Sen. Scott on the future of the Senate

We are pleased to be joined this afternoon live by Senator Rick Scott, who is joining us live now via Zoom. Senator Scott, we always enjoy talking with you and thanks for joining us here on Florida Live today. It's always great to be with you. So a lot of things for us to talk about here. I want to start by getting your thoughts on the passing of Lindsey Graham over the weekend. Sudden, shocking. And your thoughts on a colleague of yours who I know you worked with for a number of years. Well, it's a pretty sad day. I got into DC yesterday and it's pretty sad because I knew I usually saw Lindsey Monday afternoon. And so it's just a sad day. He's a good person. He's one of the few people who came to Florida and campaigned for me while I ran for the Senate. He supported me when I ran against McConnell. He agrees that we need to have big changes up here. He's a great ally, great friend to Israel, Ukraine, our military, the president. And what's nice about Lindsey is she knew where he stood on everything. He would tell you he wouldn't do it behind your back. So he's just a good guy. My heart goes out to his family. President Trump has weighed in on a potential replacement for him. Do you have any thoughts on whether the governor in South Carolina should name his sister as his replacement? So, I mean, I think it would be great, a great Lindsey's sister. I mean, Lindsey had a tough life. I think the way he's always explained to me, he grew up on the, they lived above a bar. His parents ran a bar. And so his parents died, I think, when he was 22. So he raised his sister from the time she was 13. So I think it'd be fantastic if she was chosen to replace him. I want to ask you about the war in Iran here, because CENTCOM has said that the U.S. blockade is set to begin again at 4 o'clock. We know the president has been speaking about where things stand with the State of Hormuz, saying wants to implement a 20% toll on eligible cargo. And there has also been a number of waves of heavy strikes again in Iran. It appears the ceasefire is all but over. Your take, Senator, on where things stand with the conflict in Iran and whether there's a path for peace? Well, the path for peace is all tied to what the Iranian regime does. I mean, President Trump doesn't want war. I mean, he's the last guy that wants to go to war. But also he is tired of Americans being killed. He knows we can't allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. So unfortunately, probably the only way we're gonna get this done is continue to destroy the Iranian regime. So I wanna thank our military members, men and women that are putting their lives at risk. I wanna thank the president for being able to have the guts to make the decisions that other presidents wouldn't make to stop American death in the Middle East by Iran and its proxies, Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah. So we all want hope for peace, but they can't have a nuclear weapon. So if they do, they'll use it against Americans. It seems there are some folks, though, who are frustrated by the way this process has played out. Senator, I'm wondering if you feel or share or recognize some of those frustrations of folks who have been watching this process. And it seems like every time there seems to be positive steps forward and a potential kind of end to this, that it seems like hostilities just start back over again. Well, I think we all have to recognize that the Iranian regime wants to kill us, wants to destroy our ally Israel. So it's gonna be hard, and it's gonna be hard until they have to come to the table. And they don't have enough pressure today. I always thought it was gonna be difficult, but I know this president wants peace, and he wants peace through strength. So my belief, it was always gonna be hard. But I'm with the president from the standpoint that I know he would like to get this behind us and get a regime there that just wants to live in friendship with other countries rather than trying to destroy other countries. Talk to me about the status of the Save America Act, Senator. I know there's been a lot of talk about this, not just with the Senate, but also with the House. Does this remain a priority? Is this gonna get called for a vote? I know the president has wanted to see it. It's a big priority. Where do things stand with that? Well, I'm gonna continue to sound the alarm, but we gotta get this passed. Republicans, Democrats, independents all across the country want it passed. The only ones that don't wanna pass are Democrats up here in DC, because they know they can't win their reelections without fraud. So I'm gonna continue to push. I know there's other colleagues of mine. Lindsey Graham was a great advocate. Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, and I'm gonna keep talking about it because it's what the American public wants. I think the two things we gotta get done right now is make sure we don't shut down government October 1, which the Democrats wanna do. And number two is get the Save America Act passed so we can make sure our elections are secure and actually the Americans feel comfortable that their elections are secure. Are the votes there for it, Senator? Absolutely. I mean, the way the Senate works is they always say, you have to have 60 votes for the filibuster. The filibuster only stops debate. So we ought to put it on the floor. Let's debate. If it takes two months to debate, let's debate for two months about it. Let the American public know where every US senator is. And then at that point, it's just 60 votes to stop debate and it's only 50 votes to pass it. We have 50 votes to pass it than with J.D. Vance. And I think by the time if we debate it for a couple months, I think we'd probably get a lot of Democrats on board because the American public, Democrats want it, Republicans want it, independents want it. So I continue to be optimistic, but it's up to the leadership. I know John Thune supports the bill. We just gotta make sure we allocate the time. Do you think Leader Thune is doing enough to get that bill passed in the Senate? Well, being a leader is tough. John Thune is a good guy. He works hard. So I'm a business guy. So success is when it happens. And so until we get it passed, there's always something more we can do. Senator, first time I've had the chance to speak with you since the Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship. I wonder what your reaction is to that decision. And if you think Congress needs to take the lead on a potential constitutional amendment, as we have heard, it appears that many are calling for that in the aftermath of this. Well, I don't think anybody believes that you come here as a tourist and you have a child, they become an American citizen. Or you come here illegally and you have a child, they should become an American citizen. So, or you use a surrogate, American surrogate, they become a citizen. You don't even step foot on this country. So I think we're gonna have to pass legislation or constitutional amendment to fix this. But I think the American public knows that this is being taken advantage, we're being taken advantage of. So what it tells you is you gotta clearly keep the border secure. You gotta vet whoever's coming here to make sure that people aren't abusing our immigration system. Senator, last thing here before I let you go. Another one of your longtime colleagues in the Senate made headlines a few days and over the past week, Mitch McConnell, a lot of questions and concerns about his health. And I'm just wondering, I know it's a tough situation. But I'm wondering if you have thoughts on what elected lawmakers and politicians owe to constituents and to the American people when it comes to their health and being transparent. I think we have to be transparent. People like this, they wanna know we can do our jobs, and they wanna know we're doing our jobs. And so I think with regard to health issues, people ought to be transparent. So I hope Mitch McConnell was able to come back. I texted him right after he fell and ended up in the hospital and I heard back from him right away. But I didn't, yesterday I texted him when he put out that post. I haven't heard back yet, but hopefully he's fine and he'll be back to the Senate soon. Hopefully it'll be this week, we need his vote. So I hope he'll get back here this week. And one more thing here, Senator Scott, you just wrote an op-ed for Fox News saying, if Americans work five days a week, why can't the Senate? Just for folks who maybe haven't checked out your post today, what's the message there? It's very simple. Most people work 40 hours a week, and that's five days a week. We don't. We come up here on Mondays, we start work at 5.30, we're done at 1.45 on Thursdays. So we ought to work five days a week. When I got the job in January 2019, I thought I was coming up here on Sunday night or Monday morning, finishing Friday night. That's why I did my business life. And as in this business fund, generally, I worked even more than that. I worked seven days a week off and I was always on call. And so I think we got a lot of issues we got to deal with in this country. We've got a lot of problems. We got to figure out how to get the cost of living down all across the country, get more jobs. We had a lot of issues to deal with. And so we're clearly not getting it done by working in two and a half days a week. Senator Rick Scott, we always appreciate your time. Thanks so much for joining us here on Florida Live today.