Trump praises Scott amid VP speculation
Former President Trump on Friday piled on the praise for Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) during a rally in South Carolina amid speculation Scott is among the front-runners to serve as Trump’s running mate.
Scott addressed the crowd ahead of Trump at a rally in Rock Hill on the eve of the South Carolina primary. During Trump’s remarks, the former president went on an extended tangent to take note of Scott’s fervent support.
“He ran, and he was OK,” Trump said of Scott’s 2024 campaign, which he suspended in October. “He’s a respected guy. But he ran and he did fine, and then when he got out he endorsed me and he’s a surrogate. He’s the greatest surrogate I’ve ever seen.”
“This guy went from modest, high-quality man, introducing his mother — who’s incredible, by the way. … He’s a much better representative for me than he is a representative for himself,” Trump continued. “And it’s true. And that’s a great compliment. And you know why? Because he’s a high-quality person. He doesn’t like talking about himself.”
Trump’s compliment of Scott comes as the South Carolina senator has been one of the most visible supporters of the former president since endorsing him last month.
Scott has defended Trump’s comments about NATO, repeatedly attacked GOP rival Nikki Haley, who appointed Scott to his Senate seat, and declined to say whether he would have certified the 2020 election results if he were vice president.
Special prosecutor Nathan Wade visited Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) at her condo at least 35 times prior to when they claim their relationship began, according to an analysis of cellphone data compiled by an investigator working with former President Trump’s legal team.
The new document, filed Friday, raises questions about the veracity of Willis and Wade’s testimony regarding the timeline of their relationship.
Trump and his co-defendants are attempting get their historic election racketeering indictment tossed by disqualifying the district attorney’s office over the duo’s romantic ties, claiming it created a conflict of interest. Willis’s office has acknowledged the relationship but insists there is no conflict.
Following a dramatic hearing last week at which Willis, Wade and others testified about the romance, the judge will hear arguments next Friday at 1 p.m., Trump’s lead Georgia attorney, Steve Sadow, told The Hill. Afterward, the judge is expected to issue a ruling on whether to disqualify prosecutors.
As part of his decision, the judge is weighing contesting claims as to when the romance began.
Defense attorneys purport that the prosecutors began seeing each other romantically prior to Wade’s Nov. 1, 2021, hiring as special counsel in the Trump case. Willis and Wade have both maintained that their relationship became romantic in early 2022 and ended in summer 2023.
ATLANTA, GA – FEBRUARY 15: Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade attends a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on February 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Judge Scott McAfee is hearing testimony as to whether DA Fani Willis and Wade should be disqualified from the case for allegedly lying about a personal relationship. (Photo by Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images)
Wade testified last week that he had been to the Hapeville, Ga., condo where Willis was living but no more than 10 times before he was hired. He said he “never” spent the night there, which Willis affirmed in her testimony.
“So, if phone records were to reflect that you were making phone calls from the same location as the condo before Nov. 1 of 2021, and it was on multiple occasions, the phone records would be wrong?” Trump attorney Steve Sadow asked Wade last week.
“If phone records reflected that, yes, sir. They’d be wrong,” Wade said.
On Friday, Trump’s team filed with the court the report from its investigator, who said he used a tool called CellHawk to analyze Wade’s cellphone data for the first 11 months of 2021. Most of that window is before Wade’s contract to work for the district attorney’s office began, and it is entirely before when prosecutors claim their romance began.
“This conservative analysis using the above referenced modality revealed a minimum of 35 occasions when Mr. Wade’s phone connected for an extended period to either one of those towers in closest proximity to the Dogwood address based upon associated data use, voice calls or text messages. The data reveals he is stationary and not in transit,” wrote Charles Mittelstadt, the investigator.
The Hill has reached out to Willis’s office for comment.
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Trump is on track to become the Republican nominee in November, and he is expected to trounce Haley in her home state of South Carolina on Saturday.
Scott, who is the lone Black Republican in the Senate, is considered one of a handful of Republicans in the mix to join Trump on the ticket. Others believed to be on the shortlist include Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
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