Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who delivered a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump while announcing he would not run for re-election, said Wednesday that while he opposes the president's actions, he does not think removing Trump from office is the direction in which to go.
"I don't think any of those remedies are justified, I really don't," Flake told "CBS This Morning" early Wednesday. "High crimes, misdemeanors, people talk about impeachment on the left, I don't think that's the direction to go, nor do I think the 25th amendment is, either."
He does, though, think that members of Congress should speak out about Trump if he "follows through on some of the policies or threats he's made with regard to the First Amendment, for example, or if he continues to — in terms of the tweets and just kind of the debasing statements that he's made and also on the foreign stage."
Flake said he does think lawmakers need to be "incredibly careful about what we're doing."
The Arizona Republican said he's had reservations about Trump for some time, even before the real estate mogul announced his candidacy for the White House.
"The birtherism, this ugly conspiracy theory about President [Barack] Obama was embraced by too many," said Flake. "Then, during the campaign when the president talked about the Mexican immigrants in ways that were unbecoming, talking about my colleague [Sen.] John McCain, how he couldn't be respected because he was captured."
Skeptics, including the president himself Wednesday morning through Twitter, are saying Flake and Corker, R-Tennessee, are both retiring because they are likely to lose their re-election bids, noted the CBS panel.
However, Flake said he believes the longer Trump's actions are allowed to go on, "the more this behavior is normalized, and that is a problem."
"Already, I think we're seeing the effects of this new era," he said. "I think we have a responsibility as elected officials to speak out when there's behavior beyond the pale, and then some of what we've seen fits in that category."
Flake also said most people have been waiting for nine months for Trump to "pivot" toward "more appropriate behavior and stability," but "we haven't seen it. I think it's time that we stand up and be a little more forceful."
The senator said he has talked to colleagues who have not been as vocal, but he does believe that more will speak up in the future.