They could determine whether the GOP maintains its narrow majorities in both the Senate and House - and whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., hold their leadership positions.īannon claimed victory with Flake's departure. From Alabama to Mississippi to Nevada, these contenders are hoping to disrupt the 2018 midterm elections. Still, Danforth said he is concerned that by giving up their seats, Flake and Corker were "leaving the field open" to insurgent candidates inspired by former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, who is leading a rebellion against establishment Republicans.Īlready, a crop of Bannon-inspired conservative outsiders is emerging nationally.
"But the best I can think of right now is simply making it clear to the American people that the Republican Party is what it has been in the past, and that is not Donald Trump." "Am I concerned about what are we supposed to do for the next three-plus years with this man in the White House? Yes, I'm very concerned," said John Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri and U.S.
Some Republican elder statesmen who have been deeply critical of Trump celebrated Flake's remarks and called on other elected Republicans to further distance the party from the president. 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." The personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth and decency."įlake added, "We must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. "We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country. "We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals," Flake said. Flake, 54, spoke with bewilderment and sadness, his voice cracking at times, about what he viewed as the withering of morality and civility in the national dialogue. Polls show the overwhelming majority of Republican voters back Trump, and that fact that two of the president's most vocal critics in the Senate are retiring underscores how dangerous it is for politicians seeking reelection to break with the president and risk the wrath of his loyal supporters.įlake's 18-minute speech was perhaps the most sweeping indictment of Trump delivered by a Republican to date. The raw candor from two retiring senators came on a day when Trump made a rare trip to the Capitol for an intended show of party unity, lunching privately with Republican senators to rally support for his plan to cut taxes.įor a Republican Party that has been riven by internal turmoil for nearly a decade, the Flake-Corker rupture with Trump exacerbated the ferocious war between the party's seasoned leaders and its anti-establishment forces, now rallying under the banner of Trumpism. John McCain, R-Ariz., who thundered about the rise of what he called "half-baked, spurious nationalism." Bush, a Republican, and Barack Obama, a Democrat, both indirectly rebuked Trump's deportment and warned of peril for the nation under his watch, as did Sen. With their distress calls, Flake and Corker joined a chorus of mainstream political leaders newly emboldened to excoriate Trump. As a matter of fact, it seems to me it's almost devolving." Bob Corker, R-Tenn., questioned the president's stability and competence, reigniting a deeply personal feud with the president.Ĭorker, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee who also will not run for reelection, told reporters in assessing Trump's nine-month tenure, "I've seen no evolution in an upward way. The charged remarks from Flake - a totem of traditional conservatism who has repeatedly spoken out about his isolation in Trump's GOP - came hours after Sen. He added, "Politics can make us silent when we should speak, and silence can equal complicity." "It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end," Flake said. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said Trump's behavior is "dangerous to our democracy" and summoned fellow Republican leaders to speak out about the president's conduct. A pair of Republican senators sounded an alarm Tuesday about President Donald Trump's fitness for office and warned that his actions were degrading and dangerous to the country - an extraordinary breach that threatens his legislative agenda and further escalates the civil war tearing apart the Republican Party.ĭelivering an emotional speech from the Senate floor announcing that he would not seek reelection next year, Sen.