I quit rather than I qubiet craomthpelircitthwaitnh be cTorump,lsicayitswFlaitkhe Trump, says Flake We must stop pretending that the degradation of politics and the conduct of some in our executive are normal We must work tirelessly and forge ahead on the
Can the traditional Republican Party survive the presidency of Donald Trump? That existential question, which has nagged at Republicans since Trump’s stunning election one year ago, flared up anew on Tuesday with Arizona Senator Jeff Flake’s announcement that he is retiring from Congress. One of the GOP’s most consistent critics of the president, Flake was facing a tough primary challenge in next year’s election from at least one candidate with the backing of some Trump allies.
“There may not be a place for a Republican like me in the current Republican climate or the current Republican Party,” said Flake, a conservative who has worked with Democrats on issues like immigration and the Obama administration’s detente with Cuba.
The senator’s dour assessment of his future in the Republican Party gave voice to worries that have gripped the GOP heading into the midterm elections. Trump has shown little loyalty to some sitting senators, and has openly squabbled with Flake and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Some of the president’s ardent supporters — led by former White House senior adviser Steve Bannon — are actively courting GOP primary challengers who are more willing to buck the Republican establishment in Washington than line up behind its leaders.
Andy Surabian, a senior adviser for the pro-Trump group Great America Alliance, said Flake’s retirement is part of a trend and “should serve as another warning shot to the failed Republican establishment that backed Flake and others like them that their time is up.” To be sure, intra-party divi-
Jeff Flake,
Arizona Senator sions are hardly new for the GOP, which has struggled for years to reconcile its more moderate, probusiness wing with the growing crop of populists and nationalists that ultimately fuelled Trump’s political rise. Trump’s election may have left Republicans with control of both the White House and Congress but it did nothing to heal the minutes floor speech by Republican Senator Jeff Flake sounded like a distress call divisions. If anything, Trump — a former Democrat with no ideological mooring to conservative principles or deep ties to GOP leaders — has exacerbated the gulf between millions of GOP voters and the congressional leaders sent to Washington to represent them.
Peter Wehner, a Trump critic who served in president George W. SACRAMENTO — California billionaire Tom Steyer has announced that he will dump at least $10 million into a national television advertising campaign calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment.
In the ad, Steyer argues Trump should be ousted from office because he has edged the country towards nuclear war, obstructed justice at the FBI and threatened to shut down news organisations he does not like. He urges viewers to call their members of Congress and tell them to bring articles of impeachment.
“People in Congress and his own administration know this president is a clear and present danger who is mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons,” Steyer says in the ad. “And they do nothing.” Steyer plans to spend eight figures to air the television ads nationally, but he would not give an exact amount. His investment comes as he considers running against US Senator Dianne Feinstein, a fellow Democrat, and as Democrats in Washington argue over Bush’s White House, said there’s a “struggle going on for the soul of conservatism and the Republican Party”. He urged more traditional Republicans to stay and fight for their principles instead of fleeing — though he left open the prospect that it’s a fight they ultimately may not win.
“If this party is defined by Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, then a lot of these people aren’t going to want to be a part of that party anyway,” Wehner said.
The anti-establishment forces already had one victory under their belt after firebrand jurist Roy Moore defeated incumbent Senator Luther Strange in the Alabama GOP primary last month. Moore is whether efforts to impeach Trump are smart or worthwhile. “If Democrats want to appease the far left and their liberal mega-donors by supporting a baseless, radical effort that the vast majority of Americans disagree with, then have at it,” said Michael Ahrens, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. Republicans will focus on “issues voters actually care about”, such as the economy and cutting taxes, he said.
Steyer also said he will spend seven figures on an accompanying digital ad campaign.
An impeachment resolution brought last week by Democratic US Representative Al Green of Texas died before coming up for a vote. Green has vowed to try again. But Democrats such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California think impeachment attempts are not worthwhile because they will fail in the Republican-led Congress and could energise GOP voters heading into the next election. — considered an outlier among Republicans and hardly a guaranteed vote for McConnell if he lands in the Senate next year.
Flake’s comments on Tuesday from the Senate floor came hours after Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who has also decided not to seek re-election, declared Trump was “debasing” the United States with untruths and name-calling. Last week, Senator John McCain lamented a climate of “half-baked, spurious nationalism” and Bush bemoaned “bullying and prejudice in our public life” — comments that appeared to be veiled criticism of Trump, though neither man mentioned the president by name.
Privately, many more Republican officials have raised deep concerns about the direction Trump is pulling the party, both on policy and tone. He’s pulled the GOP to the right on immigration only to raise the prospect of making a deal with Democrats to allow young people brought to the US illegally as children to stay in the country. He’s withdrawn the US from a major Pacific Rim trade pact and threatened to pull out of a longstanding deal with Canada and Mexico. The president has also drawn open support from some white nationalists, a reality that was magnified after he equivocated in his response to clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, this summer.
But aside from occasional criticism of Trump’s tweets or most callous comments, most Republican office holders have stayed silent, in part out of fear of alienating the president’s supporters. A handful of House Republicans have taken the same path as Flake and Corker, announcing plans to retire rather than run for re-election in competitive districts. —