Obama, GOP Sen. Scott trade barbs on race relations in the U.S.

Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former President Barack Obama traded jabs this week over race relations in the U.S. and Scott's messaging on the matter during his 2024 presidential campaign.

Obama launched the first salvo during a Thursday interview with David Axelrod, one of his former advisors, suggesting Scott lacked a plan to adequately address the issue.

"I'm not being cynical about Tim Scott individually," Obama said, but "if a Republican, who may even be sincere in saying, 'I want us all to live together,' doesn’t have a plan for how do we address crippling generational poverty that is a consequence of hundreds of years of racism in this society, and we need to do something about that."

"If that candidate is not willing to acknowledge that, you know, again and again, we've seen discrimination in everything from job practice, you know, getting a job to buying a house to how the criminal justice system operates and so that somebody who does the exact same offense, the kind of sentencing, the likelihood that they do jail time is going to be different based on their race," he added. "If somebody is not proposing both acknowledging and proposing elements that say, no, we can't just ignore all that and pretend as if everything's equal and fair, we actually have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. If they're not doing that, then I think people are rightly skeptical."

Scott, for his part, contended that his political detractors frequently deny the racial progress the nation has made and asserts that his own success story undercuts their position.

"Let us not forget we are a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression. Democrats deny our progress to protect their power. The Left wants you to believe faith in America is a fraud and progress in our nation is a myth," Scott said Friday, per The Hill. "The truth of MY life disproves the lies of the radical Left. We live in a country where little Black and Brown boys and girls can be President of the United States. The truth is – we’ve had one and the good news is – we will have another."

Scott is currently challenging former President Donald Trump and a host of other Republican rivals for the party nomination. He currently holds an average support of 3.5%, according to RealClearPolitics.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.