Who is Tim Scott? Republicans’ only black senator launches 2024 presidential bid
The Republican Party’s only black senator Tim Scott has launched his bid to become its candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
Mr Scott filed his candidacy for the GOP nomination on Friday but kicked off his campaign officially with a speech to supporters in his hometown of North Charleston, South Carolina on Monday.
The 57-year-old South Carolina senator is the highest profile Republican to officially take on Donald Trump for the 2024 nomination so far.
“Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb,” Scott said. “And that is why I am announcing today that I am running for president of the United States of America.”
Tim Scott campaign workers in North Charleston on Monday
Only black politician to ever serve in both houses
Mr Scott’s political career has seen him make history on various counts.
Not only is he the sole black Republican in the US Senate, he is also the first black person ever to serve in both chambers of Congress.
Only 11 black people have ever served in the US Senate. Currently the other two are Democrats Cory Booker (New Jersey) and Raphael Warnock (Georgia).
He started off as a Democrat, however, when volunteering on the congressional campaign trail for Mark Sanford in South Carolina’s 1st district in 1994.
Inspired to run for a seat on Charleston’s County Council, he approached the local party, but was told to “get in line”, he revealed in an interview with Politico.
Instead he ran for the Republicans and in 1995 became the first black Republican to hold any political office in South Carolina since 1902.
He worked in insurance and as a financial adviser before entering politics full-time.
In 2009 he was elected to the South Carolina statehouse, two years before getting a seat in the House of Representatives in 2011.
The following year when South Carolina’s senator Jim DeMint retired, the then state governor Nikki Haley appointed him as his replacement.
Ms Haley is now Mr Scott’s rival for the 2024 nomination.
Tim Scott is the first black senator to serve in both chambers of Congress
Campaign ‘never about race’
Mr Scott is presenting himself as an antidote to the traditional rhetoric around race in the US.
He refused an invitation to join the Congressional Black Caucus in 2010, saying: “My campaign was never about race.”
Instead he chose the Women’s Caucus because he is the “product of a powerful single mother”.
In a speech in 2021, he said that while he has “experienced the pain of discrimination… America is not a racist country”.
At a Black History Month event in February, he said: “I’m not here to suggest that things could not get better and I’m going to work every single day to make sure that all Americans play on a level playing field.
“But today is not 1865 … We have made tremendous progress, and it’s time that we as a people celebrate the progress we are making.”
In his recent Politico interview he said he experienced “more racism” at times from his black friends – for not “meeting the expectation of the groupthink” at school.
He also revealed he has been stopped by police officers guarding the Capitol who didn’t know who he was.
Taking on Trump
Mr Scott has joined Ms Haley, the woman who helped him get into the Senate, and Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas’ former governor, in the race to rival Joe Biden for the next election.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is likely to announce his candidacy in the coming days.
The South Carolina senator has avoided being overly critical of his main rival Donald Trump.
But after Trump’s comments on the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville – that there were “very fine people on both sides” – he said the the -president had “compromised his moral authority to lead”.
Trump is ahead in the polls, but Mr Scott is popular with donors, including billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and voters in South Carolina.
There are 161 people still missing in Texas in the aftermath of last weekend’s deadly flash floods, the state’s governor has said.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, governor Gregg Abbot said the number of missing had risen markedly.
He said among the missing were five children and one counsellor from Camp Mystic – where at least 27 people were killed in the flash flooding.
At least 109 people are confirmed to have died in the floods, which took place on the 4 July weekend, but this figure has been steadily climbing ever since.
People comforted each other in Kerville. Pic: Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP
The bulk of deaths, and the main search for additional bodies, have been concentrated in Kerr County and the city of Kerrville.
The area was transformed into a disaster zone when torrential rains struck the region early last Friday, unleashing deadly flooding along the Guadalupe River.
Travis County, Kendall County, Burnett County, Williamson County, and Tom Green County were also hit.
Mr Abbot said many of those who were unaccounted for were in the Texas Hill Country area, but had not registered at a camp or hotel, posing further challenges for authorities.
Camp Mystic
Mr Abbot planned to make another visit to Camp Mystic.
The century-old all-girls Christian summer camp was badly hit by the flash floods, with at least 27 campers and counsellors dying.
Hanna Lawrence, left, and Rebecca Lawrence, right. Pic: John Lawrence/AP
Lila Bonner (L) and Eloise Peck both died in the flash floods at Camp Mystic, Texas. Pic: Family handout
Chloe Childress. Pic: Debra Alexander Photography via AP
Some of the victims include Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence, both eight, Chloe Childress, 19, who was among the counsellors at Camp Mystic when the flood hit, and Eloise Peck and Lila Bonner, both nine.
There were scenes of devastation at the camp as the flood water receded.
Outside the cabins where the girls had slept, mud-splattered blankets and pillows were scattered.
Also in the debris were pink, purple and light blue luggage, decorated with stickers.
A view inside a cabin at Camp Mystic after the flooding. Pic: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
Camper’s belongings lie on the ground following flooding on the Guadalupe River, at Camp Mystic.
Pic: Reuters
‘Everything looked flooded and broken’
One of the campers, 10-year-old Lucy Kennedy, told Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, that she woke up to the sound of thunder at around midnight before the floods struck.
“I couldn’t go back to sleep,” she said. “I just had a feeling that something really bad was about to happen.”
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
She said the girls at the camp were told to grab blankets, pillows and water bottles and line up single file as the floodwater rose, before getting airlifted to safety.
Wynne Kennedy, Lucy’s mother, added: “When I saw her, she was wrapped up in a blanket, had a teddy bear.
“We just held each other tight, and I held her all night.”
Their home in Kerrville was also destroyed by the flash floods.
Lucy Kennedy, 10 who was rescued from Camp Mystic, and her mother Wynne. Pic: NBC
Political row
Meanwhile, a political row has unfolded parallel to the recovery efforts, with some questioning whether local authorities sent out warnings and alerts early enough.
Similarly, Democrats have criticised Donald Trump over cuts his Elon Musk-launched Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made to the National Weather Service – but it isn’t clear whether these actually made any difference.
Read more:
Sisters killed in Texas flooding found holding hands
Why did deadly Texas floods catch people by surprise?
Wall of water
The flash floods erupted before daybreak on Friday, after massive amounts of rainfall caused the Guadalupe River to rise by eight metres in less than an hour.
The wall of water overwhelmed cabins, tents and trails along the river’s edge.
Some survivors were found clinging to trees.
Some of the campers had to swim out of their cabin windows to get to safety, while others clung to rope to make it to higher ground.
The date for Sean “Diddy” Combs’s sentencing hearing has been confirmed.
Following his high-profile trial, the hip-hop mogul was found guilty of two counts of transportation for prostitution by jurors in Manhattan, New York, last week – but was cleared of sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
Defence lawyers argued Combs, who has been in prison in Brooklyn since his arrest in September last year, should be bailed ahead of sentencing given the not guilty verdicts for the more serious charges, but Judge Arun Subramanian denied this – citing, among other things, the rapper’s own admissions of previous violent behaviour.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in court after the verdict was delivered. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
The charges of sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy carried a potential life sentence. Combs still faces up to 20 years in prison for the prostitution-related offences, but is not expected to receive the maximum punishment.
After the verdict was delivered, the judge scheduled the sentencing hearing for 3 October. At a remote follow-up conference on Tuesday, with agreement from the defence and prosecution, the judge approved the date.
Combs joined the call but did not make any comment.
Any sentence will include credit for time already served – which will be just over a year by the time the hearing takes place.
During his trial, Combs was accused by prosecutors of abusing and coercing three alleged victims, including his former long-term partner, singer and model Cassie Ventura.
Jurors found the allegations did not amount to sex-trafficking or racketeering, or running a criminal enterprise – but they did find him guilty of transporting Cassie and another former girlfriend “Jane” for prostitution offences around the US, and paying male escorts to engage in sexual encounters.
Despite the guilty verdict on those charges, the 55-year-old’s team described it as “the victory of all victories”.
Read more:
How the trial unfolded
The rise and fall of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
In an interview over the weekend, defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo said Combs had received a standing ovation from fellow inmates when he returned to jail after being acquitted of the more serious charges.
“They all said, ‘We never get to see anyone who beats the government’,” he said.
Ahead of sentencing, Combs’s lawyers will file their recommendations by 19 September, with prosecutors likely to follow a week later.
Prosecutors previously said the rapper could face about four to five years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, while the defence has suggested a two-year sentence.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike