Media

Sunny Hostin: Tim Scott wouldn’t help Trump with Black viewers if picked as VP

Host/executive producer Sunny Hostin speaks in Investigation Discovery's "Truth About Murder with Sunny Hostin" panel at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour on Thursday, July 25, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) wouldn’t help former President Trump with gaining Black voters in the 2024 election if he ends up being picked as the vice presidential candidate.

Scott, who endorsed Trump early this year, is one of the candidates the former president is considering to pick as his VP among other governors, House and Senate lawmakers.

In Hostin’s view, Scott will not help Trump in gaining more support among Black voters.

“If anyone thinks that Tim Scott is going to bring over a bunch of Black men, they really need to just get with it, because Tim Scott is the only African American senator in the Republican Party for a reason,” Hostin said Friday as the panel discussed which lawmakers would help the most in attracting new voters.

Former Trump administration aide Alyssa Farah Griffin, who is also a co-host of the show, chimed in, stating Democrats have only a few more Black lawmakers in the upper chamber than Republicans.

Hostin pointed out that Democrats recently had Black lawmakers in all of the highest public-elected offices in the country. 

“But we have people like [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries, we have people like [New Jersey Sen.] Cory Booker, we have people like Sen. Kamala Harris, who’s now the vice president of the United States, we have former President Obama,” Hostin said. 

Scott ran in the GOP primary against Trump. He dropped his White House bid in November and formally announced his backing of the former president in January. Since then, he has joined Trump on a number of campaign stops, presenting why the 45th president should be elected back to the Oval Office in November.

Outside of Scott, other candidates Trump in consideration are fellow Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), along with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.