Rick Scott and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

Rick Scott and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

From trying to cover up his radical record against reproductive freedom to then doubling down on his support for Florida’s dangerous six-week ban before most women know they are pregnant, Rick Scott is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. Floridians deserve an honest senator who fights for their freedoms – the Debbie for Florida campaign will continue to hold Scott accountable.

Spectrum News:

• “If I was the sitting governor, and the six-week abortion ban came in front of me, I would sign it. I’ve always said I would sign it.”

Talking Points Memo:  Rick Scott Does Damage Control On His Abortion Anxiety Spiral

• There will be a six-week abortion ban in place when voters head to the polls in Florida in the fall to vote for not just the president and a U.S. senator, but also on whether abortion should be enshrined in the state constitution. That collocation has Republicans nervous and Democrats skeptically optimistic that Florida could be back on the map for the party.
• Some Republicans have been airing their anxieties publicly — but none quite as obviously as Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who is the senator up for reelection in the fall. Just two days ago he walked back his previous support for his state’s six-week abortion ban and declared in an interview with The Hill that a 15-week one is actually much better.
• Perhaps he got some feedback he didn’t like from the anti-abortion groups who have long supported his “pro-life” governing. Because in an interview with the local Spectrum News in Tampa Bay, Scott switched gears, saying he would sign the six-week ban if he were still governor.

Orlando Sentinel: Democrat Mucarsel-Powell takes aim at Rick Scott’s changing abortion views

• Last week, Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott said he would have signed Florida’s 6-week abortion ban if he still were governor. This week, he said he preferred a 15-week ban. And on Monday, within hours, he and his office gave two answers on whether he would consider voting for a federal abortion ban.
• “I think it’s a very competitive race,” said Gregory Koger, a professor of political science at the University of Miami. “It’s such a stark choice, and it’ll be hard for any politician to ignore the issue, or to avoid their past positions in the case of Rick Scott.”
• Asked Monday at a campaign event in Orlando if he would vote for a federal abortion ban in the Senate, Scott said, “We’ll see what comes up. We’ll see what it is. The general rule is that it’s at the state level, that’s what the Supreme Court decided.”
• In response to a Democratic legislator saying Scott had “come out against” the 6-week Florida abortion ban signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Scott wrote on X, “Not true. I am 100% pro-life and if I was still governor, I would sign this bill.”
• On Monday, though, Scott told The Hill, “in Florida there’s way more consensus around 15 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.” Asked specifically if he would favor replacing the 6-week ban with a 15-week ban, Scott told The Hill, “If I was writing a bill, I think 15 weeks is where the state is.”
• But on Tuesday night, he said he still would have signed the 6-week bill anyway.
• “If I was governor, and the 6-week abortion ban came in front of me, I would sign it,” he told Spectrum Bay News 9. “I’ve always said I would sign it.”
• Appearing on Fox Business on April 9, Scott said, “Well, look, this is what’s going to happen as a result of the overturn of Roe v. Wade. … We’re going to decide this at the state level. State by state is going to figure this out. I’m sure Arizona will figure this out. So this is exactly what ought to happen.”

Florida Politics: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell slams ‘scrambling’ Rick Scott for shifting abortion position

• U.S. Sen. Rick Scott continues to be plagued by an election cycle where abortion literally is on the ballot in Florida, providing the first chance for voters to weigh in since 2023’s Heartbeat Protection Act was passed, making the procedure illegal in most cases after six weeks of pregnancy.
• Likely Democratic opponent Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is taking Scott to task for rhetorical inconsistencies between alternating between saying he would have signed the abortion bill served up for then-presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, while also saying that “15 weeks” is closer to where he believes Floridians are.
• “If I was the sitting Governor, and the six-week abortion ban came in front of me, I would sign it. I’ve always said I would sign it,” Scott said during a television local market interview this week, providing a jumping off point for the Democrat’s criticisms of the Naples Republican.
• Those comments don’t comport with remarks he made to The Hill this week.
• “If I was writing a bill, I think 15 weeks is where the state is,” Scott said in an interview that ran on Monday.
• Scott also said in 2023 he would have signed the bill, even though he offered a more nuanced take in an interview with Univision that muddied the waters just like is happening now.

WFLA: ‘A nightmare’: Tampa Bay lawmakers, advocates respond to Sen. Scott’s stance on abortion rights

• “If I was the sitting governor and the six-week abortion ban came in front of me, I would sign it,” Scott said in the Spectrum News interview.
• Earlier this week, Scott said he would support replacing the more restrictive six-week abortion ban with the existing 15-week statewide abortion ban. He said it would line up with Floridian’s views because “…in Florida, there’s way more consensus around 15 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.”
• “We’re standing up here because we know, and make no mistake, that the reproductive rights of millions of women in Florida are on the line this November, not just on Amendment 4, but up and down the ballot,” Rep. Lindsay Cross said. “From Rick Scott, to Republicans in Tallahassee, none of them support your right to choose.”
• “It’s the worst piece of legislation I’ve ever seen come out of Tallahassee, and Sen. Rick Scott supports it,” Dr. Shephard said. “He previously said he would sign it into law, and yesterday, he doubled down again.”

Florida Politics: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell continues to hammer Rick Scott on abortion restrictions

• With the state’s Heartbeat Protection Act banning the procedure in most cases after six weeks of pregnancy, and a potential constitutional amendment that could roll back Florida’s abortion law to permit termination of pregnancy “before viability” of the fetus on the ballot, the former South Florida Congresswoman has repeatedly slammed Scott for rhetorical inconsistencies on the issue.
• Mucarsel-Powell said Scott on Tuesday “doubled down on his support for Florida’s near total abortion ban just 24 hours after claiming that he no longer supported it.”
• “Rick Scott can’t help but embrace the most extreme policies that are stripping away Floridians of their freedoms and that is putting women’s lives in danger,” she said.
• “Scott would still sign the near total abortion ban in Florida if he was Governor and he co-sponsored a national ban in the Senate, which by the way, it includes criminalizing doctors and health care providers for providing this medical care for women.”

Florida Phoenix: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell & other FL Dems again take on Rick Scott’s position on abortion rights

• “On Tuesday Rick Scott doubled down on his support for Florida’s near total abortion ban, just 24 hours after claiming that he no longer supported it,” said Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the leading Democrat running to challenge Scott in November, speaking on a Zoom call with reporters. “Rick Scott can’t help but embrace the most extreme policies that are stripping away Floridians of their freedoms and that are putting women’s lives in danger.”
• Scott, seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate, did tell Spectrum Bay News 9 in a video interview on Tuesday that, “If I was the sitting governor, and the six-week abortion ban came in front of me, I would sign it,” adding that “I’ve always said I would sign it.”
• An hour before video Murcasel-Powell’s press conference, a trio of Tampa Bay Democrats from the Florida House — Dianne Hart, Susan Valdes, and Lindsay Cross — spoke at a press conference in downtown Tampa, where they also linked the six-week ban with Sen. Scott.
• Shortly thereafter, Scott responded on X, writing, “Not true,” he wrote. “I am 100% pro-life and if I was still governor, I would sign this bill,” meaning the six-week abortion ban.

The Guardian: ‘This is a violent attack against women’: Florida Senate candidate seeks to channel abortion outrage

• A round table on abortion rights, hosted by Florida’s Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, has only just begun, and already she finds herself comforting a woman in tears with a very personal story to tell.
• Yet it has also acted as rocket fuel to the campaign of Mucarsel-Powell, an Ecuador-born former congresswoman and mother of two daughters. She seized on the issue to launch a statewide Freedom Tour championing the protection of abortion rights and exposing the “unapologetic and proud” support for the ban on the part of her opponent in November, the incumbent Republican senator Rick Scott.
• On Monday, her campaign announced it had raised over $3.5m in the first quarter of the year, with more than 5,300 new donors since the supreme court ruling. And Democrats across Florida are also sensing wind in their sails as opposition to the ban, as well as support for a court-approved ballot initiative that could enshrine access to the procedure in the state’s constitution, hardens.
• Also clear is Mucarsel-Powell’s disdain for Scott, who she believes is vulnerable in November as he defends the seat he narrowly won from the incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson in 2018 by only 10,000 votes from 8.2m cast.
• “If he goes back to the Senate, he will push for a national abortion ban,” she said. “His true agenda includes signing away women’s reproductive rights and trying to control their bodies.

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