Former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., says the vision of the Republican Party under President Donald Trump is not the future of the GOP.
Flake, who left the Senate in 2019, made his remarks during an interview posted Tuesday with The Washington Post.
“I don’t know anyone who thinks that this is the future of the party,” he said. “This is a demographic cul-de-sac we’re in, if nothing else. Anger and resentment only go so far; you have to have a governing philosophy.
“I don’t know of any of my colleagues who really believe this is it. I just couldn’t support [Trump] long before he started to run.”
He said some note that “we’re getting good conservative policy,” conservative judges and tax and regulatory reform.
“But I know that everyone worries about what this does to the standing of the party, long term. For the most part, it’s just trying to just stay in office, so you can fight another day. Maybe outlast the president.
“And stay in his good graces, knowing full well that at any time the president can pick up a phone and generate a primary.”
He pointed to a Trump rally, where the president was onstage “with virtually all my Republican colleagues from Arizona — the governor on down, some of whom had been reluctant previously to be on a campaign stage with the president. Total capitulation of the party to Trumpism.”
Earlier this year, Flake had said: "This president won't be there forever. Then what happens to the Republican Party?”
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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