WASHINGTON — South Carolina Senator Tim Scott on Sunday pushed back against former President Barack Obama’s criticism of African-American Republican candidates who don’t give an “honest account” of racism in the United States .
Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate and a GOP presidential candidate, said Democrats drag Obama whenever they feel threatened.
“There’s no greater compliment than being attacked by President Obama,” Scott said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Scott had been asked about Obama’s comments in a recent podcast about the senator’s claim that he was living proof of the nation’s progress on equality.
Obama said there’s a long history of GOP candidates coming from minority groups validating America by saying “everything is fine, and we can all make it happen.”
In Scott’s video announcing his presidential exploratory committee, he called America “a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.”
“I’m not cynical about Tim Scott individually,” Obama told his former adviser, David Axelrod, on Axelrod’s podcast.
But, Obama continued, Republicans need a plan to address issues like generational poverty, the result of hundreds of years of racism.
“There may come a time when there is someone within the Republican Party who is more serious about addressing some of the deep inequalities that still exist in our society that follow race and are a consequence of our racial history” , Obama said. “And if that happens, I think that would be fantastic. I have not seen it again.”
Scott said the “opportunity zones” he has championed that provide tax incentives for investments in economically distressed communities have mostly helped minority communities.
Scott also touted his support for federal funding of historically black colleges and universities and alternatives to traditional public education.
“There is a way for us to increase poverty, not by a race, but by the statistics themselves,” he said. “That’s what America stands for.”
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Scott denounces Obama’s criticism of black Republicans over racial equality