Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Rick Scott on Nelson's call to recuse himself from recount
Interview
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MACCALLUM: So, joining me now to respond, Florida Governor Rick Scott. Governor, welcome. Good to have you here on THE STORY, tonight. What's your response to what your opponent had to say there?
GOV. RICK SCOTT R-FLA., SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: It's pretty consistent for Bill Nelson. He is always confused. The governor does not -- is not responsible for recounts. We have separately elected supervisor elections in each County. They do the recounts, and then, the numbers are sent to the Secretary of State's office for tabulate -- you know, just to put out the statewide numbers. The governor is not involved.
Now, my goal is that we follow the law. And what we've seen is, you know, in the supervisor election in Broward and Palm Beach County, both of them, the courts have said, they haven't followed the law.
We know Brenda Snipes in mixed illegal ballots with legal ballots. We know they have let party officials in. The courts have said, follow the law. So, what I'm trying to do is get them to do what we -- what we expect.
The laws are set up there to prevent fraud, and for whatever reason, they don't want to do it. And let's all remember, 93,000 votes came in after election night. At this point though, I've won. I won on Saturday. There is no recount that's ever overturned when somebody has a 12,000 vote lead.
So, I'm headed to Washington tomorrow to start the process of becoming the next year Senator.
MACCALLUM: That's true. All right. Yes, I want to -- I want to ask you about that, but let me go back to the 93,000 votes that came in after. So, you're supposed to have the final count submitted thirty minutes after the end of the -- of the closing of the polls. Is that correct?
SCOTT: That's right. And there was such like --
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: All right. But we all know that there's a lot of absentee, a lot of mail-in ballot. In fact, the numbers grow dramatically with every election. So, could that account for these 92,000 ballots that they just came in late, and they were sent in on time?
SCOTT: Well, first off, 65 other counties figure out how to do it right. All right, these two counties couldn't. We don't know. We've been asking the questions. We still to this day, we don't know.
My goal is to make sure that this is done properly, that's why I've asked the FDLE to come in, and do an investigation. The attorney general are demanded that happened. I've asked the sheriff's to be vigilant. We want to make sure we have a free and fair election. But we're of over 12,000 votes.
MACCALLUM: Yes, you -- all right, 12,000 votes is corrected at this point. You lost a court decision today to impound -- you wanted to impound the vote counting machines when they're not in the actual process of the recount. Did you want them physically removed and put somewhere? What did you mean by that?
SCOTT: No, the goal -- the goal is to -- is to make sure that we have law enforcement that's watching the ballots, and watching the machines all the time just to make sure there's (INAUDIBLE), right.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: So, that's what Judge Tuter did. He added three more Broward County Sheriff's deputies in addition to the BSO officers and the private guard. So, are you satisfied now that, that is secure?
SCOTT: Well, it's happened in Broward. We're still not finished in Palm Beach County. So, I think -- I think there's going to -- there's a hearing tonight. But it's been done there.
You know, Martha, one thing people have said to me off for the last few days, they said -- they said -- they said, Rick, you know, keep your chin up, you're going to win. This is -- this adversity will pass.
When I tell people's I think about my dad, my adopted father who did four combat jumps in Second World War, that's adversity. I think about my mom living in public housing as a single mom struggling to take care of children, put food on the table, take care of a son that has significant disease, that's adversity. That's what I want to work on.
That's what I did in this state, help those families, that's what I'm going to do in D.C.
MACCALLUM: So, let me ask you, you talk about keeping your chin up. And you know, and that we've watched this number get -- you know, in a lot smaller so far by the day, and you just point it's 0.16 percent right now between the two of you, 12,000 votes.
Are you confident that this is going to go your way when all of these votes are counted in these very blue counties of Broward and Palm Beach?
SCOTT: Absolutely. The -- their -- so, they've report all the votes. We're up 12,500 votes. The -- there's never been a change that would change -- when like that.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: But the recount goes on until Thursday, correct?
SCOTT: It's just a -- first off, they're just a machine recount, and then, there'll be a hand recount for the over-under ballots. That's all that's left.
MACCALLUM: All right. So you -- you're confident at this point. Let me ask you about the rules, with the 30-minute rule that it's supposed to all be done by afterwards. So, that, that was not adhered to. So, what's the penalty for that in Florida?
SCOTT: We1l, it's a violation law so they can be -- you know, fine for that violation. And I think, what's going to happen is the next legislature is going to have to go back and say, we've passed all these laws to make sure people comply so there's no fraud. If there's not tough enough penalties, we're going to have to increase the penalties to make sure this happened.
Every other County but these two counties could do it. Well, why these two counties can't do it? I have no earthly idea. But we're going to figure out -- we're going to get to the bottom of it.
MACCALLUM: All right. So, in terms of you said that Nelson -- that Bill Nelson's lawyers, the current senator, say that non-citizens should be able to vote. Do you have any evidence that, that any non-citizens did vote in this election?
SCOTT: Well, what we know is -- what we know is here's Bill Nelson's lawyer -- you know, complained when -- you know, the canvassing board said a non-citizen, they were going to throughout a non-citizen vote, saying they should be able to vote in this election.
So, it's something you -- we have to continue to be monitor. Every supervisor elections responsibility is to make sure that non-citizens don't vote. And so --
MACCALLUM: But you don't have any evidence that, that actually happened in this election? Do or do you?
SCOTT: Wel1, what happens is when you review this as much as you can. And then, after the election, you're able to do it again.
MACCALLUM: All right. You want to go to Washington. Are you going to be on there on Tuesday for the picture with Senator McConnell? I know you said over the weekend with Chris Wallace that you weren't sure, you've had another 24 hours to think about it. Are you going to be there on Tuesday?
SCOTT: Yes. I'm going up there tomorrow, and I'll be part of the -- you know, elections for leadership. And so, I look forward to starting the process of opening up an office and getting started as a U.S. Senator.
MACCALLUM: What's the topic number one for you?
SCOTT: Well, the most thing -- the thing I've done here is to make sure you take care of those families that struggling for works. That would be the most important thing to me. But there's a lot of issues. I put out a very specific plan, a 10-point plan to make Washington work similar to what we've done in Florida where we've turned this economy around. We won the best economies in the world now. The great education system, and a 47-year lower in a crime rate. I'm going to try to do the exact, same types of things in D.C.
MACCALLUM: So, tomorrow will be one week since the election and everybody thought it was going to be over last Tuesday night but it's still going on. Governor Rick Scott. Thank you very much for being here this evening. We did ask Senator Nelson, as well. And he is welcome here anytime. Thank you, sir.
SCOTT: Thanks, Martha.
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