GOP's Tim Scott says Trump's retweet of video showing man chant 'white power' is 'indefensible'

(Image credit: Screenshot/CNN)

President Trump on Sunday morning retweeted a video that was later removed in which his supporters clashed with protesters in The Villages, a community in Florida. At the beginning of the video, a man driving by protesters in a golf cart can be heard shouting "white power," but the racist incident didn't stop the president from thanking "the great people of The Villages" for sticking up for him.

The video and Trump's endorsement of it led to a wave of criticism, including from in the Republican Party. During an appearance Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) bluntly told host Jake Tapper that Trump shouldn't have retweeted the video and "he should just take it down." Scott said he felt the entire video was offensive and profanity-laced, likely referring to some of the protesters swearing at the Trump supporters driving by, but he did acknowledge the president's retweet was "indefensible."

Scott, the lone Black Republican senator, didn't seem too keen to go into much further detail than that, indicating his succinct statement got his point across.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.