Below is an edited transcript of U.S. Sen. Tim Scott’s address to the Republican Jewish Committee on September 5, 2024.
One year ago, Israel was attacked. Homicidal terrorists had desecrated Israeli communities, bombarding and invading the Jewish state.
So many innocent men, women, and children — killed in cold blood on their own soil. And many more carried off as hostages.
We were stunned. But it was also a time of clear-eyed resolve.
We knew that America had to stop sending love letters and wire transfers to the terrorist supporters in Tehran. We knew that Republicans had to unite and bring an end to this failed Biden-Harris Administration that pays lip service in public to Israel while undermining them behind closed doors.
We were also confronting something deeper than policy failures. In our city streets, on our college campuses, we saw how the rot of anti-Semitism had spread throughout our institutions here at home.
And we resolved that we would cut out that cancer.
One year ago, I gave the terrorist sympathizers a few reminders.
Getting a federal subsidy for your education is not a right. It’s a privilege. Getting a student visa so you can be a guest in our country is not a right. It’s a privilege.
Let’s talk about what is a right: The right of Jewish Americans to walk their own neighborhoods in safety. The right of Jewish students to study and worship in peace.
It turns out a lot can change in one year
The elites who coddle anti-Semitism have seen enormous scrutiny. And many of them have gotten pink slips.
The president of the University of Pennsylvania — gone. The president of Columbia — see ya! The president of Harvard — hit the road, jack, and don’t come back. Two of the craziest Israel haters in the House Democrat caucus lost their own primaries.
Americans overwhelmingly support Israel over Hamas. We are the mainstream. We are on the right side of history. The vast majority of the American people count themselves as members of our parade — and we’re on the march.
Our work isn’t finished, not even close — but we’re beginning to put the cancer of anti-Semitism back into remission.
But there’s a problem.
There is one institution in America where the regime change ran in the other direction.
One powerful place, where a leader who half-heartedly supported Israel was forced out and replaced with somebody who the radical, anti-Israel, far left likes much better.
It’s called the Democratic ticket for 2024.
Joe Biden has been a weak, disloyal partner for our friends in Israel. He’s slow-walked. He’s equivocated on the world stage. He’s emboldened Israel’s enemies and meddled in Israeli politics.
But even so, the radical left thought President Biden was too pro-Israel.
All those same people seemed mighty happy when Joe Biden was shoved off stage for the coronation of Kamala Harris. She’s pretending to sprint back towards the middle.
The Democrat Party and the corporate media are working overtime to rebrand this radical San Francisco liberal as some kind of centrist. She ran for President on racial reparations, socialized medicine, and open borders. And now these people want us to believe she’s somewhere between Bill Clinton and Barry Goldwater.
Just how dumb do they think we are?
I know Kamala Harris. I served in the Senate with Kamala. I’ve seen her in action. She’s going to pretend to be a moderate for the next nine weeks. And the media will bend over backwards to help her.
But come Inauguration Day that mask of moderation would fall right off.
The failed Joe Biden foreign policy we see today — with a weak America, an emboldened Iran, land wars in Israel and Europe, and terrorists on the march — would be the absolute best case scenario under President Harris.
There’s a reason why the radicals and the socialists and the anti-Semites were popping champagne corks when the Democrats coronated Kamala Harris.
It’s our job to make sure they aren’t drinking champagne on November 5th.
The stakes for America and the stakes for Israel are even higher today than they were two months ago. We have nine weeks to continue our momentum and keep building on our success where it matters most.
We have nine weeks to re-elect the best friend and partner the Israeli people have had in the White House in our lifetimes — President Donald J. Trump.
And we have nine weeks to put the most liberal presidential nominee in American history out to pasture.
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