Rick Scott draws parallels between Donald Trump legal issues and his own
Rick Scott with Donald Trump. Image via AP.

Donald Trump Rick Scott
'I saw this, it happened to me.'

Florida’s Junior Senator is in New York today, standing by Donald Trump during the former President’s hush money trial.

During comments on Thursday’s “Fox and Friends,” Rick Scott explained that Trump’s legal woes remind him of his own.

“I saw this, it happened to me. I fought Hillary Care and guess what happened? I fought Hillary Care. Justice came after me and attacked me and my company,” Scott said, seemingly referring to his former company’s legal issues related to billing irregularities decades ago, and seeming to relate those to opposition to Bill Clinton-era attempted health reforms.

Trump, of course, is embroiled in an ongoing trial in Manhattan, in which he is accused of funneling money to adult film performer Stormy Daniels to kill stories about their alleged liaison last decade.

“I support my friend, I support Donald Trump. This is just political persecution. It’s a crime to use the courts for political persecution,” Scott asserted, going on to downplay the charges as a simple anomaly in accounting.

“So I’m gonna go support this President because this is wrong. What’s happening to this guy? He is just being persecuted,” Scott said. “Now they’re trying to put him in jail over an accounting dispute.”

Scott, who endorsed Trump back before the GOP field was cleared of competition that included his successor as Governor, has been a staunch defender of the former President from afar throughout this process. But on Thursday, he was closer by.

This didn’t escape a Democrat who hopes to challenge him in November.

“Instead of showing up to vote on a bill that protects Florida travelers, strengthens air safety, and provides our aviation workforce with the resources they need to secure our skies, Rick Scott spent his day sucking up to a defendant found liable for sexual abuse,” said Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. “It should come as no surprise that the man who oversaw one of the largest Medicare frauds in history would put himself and his own extreme agenda before the people he was elected to represent. Floridians deserve better than this fraud.”

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. His work also can be seen in the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Washington Times, and National Review, among other publications. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


10 comments

  • Michael K

    May 9, 2024 at 8:04 am

    Well, they are both lying, whiny grifters.

  • FLPatriot

    May 9, 2024 at 8:08 am

    YUP. And just like Trump you are corrupt and guilty.

    • rick whitaker

      May 10, 2024 at 10:21 pm

      FLP, and they both are floridians. florida is the state of corruption, unless you count texas.

  • History

    May 9, 2024 at 8:39 am

    America is full of fraud and mailers.. I don’t see international business the way they all think it is

    • MH/Duuuval

      May 9, 2024 at 10:59 pm

      Quackery has always been a good hustle in the US, and Ricky Poo took it one step further and made himself a multi-millionaire and then governor and junior Senator of the Free State of Florida.

  • Dont Say FLA

    May 9, 2024 at 9:36 am

    Fraudsters sure do love their fraud. Right up till their operating context changes and they get busted for what was allowed by the previous HNIC under previous back slapping arrangements.

    But then the context changes, the back slapping doesn’t work anymore, their fraud gets busted, and then it’s “so unfair!”

    Key advice: If you don’t want so-called political persecution against you to be successful, don’t do anything illegal that could be successfully prosecuted in a court of law if anybody were ever to enforce the law on you for any reason.

  • Ocean Joe

    May 9, 2024 at 9:41 am

    Somebody is “confused,” to quote his ad attacking Bill Nelson.

    He was the CEO of HCA at all relevant times during the investigation which led to the largest reimbursement and fines ($1,700,000,000) to the federal government for billing irregularities and practices. Employees who didn’t meet financial targets were fired.
    Scott as governor, or CEO of Florida was a micromanager, so it is ridiculous to think he was not aware of the patterns and practices of HCA. He was forced out by his partners with a $300 million golden parachute, $60 million of which he used to buy his first term as governor.
    He was deposed in the federal case against HCA and asserted the Fifth Amendment 74 times. In other words, he declined to answer 74 questions on the grounds those answers may have tended to incriminate him. Al Capone never came close.

    • MH/Duuuval

      May 9, 2024 at 1:26 pm

      As the late Justice Scalia opined: Taking the 5th implies one was up to something unlawful. Now, multiply this by 74.

  • Nah

    May 9, 2024 at 2:19 pm

    The only way to be taken seriously as a candidate of the Gqp these days is to be prosec–err, “persecuted” for something… They ought to just rename themselves “the Outlaw” party for full self-glorification purposes and be done with it. Cue the Waylon Jennings. Sorry, Waylon.

  • LawLib

    May 10, 2024 at 9:17 am

    Ricky has a persecution/prosecution complex and is an embarrassment to all law-abiding, clearheaded thinking Floridians. Vote him out!

Comments are closed.


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