Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, speaks to guests gathered at New Beginnings Church in the Woodlawn neighborhood on Oct. 23, 2023, in Chicago. / Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 25, 2023 / 18:10 pm (CNA).
GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, spoke with “EWTN News Nightly” correspondent Erik Rosales on Sunday about his backing of a 15-week abortion limit and gradually building a “culture of life” in America.
He also discussed a range of issues he has focused on in his campaign, including his strong support for school choice, his immigration stance, and his Christian faith.
Rosales caught up with Scott on the campaign trail in Iowa and asked him about his support for limiting abortion to 15 weeks.
“As president of the United States, I would sign very conservative pro-life legislation, and that’s why we start with a 15-week limit across the nation,” he said. “We cannot allow states like California or Illinois to have abortion up until the day of birth. That is just wrong.”
He added that after stopping policies allowing abortion up until birth “creating the culture of life is how we win and are successful in saving more lives.”
Scott recently released an education plan that would give more control to parents and broaden school choice. He told Rosales that he sees the issue of education as “a state and local issue.”
“The federal government provides two major buckets of resources: one is Title I for failing and challenging schools, Title II for kids with special needs. I would make both of those buckets of dollars portable,” he said. “Wherever the kid goes, the money follows. There’s no question that quality education is really important and frankly, as a result of COVID we saw kids trapped and out of the classroom.”
He went on to praise Catholic schools for their approach to the COVID pandemic.
“The largest drop in test scores in American history came because of COVID, but the Catholic schools saw their numbers stay steady or even improve,” he said. “That drastic contrast is alive for every American to see and we want more quality education, and I can’t think of a better example of that right now in America than Catholic schools.”
Another issue he touched on in the interview was how he would address the immigration crisis at the southern border. Scott said that “without a southern border, we will lose our country” and backed “a smart wall with the kind of technology that sees the tunnels below and the activities above.”
He said that using “military-grade technology on our southern border will stop the flow of fentanyl that has led to the deaths of 70,000 Americans in just 12 months” and “having a physical barrier would slow down the more than 6 million illegal crossings and the 200-plus people caught on our national security watch list.”
In response to a question about the thousands of children in the country through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and whether some sort of immigration reform would be a part of his presidency, Scott said his first priority would be securing the border and then discussing reforms.
“Without first dealing with the southern border crisis,” he said, “it’s really hard for us to get to step two and deal with any other issues. And so, my position would be the same that the most compassionate thing we can do immediately is to eliminate the threat coming from our southern border. That opens up the conversation for us to talk about a meritocracy in this nation as it relates to a border, as it relates to immigration policy.”
Turning to foreign policy matters, Scott addressed the Israel-Hamas war, saying the U.S. “should have our single-minded approach in funding Israel and giving them the resources, replenishing the supplies that are necessary for them to be successful.” He called for “bipartisan, hopefully unanimous support for the state of Israel.”
He also touched on how his Christian faith keeps him grounded on the campaign trail. He said that he begins every morning with prayer, reading from the book of Proverbs, and doing a devotional. “The more I search out the Gospel, the better off I am the entire day,” he said. “You need it every single day.”