In the days following the Charlottesville attack, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina — the only black Republican in the Senate — has had a lot to say about President Donald Trump’s moral authority and why he thinks the country’s racial divide is widening every day.Scott told VICE News about one unintended result of Trump’s response to Charlottesville: “It does not encourage the team to work as hard as we should on those priorities, because there’s so much headwind that you can’t see straight.”He also noted that the president hasn’t reached out to him to have a conversation about race or Charlottesville, though he seemed unfazed by the delay.The senator also said he believes the country is more divided after President Barack Obama’s term in office and that the divide has grown even larger in the months since Trump assumed the presidency.“There’s no question that our country went from far — a far-left of this to a far-right position. And we’ve gotta take some time and examine why,” Scott said. Asked about the change, he attributed it to a stagnant economy and populist anger.Though Trump has yet to reach out to Scott, he and his Senate colleagues have engaged in a “very constructive dialogue” and “are looking for ways to make that dialogue manifest in policies and actions and frankly in responses.”
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