Taking the Senate floor to announce he would not run for re-election, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake delivered a blistering rebuke of Donald Trump on Tuesday and called on his fellow Republicans to renounce what he described as the party’s “complicity” in the destruction of their moral authority. “There are times when we must risk our careers in favor of our principles,” Flake said, his voice catching at times as he began an emotional denunciation of the president. “Now is such a time.”
Flake, who emerged as one of Trump’s fiercest critics during last year’s election, launched into his diatribe by railing against “the new normal” in Washington. “We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country—the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations,” the Arizona lawmaker said. “We must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal.” Without mentioning his name, Flake took explicit aim at Trump, deriding his rhetoric as corrosive and dangerous, while also casting blame on his fellow Republicans for cheapening the nation’s political discourse. “Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as ‘telling it like it is,’ when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified,” he said.
The retiring lawmaker grappled, at times, with his own complicity in Trump’s ascension. “I certainly put myself at the top of the list of those who fall short in that regard. I am holier-than-none,” he said. And certainly there was some irony in the fact that Flake only felt emboldened to speak up after unburdening himself of running for re-election. Some cynics noted that polls showed Flake losing to primary challenger Kelli Ward, and Republican leadership reportedly considered him a lost cause. Flake, however, framed his decision as about more than his own legacy: “It is often said that children are watching. Well, they are. And what are we going to do about that?” he asked. “When the next generation asks us, Why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you speak up?—what are we going to say?”
While few Republicans have broken with Trump so openly, Flake called on his colleagues to join him at a time of historical crisis for the party and country. “I must say that we have fooled ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the corner,” he said. “We know better than that.” Those who remain silent, he added, “dishonor our principles and forsake our obligations.”
After scattered applause in the mostly-empty Senate chamber, two of Flake’s colleagues rose to offer their support. Fellow Arizona Senator John McCain praising his “eloquence” and Senate leader Mitch McConnell called Flake “a very fine man . . . who clearly brings high principles to the office every day.” Alluding to his legislative agenda, McConnell added that he is “grateful that the Senator from Arizona will be here for another year and a half. We have big things to try to accomplish for the American people,” in what could be read as equal parts compliment and warning shot.
Upon learning of Flake’s decision, allies of Steve Bannon were quick to rejoice and to credit the putative kingmaker for taking him down. (Breitbart, Bannon’s personal megaphone, posted a story with the headline “WINNING”). But while it’s true that in recent weeks Bannon backer Robert Mercer had moved against Flake, making a hefty donation to a PAC working to unseat him, Flake’s position was precarious to begin with—an August poll found that just 22 percent of Trump supporters in Arizona backed him, while 63 percent disapproved of his performance. Trump, meanwhile, gained an even more powerful enemy in the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow two-seat majority. With retiring senators McCain, Bob Corker, and now Flake united in their criticism of the president, the Breitbartian agenda Flake just condemned becomes more precarious than ever.
