BREAKING: Arizona Senator Jeff Flake Announces He Will Not Seek Reelection, Torches Trump
Alby broke the story as follows:
BREAKING: Jeff Flake apparently taken up Jason’s offer, announcing Tuesday he will not seek re-election.
Part of his statement: “Here’s the bottom line: The path that I would have to travel to get the Republican nomination is a path I’m not willing to take, and that I can’t in good conscience take. It would require me to believe in positions I don’t hold on such issues as trade and immigration and it would require me to condone behavior that I cannot condone.”
Flake made clear that the politics of Trump are not normal, and said that “…“there may not be a place for a Republican like me in the current Republican climate or the current Republican Party.”
Just…wow.
Flake calls Trump’s behavior ‘outrageous and undignified’, and calls for a Republican end to ‘complicity and accommodation’.
Too bad it is in the context of quitting. A primary could have helped make his point.
I don’t think so. He would have lost — he’s at 18% approval — which would warn off others.
Bright side: Yesterday there was one sitting Republican senator willing to criticize Trump by name. Today there are two. That’s a 100% increase.
What do you political guys think will happen in 2018? Will Bannon be successful in getting a bunch of Trumpites elected?
Is there any hope for this country?
@homesteader: Right now the biggest impediment to the GOP program is Trump himself, and that will continue unless they find a competent Trump wrangler. No luck with that so far.
Bannon is a tweaker, apparently, so take everything he says with a nicely cut line of salt. The woman who will run in Flake’s stead actually believes in chemtrails. White Arizonans might hate Latinos, but they aren’t about to give up air travel — that’s how they got there from Wisconsin.
Best-case scenario, and not all that unlikely, is that Bannon wins a few primaries, which means another batch of Sharron Angles and Todd Akins. My initial fear was that the GOP would reach 60 seats, but that’s looking less likely as the months wear on anyway. Control of the Senate appears to be in play, especially with incumbents Strange and Flake out. Here’s a look at the current state of Senate races:
https://www.270towin.com/2018-senate-election/
The House looks more promising for Democrats, but it’s easier for Bannon types to win general elections in hyper-conservative gerrymandered House districts than entire states.
That said, and I know Jason will tell you this, Democrats under their current neo-liberal leadership have shown the mass appeal of, oh, a retirement-planning seminar — you go because you should, not because you want to. So they could fuck everything up. For example, you would think that Democrats would be running those “call your senator” ads to tell them “not one cent” for tax cuts for the rich. You would think.
If Democrats can take the House, they can move forward with impeachment secure in the knowledge that Pence can’t move his hard-right agenda. In such a scenario all the stuff Trump has done comes out — not just the Russia stuff, which is only one facet of his grifting, but everything — putting public pressure on the Senate to dump the guy. They probably won’t, but it should wreck the GOP for a cycle or two.
But I’m an optimist.
Hope? I’m not familiar.
Here’s what Bannon has accomplished so far. He has made a non-competitive Alabama Senate race at least somewhat competitive.
He has made a non-competitive Tennessee race somewhat competitive (the D’s have a decent candidate here).
He has made it MORE likely that Flake’s seat will swing D. Odds favor it, in fact. Not to mention Nevada, where another R primary looms.
This is before almost a year more of Trump, which will make R’s an endangered species.
Were the D’s not a (deservedly) endangered political party, the D’s would likely retake the Senate. I think everybody is getting Trump fatigue, including Trump supporters.
Oh, and not to be ghoulish, but there could well be a second Arizona seat open next November if Sen. McCain cannot perform his duties. And, if Bannon has his way, it’ll be another RWNJ running for THAT seat. Who knows? Maybe Susan Collins changes her mind and heads back to Maine.
If the Hillarybots would only get out of the way…
Somehow, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Jeff Flake.
Maybe he should run as a Democrat…
Nah, he’s really conservative. People labeling Flake a moderate need to look at his voting record. Same holds true for Ben Sasse in Nebraska, who gets similar pub.
Standing up to a demagogue is admirable, and I salute Corker and Flake for what they’ve done. But neither are moderates.
The D running for the Arizona seat, Krysten Sinema, is a true moderate. But she’s probably the only type of D who can win the seat so I’m fine with that.
Let’s not start pretending there are sane Republicans. They are all extremists, and some are more extreme.
Many of these concerns would not be concerns if we didn’t have unlimited dark money pouring into politics and government. Time to get the CA passed.
Let’s not forget that except for this RARE instance of calling out a bully, Republicans these days are all about speaking as corporate shills. Combine them with neo-liberals and you have about 75-80% of the US Senate working against the interests of the American people. Sleight of hand all the way…
What the Republican establishment really wanted in 2016 was slicko !Jeb and all of the behind scenes maneuvering the Bush family brings to American politics. Their noses are specially attuned to recognize the “worth” of “wealthy people”. And that is what makes Republicans so noisome.