Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, was asked on The Charlie Kirk Show on Monday about the South Carolina Senate race.
He said: “If Annie Andrews, as President Donald Trump calls her, Tranny Annie, here’s a person who believes … in gender surgery for trans kids.”
Raw Story reported the remark. Journalist Aaron Rupar posted the 19-second clip.
Scott attributed the nickname to Trump, who had used it earlier in October. Trump posted the nickname on Oct. 5, and used it again at a rally in Clemson on Oct. 21.
Trump said of Andrews: “She’s a mutilizer. You know what a mutilizer is? That’s a person that doesn’t do good things,” as reported by the MAGA-supporting The Gateway Pundit and non-MAGA LGBTQ Nation.
Trump added: “It’s what I call child abuse.” He said Andrews should “have her medical license revoked.”
Andrews, a pediatrician, is running against Republican Darline Graham, the appointee who took the seat of her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham. An NRSC ad featuring Scott began running Oct. 20.
In it he says: “Democrat Annie Andrews, she’s just too dangerous, radical and weird. Andrews wants men to play girls in sports.”
Critics responded on social media. Journalist John Harwood wrote on X: “Such a tool.”
Rick Wilson, a former Republican strategist, wrote: “This is dangerous ground that deep on the downlow.” Brookings Institution fellow Jessica Riedl wrote: “Try representing all your constituents with dignity.”
Democratic strategist Matt Royer put it this way: “Today Tim Scott, who runs the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, said it on camera. That’s the modern GOP party under MAGA. That’s the closing message in South Carolina.”
Andrews has answered Trump’s name-calling before, in an Oct. 23 interview with FITSNews: “Listen, if the president calling me names, even slurs, was going to lower our gas and diesel prices, he can call me whatever he wants.” She went on: “And you resort to the name calling when you don’t have a plan.”