Tim Scott blows off Trump’s NATO comments, silence on Navalny

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) on Sunday dismissed former President Trump’s recent remarks on NATO and his silence on the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, instead touting that he believed the former president made the world “safer” during his White House term. 

Pressed Sunday by CNN “State of the Union” anchor Jake Tapper on why Trump has not weighed in on the death of Navalny, Scott said, “I think a better question, really, is let’s look at the middle. Let’s look at the middle of the challenges that we face today across the globe.”

“And when President Trump was our president, there was no incursion in Ukraine, like there was under President Obama,” he continued. “When Trump left office, there was an actual all-out war in Ukraine. And so, when you ask the question about keeping Putin in check, you look at the actions and the administration of Donald Trump, and you come to one clear conclusion that without question, Ukraine was safer, the world was safer, and America was certainly safer.” 

Tapper pressed on this argument and contended Navalny was not “safer” when he died in prison on Friday. The Russian opposition leader was 47 years old and serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. In December, he was moved from a different prison to the highest security level facility in Russia.

President Biden has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the death of Navalny, calling his death “more proof of Putin’s brutality.” 

Trump has yet to speak publicly on Navalny’s death, drawing criticism from his political opponents, including GOP challenger Nikki Haley who called on the former president to “call out” Putin for Navalny’s death, and for the imprisonment of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia for nearly a year.

Tapper turned the focus to Trump’s controversial remarks about NATO last weekend, in which the former president recounted how an unidentified foreign leader once questioned him about his threat not to defend members who fail to reach the alliance’s defense spending targets. 

Trump claimed he told the leader he would “encourage” Russia to do whatever it wishes and recalled saying, “You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent.”

Tapper then played a clip of Scott’s remarks on NATO three months ago, in which the South Carolina lawmaker pointed to the importance of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. It states any attack on a NATO member in Europe or North America “shall be considered an attack against them all.”

Asked how his remarks square with Trump’s comments, Scott said, “I was 100 percent right then.”

“I’ll tell you this, without any question, from the beginning of the Ukraine war, what we’ve seen is actually Joe Biden dragging his feet,” Scott said. “This is after we saw the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, we’ve seen war in Ukraine, we have conflict in the Middle East, we have instability in the Indo-Pacific. What we need is strong American leadership.” 

Tapper pointed out Trump’s opposition to further aid to Ukraine, to which Scott said, “Well, we’ve already supported Ukraine with over $100 billion. And when I said that Joe Biden dragged his feet getting into this conflict in the beginning, I meant that look at the fact that we follow Germany, we follow Germany to help … Ukraine … not a NATO ally, but they help Ukraine. That is a really important first step that set us back months. What we’ve been doing since then is playing catch-up.” 

Trump’s remarks on NATO drew scrutiny from a slew of politicians, including Haley — a former Untied Nations ambassador — who accused Trump of “siding with a thug,” in reference to Putin. 

Scott, in an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” called Haley’s suggestion “ridiculous.” 

“I’m not sure what Nikki’s doing right now. I think she’s desperate, without question, she’s going to lose her home state [by] double digits,” Scott said, in reference to South Carolina’s primary slated for later this month.