SC Democratic chair criticizes Haley, Scott, other potential 2024 GOP candidates

by MATTHEW SOCKOL | WCIV Staff

Sat, March 18th 2023, 4:32 PM UTC

FILE - South Carolina committee members Lessie Price, and Trav Robertson, vote for new calendar lineup for the early stages of the party's presidential nominating contests during the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting, Feb. 4, 2023, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Trav Robertson, chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party speaks before a vote for new calendar lineup for the early stages of the party's presidential nominating contests during the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Supporters wait for South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, to speak during a campaign rally on Monday, March 13, 2023, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

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FILE - South Carolina committee members Lessie Price, and Trav Robertson, vote for new calendar lineup for the early stages of the party's presidential nominating contests during the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting, Feb. 4, 2023, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCIV) — Trav Robertson, Jr., the chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, held a press conference Friday criticizing former governor Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott, and other potential Republican candidates in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

Robertson's comments preceded the Vision '24 National Conservative Forum on Saturday in Charleston, which featured Haley and Scott.

Haley formally declared her candidacy in February. Scott has not declared, but has traveled to early GOP voting states like Iowa several times in the past couple years.

Robertson criticized Haley, Scott, and others for what he described as "their extreme MAGA agenda, including banning abortion and getting rid of Social Security and Medicare as we know them", according to a press release.

"Nikki Haley as governor signed one of the most extreme abortion bans with no exceptions for rape and incest and threatened providers with jail time," Robertson said in the statement. "Tim Scott's not far behind Nikki Haley when threatening the freedom of women and wanting to criminalize doctors. He's been vocal about his '100 percent' commitment to banning abortion and is well-known in the Senate for co-sponsoring legislation that would get rid of access to abortion providers, but most importantly he’s also fought for legislation that could pave the way to ban forms of birth control and Plan B."

We are also seeing it play out that Nikki Haley and the MAGAs are touting their desire to gut and cut Medicare and Social Security as we know it," he continued in his statement. "Nikki Haley and Tim Scott believe that people should not have access to Social Security and Medicare, they're planning to gut it, and you're going to hear it this weekend.

"The bottom line is this: we already know what MAGA control looks like because Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, (former Arkansas governor) Asa Hutchinson and the other individuals who will be in Charleston trying to out-far right their opponents have already shown us," Robertson offered in summation. "It means taking away the freedom for women to make their own health care decisions, it means cutting social security for seniors, cutting Medicare, and always putting their own special interests above the interest of people in South Carolina and the United States of America."

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