1. Senator Flake bashed President Trump in a blistering speech on the Senate floor
We’ve experienced a remarkable moment in American politics today, October 24. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake (R), 54, took to the Senate floor to announce that he would not be seeking reelection at the end of his term (January 2019) because of theDonald Trump, 71, and his administration. His speech was a damning critique of President Trump and the Republican party in Congress, which has enabled his undignified behavior.
“Regret because of the state of our disunion,” he said in his fiery speech. “Regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics. Regret because of the indecency of our discourse. Regret because of the coarseness of our leadership. Regret for the compromise of our moral authority.” He said that he would no longer seek reelection because he no longer wanted to be part of the system that elected Trump and keeps him in power. Read his full speech HERE.
2. He said he refuses to be ‘complicit’ with Trump
Flake, who has served as a senator of Arizona since 2013 alongside John McCain, said that he meant that he refused to continue to be complicit “in this alarming and dangerous state of affairs. It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end. We must never adjust to the present coarseness of our national dialogue with the tone set at the top. There are times when we must risk our careers in favor of principles. Now is such a time.”
3. He called out Trump in his speech, even if it wasn’t by name
Senator Flake only addressed the president — who wasn’t at the Senate meeting — by name once during his lengthy speech. But that doesn’t mean that most of the remarks were about Trump. “None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that this is just the way things are now,” he said. “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. And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else: It is dangerous to a democracy. Such behavior does not project strength — because our strength comes from our values. It instead projects a corruption of the spirit, and weakness.”
4. He’s already written a book condemning and critiquing Trump
Senator Flake, who was previously an Arizona congressman from 2001–2003, authored a book called Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle, released in August 2017, months after Trump’s inauguration. The book is about how the ideals of the GOP have changed since he became a politician. “Today, the American conservative movement has lost its way,” he writes. “Given the state of our politics, it is no exaggeration to say that this is an urgent matter.” He condemns the GOP for “embracing” nationalism, populism, xenophobia, and for normalizing the Trump presidency.
5. He’s not denying that he could run for president in 2020
CNN’s Jake Tapper interviewed Senator Flake immediately after his earth-shattering Senate speech and posed an interesting question — by refusing to run for reelection as a senator and ending his term in 2019, is he leaving the door open to run for president in 2020. We all know (too well) that campaigning for presidential elections begins well over a year before the election. That could leave him plenty of time to get started. Here’s the interesting part: Flake didn’t deny that he would run against Trump in 2020!
HollywoodLifers, are you shocked by the speech that Flake made on the Senate floor? Let us know!