When running for a position to represent large areas and its population, you have to set a great example for others. If a politician was honest and has a rich working portfolio that gives him the experience to run as e senator. That way, the people have a greater desire to vote for him.
Usually, we get eminent businessmen to run as senators due to their great managerial skills and ability to use money efficiently. That way, by analyzing their career we can find many great moves, but going through their career can show lots of controversies as well.
In this article, we’ll talk about Senator Rick Scott and all the things he did during his mandate. In addition, we will go through his controversies to understand what made him such a controversial politician. Keep reading and find out more.
Does not support abortion
As a hot topic these days, especially after the ban on abortion in many southern states, Rick Scott has been involved in this scandalous law as well. He is a public supporter of the life movement, and with that, he supports the law banning abortion as a procedure.
This law was critiqued by all women and liberal activists because it is destructive. You cannot ban abortion, but you can only ban the legal medical procedure which puts women at risk. This starts from losing their fertility to serious health conditions resulting in death.
Immigration laws
Scott is vocal about being an opponent of the illegal immigration that is going on in America. With that, he did lots of reforms to battle this situation. For example, the police were encouraged to check whether a person has citizenship. In addition, the immigrants were not allowed to apply for tuition which ultimately caused educational problems.
On the other hand, he is strongly against the reform where children have been separated from the parents they’ve crossed the border with. Because of that, he did an effort to put an end to such a devastating campaign.
Death penalty reforms
During his mandate as a governor of Florida, there was an act of timely justice that he signed which made the death penalty to be a possibility of punishment. However, due to the violation of the sixth amendment, this act was stopped.
Using the legislature, he brought a statute where if a commission of ten unanimous juries achieved a majority, the death penalty may be awarded. Normally, this new law cannot be used on cases that are currently in procedure which gave the needed space to get familiarized with the law.
During the time Scott was a governor, there were more executions than under any other governor of Florida in the history of the state. This is a direct indicator of how controversial this law has been, and its impact on the judiciary.
Controversies among his associates
Some of Senator Scott’s controversies are the responsibility of his associates. Namely, Joshua Cooper who is one of Senator Scott was a target of shame. There was a picture of him that surfaced where he touched a mannequin in her crotch with the help of an ice penis.
The photo was taken by one of his teammates who thought this would be a funny moment. However, even though the intentions were good, the situation got out of control. The photo was published on one site where it got all the attention and resulted in shame, as Scott Cooper Miami suggests.
After the viral photo, Cooper issued a statement saying the picture was taken out of context because of the bad angle. This happened during a cooking competition, where he was throwing away a large chunk of ice. He noted that his photo was used to distract the population from the moves of the other politicians.
Plenty of gun laws
Another thing that is extremely controversial in the past few years is the gun laws and the consequences that follow the spread and easy access of weapons. While running as a Senator, Scott has signed more firearm laws than any other senator before him.
One of the laws that brought controversy is the act of privacy for owners. That way, mental health, and medical workers were not allowed to ask the patients whether they have any guns unless that is essential for their condition.
In addition, after a high-school shooting in Florida, Rick Scott has raised the minimum age for owning a gun. While previously you had to be eighteen, now you must be at least twenty-one years old. Background checks were made essential as well.
He posted police officers to stay at schools and armed some of the professors to increase everyone’s safety. At last, he banned everyone who had a violent past, as well as mentally ill people from owning a gun.
However, he found difficulty in managing certain organizations since they were strongly against the law of increasing the minimum age. They said this was violating the constitutional rights of everyone between eighteen and twenty-one.
Drug users banned from welfare
During his mandate as a senator, he brought a law that made everyone who is seeking welfare under the assistance for families program to turn in a drug test. That way, everyone who gets positive for drugs is not allowed to take the money. However, the funds can be given to somebody else to receive the money for their children.
This is another of Scott’s controversies where he was using the statistic that people seeking welfare are usually more prone to addiction. He does not want the government money to be spent on illegal substances, he bans drug users from the program.
However, during the screenings, only 2.5percents of the candidates for welfare were drug users, and two additional percent did not want to get tested and they abandoned the program. This shows the department of justice wrong thinking more than six percent of Americas are using drugs recreationally. It is important to understand that this law was not a constitutional one.
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Conclusion
With two mandates as a Senator in Florida, every move that he did was judged by society. It did not help that some of the laws he brought had a controversial background due to being a hot topic and a problem among the population.
In addition, being a republican meant that he supports Trump which also brought controversy. In addition, politics and patriotism were also controversial to some people. However, everything he did was for the better of his community, and even though there were some controversies, his run as a senator was rated high.
