WATCH: NBC News Reporter Keeps Asking About Trump In Tim Scott Interview — Tim Scott Keeps Changing Subject

NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Ali Vitali spent several minutes peppering South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott with questions about ex-President Donald Trump, and Scott spent those minutes changing the subject.

Scott has soft-launched a 2024 presidential campaign this week, and among the interviews he did was an extensive sit-down with Vitali.

But 98 seconds in, the subject of Trump came up, and Scott spent several minutes thereafter refusing several helpings of bait until he told Vitali “we’re talking about what I want to do, and you’re talking about what others want to do,” and she moved on:

ALI VITALI: Have you talked to former President Trump about this at all?

TIM SCOTT: I have talked to no candidates about what I should do with my life and for the American people.

ALI VITALI: Including your fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley?

TIM SCOTT: The way I look at it is that there are 330 million Americans out there about 150 million Americans have a chance to vote. Those are the people that should be talking to you about their priorities.

ALI VITALI: I think one of the open questions here is you look at the polls, you look at the fact that in this Republican field, President Trump is sort of the man to beat. Why should he not want to be the nominee of the party again?

TIM SCOTT: One of the things I’m hearing a lot on the Faith in America Tour is that they’re concerned about the most important issues in their lives is what’s driving their decisions. And one of the most important issues in their lives is the economic reality that President Biden seems to have figured out a blueprint for how to ruin America. And in that blueprint, it talks about how we see ourselves at 13 and a half percent inflation. Who fights that having had the chance of actually writing the tax bill that we passed in 2017, I wrote the personal side of that tax bill lowering taxes by 70 percent for single parent mothers 60 percent for dual income households. Seeing that happen is one of the things that resonates is I have actual solutions, and lead the way and so I’m looking forward to having an opportunity to contrast with where I am and what I believe with the members in the race.

ALI VITALI: But that was a Trump bill. I mean, where are you different from him because innately by running, you’re saying, “I think I could be a better president than him.”

TIM SCOTT: Actually, I think it’s very simple. The American people are looking for leadership that is positive, optimistic, and anchored in conservatism. The bill that I wrote, I am thankful that I wrote the bill. When we talked about the opportunity zones that’s brought about $200 billion into the poorest communities. I wrote the bill. So there’s a very important part of being the architect of the legislation. And I am thankful that the people that we’re talking to across the country, it actually resonates. So while people want to have a conversation about other candidates. I’m going to have a conversation about what I can do to lead us to the type of the future that I want the country to have.

ALI VITALI: But I think inevitably in order to get to a general election against Joe Biden you do have to go against the other Republicans that are in this field. It sounds like you’re happy to take credit for the parts of the Trump administration that you helped with and went well with, but is there anything that you think should be done differently?

TIM SCOTT: I’m only taking credit for what I did and what I wrote. I would just simply say what I’ve already said, which is that the American people continue to have an opportunity to weigh in on what their priorities are. My agenda so far has met their priorities and as long as it continues to do so, they’ll have a choice to make. And when it’s time to make that choice, I believe they’ll choose me.

ALI VITALI: I want to ask you, though, about something that the former president said on Fox specifically, he said that Putin is very smart, that Kim Jong Un is top of the line and that Xi is brilliant. Is that the way that a commander in chief should be talking about our adversaries?

TIM SCOTT: All what we know is that you look at the new axis of evil it starts with China and President Xi includes President Putin, and you certainly see the role of Iran as well. And so what we try to do is talk about why China is such an existential threat to our country, and whether it’s the failure of President Biden as it relates to balloons breaching our sovereign borders or whether it’s the failure of us to stop them from stealing our intellectual property, or whether it’s their ability to sink nations around the world into debt that they can never pay back. Whether it’s the future of the Made in China 2025 or the Wuhan lab, we have an actual threat from an adversary on our doorsteps. We need leadership that pushes back against that. As long as we do that then we’re going to have another American century. If we don’t do that, we won’t.

ALI VITALI: But Trump’s not pushing back on that.

TIM SCOTT: Well, we’re talking about what I want to do, and you’re talking about what others want to do. So I want to keep talking about what I can control and not what others control.

Watch above via NBC News.