Trump Defended In New York By Fellow Florida Man: Rick Scott

MIAMI — Sen. Rick Scott wants America to know: He’s standing by his friend and fellow Florida Republican Donald Trump during his criminal trial.

The Florida Republican’s decision to accompany Trump in the Manhattan courtroom on Thursday was a move Trump’s campaign appreciated — and one that inflamed Democrats who saw it as a way to remind the public about Scott’s own decades-old clash with the law.

Scott’s cameo in the courtroom is likely to help him in Florida, where the senator is up for reelection and polling shows Trump ahead of President Biden by more than 10 points. At the same time it could hurt him among those less enamored of the former president.

It came as Trump faced some especially salacious testimony from porn star Stormy Daniels, who took the stand and appeared to enrage the former president when she told the jury about their alleged sexual encounter.

While plenty of members of Congress have talked about Trump’s trials on the airwaves or fundraised off them, Scott is believed to be first to join the former president at the courthouse. It even gave Scott an opening to amplify comments the former president has made to discredit the New York case.

On Thursday morning, Scott drove with Trump from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue down to the courthouse in Lower Manhattan, where the presumptive GOP nominee is on trial related to hush money allegations to cover up an affair. Scott sat in the front row of the courtroom while the defense questioned Daniels.

Scott, a former hospital chain CEO who served two terms as Florida governor, then walked outside and spoke to the cameras three hours into the trial. “I’m here because I have known Donald Trump a long time,” he said. “I knew him before I was governor. I consider him a friend. And what he is going through is just despicable.”

While the former president is under a gag order that prevents him from publicly commenting on jurors, witnesses or other people involved in the case, Scott faces no such restriction unless prosecutors can prove the senator’s remarks were directed by Trump.

The senator told reporters that one of the prosecutors, Matthew Colangelo, used to work in the Justice Department — a suggestion that the case against Trump is politically motivated. He also disparaged Justice Juan Merchan’s family members.

Trump is allowed to publicly comment on District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the judge overseeing the case.

Trump and Scott have known each other for more than 25 years, talk regularly and see each other at functions roughly once a month, said Scott reelection campaign senior adviser Chris Hartline. In their official capacities they worked together on Everglades restoration and on policies toward Cuba and Venezuela.

“It’s not just a political alliance,” Hartline said. “It’s a genuine friendship that has been built long before either of them were in office.”

Scott was invited to attend the trial by Susie Wiles, Trump's senior campaign adviser, who was also Scott's first campaign manager, he told POLITICO during a brief interview on Capitol Hill. But he added that he decided to make public remarks and was not asked to do so by the campaign.

"He's standing strong, he's working hard," Scott said of Trump, and hinted at the possibility of going back to the trial.

His relationship with Trump is far different than with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Scott and DeSantis have feuded for years, going back to when DeSantis was an incoming governor. The dynamic was also on display last year when DeSantis turned down a chance to meet with President Joe Biden in the wake of a hurricane but Scott stepped in.

Trump complained last week that the streets near the courthouse were too blocked off, preventing his supporters from protesting. Since then, roughly three weeks into the trial, he’s been spotted with other key players in politics, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Wiles and Trump’s son Eric.

“The friendship and support of Sen. Scott is important to President Trump and to the campaign,” Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said. “When Biden and the Democrats are attacking you every minute of every day, it is always good to have strong friends and supporters at your side.”

Melissa Stone, who was Scott’s chief of staff when he was governor, said that Scott often ignores public opinion or what the GOP establishment wants. She added that he was “one of the best friends you can have” when going through a difficult time, saying he called every day when her son was in the neonatal intensive care unit.

“This is the most on brand thing Rick Scott has ever done, because he has a very strong sense of right and wrong and strong sense of sticking up for someone when he feels like they are in an unfair situation,” she said.

MAGA Inc., the super PAC supporting Trump, shared Scott’s comments about the prosecution on social media. Scott’s reelection campaign sent a roundup of the senator’s various comments during the day to reporters on Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday, Scott insisted that, to him, the case was personal, not only because of his relationship with Trump but because he saw similarities to his own life. Outside the courthouse, as well as early in the morning in a Fox & Friends appearance, Scott raised the fact that he opposed Hillary Clinton’s health care reform proposal in the 1990s. He then accused the Justice Department of going after the hospital chain he led, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., as an act of retribution.

“This can’t continue,” Scott said. “What is happening to this president is wrong.”

Scott left the company in 1997 while it was under a federal investigation that ultimately led to a record $1.7 billion for Medicare fraud. Over the years, Scott has maintained his innocence and has faced attacks about it in all of his runs for office, though his approach to it has evolved since his 2010 gubernatorial run, when he said he took responsibility and learned from the experience. He became one of the wealthiest members of Congress after a childhood spent in poverty and is able to self-fund his political campaigns.

Florida Democrats made it clear that 2024 would be no different in terms of focusing on Scott’s Medicare record and accused him of being in New York “kissing up to Trump.” The group used Scott’s comments outside the courthouse to blast him in an email to reporters and on social media.

Scott’s likely challenger, Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former congresswoman from Ecuador, had a similar message and slammed Scott for missing a procedural vote to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, which ended up passing by a wide bipartisan margin.

“Instead of showing up to vote on a bill that protects Florida travelers, strengthens air safety, and provides our aviation workforce with the resources they need to secure our skies, Rick Scott spent his day sucking up to a defendant found liable for sexual abuse,” she said in a statement. “It should come as no surprise that the man who oversaw one of the largest Medicare frauds in history would put himself and his own extreme agenda before the people he was elected to represent.”

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.