Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Republicans who are criticizing the party's candidates this year to "pipe down," and accused "Washington's chattering class" of loathing GOP voters.
Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, wrote an opinion column published Thursday in the Washington Examiner. The piece was at aimed at "the fools who have been trash-talking Republican candidates and Republican voters," and "the very people responsible for losing the Senate last cycle."
"It's an amazing act of cowardice, and ultimately, it's treasonous to the conservative cause," Scott wrote of the criticism surrounding candidates. "Giving anonymous quotes to help the Washington Post or The New York Times write stories trashing Republicans is the same as working with the Democratic National Committee.
"If you want to talk about the need to raise more money to promote our candidates versus the Democrats’ terrible candidates, I agree.
"If you want to trash-talk our candidates to help the Democrats, pipe down. That’s not what leaders do. And Republicans need to be leaders that build up the team and do everything they can to get the entire team over the finish line."
Scott said that party members trashing candidates really are disrespecting GOP voters.
"Ultimately, though, when you complain and lament that we have 'bad candidates,' what you are really saying is that you have contempt for the voters who chose them," Scott wrote. "Now we are at the heart of the matter. Much of Washington's chattering class disrespects and secretly (or not so secretly) loathes Republican voters."
Scott has been at odds with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky,, who last week said the GOP had a "50-50" chance of taking control of the Senate in the November midterm elections.
"These self-appointed 'smart guys' in Washington think they (not the voters) should be able to choose our candidates," Scott wrote. "The D.C. crowd should not choose candidates, and they do not, and they will not.
"The D.C. crowd did not choose me and actively opposed me in 2010 when I ran for governor in the Florida Republican primary. If the D.C. crowd was right, I wouldn’t be in the Senate."
Scott added that the GOP has "great candidates with incredible backgrounds and ideas to make our country better."
"And the truth is, all our candidates are great in this regard: They all oppose inflation, recession, open borders, violent crime, and 87,000 new IRS agents brought to America by Biden and this crop of Senate Democrats," Scott wrote. "And I will fight for all of them."
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