Rick Scott trolls AOC over call to ‘defund the police’
Sen. Rick Scott.

rick_scott_132810311
AOC served as Senator's foil.

Florida’s junior Senator on Thursday messaged on police reform issues, avoiding specifics but slamming elements on the left that would like to “defund the police.”

Sen. Rick Scott, appearing on the Fox Business “Evening Edit,” finished his broadcast day as he started, trying to cool what have become persistent critiques from many on the left of arbitrary state violence.

Scott was on hand to attack recent statements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat who has attempted to contextualize protests and contends the call to “defund the police” is not simply an aspirational slogan.

Scott, who routinely picks media scraps with Democratic politicians, relished the opportunity to use AOC as a foil.

“I’ve never heard her say anything that made any sense,” a smirking Scott said. “What we don’t want to do is say we want to defund the police.”

“If you want to make communities less safe, get rid of the police,” Scott added. “If we need to make changes, let’s make changes.”

The effort to “fact check” Ocasio-Cortez continued, with the Senator weighing in on New York City’s budget, which AOC says privileges police at the expense of social services.

“Let’s make sure the dollars we spend we get something for,” Scott said. “Let’s get a result for how we spend our money.”

Scott demurred from offering specific budget recommendations, however, beyond not “throwing more money at something.”

“It starts with getting everybody a job,” the Senator noted.

Scott continued his meditation on police budgets, noting the difficulty of the job.

“Let’s get rid of the bad apples. Let’s figure out if we need changes. But we cannot reduce funding for law enforcement. It’s the wrong thing to do,” Scott said.

The Senator expressed similar thoughts on police reform on a Thursday morning radio spot.

“What I want to do is make sure whatever we do, we have real accountability,” Scott said, not explaining what that accountability would look like exactly, before pivoting to African-American high school graduation rates.

“If we have an issue, we don’t have enough African Americans finishing high school,” Scott said, “we need to change, we need to make sure we change.”

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


11 comments

  • SAL JANOS

    June 11, 2020 at 9:19 pm

    Americans across the country firmly believe the Democrats would be more than willing to completely destroy the economy if it meant getting rid of President Trump. They’ve tried everything else. American citizens aren’t willing to sacrifice their homes, careers, jobs and businesses, 401K for another leftist attempt to remove a President.

    What do these Mayors & Governors have in common?………

    Wolf (Gov PA) Kenney (Mayor Philadelphia) Pritzker (Gov Il), Lori Lightfoot (Mayor Chicago) Gavin Newsom (Gov CA) Kate Brown (Gov OR) Ted Wheeler (Mayor Portland OR) Jay Inslee (Gov WA) Jenny Durkan (Mayor Seattle) Cuomo, Di Blasio (Gov & Mayor NY) Walz (Gov MN) Frey (Mayor MN) Lyda Krewson (Mayor St. Louis) Gretchen Whitmer (Gov MI & Mike Duggan Mayor Detroit)

    All are Democrats who kept the economy in their states and cities closed as long as they could (many still are) and ordered Police in their cities to stand down and allow the “Protesters” to loot, burn, destroy beat people in the streets even murder.

    How do you like Democrat Socialism? just like the third world isn’t it. Democrat Governor’s & Mayors philosophy? Police ordered to stand down while the city was looted, burned to the ground, citizens beaten trying to protect their businesses. .

    There is no moderate wing of the Democrat party people and they don’t care about taxpayers (especially if you’re white) If you vote for Joe Biden, you are voting for Bernie Sanders, or Elizabeth Warren’s far left platform and against your own bestr interests.. Joe will follow the radical left’s agenda or Joe won’t get the support (and he is)…of Val Demings, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Valerie Jarrett,. Rashida Talib, Stacy Abrams, Ayanna Pressley, Nancy Pelosi, Sheila Jackson Lee, Tom Perez, Maxine Waters, Al Green, and llhan Omar.

    This is the core of the socialists leftist wing of the Democrat party in Washington and they are firmly in charge.

    • Ocean Joe

      June 12, 2020 at 8:45 am

      What is more third world than Floridians who paid into the unemployment compensation fund being unable to receive benefits or waiting in food lines? What is more third world than 2,000,000 Covid patients and rising? What is more third world than hooting about ‘socialists’ when rightwing politicians are stealing us blind? Think about all those tinpot dictators who eventually flee their countries with millions of dollars, kind of like Rick’s departure from HCA with $300,000,000 in a golden parachute.

      • DemoRATS Are Terrorists!

        June 12, 2020 at 6:41 pm

        OJ You are retarded! THE END

        • M. Elder

          June 13, 2020 at 6:07 pm

          Sal Janos, You do not speak for Democrats, Nor the “majority of Americans”. Your tired “Socialism” boogie man needs a rest. Americans are waking up to the lies you spiew. Trump isn’t even a legitimate President. He’s going to lose and all his lies and crimes are coming out.

  • Nick Whitehead

    June 11, 2020 at 11:30 pm

    Sen. Prick Snott is a huge embarrassment to Florida.  He is a disgusting thief.  He stole more money than every person in Florida’s prisons for theft combined.  But Scott did not steal from some rich corporation or to feed himself or his family, or even to feed some addiction.  No, Scott stole from the elderly, the sick and the poor and he stole solely for greed.  So obviously having a state that is hyper-policed has done zero good in catching even our biggest thief.  No, Florida’s police prefer to send Floridians to prison for driving without a driver’s license, for smoking marijuana, for being homeless or having mental health issues.  Disband all police and sheriff’s departments nationwide and jail Prick Snott. 

    • Just sayin'

      June 12, 2020 at 8:05 am

      Your talking points are out of date. Florida doesn’t incarcerate for any of those things. You can argue they will incarcerate for certain actions the homeless or mentally ill take, but that’s just like anyone else.

      And sorry to pop your pimple, but should a guy named “Nick Whitehead” really be trying to make fun of other people’s names?

    • DemoRATS Are Terrorists!

      June 12, 2020 at 6:42 pm

      ass hat…you

  • PeterH

    June 12, 2020 at 11:12 am

    Whining about AOC is just a distraction from the horrible Republican record in Washington. BEFORE COVID-19 the Scott-Trump tax policies for millionaires added $4 trillion to the national debt. Try to imagine how much new debt will be created by the time we remove the pox from White House! Most economists think the cumulative number will be around $10 trillion dollars in debt creation over four years.

    The pandemic is in its early stages of destruction. It’s far from over and while there is ‘hope’ for a vaccine…… there certainly isn’t a guarantee!

    Rick Scott should not be worrying about business failures and bailing them out when there is little evidence that financially strapped Americans are eager to travel to Florida with COVID-19 death cases on the rise. Instead, Republicans should be concerned about the upcoming Florida mortgage failures, evictions and a national policy on sanitation measures of America’s millions of migrant workers who are increasingly infected with this ignored plague sweeping red states.

    Republicans are more concerned about how many unmasked unprotected Americans they can pack into racist infused Trump rally.

  • John Kociuba

    June 12, 2020 at 6:47 pm

    We need to test I.Q scores of Democrats! Instead of COVID 19, how about CAT scanning?

    The results terrifying.

    P.S. Since everyone is equal can we end social welfare programs except for disabled?

    #assclownsblacklivesmatter

    • M. Elder

      June 13, 2020 at 6:09 pm

      Juvenile and idiotic just like your glorious leader.

  • Terry Charest

    June 13, 2020 at 5:30 pm

    LETS GET SOMETHING FOR OUR MONEY!!!
    You were NOT thinking that way when you paid $77000 for this piece of crap you named FLORIDA RE-EMPLOYMENT! I would not listen to a word you say.. and no other Floridian should as well!$275/wk… is POVERTY! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!

Comments are closed.


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