To be honest, most say he’s not
rally in Virginia.
Flake called on others to stand up to Trump’s politics and behavior by invoking the 1950s demagoguery of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, saying, “You can’t continue to just remain silent.”
“There is a tipping point . . . . I hope we’re reaching that tipping point,” Flake told NBC’s “Today.”
Trump immediately fired back on Twitter, saying that Flake and Corker (inset, below) aren’t running for reelection because “they had zero chance of being elected.”
He also contended that Flake and Corker are outliers, boasting that he received a standing ovation a luncheon with GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill a day earlier.
“It was almost a love fest, maybe it was a love fest. There is great unity,” he said of the GOP. Most Republicans sought to stay out of the fray. “Maybe we do better by having some of the people who just don’t like him leave, and replace them with somebody else,” Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma told The Associated Press. “And I think that’s what’s happening.”
Others wanted to stay focused on tax reform, the lone legislative victory the party has a chance of claiming after a year of disappointing defeats.
Flake was facing a challenge from former state Sen. Kelli Ward, an insurgent anti-establishment conservative who has the backing of former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon. Earlier this month, Bannon implored attendees at the Values Voter Summit, an annual social conservative conference, to keep up the fight against the “imperial” political class. “It’s not my war, this is our war and y’all didn’t start it, the establishment started it,” Bannon said. He also said, “Right now, it’s a season of war against the GOP establishment.” On Wednesday, Bannon blasted Flake and his fellow Republicans as weak. “The establishment Republicans are in full collapse. They’re not even fighting back. They’re out of ideas, guts and out of money,” Bannon told the Financial Times. “Flake was polling like crazy, and the numbers were coming back terrible. Flake shows you one important thing. The money is getting turned off. He went down without a fight.” Corker told CNN on Wednesday that he was in a “commanding position” and had more money than any other Republican incumbent when he decided to call it quits. “And so that’s just not true,” he said of Trump’s assertions that he chose not to run again because he had “zero chance of winning.” “But, look, you know, I — please. I don’t really care what comes out of the White House,” Corker added. “Well, it’s sort of a daily silliness.” A MAJORITY of Americans believe President Trump is reckless, dishonest and thin-skinned, a new poll released Wednesday says. The harsh assessment of the President’s personality comes on the heels of a pair of members of his own party going public with their concerns about Trump’s behavior. The results of the poll by Morning Consult/Politico also found that Trump’s approval rating remains steady at 42%, low for a first-year President. Many of those polled have a harsh view of Trump’s personality. The survey found that 56% of voters believe Trump to be reckless, while 52% said that he is thin-skinned. A paltry 39% of people consider him to be a strong leader, while only 33% consider him to be stable. Meanwhile, 50% of voters think he’s sexist, and 45% of voters think he’s racist — higher figures than his approval rating. Only 35% call Trump honest, while 51% say he is not. The poll was conducted off a national sample of 1,988 registered voters.