added, directing his anger at McConnell.