Sen. Tim Scott staying neutral for now on renaming military bases

Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), the only African American Republican in the Senate, isn’t taking a position yet on whether to rename U.S. military bases named after Confederate generals.

Scott, who is taking the lead in drafting GOP legislation responding to the death of George Floyd and other African Americans killed by law enforcement, said the police reform bill is his top focus now.

“I haven’t given it much thought. I’ve certainly seen the reports of it all but ultimately I’ve been focusing on the police reform and no need to answer questions I haven’t given full thought to,” he said. 

“What I’ve learned is that the devil is always in the details,” he added, explaining that going with first “instincts” in responding to a tricky policy question “doesn’t always produce the best results.”

The question of removing the names of Confederate generals from military installations such as Ft. Bragg in North Carolina, Ft. Hood in Texas, or Camp Beauregard in Louisiana has become a hot topic in the Senate since Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) added an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week doing just that.

Earlier this week Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said they were open to renaming the bases but on Wednesday Trump came out strongly against the idea and threatened to veto the NDAA if it included such a requirement.

Senate Republicans are split on the question, which makes Scott’s voice on the subject a potential game changer.

Some senators such as Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) say they support changing base names — for Romney, in at least in some cases — while others are skeptical.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) took a strong stand against Warren’s amendment.

“I opposed this amendment, spoke against it, and voted no in the committee. Congress should not be mandating renaming of our bases and military installations,” Hawley tweeted on Thursday.