Rick Scott, gunning to replace McConnell, secures bombshell last-minute endorsement from key Republican senator



Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida secured an endorsement from political heavyweights just moments before the GOP Senate conference is set to vote for a new leader.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas joined GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee in making a last-minute endorsement for Scott. Scott has also been endorsed by Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

"This morning, I’ll be voting for Rick Scott for GOP Leader, as I did two years ago," Cruz said in an X post ahead of the vote. "In 2022, I helped lead the charge for Rick against McConnell & I’m proud to stand with him again. For 12 yrs, I’ve been unequivocal that we need to change GOP Leadership—and now we finally will."

'Rick Scott’s approach is also the most closely aligned with and focused on helping President Trump enact his legislative agenda, which is supported by more than 75 million American voters.'

Scott is running alongside Republican Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and John Cornyn of Texas in the race to replace retiring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Of the three candidates, Scott has the most public endorsements.

Lee hosted a forum Tuesday night ahead of the Wednesday morning leadership vote in order to give all three candidates the opportunity to make their final pitch to the Republican conference.

"While I personally like all three leadership candidates and consider them friends—and while each offers a unique set of skills, experience, and plans that could prove useful to the Senate and the American people—Rick Scott stands out as the most aggressively reform-minded candidate," Lee said in an X post after the forum.

"Rick Scott’s approach is also the most closely aligned with and focused on helping President Trump enact his legislative agenda, which is supported by more than 75 million American voters," Lee continued.

Lee also praised Scott for standing up to McConnell in the past, contrasting with Thune and Cornyn, who better fit the leadership mold.

"Rick Scott has consistently called out abuses of the Senate GOP leader position in the past—even when it was difficult and at times politically costly to him," Lee said after the forum. "This is yet another reason to support him."

The votes are set to begin Wednesday morning and will be conducted via secret ballot.

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GOP senators press Biden-Harris’ DOL over exaggerated job numbers revised down by 800,000



A group of Republican senators recently penned a letter to the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Labor demanding answers regarding the exaggerated job growth number that had to be revised down by more than 800,000.

The letter, obtained by the New York Post, was led by Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and signed by Republican Senators Ted Budd from North Carolina, Rick Scott from Florida, Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma, and Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee.

'Created a false impression for the public.'

Last week, the Biden-Harris administration came under fire after its Bureau of Labor Statistics released its preliminary annual benchmark review, revealing that it had overstated job growth by 818,000, Blaze News previously reported.

According to the report, most of those revisions were in the professional and business services sector, as well as leisure and hospitality, retail trade, and manufacturing. The nearly -30% correction marked the largest overestimation since 2009. Final figures will not be reported until February 2025, well after the November presidential election.

The gross miscalculation prompted the Republican senators to question whether the initial estimate was politically motivated.

Marshall told the Post, “Using taxpayer dollars to mislead the public for political gain is an outrageous betrayal of trust and one of the reasons Americans have lost all faith in this administration.”

“Manipulating the numbers to spin a false narrative while people are struggling to afford gas and groceries is not only dishonest — it’s insulting,” he added.

In the letter to DOL acting director Julie Su, the senators wrote, “These misleading numbers created a false impression for the public and cast doubt on the validity of the Bureau’s accuracy and legitimacy.”

“As we approach the presidential election in approximately 70 days, the state of the economy is one of the major issues on [Americans’] minds. There should be no confusion when it comes to evaluating the health of our economy,” the letter stated.

The senators requested more detailed information regarding the revisions, including how many jobs were added as a result of the end of the COVID-19 shutdowns, how many positions were part-time and full-time, and how many government jobs were added.

The DOL has until September 9 to respond to the senators' inquiry.

Former President Donald Trump (R) called the overestimated jobs report a “massive scandal.”

“The Harris-Biden Administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating Job Statistics to hide the true extent of the Economic Ruin they have inflicted upon America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “New Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the Administration PADDED THE NUMBERS with an extra 818,000 Jobs that DO NOT EXIST, AND NEVER DID.”

He warned that if Vice President Kamala Harris (D) were elected president in the upcoming election, millions of jobs would “vanish overnight.”

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