Former President Donald Trump hinted once again this week at a potential contender who might be at the forefront of his list for potential running mates.
At a town hall hosted by Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Trump commended South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, indicating that Scott could be considered for the role of vice president.
Scott, a one-time GOP presidential contender against Trump, dropped out of the race last year and endorsed the former president.
“You have to have somebody that would be a good president. A lot of people are talking about that gentleman over there,” Trump told Ingraham while pointing to Scott, drawing applause from the audience.
“He’s been so great, such a great advocate. Tim Scott, he has been better for me than for himself. I watched his campaign and he doesn’t like talking about himself, he talks about Trump. I said, Tim, you are better for me than for yourself. He’s fantastic and a fantastic person,” Trump added.
Scott gave the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s April 2021 address to Congress, facing racist attacks online that one major social media site allowed to trend.
WATCH:
🚨BREAKING: Trump singles-out Tim Scott in audience when asked about his 2024 VP pick pic.twitter.com/jwnxKqJxXe
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 21, 2024
At another point in the town hall, Trump challenged President Joe Biden to a debate. Here’s the exchange:
Trump: “I said, don’t ever do it. It would’ve never happened, by the way. It would’ve never happened.”
Ingraham: “We’re going to get into that in a minute, but back to Biden and his current state, whatever you want to call it. Will you challenge him to regular debates —“
Trump: “Yeah.”
Ingraham: “— regardless of the concern about the moderators? I know that’s always annoying. I will be happy to moderate one, by the way. Would you challenge him —
[Cheers and applause]
Come on, Joe, you can do it. Will you challenge him to a debate regularly on focused specific topics? In other words, it’s not a wide-ranging. Just one debate on foreign policy.”
Trump: “Well, I’ll do it right now on your show. I will challenge him right now. We can do you. You can do anybody you want. I will take anybody from CNN, which is doing very poorly in the ratings, by the way, as you probably know. [Cheers] I’ll take anybody because I think you have an obligation in this case. You really have an obligation to debate. When it came to the Republicans, I was up by 40, 50, 60 points, like being up on her, I think a poll just came out, I’m at 91 and she is at 7. And would you debate? You want to be smart. You don’t have to waste your time.”
Ingraham: “But that would be instructive to see you vs. Biden on any given topic.”
Trump: “Regardless of poll numbers, I’m way up on him now in the polls. Frankly, I think we have an obligation. When you have the final Republican, the final Democrat, you have the two people, you have to debate regardless of polls.”
Ingraham: “How many debates would you commit to?”
Trump: “As many as necessary. I would like to do it starting now. I don’t think he is going to debate, though. I really don’t think so. We had a debate where he at the end of the debate, he admitted I was right about almost everything, but in particular on energy. Do you remember? I said feel like Perry Mason the way you just collapsed. He admitted everything about energy and that’s what actually happened and that’s why your energy costs went up three and four times. We had $1.87 and he was up to $5, $6, $7. And that’s going to happen immediately after the election. Let’s not even talk about if he wins. We can’t allow him to win. We are not going to have a country left.”
