Rick Scott slams McConnell and GOP leadership for 'compromising our principles'

Cami Mondeaux

November 29, 06:00 AM November 29, 06:55 AM

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) defended his decision to release a 12-point midterm agenda earlier this year and promised his leadership challenge to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is just the beginning of what's to come after the two sparred over election strategy.

In an exclusive op-ed shared with the Washington Examiner, Scott explained why he released his widely panned “Save America” plan in late February, a move that raised eyebrows as he broke with McConnell and other Republican leaders who declined to release a blueprint for how they would govern if they retook the majority on Nov. 8.

RICK SCOTT: WASHINGTON LIARS WILL NOT STOP US FROM RESCUING AMERICA

“Yes, I put out a plan of ideas, and I don’t regret it one bit,” Scott wrote. “Washington has spent decades exploding the size of our government and wasting money, and it must be stopped.”

Scott’s 31-page agenda seeks to combine traditional GOP values with more recent positions championed on the Right, such as finishing the border wall and banning the teaching of critical race theory in schools.

The plan is meant to serve as an aspirational message from the Republican Party — something he says GOP lawmakers have failed to present as an alternative to “Joe Biden’s radical, socialist agenda.”

“For today’s Democrats, words no longer have meaning. … When they are talking, they are lying. For Biden and his party, falsehood is standard policy, it’s what they do,” Scott wrote. “That is the current strategy of many Republicans in Washington, to only be against the crazy Democrats and never outline any plans of what we are for or what we will do.”

Scott said that strategy led him to mount a leadership bid against McConnell earlier this month.

“I ran for Senate leader because the current plan of routinely caving in and allowing Schumer and Biden to win must stop and because we must become a party with a plan to rescue America,” he wrote. “My effort to change the way the Senate operates is not over. In fact, it is just beginning. We can no longer be merely a speed bump on the road to socialism.”

Scott challenged McConnell for his position as Senate minority leader, marking the first contested race for a Senate leader for either party since 1996. McConnell fended off the challenge in a 37-10 vote, with one senator voting present.

However, Scott said his failed leadership bid wouldn’t stop him from trying to reform the Republican Party, declaring that an insurgent crop of senators was already ascendant.

“The old Washington establishment Republican path of never having a vision is over. It’s dying,” Scott said. “A new wave of bold and aggressive Republicans who will stand up and fight is demanding change from our leaders in Washington. It is happening. It will happen. Count on it.”