Jeff Flake just announced he will not be running for re-election in a speech condemning the President and his Republican enablers.
I know it’s frustrating to hear this sort of thing from Republicans now, particularly those who are not planning to run for election. But, even if they have been in that pack enabling Trump, it is important for them to speak out now. Bob Corker this morning and now Jeff Flake make it easier for others to come forward and, hopefully, impeach this disaster of a man.
Some excerpts from the speech:
We must never regard as “normal” the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country – the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have all been elected to serve.
None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that this is just the way things are now. If we simply become inured to this condition, thinking that this is just politics as usual, then heaven help us. Without fear of the consequences, and without consideration of the rules of what is politically safe or palatable, we must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal.
If I have been critical, it not because I relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If I have been critical, it is because I believe that it is my obligation to do so, as a matter of duty and conscience. The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters – the notion that one should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided.
The principles that underlie our politics, the values of our founding, are too vital to our identity and to our survival to allow them to be compromised by the requirements of politics. Because politics can make us silent when we should speak, and silence can equal complicity.
Flake’s speech is really more about Ryan than Trump. Ryan, more than anyone else, is responsible for enabling Trump’s worst behavior.
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) October 24, 2017
Flake, McCain, Ryan, Corker, McConnell, and other Republican leaders should have endorsed Clinton in the general election. This will be obvious to future historians. it was obvious at the time, too. https://t.co/gGFnz7uOKC
— Harold Pollack (@haroldpollack) October 24, 2017
I do not understand how you can say everything Flake is saying right now about the need for courageous public servants and have the punchline be that you're abandoning the fight because you might not win the primary.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) October 24, 2017
… nonetheless Flake didn’t just announce. retirement, he challenged his colleagues in a way I’ve never seen before. He called them out
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) October 24, 2017
Update: Video
WATCH: GOP Sen. Jeff Flake's full 17-minute speech from the Senate floor https://t.co/XmzONyLd68
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 24, 2017