One of the most vocal critics of President Donald Trump, GOP Senator Jeff Flake expressed hope that a Republican will run against Trump in 2020 and said that he hasn’t ruled out running himself.
“It’s not in my plans, but I have not ruled anything out,” Flake said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
He further said that he hoped a Republican challenged Trump “if nothing else, simply to remind Republicans what conservatism is, and what Republicans have traditionally stood for.”
Since Flake announced his retirement from Senate due next January, he has been a frequent and strong critic of the President. He said Republicans in Congress need to more forcefully push back against Trump’s willingness to spread fake information, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“When the President says things that are just totally wrong, it’s the responsibility of members of Congress, particular those in the President’s party, to stand up and say, ‘That is not right. Truth is not relative’,” he said. “And I have seen instances where we haven’t done that well, and we’ve got to do it better.”
Flake added that his comments were motivated by congressional Republicans’ insistence that lawmakers from both parties be allowed to attend a briefing last week to review White House allegations that a spy infiltrated in the Trump campaign in 2016.
The briefing by Justice Department officials initially was set to only provide information to Republican lawmakers, an unusual practice as those kinds of briefings are always attended by members of both parties.
“To have a briefing like the President wanted with just one party was not right, and it wasn’t just some of the Democrats saying that was not proper,” Flake said.
Be the first to comment