Senator Durbin apologizes to Tim Scott for 'token' comment on police reform bill

CHICAGO - “He took the word ‘token’ as an offensive word. I went up to him on the floor. I said, ‘Tim, I respect you and like you so much. If I offended you, I apologize’,” Dick Durbin said.

Illinois' senior senator expressed regret Wednesday and claims he was misunderstood. However, a black Republican colleague says Durbin's comment on the Senate floor hurt his soul.

Five years to the day after a white man seeking to start a race war massacred nine black people at the Mother Emanuel AME Church Bible study in South Carolina, Sen. Tim Scott unveiled his Republican party's proposed police reforms. When Democrats complained it did not go far enough, he objected to words used by Sen. Dick Durbin.

“And I was sitting in my office when the senator from Illinois talked about the ‘token’ legislation, on this day when we remember Mother Emanuel Church and the nine lost lives,” Sen. Tim Scott said.

FOX 32 asked Durbin about it during a live virtual town hall hosted by FOX 32.

“That’s not what I said. I said we need to seize this historic moment. We shouldn't do something that's token, half-hearted. We have a chance to make significant change. Let's do it. He took the word ‘token’ as an offensive word. I went up to him on the floor and I said, ‘Tim, I like and respect you so much. If I offended you, I apologize’," Durbin explained.

The Republican proposal unveiled by Scott provides financial incentives to departments that ban chokeholds and use body cameras, would create a national database on police use of force, and make lynching a federal hate crime.

A Democratic proposal demands new measures to hold police accountable for misconduct, to change the "culture" of law enforcement and improve police-community relations.

Racial tensions also erupted Wednesday at a House hearing on police reform, with a Republican rep. shouting "who the hell do you think you are?" at a black Democrat who suggested too many Republicans do not understand the black experience.