Tim Scott says ‘I’m running for president of the United States’ in announcement speech – as it happened

Republican senator Tim Scott threw his hat into the ring with a speech in South Carolina where he promised to pursue a more compassionate form of conservatism, while advocating for hardline border security policies and downplaying the effects of racial inequality on American society. The GOP’s presidential field is crowded and set to become more packed on Wednesday when Ron DeSantis makes his campaign official, but can anyone defeat the final boss of Republican politicians, Donald Trump? We’ll see.

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Here’s what else has happened today:

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• Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy will meet at 5.30pm to (hopefully) resolve the debt ceiling standoff.

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• The NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida over policies DeSantis has pursued as governor, and which he will likely try to sell voters on in his presidential campaign.

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• Mandatory water cuts were avoided in the west after the Biden administration and several states agreed to a deal regarding management of the Colorado river.

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• Trump and fellow South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham both wished Scott well on his presidential bid.

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• Speaking of Trump, federal prosecutors have evidence that he was warned he could not hold onto classified documents, the Guardian has confirmed.

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Now that Tim Scott has announced his run for the presidency, my colleague Nick Robins-Early has pulled together 10 things you need to know about the newest Republican hopeful.

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He writes:

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Scott is a 57-year-old senator from South Carolina

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Scott grew up in South Carolina, attending a Baptist university and owning an insurance company before becoming involved in politics. He entered politics in the mid-1990s as a Charleston, South Carolina, city council member before running for Congress.

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Scott was first elected to Congress in 2010

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Scott staked his political claim amid a wave of conservative opposition to Barack Obama’s presidency. As a member of the hardline conservative Tea Party movement, he was endorsed at the time by the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and became a rising star of the party. After two years as a congressman, he was chosen in 2012 to replace the Republican senator Jim DeMint and appointed to the Senate.

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Scott is the sole Black Republican senator

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Scott is the only Black Republican senator, and was the first Black Republican elected to the US House of Representatives from South Carolina in over a hundred years. He has previously talked about his unique role as a Black Republican and the discrimination he has faced from authorities, but has claimed that liberals use race as a way to divide voters. He faced heated criticism from Black activists in 2021 after declaring “America is not a racist country” in response to a speech from President Joe Biden that condemned racism following a white supremacist mass shooting.

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Here’s the full explainer:

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Republican senator Tim Scott threw his hat into the ring with a speech in South Carolina where he promised to pursue a more compassionate form of conservatism, while advocating for hardline border security policies and downplaying the effects of racial inequality on American society. The GOP’s presidential field is crowded and set to become more packed on Wednesday when Ron DeSantis makes his campaign official, but can anyone defeat the final boss of Republican politicians, Donald Trump? We’ll see.

“,”elementId”:”b3a169f9-21f4-4399-9146-78a92407fd08″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Here’s what else has happened today:

“,”elementId”:”579ac253-5bba-4668-a5e7-1655f0c414d5″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

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• Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy will meet at 5.30pm to (hopefully) resolve the debt ceiling standoff, which, by all indications, remains ongoing.

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• Trump and fellow South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham both wished Scott well on his presidential bid.

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• Speaking of Trump, federal prosecutors have evidence that he was warned he could not hold onto classified documents, the Guardian has confirmed.

n

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Tim Scott has said the magic words.

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“Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every single rung of the ladder that helped me climb and that’s why I’m announcing today I’m running for president of the United States of America,” the senator said to applause and cheers in his kick-off speech in North Charleston, South Carolina.

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He began the speech by recounting his upbringing from poverty and downplaying the impacts of racial disparities in the economy, saying “I’m living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression.”

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When it comes to policy, the senator is outlining familiar conservative priorities.

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“On my first day as commander in chief, the strongest nation on earth will stop retreating from our southern border,” he said.

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He embraced the conservative demand to deploy the military against drug traffickers, and vowed to restart construction of the border wall pioneered by Donald Trump.

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“When I am president, the drug cartels using Chinese labs and Mexican factories to kill Americans will cease to exist. I will freeze their assets, I will build the wall and I will allow the world’s greatest military to fight these terrorists. Because that’s exactly what they are.”

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Republican senator Tim Scott will in a few minutes officially kick off his presidential campaign with a speech in North Charleston, South Carolina, making him the latest entrant to the increasingly crowded Republican field.

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A senator since 2013, Scott is the only Black Republican in the chamber, and will be the second South Carolinian in the presidential race, after former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.

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He will probably not be alone in announcing his bid for the White House this week. Florida governor Ron DeSantis is expected to kick off his presidential campaign with a speech on Wednesday.

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