Flake, Corker say fed up, lay into president
Arizona senator to retire; Trump claims ouster wins
WASHINGTON — A pair of senators from President Donald Trump’s own party blistered him with criticism Tuesday, with Jeff Flake of Arizona declaring that he would not be “complicit” with Trump and announcing his plans to retire, and Bob Corker of Tennessee declaring that the president “debases our nation” with untruths and name-calling.
Corker, too, is retiring at the end of his term, and the White House shed no tears at the prospect of the two GOP senators’ departures. A former adviser to Steve Bannon, Trump’s ex-strategic adviser, called it all “a monumental victory for the Trump movement,” and Trump was said to boast to staff members that he’d played a role in forcing the senators out.
The rebuke of the president from prominent members of his own party came as Trump met with GOP senators for lunch, where they briefly discussed coming tax overhaul measures. To pass that legislation, Trump needs as many Republican senators
on board as he can get.
At midafternoon, as fellow lawmakers sat in attentive silence, Flake stood at his Senate desk and delivered a speech in which he dissected what he considered his party’s accommodations with Trump and said he could no longer play a role in them.
“We were not made great as a country by indulging in or even exalting our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorifying in the things that divide us and calling fake things true and true things fake,” he said in a speech that ended in applause from both parties and some Democrats shaking Flake’s hand or hugging him.
Later, Sen. John McCain, Arizona’s other Republican senator, addressed the chamber, saying, “It’s been one of the great honors of my life to have the opportunity to serve” with Flake.
“I have seen Jeff Flake stand up for what he believes in, knowing that there would be a critical price to pay,” he said.
Hours before Flake’s speech, Corker leveled his own criticism at Trump in a series of interviews.
“I don’t know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard and debases our country,” Corker said in a CNN interview, suggesting that he will soon convene hearings to examine the ways Trump “purposely has been breaking down relationships around the world.”
Corker, who supported Trump in the 2016 presidential election, told CNN that he would not do that again.
“I think the debasement of our nation will be what he’ll be remembered most for, and that’s regretful,” Corker added.
Trump then criticized Corker’s tenure at the helm of the Foreign Relations Committee.
“Sen. Corker is the incompetent head of the Foreign Relations Committee, & look how poorly the U.S. has done. He doesn’t have a clue as … the entire World WAS laughing and taking advantage of us. People like liddle’ Bob Corker have set the U.S. way back. Now we move forward!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Corker responded in a tweet, “Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDayCareStaff.”
White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Corker “ineffective” and said of his and Flake’s retirements: “The people both in Tennessee and Arizona supported this president, and I don’t think that the numbers are in favor of either of those two senators in their states and so I think this was probably the right decision.”
Away from the cameras, Trump took credit for helping force the two departures, according to a White House official and an outside adviser, who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.
TAX LEGISLATION
In between the broadsides from Corker and Flake, Trump visited the Capitol to join GOP senators for their weekly policy lunch. Senators said he did not joust with Corker or anyone else — or spend much time talking about a tax overhaul, the expected topic for the lunch.
Many see the tax overhaul as an urgent task for Republicans who’ve failed to notch a significant legislative achievement this year despite controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress. Trump did discuss it, but it was not his focus.
Instead, senators said, he mixed in a review of accomplishments so far on the regulatory front and others. At one point, he essentially polled senators on whom he should nominate as the next Federal Reserve chairman, asking for a show of hands on various candidates. He tweeted later that he had received “Multiple standing ovations!”
Republicans are attempting to craft a tax bill that can pass in the Senate by a party-line vote, avoiding a Democratic filibuster.
To do that, they must address the expected revenue losses from reducing tax rates over the next decade and in the years to follow.
The party’s most difficult fights are likely to be over how to do that — by some combination of eliminating popular tax breaks and employing accounting maneuvers, such as setting some tax cuts to expire, in order to reduce revenue losses.
Corker stands as a possible impediment to that plan. A long-standing opponent of rising federal deficits, the senator has said he will not vote for any tax bill that would increase the federal debt by a dollar. But on Thursday, the House is expected to give final approval to a budget blueprint that would protect from a Democratic filibuster a tax plan that would add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.
A Treasury Department report released Friday showed that the budget deficit for fiscal 2017 grew by $80 billion, to $666 billion, as federal spending eclipsed revenue, and economic growth remained tepid. At the same time, Congress is contemplating what the president has promised would be the largest tax cut in history.
Trump has made declarations about the tax plan while the legislation is still being drafted. On Monday, Trump said the plan would not include any changes to how much Americans can save in tax-deferred retirement plans like 401(k) accounts.
“Hopefully the White House will step aside and let that occur in a normal process,” Corker said on NBC’s Today, referring to Congress’ drafting of tax legislation.
Any tax plan would need all the Republican support Trump can get in the Senate, and quarrels with Republican senators put that support in jeopardy.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, sidestepped reporters’ questions about Corker’s characterization of Trump.
“We’re going to concentrate on what our agenda is, and not any of these other distractions that you all may be interested in,” the senator from Kentucky said.
However, even for Republicans who had no intention of seconding Flake’s comments, the importance of the day’s developments was not lost.
“It’s counterproductive when Republicans are battling amongst themselves,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
FLAKE’S EXIT
Until Tuesday, Flake had insisted that he had no plans to retire. In fact, he was raising money for his re-election campaign. But, he said, his strain of Republicanism has become a tough sell.
“It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican Party,” he said.
Corker’s retirement plans also underscore the question of what the Republican Party will look like in years to come. McConnell has warned that some candidates running with the backing of Trump allies could not win general elections. And even if they make it to the Senate, certain conservatives could make McConnell’s job even harder as he tries to maneuver legislation through a narrow majority that now stands at 52-48.
Steven Law, head of a McConnell-allied super political action committee that supports GOP incumbents and establishment-aligned candidates, issued a statement declaring that Republican former state Sen. Kelli Ward of Arizona, who was running against Flake with Bannon’s encouragement, “will not be the Republican nominee for this Senate seat in 2018.” Many fellow Republicans had expected Flake to lose the primary and hope they will now be able to recruit a stronger candidate.
There was celebration of Flake’s retirement in Bannon’s anti-establishment camp.
Andy Surabian, a former Bannon adviser and now senior adviser to the Great America Alliance, said: “Today’s announcement from Sen. Flake that he would not run for re-election is a monumental win for the entire Trump movement and should serve as another warning shot to the failed Republican establishment that backed Flake and others like them that their time is up.”
Talking principle rather
than politics, Flake said on the Senate floor: “We must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it, because it does. I plan to spend the remaining 14 months of my Senate term doing just that.”
Information for this article was contributed by Erica Werner, Jonathan Lemire, Alan Fram and Richard Lardner of The Associated Press; by Eileen Sullivan of
The New York Times; and by Ashley Parker, David Weigel and Ed O’Keefe of The Washington Post.