Chris Crucial: Tim Scott can't answer the simplest question about 2024

PLUS: A Republican on why he's voting for Biden

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1. Tim Scott and the 2024 litmus test

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, one of the frontrunners to be Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, did an interview with “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

This is the (extended) exchange between Scott and “MTP” moderator Kristen Welker. It’s long. But it’s also important:

WELKER: Well, Senator, will you commit to accepting the election results of 2024, bottom line?

SCOTT: Well, at the end of the day, the 47th president of the United States will be President Donald Trump.

SCOTT: And I'm excited to get back to low inflation, low unemployment and high...

WELKER: Wait, wait, Senator, yes or no? Yes or no, will you accept the election results of 2024, no matter who wins?

SCOTT: That is my statement.

WELKER: But -- but, just yes or no? Will you accept the election results of 2024?

SCOTT: I -- I look forward to President Trump being the 47th president. Kristen, you can ask it multiple times, but I answered the question. At the end of the day...

WELKER: But, Senator, just a yes or no answer.

SCOTT: So the American people -- the American people will make the decision...

WELKER: But I don't hear you committing...

SCOTT: ... and the decision will be for President Trump. That's clear.

WELKER: I don't hear you committing to the election results.

SCOTT: Here's the deal...

WELKER: Will you commit to accepting the election results?

SCOTT: This is why so many -- this is why so many Americans believe that NBC is an extension of the Democrat Party. At the end of the day, I've said what I've said. And I know that the American people, their voices will be heard. And I believe that President Trump will be our next president. It's that simple.

It is simple — but not in the way that Scott means.

The simple part is for a leading voice in one of the two major political parties in this country to say something like: “Look, I am going to be for Donald Trump. And I expect him to win. But, if he doesn’t then of course I will accept the results of the election.”

Because that’s what we do in this country. Do you think Al Gore really wanted to just walk away from the vote count in Florida in 2000 because the Supreme Court stepped in to stop it? Like, that he really felt as though he got a totally and completely fair shake?

NOPE!

But, he also understood that our democracy is predicated on the peaceful transfer of power. And so, he conceded. Period.

Which is what Tim Scott knows he should say. Because, at root, he knows the 2020 election wasn’t stolen from Trump and that if Trump loses, this election won’t be stolen either. (“I do not believe the election was stolen,” Scott said in Iowa in 2023. “There was cheating, but was the election stolen? There’s a difference.”)

Why won’t Tim Scott say that? Because to do so would be to disqualify himself (or at least damage himself) in the VP chase.