Flake and Corker Speak Out, But The Rest of the GOP’s Silence May Be Louder
Corker and Flake speak out, but the rest of GOP’s silence may be louder
WASHINGTON — Two stunning developments took place inside the Republican Party on Tuesday. The first: Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., denounced President Trump, calling him unfit and devoid of moral leadership.
"His governing model is to divide and to attempt to bully and to use untruths,” Corker said.
"When the next generation asks us: 'Why didn't you do something? Why didn't you speak up?' What are we going to say?" Flake asked. “Mr. President, I rise today to say, ‘Enough.’”
Those striking statements followed last week’s other GOP criticisms of Trump and the Trump Era. “Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication,” former President George W. Bush said. And Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took aim at “some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.”
The second development yesterday: The rest of the GOP moved on. Speaking to reporters after Corker’s volleys against Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell deflected the questions about Corker and Flake, and they insisted that the party remains unified on tax reform.
So the question becomes: What will October 24, 2017 be known for more — Corker’s and Flake’s extraordinary condemnation of their party’s own president, or the rest of the GOP staying silent and continuing to march in step with Trump?
Remember, Bob Corker and Jeff Flake aren’t running for re-election in 2018; John McCain won’t ever run for office again; and George W. Bush is far removed from politics.
As Ross Douthat writes in the New York Times , “In the end, if you want Republican voters to reject Trumpism, you need to give them clear electoral opportunities to do so — even if you expect defeat, even if it’s all but certain.”
“If Corker really means what he keeps saying about the danger posed by Trump’s effective incapacity, he should call openly for impeachment or for 25th Amendment proceedings — and other anti-Trump Republicans should join him,” Douthat adds. “If Flake really means what he said in his impassioned speech, and he doesn’t want to waste time and energy on a foredoomed Senate primary campaign, then he should choose a different hopeless-seeming cause and primary Trump in 2020.”
Flake suggests that his speech yesterday could be a Joe Welch-vs.-Joseph McCarthy moment. “The moral power of Welch’s words ended McCarthy’s rampage on American values, and effectively his career as well,” Flake says in a Washington Post op-ed about Welch’s “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” takedown of McCarthy in 1954.
But historian Kevin Kruse reminds us of another anti-McCarthy speech by Margaret Chase Smith — four years earlier in 1950. So what was yesterday? Welch in 1954? Or Margaret Chase Smith in 1950?
Flake and Corker are doing damage to Trump with the middle of the electorate
But as we focus on Trump’s base — and how most of the GOP has joined hands with them — make no mistake: The criticisms that Trump has received from his own party have done serious damage with independent voters.
In our September NBC/WSJ poll, just 34 percent of independents had a positive view of Trump, and 41 percent approved of his job — up from 32 percent in August.
Flake not running for re-election gives GOP a fighting chance to hold on to the seat
As for the 2018 consequences of Flake’s announcement that he won’t run for re-election, the truth is that it helps the GOP.
It gives them the potential to find a different candidate other than Kelli Ward. And it also introduces the possibly that Democrat Krysten Sinema might get a challenge from her own party.
Arizona is still a rough race for the GOP next year, but this free-for-all gives them a better chance of holding on to the Senate seat.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/flake-corker-speak-out-rest-gop-s-silence-may-be-n814121
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Good point ... Senator Corker took an oath of office as well - should he be doing more that just talking?
Corker and Flake speak out,
yepp, because they cannot get re-elected by the trump voters in their states... and they know it. everyone knows it... just google it.
this is a sign of the rights unity against Republicans in name only.