A US senator who sought this 12 months’s Republican presidential nomination endorsed Donald Trump on Friday in a lift to the previous chief’s bid to safe his occasion’s backing to retake the White Home.
Senator Tim Scott appeared on stage with the ex-president at a rally in New Hampshire, whose residents vote within the state’s major on Tuesday.
“I got here to the very heat state of New Hampshire to endorse the subsequent president of those United States, president Donald Trump!” stated Scott, who was visiting the northern state throughout a bitter chilly snap, to a refrain of cheers.
“We want Donald Trump,” Scott stated. “We want a president who unites our nation.”
The South Carolina lawmaker was within the race for the nomination till November 12 when he withdrew, declining to endorse some other candidate.
He had hoped to change into the primary Black Republican president, however struggled to rise above the pack within the occasion’s crowded discipline.
Often polling in sixth place amongst Republican major candidates, the 58-year-old drew solely round two to a few % of the vote, in keeping with the RealClearPolitics common of main opinion polls.
His backing ought to enhance Trump’s so-far dominant effort to fend off challenges for the nomination from former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The endorsement is probably going a bitter tablet for Haley, who’s from Scott’s house state and served as its governor.
CNN reported that Trump had been in discussions with Scott to safe his backing earlier than South Carolina holds its major election on February 24, however that the announcement was introduced ahead after Haley noticed a bounce in assist.
“He is a implausible man,” the scandal-plagued Trump stated of Scott. “Having his endorsement means so much.”
“We have now to unify. We have now to go after these loopy people who we’re coping with,” he added, earlier than launching into fierce critiques of Haley.
Throughout his marketing campaign, Scott ceaselessly underlined his Christian religion and the conservative values he realized rising up in a poor, single-parent family.
He was one among 5 Republicans showing within the third televised Republican debate final November, as challengers for the nomination sparred over Ukraine, China, abortion and the way forward for the occasion.
Scott has expressed little interest in changing into a operating mate to any of the remaining candidates, saying that being vp “has by no means been on my to-do checklist for this marketing campaign.”
