Tim Scott challenges Left to question his 'blackness' in Iowa speech while mulling 2024 run

Sen. Tim Scott officially kicked off his Faith in America 'listening tour' Wednesday in Des Moines, Iowa as the South Carolina Republican dared liberals to challenge his 'blackness.' 

Scott, who is mulling a run for the White House, spoke of his family's own 'cotton to Congress' story and said that his own story was 'living proof' of the American Dream. 

'I am here because my family chose faith over anger, responsibility over resentment, and patriotism over pity,' the senator told a crowd of around 60 at Drake University. 

Sen. Tim Scott officially kicked off his Faith in America 'listening tour' Wednesday in Des Moines, Iowa as the South Carolina Republican is believed to be mulling a run for the White House

Scott noted that 'barely 10 percent' of Americans believe the state of the union is 'strong' and almost three-fourths of Americans believe the nation isn't on the right track

The speech was heavy on metaphors that detailed cultural grievances and tales of social decline. It was sprinkled with a focus on education issues and school choice and what Scott sees as an 'assault' on faith. 

'I am living proof that our founders were geniuses who should be celebrated, not canceled. That we’re a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression,' he said. 

'For those of you on the Left, you can call me a prop, you can call me a token, you can call me the "N" word, you can question my blackness, you can even call me Uncle Tim. Just understand: Your words are no match for my evidence. Your pessimism is no match for my history,' the senator said. 

'Parents, you do not pay property taxes so that adults with agendas can tell your kids there are 100 genders but only one ideology,' Scott said.

Scott noted that 'barely 10 percent' of Americans believe the state of the union is 'strong' and almost three-fourths of Americans believe the nation isn't on the right track.

'Fentanyl isn't the only poison flooding our countries. Politicians and the culture are getting communities hooked, hooked on the drug of victimhood and the narcotic of despair. They are addictive and they are lethal,' Scott said. 

'People see themselves as victims with no hope, no accountability, and no skin in the game. How did this happen? For two and a half centuries the rest of the world marvel at Americans' confidence and ambition.' 

Scott laid out a hypothetical where 'America's greatest enemy' was devising a blueprint to 'destroy America.' 

'You'd amplify attention seekers who say America is an evil country - make it easy to get rich and famous by feeding the empty calories of anger to people who are starving of hope.' 

Scott then touched on critical race theory and gender education in schools.  

'You'd make grade schools worse at teaching math, science and English, but start sex ed in kindergarten,' he said. 

'One years ago, children were taught the color of their skin defined them. If you wanted to ruin America, you'd bring that back - teach white kids they're oppressors, teach black kids and brown kids their grievances, not greatness.'

Amb. Nikki Haley, who recently announced her bid for the White House, held her own set of two town halls in Iowa this week  

Former President Donald Trump was the first major Republican candidate to officially announce 2024 bid for the White House and paid a visit to East Palestine, Ohio on Wednesday

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has yet to announce his White House aspirations but he's currently on a pro-police 'Law and Order' tour and made a stop in New York City's Staten Island - a conservative slice of NYC - earlier this week

Former Vice President Mike Pence has been coy about his presidential plans but that might change soon.

'If a football coach prays with high schoolers, you get fired. But if teachers tell little kids, they can pick their gender, they'd get promoted. You'd let big labor bosses trap poor kids in the worst schools with no choice and no voice.'  

He praised Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' school choice bill, signed last summer which allows Iowa families to use up to $7,598 a year in an 'education savings account' for private school tuition.

Scott went on: 'You spend the people's money hiring IRS agents instead of border patrol agents and if anybody questions it, just call them bigots.' 

Scott then again touched on his African American background, claiming progressives 'are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb.' 

'I was the poor African American kid they claim they're protecting. So I want the left to hear me clearly: your soft on crime policies are killing us,' he said. 

'I was the teenager whose spirit would have been crushed by a culture obsessed with identity politics and racial strife. We were the family with a fragile budget that the Democrats inflation would have destroyed.' 

He told of how he was raised by a single mother from the Jim Crow south and almost flunked out of high school, as he knocked Democrats for peddling 'abortion without limit.' 

'You better believe it is personal when liberals suggest that people like my momma — a young, poor, black lady — would have a better and more dignified life if I were never born at all.'

Scott went on: 'I was the teenager whose spirit would have been crushed by a culture obsessed with identity politics and racial strife. We were the family with a fragile budget that the Democrats inflation would have destroyed.' 

The speech was well-received by members of the audience, who largely said the GOP primary would benefit from Scott jumping into the race but weren't sold on who had their vote yet. 

Preacher Byron Foxx drove from Virginia to hear Scott, a senator who he's 'long admired' speak. 

'I think he knocked it out of the park,' Foxx said. 'I'm not sold that he's the right one, but I'm certainly sold on him putting his hat in.' 

'It was energetic - very passionate,' Drake University law student Haley Ledford said. 'It's a huge issue, school choice and parents being more involved in their children's education.'  

Scott and former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley have been following each other across the map - both speaking to voters in early primary state South Carolina before this week both traveling to Iowa - the site of the GOP's first-in-the-nation caucuses. 

Haley held two town halls this week after announcing her candidacy in Charleston, S.C. last week. 

Former Vice President Mike Pence, also believed to be eyeing a potential run, visited Cedar Rapids, Iowa last week. 

Former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the current front runners in a potential matchup, do not yet have trips to Iowa on the books. 

Trump is currently in East Palestine, Ohio - the site of Norfolk Southern's catastrophic train derailment that resulted in a toxic chemical spill. 

Instead of Iowa, Desantis made appearances in New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago on Monday where he accused the cities' liberal lawmakers of trying to 'out-woke each other' in part of what his team describes as a pro-police tour.