To say former Republican Senator Jeff Flake doesn’t like President Donald Trump would be an understatement. For years, the two have traded barbs publicly. Now, Flake, once considered a stalwart beacon of conservatism, feels the country would be better off with a Democrat winning the 2020 presidential election.
According to The Daily Wire, the former Senator shared his sentiments while participating in a debate hosted by Intelligence Squared in New York recently. The event focused on whether Republicans should re-nominate President Trump for re-election. Besides Flake, the New York Times’ Bret Stephens argued against nominating the current President for a second time. The debate’s moderator, John Donvan, inquired of Flake, “Are you willing to lose a cycle for the Republican Party because of the principles that you’re arguing?” The former Senator replied, “Oh yes, yes.”
Flake mentioned that Trump’s immigration policies will harm the GOP over time even though they’re attractive to his base.
“It can galvanize people for a while, maybe for a cycle or two. But in the end, it turns people off,” Flake said. “It turns off minorities. It turns off women.”
The former Senator expressed his hope that Republicans would stop sacrificing future generations of Americans and start thinking long-term.
“You sacrifice a generation, and you think, ‘Man, we might get some policy goals in the next year or two’ Look at the long term. Look at the long term, at what you’re doing for the party, because people don’t want to be associated with it,” he added.
The former Senator has talked up one potential Democratic hopeful. Although he hasn’t officially entered the 2020 race, Flake has said former Vice President Joe Biden “strikes fear” in the hearts of many in the GOP. Last month, while appearing on liberal MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Flake remarked, “He can speak to those states that President Trump won, the Rust Belt in particular, and he’s seen as more of a centrist. He was a senator for 30 some years. He knows how to work with the Senate, with the Congress, and I think that’s certainly one that worries Republicans.”
During the recent debate, Flake argued against the notion that Trump is the only Republican candidate that could get elected in 2020. The former Senator said, “We would certainly like it to be a Republican. And this notion — this narrative that’s been built up that Donald Trump is the only one that can cobble together the Electoral College and win is just a fallacy.” One has to wonder if Flake is actually considering himself the Republican solution in 2020.
Ben Shapiro, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Wire, sharply disagrees with Flake’s notion that another Republican should run against Trump in 2020. When Senator Mitt Romney was mentioned as a possible challenger to the President, Shapiro couldn’t disagree more.
“Here’s how an actual primary campaign against Trump from Romney or anyone else would play out,” Shapiro said. “The primarying candidate would declare him or herself superior in character to Trump (which would probably be true), a better representative of conservatism than Trump (which could be true in theory but probably wouldn’t be true in policy terms), and a more likely 2020 victor (which would likely be false.)”
Shapiro explained that he doesn’t think primary voters would care a whit about character. Obviously, this argument didn’t prevent them from voting for Trump in 2016. Why then should it suddenly matter now?
The conservative podcaster also outlined the numerous triumphs for conservatism that Trump has spearheaded, including “the seating of two Supreme Court justices and another 83 Article III judges; a massive tax cut; a systematic dismantlement of regulations, including the repeal of the individual mandate under Obamacare and the destruction of the Obama administration’s absurd Title IX standards; the formation of an anti-Iranian alliance among Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia; the movement of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem;” and “the rebuilding of the American military.”
Flake and some other establishment politicians will likely never be able to stomach a Trump presidency. But, like him or loathe him, Trump has done a lot for conservatives in his first two years in office. It’s a shame personal grievances prevent some Republicans from giving the President credit where credit is due.
~ Conservative Zone
