Senator Tim Scott credits Chick-Fil-A manager and mother's 'simple life lessons' for his success in politics as he's hailed the GOP's new star for blistering response to Joe Biden's first Congress speech
Republican Sen. Tim Scott delivered a blistering response on Wednesday night to Joe Biden's first address before Congress in which he slammed the president for 'empty platitudes' and not finding 'common ground.'
The speech led the South Carolina senator to be hailed as a new GOP star. However, one part of his speech has received particular attention after the he attributed his success to his mother - and a Chick-fil-A store operator named John Moniz.
'Growing up, I never dreamed I’d be standing here tonight. When I was a kid, my parents divorced. My mother, my brother, and I moved in with my grandparents. Three of us, sharing one bedroom,' Scott said during his response.
'I was disillusioned and angry, and I nearly failed out of school. But I was blessed. First, with a praying momma. Then with a mentor, a Chick-Fil-A operator named John Moniz. Finally, with a string of opportunities that are only possible here in America.'
Moniz owned a Chick-fil-A location in the Northwoods Mall in North Charleston, South Carolina, until his death in 1985, according to a resurfaced op-ed Scott wrote for the Post and Courier in 2010.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott delivered a blistering response on Wednesday night to Joe Biden's first address before Congress
One part of his speech has received particular attention after the he attributed his success to his mother - and a Chick-fil-A store operator named John Moniz (File photo)
Moniz owned a Chick-fil-A location in the Northwoods Mall in North Charleston, South Carolina, until his death in 1985
DailyMail.com has reached out to Chick-Fil-A and the press office for Tim Scott for more information and additional comment.
Scott wrote in the op-ed that he was 'completely off track' after the divorce - until Moniz took him under his wing.
'My mother was working hard, trying to help me to realize that there was a brighter future, but I really couldn’t see it,' Scott wrote.
'So by the time I entered the ninth grade, I was flunking out of high school. I failed world geography, civics, Spanish and English.'
Scott said he found himself in a place where his future seemed 'non-existent' and the only way he could find his way out of poverty was 'through entertainment, whether it be a football player, cutting up in school or something like that.'
'I had the good fortune the next year to meet a mentor, a guy named John Moniz,' Scott wrote in resurfaced epistle.
'John was an interesting man. He was a conservative, he was an entrepreneur; he ran the Chick-fil-A that was right next door to the movie theater where I was working, and he took a special liking to me.'
Scott recounted a time when he was in the mall's movie theater when Moniz slipped him a sandwich.
'Over the course of three or four years, John transformed my way of thinking, which changed my life. It was interesting because the lessons that John was teaching me were maybe simple lessons, but they were profound lessons,' Scott wrote.
'He taught me that if you want to receive, you have to first give. Embedded in that conversation, I came to realize, was the concept that my mother was teaching me about individual responsibility.'
He claims that he learned multiplication through conversations with Moniz about the difference in the size of their paychecks.
'Years later as an entrepreneur and as a conservative, I see that the lessons John Moniz was teaching me still ring true today. Perhaps more so,' Scott wrote.
He added: 'In my life, not only did John Moniz transform my thinking, but he changed my life.'
'Many of the lessons he taught me never manifested themselves until after he sadly passed away,' Scott wrote.
'He will never know how thankful I am that he never gave up on me; that he was wise enough to know that growth takes time, especially for a teenager.'
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