Month: May 2023

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate, announced on Monday that he is running for president. Scott had teased his announcement in recent weeks, first announcing an exploratory committee in April and then officially filing the paperwork Friday to run.

Speaking before a crowd of nearly 2,000 attendees, Scott said at his alma mater Charleston Southern University: “Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb. And that is why I am announcing today that I am running for president of the United States of America.”  Scott joins the expanding field of contenders looking to knock off former President Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner who holds a commanding lead in GOP primary polls.

Scott’s political career began in the Charleston County Council in the mid-1990s before serving in the state House and the U.S. House.  Scott was first appointed to the Senate from South Carolina in 2012, by then-Gov. Nikki Haley (now a presidential rival) to replace retiring Sen. Jim DeMint. Scott later won the election to fill the rest of his term in 2014 and went on to win full terms in 2016 and again last year.

In his Monday address, Scott described the campaign as a time to choose between “victimhood or victory” and “grievance or greatness.” He portrayed himself as the candidate “the far-left fears most … I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control. The truth of my life disrupts their lies!” Scott has previously spoken of the need for the Republican party to nominate someone who can defeat Democrats next fall.  In closing his remarks on Monday, Scott said: “We need a president who persuades not only our friends and our base. We have to have a compassion for people who don’t agree with us.”

Posting to his Truth Social platform on Monday, Trump said: “It is rapidly loading up with lots of people, and Tim is a big step up from Ron DeSanctimonious, who is totally unelectable. I got Opportunity Zones done with Tim, a big deal that has been highly successful. Good luck Tim!”

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A judge entered not guilty pleas Monday morning for 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger, the man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students last fall. Kohberger’s attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, told Latah County District Judge John Judge that their client “will be standing silent” on pleas during the arraignment in Latah County District Court, prompting the judge to enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.  Judge set a trial date for Oct. 2., after Taylor had asked to set the trial’s opening at the latest possible date.

A Latah County grand jury formally indicted Kohberger last week in the stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students. He faces four first-degree murder charges, as well as a burglary charge, which were the original five charges.  The indictment allowed prosecutors to skip a planned week-long preliminary hearing that was set for late June; the pretrial hearing could have revealed what evidence they have against Kohberger. The indictment remains sealed, and investigators so far have not said much about how they identified Kohberger or what evidence they have. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson now has 60 days to inform the court whether he will seek the death penalty in the case.

Kohberger is accused in the stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernoldle, 20; and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20. The students were found dead on Nov. 13 at an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, where the women lived.  Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30 at his parents’ home in Chestnuthill Township in eastern Pennsylvania after driving cross-country with his father; he waived his extradition rights and was returned to Idaho in January. He remains held in the small Latah County Jail.

If found guilty, Kohberger faces a maximum 10-year sentence on the burglary charge and four consecutive life sentences or the death penalty for the first-degree murder charges. Fines up to $200,000 and payment of $20,000 to the victims’ families are also possible if Kohberger is found guilty.

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