Sen. Jeff Flake’s 18-minute speech today was perhaps the most sweeping indictment of Trump delivered by a Republican to date.
"I have children and grandchildren to answer to, and so, Mr. President, I will not be complicit."
American democracy is at a turning point. Principled Republicans like Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and John McCain – all of whom are willing to stand up to Trump’s tyranny -- are being forced out.
This is how despotism begins.
Flake announced today on the Senate floor that he “will no longer be complicit or silent” in the face of the Trump’s “reckless, outrageous and undignified” behavior. “It is dangerous to a democracy…. It is often said that children are watching. Well, they are. And what are we going to do about that? When the next generation asks us, why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you speak up? What are we going to say?”
Flake has been a long-time critic of Trump -- starting when Trump peddled his false theory that Obama was born in Kenya, through Trump’s calling Mexican immigrants “rapists,” and his call for a travel ban on Muslims. Soon thereafter, Trump went on the warpath against Flake -- savaging him as “toxic” and a “flake,” and encouraged a primary challenge against him. Flake’s poll ratings plummeted.
Flake’s remarks today came just hours after Trump renewed his attacks on Republican Senator Bob Corker, who last weekend warned that Trump’s behavior could lead to “World War II” and said his concerns about Trump were shared by nearly every Senate Republican, even if few have spoken out. Today Trump said Corker “couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee.” Corker responded that Trump “is debasing our country.”
A week ago, Senator John McCain decried the “half-baked, spurious nationalism” that he sees overtaking American politics.
Friends, none of these Republican senators will be up for reelection. Instead, Bannon and Trump are intent on filling their seats with martinets who will do their bidding. Now that Flake is out of the race, the Republican nomination will likely go to Flake’s main primary challenger, Kelli Ward -- who had said she intended to paint Flake as “an obstructionist to the America First agenda that Donald Trump touted on the campaign trail, and that the American people want to see enacted.”
More Republicans must find the political courage to put country ahead of party. The danger Trump poses to our democracy crosses party lines and strikes at the heart of our deepest values. We all have a duty to speak out. Our future -- the world's future -- depends on it.
-17:17
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