Rick Scott launches NRSC podcast with friendly Donald Trump interview

Rick Scott kicks off a podcast with a very special guest.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) launched its “Red Zone” podcast Thursday, featuring a guest who opposes some of the same Senate incumbents the committee seeks to re-elect.

Former President Donald Trump was the featured guest on the podcast, hosted by NRSC Chairman Rick Scott. Scott continues to use his position as committee chair to fete Trump and court donors during what has been a successful tenure for the first-term Senator and former Governor.

Scott invented an award to give to Trump last year. This year, the move seems to be a podcast grafting together the Trump presidency and the 2022 midterm effort. The interview offered more in name value than memorable quotes, however, as both men stuck to talking points about Trump’s “successes.”

“President Trump put us in a great position on so many issues,” Scott raved, setting up an interview where the Senator teed up Trump for extended meditations on select issues. The Senator struggled to keep the former President inside the parameters of his questioning on more than one occasion.

Scott offered his own thoughts as well, lauding Trump for “low unemployment for basically every minority group out there” early in the interview, and sandwiching safe questions inside bouquets of compliments.

“By the way, you were clearly instrumental if not responsible for winning two Hispanic seats in Miami,” Scott said about Trump’s appeal to Hispanics, referring to the victories of Carlos Giménez and María Elvira Salazar, who flipped Democratic seats in Congress two years ago.

“You’re probably, if not the biggest supporter of law enforcement as President, one of the biggest ever,” Scott raved, setting up a softball about “this whole ‘defund the police’ movement” that led Trump to make an assertion Scott didn’t challenge.

“Well in New York we just lost a number of great policemen,” Trump said in response. “Shot. Killed. … And these are murderers. These are horrible murderers. And nothing happens. They go after Republicans. They don’t go after anybody else.”

The appearance continues what has been an interesting dynamic between the two men. Back in August, Trump took credit for Republican fundraising writ large, including that of Scott’s NRSC.