‘Democrats deny our progress to protect their power’

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) threw Barack Obama’s own success back in his face after the 44th president criticized the 2024 GOP presidential candidate for his past comments on race.

“Let us not forget we are a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression,” Scott said in a statement Thursday night. “Democrats deny our progress to protect their power. The Left wants you to believe faith in America is a fraud and progress in our nation is a myth.”

“The truth of MY life disproves the lies of the radical Left,” Scott went on. “We live in a country where little Black and Brown boys and girls can be President of the United States. The truth is – we’ve had one and the good news is – we will have another.”

Scott was responding to comments Obama made on CNN’s “The Axe Files” podcast, hosted by his former adviser and chief campaign strategist David Axelrod.

“There’s a long history of African-American or other minority candidates within the Republican Party who will validate America and say, ‘Everything’s great, and we can make it,’” Obama said of Scott, adding that “Nikki Haley, I think, has a similar approach.”

“And so if a Republican, who may even be sincere in saying, ‘I want us all to live together,’ doesn’t have a plan for how do we address crippling generational poverty that is a consequence of hundreds of years of racism in this society — and we need to do something about that — if that candidate is not willing to acknowledge that, again and again, we’ve seen discrimination in everything from … getting a job to buying a house to how the criminal justice system operates,” the former president explained.

“If somebody’s not proposing, both acknowledging and proposing, elements that say, ‘No, we can’t just ignore all that and pretend as if everything’s equal and fair. We actually have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.’ If they’re not doing that, then I think people are rightly skeptical,” he added.

Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, also fired back at Obama Thursday.

“Barack Obama set minorities back by singling them out as victims instead of empowering them. In America, hard work and personal responsibility matter. My parents didn’t raise me to think that I would forever be a victim. They raised me to know that I was responsible for my success,” Haley said in a statement to The Post.

Haley and Scott are both garnering 3.5% support in the GOP presidential primary race, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls.