U.S. Senator Jeff Flake (R. AZ) has been getting a lot of praise for being the sole Republican to admit his party’s in denial about Donald Trump and for scolding his party for not standing up the Birthers. While that all sounds nice, the New Republic throws a cold bucket of water about the reality of who Jeff Flake really is: A Fraud.
An amusingly cursory review of the record underscores just how deep the Republican Party’s complicity with the ugliest aspects of Trumpism actually runs.
Just last month, Flake voted along with every single Senate Republican to confirm John Bush, a man who published birther screeds online, as a federal judge. On Monday, the Republican National Committee announced it had hired the pro-Trump apparatchik Kayleigh McEnany, who also flirted with birtherism, as a party spokesperson. Flake has not objected.
The limits of Flake’s complaints were similarly apparent last year. During the presidential race, he persisted in criticizing Trump even after Trump won the party’s nomination, and claimed to be considering a third-party vote.
Flake never revealed how he voted. And he also never told the country Trump deserved to be defeated, or that Hillary Clinton would make a far better president than Trump, despite keen awareness that Trump was a racist whose victory, however unlikely, would be immensely destabilizing.
Flake now professes alarm about Trump’s “affection for strongmen and authoritarians,” yet has done next to nothing with his extraordinary power—including a seat on the Foreign Relations Committee—to stop Trump from presiding over a pro-authoritarian administration.
Only a handful of Republicans can boast of having taken meaningful action to contain Trump. That may be changing now that it’s too late. Nearly all of them convinced themselves to hope for the best if Trump won, without expecting or preparing for the worst. They made their peace with a president they, like Flake, knew wasn’t good enough for America, which leaves them enormously exposed if the very things they agreed to overlook destroy his presidency and plunge the country into bitter chaos.
By the way, here’s the latest clip of Flake sounding fake and ridiculous:
Plus no one back in Arizona is buying what Flake’s. Unlike his colleague, U.S. Senator John McCain (R. AZ), Flake cowardly voted with his party on every version of Trumpcare and that’s why he’s looking like a dead man walking:
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) has a job approval rating of only 18 percent in Arizona, according to a new poll.
A survey from the left-leaning Public Policy Pollin finds 62 percent disapprove of the job the senator is doing. Another 19 percent are not sure.
If the 2018 midterm election were held today, just 31 percent of respondents said they would support Flake's bid, compared to 47 percent who said they would support a generic Democratic opponent, according to the poll.
Another 22 percent of respondents said they were not sure who they would support.
The poll was conducted from July 31 to Aug. 1 among 704 Arizona voters.
As we wait for a strong Democratic challenger to step up to the plate, I urge you all to get involved with Arizona Democratic Party so we can lay the groundwork for victory next year. Click here to get involved.