Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said that discussions with President Donald Trump about race have been difficult, but he saw reasons to be hopeful.
“They’re hard, they’re painful, they’re uncomfortable to sit in the Oval Office and have a conversation with the president about things that you strongly disagree about… he didn’t change his perspective, I certainly can’t change my perspective,” Scott said in an interview with CNN’s Van Jones.
“The way it closed, I thought, gave me reasons to be hopeful. It closed with: ‘Tim, I don’t see what you see. What can I do to make things better?’” Scott said in the interview.
“That was a shocking response,” Scott said in the interview, which airs Sunday on CNN. “I was surprised after the conversation that his response was, ‘Help me see a better light,’” Scott added.
The senator said that his discussion with Trump got the president to support his “opportunity zone” legislation, which would use tax incentives to invest in areas with high poverty. That legislation got added to the tax bill, Scott noted during the interview.
Scott met with Trump after the president faced backlash from both parties for saying that both white nationalists and counter-protesters were to blame for the Charlottesville, Virginia violence at a rally that racist groups organized.
Scott said in April that Trump asked him during the conversation to help improve race relations. “I was very candid about my displeasure,” Scott said about his discussion with Trump.
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