A.G. Gancarski
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has often spoken of President Donald Trump as his long-awaited “partner in the White House.” And that partnership was again exemplified Thursday with Scott taking a jaunt to New Jersey to lunch with the vacationing President.
A statement from Scott’s office stressed that Scott’s visit was “solely to promote Florida.”
“Governor Scott had lunch today with President Trump following an invitation from the White House last week. Governor Scott was solely there to promote Florida,” asserted Scott’s Communications Director John Tupps.
“They discussed a wide range of topics including the President’s commitment to partner with Florida on needed repairs to the federally-operated Herbert Hoover Dike at Lake Okeechobee. Governor Scott wants to do all he can to protect Florida’s environment and President Trump is very supportive to help.”
“Additionally, they discussed the terror attack in Barcelona and the efforts President Trump is taking to keep America safe,” Tupps added.
Scott has spent much of the last week fielding questions about Trump’s erratic reaction to the violence in Charlottesville last weekend — reaction that has fueled criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike over what some call Trump’s moral equivalence and others call the President’s latest flirtation with white supremacists.
“I’m not going to parse the president’s words, but here’s what I’ll say: It’s evil. It’s horrible. I don’t believe in racism, I don’t believe in bigotry,” Scott said Monday. “I believe that the KKK, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, they don’t belong in our society.”
On Wednesday, Scott said that he didn’t serve in the Navy “to defend neo-Nazis.”
Some will question Scott’s unwillingness to criticize the president on this issue directly. Others, meanwhile, will frame it as the cost of doing business with a White House as mercurial as any in recent memory.
