Close Topic Options

Jeff Flake

Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake announced he would not seek re-election in 2018 in a historic, blistering critique of President Trump and politics in the US, saying he would rather retire than embrace Trump.

"The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters -- the notion that one should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided."

Flake has been a vocal critic of President Trump and joins Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker as Republican senators who will retire before the midterm elections. Ref. CNN.

Image from Wikimedia public domain.

Flake Jeff

GOP senator says Trump 'is charting a very dangerous path'

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, took to the Senate floor Wednesday morning to rebuke the President for his repeated attacks on the truth as well as his colleagues for failing to be a check on Trump.

"No longer can we compound attacks on truth with our silent acquiescence. No longer can we turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to these assaults on our institutions," Flake said in his speech. "An American President who cannot take criticism -- who must constantly deflect and distort and distract, who must find someone else to blame -- is charting a very dangerous path. And a Congress that fails to act as a check on the President adds to the danger."

Flake also compared Trump's attacks on the news media to the rhetoric of late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and highlighted the longstanding consequences for Trump's attacking the truth. Ref. CNN.