Republican Jeff Flake: 'My party might not deserve to lead'

[DonViejo]

By Ashley Killough, CNN

Updated 3:29 PM ET, Thu March 15, 2018

(CNN) - As Republicans face a potential Democratic wave in this year's midterm elections, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake argued Thursday that his party "might not deserve to lead" given its support for President Donald Trump.

"If we are going to cloister ourselves in the alternative truth of an erratic leader, if we are going to refuse to live in a world that everyone else lives in ... then my party might not deserve to lead," the Arizona senator said in a speech at the National Press Club.

Flake argued that "as we are discovering ... there is no damage like the damage that a president can do." He repeated a call he's been making for months to restore civility to politics during the Trump era, using lofty rhetoric to describe what he hopes will one day be a reckoning for American politics.

"If one voice can do such profound damage to our values and to our civic life," he said, "then one voice can also repair the damage, one voice can call us to a higher idea of America, one voice can act as a beacon to help us find ourselves once again after this terrible fever breaks -- and it will break."

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https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/15/politics/jeff-flake-criticizes-gop-trump/index.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. "Might"?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

23. My first thought as well

[orleans]

37. and the first thing i thought of. n/t

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. Oh they might not? Wow this guy is brave. Did he come out against pedophilia as well? nt

[world wide wally]

3. It's just too bad he supports Trump on every vote. ...

He talks such a good game

[LenaBaby61]

12. "It's just too bad he supports Trump on every vote ..."

Yep, Flake was ALWAYS in lock-step supporting Fatso-in-Chief on whatever bill he needed passed

Which is WHY whenever I see him talking, I think of Charlie Brown's teacher.


Jeff Flake speaking:

Jeff Flake whenever he criticizes tRumputin:

[not fooled]

46. yep

when he voted for the tax scam, dead to me.

[IronLionZion]

25. Which is why our worst Dems are still better than their best repubs

many important votes fall largely along party lines

[Sherman A1]

4. Conveniently enough they have not been doing so.

They have stumbled and bumbled along doing great damage to the society and the county, but they have not done anything resembling leading.

[panader0]

5. He'll run for POTUS in 2020.

[MagickMuffin]

22. With the tagline "One Voice"

When a politician repeats a catch phrase like the one he's using you can all but bet on this will be his campaign slogan.

[not fooled]

47. yep. he and mittens

will be duking it out for the chance to be the first mormon president.

[Lucinda]

6. They don't know how to lead. They only complain, and lie. n/t

[NewJeffCT]

7. Then stop fucking voting with this Trump supporting party

Become an independent and caucus with the Democrats the last 9 months of your political career.

[ehrnst]

8. Ya THINK? (nt)

[awesomerwb1]

9. "Might"?

What a ballsy statement. Heroic even!

And this is a guy retiring this year, so technically he "can speak his mind".

Do these rep traitors wear something in their pants that shocks them anytime they say something remotely negative about their party or something? I don't get how they can be soooo party over country 24/7.

[GusBob]

10. Wrong pronoun

"our"

around here known as your

[JHB]

11. Among the things he is wrong about...

“...there is no damage like the damage that a president can do.”

The damage is caused by Republicans.

Republicans have spent the last 40 years pushing hot-buttons, fostering bigotries and cultivating single-issue voters in order to get enough votes to take and maintain power.

Republicans have spent the last quarter century pushing “alternative truths” that paint Democrats as “the enemy of normal Americans”, a foe to be hated, not a loyal opposition.

Republicans have spent the last two Democratic presidencies promulgating conspiracy theories, engaging in witch hunts, and slandering two effective presidents. And spent both those presidencies and the intervening Republican one slandering an effective First Lady, senator, and Secretary of State. Plus another effective First Lady.

It’s your party. Cry if you want to, but you don’t get to fob off all your malfunction onto the Howler Monkey you guys elected.

[erronis]

21. Thank you for saying what I was about to. It's the repuglican's fault - all of them!

Even my dear friend Betsy who can't stand the dump but hates anybody that fux hates.

The repuglicans (and some enabling democrats) deserve to take the punishment.

Dump is a distraction from their purpose: get rid of regulation and oversight.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

13. Might not?

Talk about an understatement. Wow!

[dalton99a]

14. From the guy who gave Trump everything he wanted

[thegoose]

15. Fuck all the Pukes

Whatever they bloviate is obvious lying manipulation. They are true demons from hell blowing the tiny cheeto.

[IluvPitties]

16. You wanna be patriotic, Jeff?

Spill the beans! Tell Mueller what you know.

[tblue37]

27. And caucus with the Democrats! nt

[errant boy]

17. Ya THINK, Jeff?

[ailsagirl]

18. Good one!!

[gratuitous]

19. Sen. Flake? A question?

Is what the Republicans have been doing for the last eight years what you call leading? If so, I don't think that word means what you think it means.

[ProudLib72]

32. It's called "obstructing"

But what happens when obstruction is all your party knows how to do and then, suddenly, your party is in power? It can only obstruct itself. Obstructing obstruction = destruction.

[Trumpocalypse]

35. No it is only obstructing when Dems do it nt

[Doitnow]

20. No kidding!

[malthaussen]

24. No "might" about it, oh aptly-named one. n/t

[tblue37]

26. Might??!! nt

[C_U_L8R]

28. "Deserve" ???

It's is entirely incompetent and corrupt.
The GOP deserves nothing but defeat. Vote these fuckers out.

[ProudLib72]

33. Money and assholery lend an air of entitlement

For eight years they said Obama was bad and they could do better. Well, it has been a little over one year, and all they have accomplished is the near annihilation of our government.

[Initech]

29. They *DON'T* deserve to lead!

In the last 6 years, the GOP has been absolutely reckless and drunk with power. And in the last two particularly - they stole an election from us and the whole damn party was in on it. They have been reckless, boorish, stupid, and have gone mad with power. They are enabled by a foreign led news network that has convinced them that they are the more patriotic party than the other. Is this what one would call a leader? No.

[irisblue]

30. This incarnation of the Republican party does not Sen Flake

Do you have any other obvious statements to make?

[Scalded Nun]

31. Come next Jan the GOP can go back to what they do best...

Obstruct real leadership trying to enact real legislation for real Americans. Talking big and then toeing the line shows me nothing except that you are no different than the rest of the GOP.

[demosincebirth]

34. GOP, the Party of Hypocrites

[oasis]

36. With that, Mr. Flake, you can kiss your 2020 presidential chances goodbye.

[lindysalsagal]

38. "We have become strangers to ourselves." No, you've revealed your true motivations.

"

"Never has a party abandoned, fled its principles and deeply held beliefs so quickly as my party did in the face of the nativist juggernaut," he said Thursday. "We have become strangers to ourselves."

[Cha]

39. "..might.."? I can give you a

definitive.. NO.. it doesn't deserve anything but prison

[Lazy Daisy]

40. I give this man no credit what so ever

Where was his outrage during President Obama's terms? With all the horrific lies they told about him?
FK him.

[StarzGuy]

41. How many years was Flake in the Senate?

And did everything he could to undermine the rule of law and best practices with governance. Now, Senator Flake, it is too late we have what we have.

I don't know if dems can overtake the gerrymandering holding sway over so much of the districts by pukes. I cant even wonder if our democracy can even survive until trumpco and his cabal is removed from office.

I suppose all I can do is hope for the best in this years mid term elections and work on holding on to the democratic seat here in Northern Arizona.

[cstanleytech]

42. Flake trying to line himself up for 2020 to challenge Trump for the Repugnant nomination or

for the 2024 presidential Repugnant nomination?

[Moral Compass]

43. He sounds like an honorable man...

But he his votes along the party line do not reflect that. The tax bill? Senator Flake voted for it. The repeal of the ACA? He voted for it.

He has fought against Trump in words, but not in deeds.

[SergeStorms]

44. And the winner of the "Firm Grasp of the Obvious" award is...........

Republican Senator Jeff Flake!

[dlk]

45. What Does it Say About Flake's Judgment When he Votes in Lockstep with the GOP?

Apparently, he doesn't deserve to lead, either.

[not fooled]

48. Ooohhh good one

Hoist on his own petard. Of course, he thinks we won't remember that he voted along with the rest of the vandals.

jeff, we see you. We have long memories and are cognizant of something called "history".

[RainCaster]

49. His party may not deserve to live

That's ok. In the next two elections we can take care of that.