Republican South Carolina Sen. and presidential candidate Tim Scott sparred with “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin on Monday during his appearance on “The View.”
Hostin claimed that Scott was the “exception” to the rule with his success, with Scott pushing back saying that the message of successful black people being an exception is “disgusting”.
“The fact of the matter is we’ve had an African American president, African American vice president, we’ve had two African Americans be secretaries of the state,” Scott said. “In my home city, the police chief is an African American who’s now running for mayor.”
Hostin then tried to cut Scott off before he pushed back and demanded she be “respectful” and let him finish.
“Progress in America is palpable, it could be measured in generations. My grandfather was born in 1921 in Sally, South Carolina. When he was on a sidewalk, a white person was coming, he had to step off and not make eye contact,” Scott shared. “That man believed then, with some doubt now, in the goodness of America, because he believed that faith in God, faith in himself, and faith in what the future could hold for his kids would unleash opportunities in ways that you cannot imagine. Every kid today can look – just change the stations, see how much progress has been made in this country. ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, CNN, Fox News, all have African American and Hispanic hosts. So what I’m suggesting is that the yesterday’s exception is today’s rule.”
“So America has met its promise?” Hostin jumped in.
“No, the concept of America is that we are going to become a more perfect union. But in fact, the challenges that we faced 50 years and 60 years ago should not be in the same challenges that we face today.”
Scott then cited graduation rates for black students to show a unit of measurement before Hostin cut in to say its an HBCU statistic.
“That’s a good one, because I took funding for HBCU’s to the highest level in the history of the country,” Scott shot back.
Scott’s appearance comes just weeks after Behar lectured both Scott and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on racism, saying neither men “understand” what it is. Scott, who announced his run for president on May 22, released a campaign video slamming victimhood mentality, saying, “Today’s kids are growing up immersed in a culture where everyone’s a victim.”
Behar took aim at Scott’s optimistic outlook and his views on abortion. (RELATED: ‘She Is A Buffoon’: Byron Donalds Responds To Joy Behar After She Says Two Black Men Don’t Understand Racism)
“He doesn’t say he’s pro-choice, exactly, although he did say he would vote for anything they put on the table, the Republicans. So he is not pro-choice,” Behar said. “And he’s one of these guys, who, you know, like Clarence Thomas, a black Republicans, who believes in ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps,’ rather than to me, understanding the systemic racism that African Americans face in this country and other minorities. He doesn’t get it. Neither does Clarence.”
Scott later spoke out against Behar’s comments, calling her remarks “offensive and disgusting and dangerous for a very different reason.”