Flake says Trump is ‘inviting’ Republican primary in 2020
Sen. Jeff Flake warned Sunday that President Donald Trump will face a primary challenge or an independent opponent in 2020 if the Republican continues his bombastic ways.
“I do believe if the president is running for re-election, if he continues on the path that he’s on, that that’s going to leave a huge swath of voters looking for someone else,” Flake, R-Ariz., said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think he’s inviting that. He’s probably inviting a Republican challenge as well.”
Flake said he wouldn’t rule it out, but that running himself is “not in my plans.”
Flake has been critical of the path his party is taking. He pointed to rallies for Trump and other firebrand conservatives, where the audiences are like “spasms of a dying party.”
“When you look at the lack of diversity, sometimes, and it depends on where you are, obviously, but by and large, we’re appealing to older white men and there are just a limited number of them, and anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy,” he said in the interview.
Flake said his faith in the Republican Party was restored when Roy Moore, the party’s candidate for the Senate from Alabama, lost a special election this month despite Trump’s endorsement.
Flake wrote a $100 check to Moore’s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, and refused to back Moore, who was accused of sexual misconduct with several teenage girls when he was in his 30s.