Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told Breitbart News exclusively on Tuesday evening that she is supporting Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) for Senate GOP leader in the upcoming vote on Wednesday morning in the Senate GOP conference.
Blackburn, who called Breitbart News right after a Senate GOP leadership candidate forum that Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) organized, said the forum helped her make her final decision after hearing from Scott and the other candidates Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and John Cornyn (R-TX).
“I thought it was one of the most helpful and instructive meetings we’ve had,” Blackburn told Breitbart News of the forum. “Of course, people have waited until they could hear each of the three candidates talk about how they would handle the Trump agenda, talk about the election—of course we have been in this meeting since 6 o’clock.”
The forum lasted more than two hours, and Blackburn said there were more than a dozen questions from her fellow senators. Her questions focused on process and on the border–particularly on funding for a wall and for mass deportations.
“They each kind of gave an opening statement and then we went into Q&A,” Blackburn said. “I mentioned in my questions how conservatives are tired of being left out of the floor process and can’t get amendments and when they can the amendment is put at 60 votes because they are going to line it up to fail. We couldn’t get a timeline and we couldn’t get a schedule and there was no democratizing power so conservatives have felt left out. The issue I talked about is the people, and I know in Tennessee that Tennesseans talk a lot about the border and what is going to happen with deportations and wanting criminal illegal aliens out of our country. They want that border wall built.”
She said while each candidate answered her question in the affirmative, she did decide after the meeting to go with Scott as her candidate.
“So I asked them if they are prepared to move forward in step with President Trump because there will be things we need to do legislatively to be certain deportations take place so how are they going to handle that?” Blackburn said. “Are they willing to reject spending bills that do not include that money for deportation and that do not include that money for building the wall? Each of the candidates answered affirmatively that they were supporting what President Trump was articulating and that they would be there and support that. But I’ve decided after the meeting tonight to support Rick.”
Blackburn told Breitbart News that the reason she is backing Scott over Thune or Cornyn is because she said he has an energy for the Trump agenda more so than the others.
“He has such an energy for making certain that we get the Trump agenda passed,” Blackburn said. “I think that’s important that that energy be there and that willingness to aggressively support and pass the Trump agenda.”
Asked who she thinks most of her colleagues vote for, Blackburn was unsure.
“I don’t know and most people were like me—they appreciated that Sen. Lee had called for this forum,” Blackburn said. “They appreciated that each of the members stepped forward and they appreciated the opportunity they had to hear from everyone before they made any decisions.”
She thanked Lee profusely, too, for holding the candidate forum which she described as immensely helpful.
“It was really helpful to all of us and that’s why I think people stayed to the end,” Blackburn said. “It was so helpful for the senators to get in a room and for people to be able to ask their questions. There were a lot of different questions—there were probably 15 or 20 questions that got asked over the course of the meeting. To hear how they responded to it, this was an opportunity for us to have that change of leadership. The American people have spoken, Tennesseans have spoken, but in order to handle this effectively it was important for us to come together in that family meeting and hear people out and see how they were each individually responding to the mandate that the American people gave President Donald Trump.”
Blackburn also said this candidate forum was more helpful than anything else like social media and public pressure some have been putting on senators.
“I think that what you’re going to see is people have waited to hear from the members—and a lot of it is to show that trust and respect for the colleagues that are choosing to step up and run,” Blackburn said. “You’ll start to hear people make those decisions and make those decisions known. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We cannot waste a minute.”
