During an interview on CNN this weekend, host Jake Tapper made a passing reference to guest Sen. Tim Scott as one of a handful of Republican “vice presidential hopefuls.” And, goodness, was the South Carolina senator shocked to hear that.

“I didn’t know that I was a vice presidential hopeful,” Scott said. Who? Moi? “Thank you very much, Jake, for letting me know where I am on the scale.”

The only way that Scott might not be a vice presidential “hopeful” is that the phrase undersells it. He’s not merely sitting by his phone and hoping he gets the call. He’s actively running for the position in all but declaration. And since the selection of vice presidential nominee is determined by a party of one, Scott—who was, at one time, a senator who avoided the limelight—is undergoing the sort of transformative debasement required for a successful audition.

During the Trump administration, Scott maintained a good relationship with the president. But like much of the Senate GOP, he wasn’t a MAGA evangelist and would flatter the president only as a means to get his pet projects enacted into law. He would occasionally chide Trump for crossing the line, but mostly, he was in the Senate GOP’s broad “haven’t seen the tweet” contingent when it came to responding to daily outrages.

But he would respond. Even if he wasn’t particularly forthcoming in his answers, Scott would reliably take reporters’ questions about upcoming votes, his work on bipartisan police reform measures, and what have you. When he decided he might be interested in running for president, that changed. The senator became much more guarded about speaking freely both in the run-up to and after his presidential campaign launch. Risky endeavors—i.e., potential bipartisan accomplishments—like police reform negotiations came to........

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