Rick Scott gaslights voters about the massive Medicare fraud he oversaw

When Rick Scott was first running for statewide office in Florida in 2010, he made a mea culpa ad to blunt attacks from his opponents about the massive Medicare fraud he presided over as CEO of a major health care company.

"I'm going to do something the politicians won't: give you the unvarnished truth," Scott told voters in an ad titled "Truth.”

Scott admitted the health care company he ran, Columbia/HCA, was fined by the federal government. 

"I wasn't in charge or even questioned by authorities,” he added. “But that’s not what matters. What matters is that the company made mistakes and, as CEO, I take responsibility and learn from it.”

Indeed, mistakes were made—$1.7 billion worth of them, to be exact. It was the largest health care fraud settlement of its kind at the time.

But taking personal responsibility was so last decade. Now Scott is reframing that Justice Department investigation as a "political persecution," just like the one Donald Trump is supposedly facing for allegedly falsifying business documents in the ongoing hush money trial.