The Lincoln Project is engaging in Florida, keying in on an unpopular proposal from U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.
The minutelong “It’s In The Plan” is predicated on an interview Scott did on Fox News Sunday last March, where the Florida Senator explained his plan to “rescue America.” That interview included a surprisingly contentious back and forth with host John Roberts and saw Scott accuse his interviewer of using “Democrat talking points” when accusing him of wanting to sunset Social Security and Medicare.
“It’s not a Democratic talking point! It’s in the plan,” asserted the generally low-key Roberts.
“It’s exceedingly rare that The Lincoln Project ever highlights a Fox News interview for being correct about something, but John Roberts was exactly right to call Senator Scott out … but Scott’s lies were too much even for Fox,” said Reed Galen, executive director and founder of The Lincoln Project.
“The GOP continues to target the most vulnerable of our citizens and lie about what they are doing. We won’t stand for it and we commend President Joe Biden for publicly calling it out Tuesday night.”
Not only did President Biden deliver an attack at the State of the Union, he also brought the show on the road to Florida, where he mocked the Scott proposal, which staffers delivered to the speech in pamphlet form.
“They were offended, liar, liar,” Biden recounted, lampooning Republican critiques of Biden’s comments from the SOTU. “I reminded them that Florida’s own Rick Scott was the guy who ran the Senate campaign committee for Republicans last year. He had a plan to sunset. Maybe he’s changed his mind. Maybe he’s seen the Lord.”
The Lincoln Project spot, which will air on television in the Washington market next week with social media buys before that this weekend, comes as Scott’s principal Senate antagonist, Republican leader Mitch McConnell, suggested the first-term Florida Senator could be vulnerable in next year’s election due to the onerous optics of the “rescue America” pitch.
“I think it will be a challenge to deal with this in his own re-election in Florida, a state with more elderly people than any other state in America,” McConnell said Thursday on a Kentucky radio show.