Don’t expect others to follow Flake’s lead
Very few in GOP have seconded Senator’s critique of Trump
WASHINGTON Sen. Jeff Flake’s dramatic denunciation of President Trump and the anti-establishment wing of the Republican Party is unlikely to start a wave of similar speeches from other Republicans.
In fact, very few in the party have seconded Flake’s Tuesday rebuke when he announced on the Senate floor he would not run for re-election in 2018.
At least one GOP Senate incumbent who is being targeted by Trump’s allies seemed more eager to publicly defend the president.
“I think most of us in the conference are very comfortable with the direction that this chief executive of our nation and this head of our party wants to take us,” said Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, a Republican target of the antiestablishment wing led by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. He added that Flake’s criticisms of the president have been “quite provocative.”
Andrew Surabian, a senior adviser to Great America Alliance, a Trump-aligned advocacy group and an ally of Bannon’s, said that Republicans like Wicker were just pretending to support Trump to get re-elected.
“We’re trying to replace the phonies in the Senate who only pretend to support the president and his America First Agenda when it is politically expedient to do so, but would turn their backs on the president the moment they no longer need him to get reelected,” Surabian said.
Other Republican senators expressed sadness at Flake’s departure but declined to elaborate on whether he was speaking truths about the president and the state of the party.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz even squeezed through a cluster of reporters and lawmakers at the Capitol to make it into a closing elevator, rather than answer a reporter who asked what Flake’s resignation meant to the party.
Cruz — a conservative who has made nice with the president after a rough GOP presidential primary — is the only Republican up for re-election in 2018 who the anti-establishment crew isn’t expected to challenge.
When a reporter asked Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota whether Flake’s resignation made him worry about the “Bannon effect,” Rounds responded, “I just think (Flake) is one of these really good guys.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham said even though he shared some of Flake’s concerns he wasn’t going to dwell on them. “The election is over. I’m focused on results and that’s why I’m here. I’d rather not be a constant critic,” Graham said, according to a Huff Post reporter.
The South Carolina senator went after the president during the GOP presidential primary and has occasionally criticized him since Trump has been in office. Graham ran for the nomination but dropped out early after he wasn’t able to attract significant support. Recently the two seem to be getting along better.
Flake has a handful of GOP allies who have been consistently critical of Trump, but none are up for re-election in 2018.
Arizona Sen. John McCain hasn’t hesitated to go after Trump, particularly on foreign and military policy, but he just won an election and is 81 years old with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, a conservative known for his quips on Twitter, has knocked the president over a variety of statements and policies, but Sasse isn’t up for re-election until 2020.
Sasse also isn’t regularly on TV unless he has a specific message he wants to put out, so he has avoided some of Trump’s anger.