Sen. Mike Rounds, RS.D., on Sunday would not pledge to endorse the eventual GOP presidential nominee if it wasn’t South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, whom Rounds endorsed.
During an interview on “Meet the Press,” Chuck Todd of NBC News asked Rounds if he would support “anyone Republicans appoint, even if it’s [former President Donald Trump].”
Rounds said he hoped Scott would get the 2024 Republican nomination, but would have to “reevaluate” otherwise.
“Well, right now, I hope it will be Tim Scott,” he said. “And if not, then I’m going to have to reassess because I’ve always supported the Republican candidate in the past.”
“I hope Tim is the candidate,” he added. “There will be other good people too, but I’ll hold that off until we know how Tim is doing.”
Pressed by Todd whether his reason for not pledging to support the candidate is because of the legal issues Trump is facing, Rounds said: “Not that much – I just think there are very good Republican candidates out there.”
“And I’ll wait and see which one comes out on top, but I’ve supported the Republican candidate in the past,” he added.
Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, announced his presidential bid last month, joining a rapidly growing group of GOP hopefuls seeking to challenge Trump. In remarks announcing his campaign, Scott introduced himself as the candidate “the far left fears most” and described the campaign as a time to choose between “victim or victory” and “grievance or greatness. “.
In addition to Rounds, Sen. John Thune, RS.D., the No. 2 Senate Republican, also threw his support behind Scott and appeared in an opening prayer during his presidential campaign announcement.
Rounds has frequently denounced Trump’s false claims of a stolen presidential election in 2020, and has previously suggested that lawmakers who want to unite the GOP could seek an alternative to Trump in 2024.
Rounds denounced Trump’s remarks about the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack that made a town hall on CNN last month, during which the former president called the riot “a great day.”
“The vast majority of us who were here on January 6 would clearly disagree with his approach to this,” Rounds said in response to Trump’s comments during CNN’s town hall. “So there are some things we agreed on, but there are a number of areas where we would disagree.”
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com