Flake is confronted by reports after the firing of James Comey in May.
By Mark Wilson/Getty Images.
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 at times wavering 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 slamming what he characterized as “the new normal” and what he said was a tone set at the top. “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, adding, “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 ascribed his criticism to Trump, deriding his rhetoric as corrosive and dangerous, while also casting blame on his fellow Republicans for cheapening the 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 did not fully
absolve himself of blame for his own complicity in the degeneration of
political discourse and the role he played in Trump’s ascension. Now,
emboldened and unburdened by not having to run for office, he spoke
candidly about hoping to protect both his own legacy and preserve that
of his children. “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 posed. “I certainly put myself at
the top of the list of those who fall short in that regard. I am
holier-than-none. But too often, we rush not to salvage principle but to
forgive and excuse our failures so that we might accommodate them and
go right on failing—until the accommodation itself becomes our
principle.”
Flake positioned his anti-Trump harangue and his plea to other lawmakers to stand up to the president as an obligation at a time when the U.S. and its institutions are grappling with a historical crisis, dismissing the idea that the elusive Trump “pivot” is imminent. “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.” Flake continued, arguing that by choosing to remain silent in the face of Trump G.O.P. lawmakers “dishonor our principles and forsake our obligations.”
Despite Flake's charges, his colleagues responded supportively, with fellow Arizona Senator John McCain praising his “eloquence,” and Senate leader Mitch McConnell calling 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 Sen from Arizona will be here for another year and a half. We have big things to try to accomplish for the American people,” he said, 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 give the wannabe populist kingmaker credit (Breitbart, Bannon’s personal megaphone, posted a story with the headline, “WINNING.”) And 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. Through his remarks, and through the very act of his speech, Flake framed his choice not as a personal issue but rather as a historic choice at what may be the apex of his party’s crisis.
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