What's Lying Around Jeff Flake's Office Proves Betrayal of Conservatives
Ever since President Donald Trump took office, Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake sought to position himself as a “true conservative” by opposing Trump at every turn. This move cost Flake significant support among his own base and led to his decision to not seek re-election in the Senate.
Many viewed the move as a betrayal against conservatives and supporters of the president. But Flake’s betrayal of the conservative base of the Republican Party was crystallized during a recent interview with CNN’s David Axelrod, a top aide of former President Barack Obama.
According to the Washington Examiner, Flake and Axelrod’s conversation — which aired Saturday night on CNN — turned to the former president when Axelrod noticed a signed and framed picture on Flake’s desk. The picture featured Flake and his family posing in the White House with Obama and former first lady Michelle — a photo not too many conservatives who battled Obama for eight long years would proudly display in their office.
The outgoing senator noted that he and Obama have kept in touch since the former president left office, and mentioned how Obama called him after a major speech to see how he was doing, presumably following his announcement that he wouldn’t be running for the Senate in 2018.
“The last night he was in the White House, the day before inauguration he called just to say that he enjoyed working with me,” Flake said. “And I certainly said the same. He didn’t have to do that. It was very nice.”
According to CNN, Flake also said that his own Republican Party was in a “bad place” in the age of Trump, and chastised the president for not behaving in the manner that “a conservative should act.”
“We’ve stopped being the party of limited government, economic freedom, individual responsibility … and kind of drifted off to fight the culture wars,” Flake said. “That’s when you always know you’re in a bad place.”
“When you stop talking as a Republican about limited government or limiting spending and you start talking about flag burning or other cultural issues or immigration to try to make up for not being conservative fiscally. You have to emphasize other issues,” he added.
Flake doubled down on his assertion that Trump isn’t really a conservative, despite the incredibly conservative policies the Trump administration has put into place, and insisted that “words” as well as “comportment and demeanor and manners” mattered more than policy, a stance with which most conservatives would take issue.
Circling back to his apparent love of working with Obama, Flake said of the Trump White House, “It’s different, it really is. Definitely when you see the cabinet meetings, it’s kind of painful, frankly, to watch.”
He ludicrously added that the most painful part was “to see the Congress defer so much to the president,” as if that isn’t exactly what happened during Obama’s eight years in office.
Separately, CNN reported that Flake declined to rule out a potential run for the presidency against Trump in 2020, though he did say that doing so was “not something I’m planning” at the moment.
“I’ve not sworn off elected office in the future,” Flake said. “I think the fever will have to cool. There’s not much place for a Republican like me in a party like this right now.”
Nevertheless, he asserted, “I do think the president will have a challenge from the Republican Party. I think there should be. I also think that there will be an independent challenge.”
Flake added that he saw extreme “polarization” on both sides of the political aisle which led him to believe that that time was ripe for a viable independent candidate to enjoy some success in a presidential election, as they would conceivably appeal to the “huge swath of voters in the middle that are looking for something else.”
While there may be an element of truth to that last part, Jeff Flake is not going to be that viable independent candidate — in truth, that would be Trump, as evidenced by the many Democrats and independent voters who went to the polls on his behalf. Flake’s betrayal of the conservative movement by his blind rejection of the man chosen to lead his party while simultaneously cozying up to a bitter political rival may as well serve as the nail in the coffin of his political career.
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