U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) has taken exception with U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R) over his assertion that Senate Democrats shamefully refuse to want to help Venezuelans after they voted down his Temporary Protection Status (TPS) amendment last week.
Shortly before her pro-Venezuela TPS roundtable in Weston, Florida with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Reps. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Donna Shalala, and Ambassador Carlos Vecchio, Rep. Wasserman Schultz was asked about Sen. Scott’s contention that Democrats are not doing enough to help the Venezuelan people.
Wasserman Schultz gave an emphatically “Rick Scott is full of BULL” answer to the question, as it was obvious that topic struck a sour note for the senior congresswoman from Florida.
“It is so disingenuous for him to suggest that he was for TPS for Venezuelans when what he was really doing was trying to pass an amendment that would completely upend Temporary Protective Status for every other group that already has it here,” said Wasserman Schultz
Wasserman Schultz then said when his “amendment failed miserably in the Senate,” that Sen. Scott vindictively “showed his true colors and opposed the underlying bill that would have granted TPS for Venezuelans,” adding that Scott was only for himself, and not for anyone else.
Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz then pivoted towards President Trump, saying that “Scott has been in bed with President Trump from day one,” and that “the only people” who care about Venezuelans are Democrats.
In addition, Wasserman Schultz said that Scott would rather push President Trump’s “twisted, discriminatory immigration policies,” and was “using the Venezuelan people for political gain.”
Senator Rick Scott's legislative office quickly responded to The Floridian’s request for comment about what Rep. Wasserman Schultz had alleged.
Sen. Scott called Wasserman Schultz’s statement that he did not support an “underlying” TPS bill in the Senate “false” and simply the “same old partisan nonsense we’ve heard from her for years.”
“Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz seems to have forgotten that she was unceremoniously ousted as Chair of the DNC. Her comments today, aside from being false, were the same old partisan nonsense we’ve heard from her for years.
The fact is, Senator Scott’s Amendment, which would grant TPS to Venezuelans immediately, is the only measure that can pass the Senate and become law. Her Democrat colleagues in the Senate blocked it last week.
If she actually cared about the Venezuelan community, rather than just wanting to use them as pawns to attack Republicans, she would urge her Democrat colleagues in the Senate to stop standing in the way of a solution.”- Chris Hartline, Communication Director for Senator Scott
