Rick Scott mocked for saying that he's 'considering' run for Senate GOP leader to replace Mitch McConnell

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA: Senator Rick Scott (R-Fl.) has expressed his intention to "seriously consider" running for the position of Senate Republican Leader.

In an interview on ‘The Charlie Kirk Show', Scott stated that he would focus on improving communication with rank-and-file Republican senators if elected.

Sen. Scott views this as a significant opportunity and is keen to explore this possibility further, per a report from The Hill.

The former governor of the Sunshine State explained, “We could actually have somebody that actually believes in this country and believes in solving the problems of this country running the Senate when we get a majority in November. We could make big change.”

What did Sen. Rick Scott say on ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’?

The 71-year-old Florida senator made his remarks when Kirk asked whether he would consider running for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who announced Wednesday that he will retire at the end of the year.

“I’m seriously considering it. As you know, I ran against McConnell about 14 months ago,” Sen. Scott replied.

It has been reported that Senator Scott's entry would make it a three-way race with Senate Republican assistant leader, John Thune, and former Senate GOP assistant leader, John Cornyn.

The latter two have been in talks with their colleagues about serving as the next Senate GOP leader, and Cornyn formally announced his candidacy on Thursday, February 29.

After the 2022 midterm election, Senator McConnell defeated Senator Scott by a vote of 37-10.

However, Senator Scott has stated that he did not have enough time to campaign as Senator McConnell had rushed the vote.

At the time, some Senate conservatives argued that their colleagues should have followed Senate GOP conference rules and held the leadership election in January 2023, which would have given Senator Scott more time to mount a challenge.

“He rushed the vote to the next day, we weren’t able to prevail,” Sen. Scott recalled.

Now, he and other conservatives, notably Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), are pushing for a conference meeting to allow GOP senators to discuss how they want to reform party leadership.

“Here’s the process we’re going to go through. First thing we’re doing is we’ve called — Ron Johnson, Mike Lee and I and some others — have called for a conference meeting and said, ‘Hey, what do we want to be?’” Scott shared with Kirk.

As a "former business guy," Scott claims he would like to develop a mission statement that encapsulates "what we stand for."

Once Republican senators have discussed what they stand for, the following question would be, "Who are we going to elect to do it?" he said.

He went over a list of potential action items for the Republican conference, including border security, budget balancing, and making "sure we're not in forever wars."

Sen. Scott declared that if Republicans ought to continue on “the same path we’ve been going down” under McConnell’s leadership, then they mustn’t vote for him.

“Because I’m not doing,” he asserted. “I’ve been fighting to fix your federal government and hold your federal government since I’ve got up there,” referring to Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), JD Vance (R-Ohio), Lee and Johnson as allies.

Notably, Senator Scott was careful in discussing his potential leadership bid soon after McConnell announced his decision to step down from leadership.

At first, the Florida senator told reporters that he would concentrate on his re-election campaign, giving the impression that he was not very likely to make another attempt to become Senate GOP leader.

“As you know, I’m up for re-election. So I’m focused on my re-election,” he said at the time. “As you know, I thought we should have had a change in leadership. I think there’s a better way to run the Senate.”

Internet mocks Senator Rick Scott

People on X trolled the Florida GOP Senator for possibly jumping in the race to replace outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

One X user remarked, "He's softball."

"Cant we get some young republicans in there. We need some energy," another user said. 

"The Social Security killer and Medicare crook is the perfect replacement for Moscow Mitch," another user snarked. 

One user suggested, "Nope Rand Paul."

A user tweeted, "I don’t think I can travel to Florida anymore because the time difference is too much. It’s 1860 there."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.