Tim Scott, the lone black Republican senator and lead sponsor of his party’s police reform effort, delivered an emotional rebuke to a top Senate Democrat on Wednesday who earlier in the day had argued against a “token” approach to the issue. Scott said such a comment “hurts my soul” as the country struggles to address racial injustice.
“To think that on this day, as we try to make sure that fewer people lose confidence in this nation – to have the senator from Illinois refer to this process, this bill, this opportunity to restore hope and confidence and trust from the American people, from African Americans, from communities of color, to call this a token process hurts my soul for my country, for our people,” the South Carolina Republican said.
The GOP senator was reacting to remarks from Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois earlier on Wednesday in which he discussed policing reform and said at one point, “What we say on the Democratic side is we cannot waste this historic moment, this singular opportunity. Let’s not do something that is a token, half-hearted approach. Let’s focus instead on making a change that will make a difference in the future of America.”
During the same floor speech, Durbin praised Scott, calling the senator a friend and saying that he respects him.
“He has done and said things, which I think made a real impact on this nation,” Durbin said. “His observations as an African American senator from South Carolina and what he’s gone through, not just in his state, but in his life and even in Washington, DC, they touch my heart. I know that they are genuine and so is he. When he was chosen on the Republican side to lead the effort to come up with some way of bringing justice to policing, I thought that’s a good choice and I still do.”
Durbin spoke of the Senate GOP legislation that Scott is leading, saying, “Now is the moment for us to work together to come up with a bipartisan bill that can pass the United States Senate. Let us not miss this opportunity, this historic moment to do something that will make a difference.”
Durbin’s office said later Wednesday that the Democratic senator had apologized to his GOP colleague. “The minute Sen. Durbin heard that he had offended Sen. Scott, he sought him out on the floor and apologized,” Emily Hampsten, Durbin’s communications director, said in a statement.
“What Sen. Durbin took issue with in his floor speech was not Sen. Scott’s bill, but that the Senate Majority Leader would short circuit this critical debate and fail to make the changes needed to prevent the killing of Black Americans by police officers. Addressing systemic racism and changing policing in America requires and deserves more than one Judiciary hearing, one floor vote, one conversation,” she added.
Senate Republicans, led by Scott, formally unveiled their proposal for policing reform Wednesday morning with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promising swift action on the legislation amid nationwide civil unrest and protest over police misconduct and racial injustice.
House and Senate Democrats had previously released their own competing proposal, and congressional Democrats criticized the GOP proposal as inadequate after its release on Wednesday.
Key differences between the legislative proposals from Republicans and Democrats are likely to create hurdles to any attempt to get legislation across the finish line in Congress and to the President’s desk.
The GOP plan has a major emphasis on incentivizing states to take action. The Democratic plan, in contrast, has a heavy emphasis on setting national standards, such as mandates for federal uniformed officers to wear body cameras and a ban on chokeholds. Scott’s proposal does not include an outright ban on chokeholds, but the Republican senator argued earlier this week that “we get very, very close to that place” by blocking federal grant funds to departments that don’t ban chokeholds themselves.
The Democrats’ plan also bans no-knock warrants, the type of warrant that ultimately led to the wrongful shooting death of Breonna Taylor. Scott’s plan, in contrast, does not ban no-knock warrants but instead requires states to provide data on when they use no-knock search warrants.
“We don’t have any information around no-knock warrants, so for us to start a conversation with banning no-knocks doesn’t sound like a solid position based on any data because we don’t have that data. Once we have the information, we can then turn to the training that is necessary to de-escalate situations,” Scott said earlier Wednesday, discussing the Senate GOP plan.
Scott often speaks out about the difficult encounters he’s had with police, even while he was an elected official in South Carolina and as a sitting US senator in Washington. This includes multiple traffic stops for things like not putting on his turn signal early enough and being questioned by US Capitol Police about whether he could enter Senate office buildings. His personal stories have touched and opened the eyes of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have said they now better understand the problems African Americans, men in particular, face, such as what Scott has described as “driving while black.”