Trey Gowdy slams MSNBC host for disparaging Sen. Tim Scott based on race
Joy Reid says Sen. Scott provided a 'patina of diversity' for the GOP; Fox News Primetime host hits back.
"Fox News Primetime" host Trey Gowdy ripped MSNBC host Joy Reid Monday for alleging that Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., provides the GOP with a "patina of diversity."
Gowdy, the former chairman of the House Oversight Committee and a friend of Scott, accused "The ReidOut" host of finding another way to refer to Scott, who is Black, as "a prop or a token."
"For a party and a media that claim to love civility and public discourse, and rooting out the hot political rhetoric and finding some unity, she has a really weird way of showing it," he said.
Turning to the basis for the criticism, Scott's participation in a Senate GOP press conference opposing raising the federal minimum wage of $15 per hour, Gowdy said that if Reid "knew anything about Tim Scott she would know full well why he would be participating in a press conference about the min wage. She would understand why he's frequently front and center in major policy debates in Washington."
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The host went on to say that Scott had "made himself an expert on the issue, not because he's Black. He was a business owner. He had to make payroll. He had to access credit. Tim Scott was at the forefront on tax reform because he's on the Senate Finance Committee, because he dedicated himself to becoming an expert."
Gowdy concluded by saying that while Reid is free to oppose Scott on any policy issue she chooses, "when she calls a United States Senator who's a subject matter expert a prop, a token, or a superficial covering, that's personal and that's wrong and she should be held to account."
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Ahead of Scott joining the program for an interview, Gowdy acknowledged that he was "having to say this now because when Tim Scott joins us, he wont say any of this. He's humble -- he's not driven by personal attacks. He is driven by faith which is the cornerstone of his life.
"Tim Scott is too good of a person to respond to the likes of Joy Reid, but I am not," Gowdy concluded. "He can stand wherever the hell he wants to stand -- because he's earned the right to be there.
"The fact you see a Black man as a prop, Joy Reid, says a lot more about you than it does about Tim Scott."