Former Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake lambasted the Republican Party on Monday for its continued ties to former President Donald Trump, saying there is “certainly no future with Trumpism.”
Flake appeared on “CNN Newsroom” and was asked by host Jim Sciutto if he shared the same views as Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who said in a video clip played by Sciutto that “it will be hard to consider the Republican Party home” because of the change in the “party’s values.”
“There is certainly no future with Trumpism. It is a demographic cul-de-sac. I think most people, most elected officials, nearly all of them recognize that,” Flake responded. “But they deal with the reality right now that if they cross the president, they’ll get a primary. I think that is waning pretty quickly. I think the president will fade away a lot faster than he wants to. But that has been the reality.”
Trump left office on Jan. 20, but there is speculation that he could maintain a stronghold of support on the party’s base, which would make it more difficult for Republicans currently in office to speak out against him. Throughout his presidency, Trump regularly slammed Republicans who criticized him or stepped out of line with his agenda, including Flake. He even supported primary candidates against some of them, such as former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who lost the 2020 Senate primary in Alabama to Trump-backed candidate Tommy Tuberville.
Host Poppy Harlow then asked Flake about his censuring by the Arizona Republican Party on Jan. 23, along with Cindy McCain and Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey. Harlow mentioned that the censure said Flake “abandoned true Republican values by professing support for progressive and globalist politicians, and that you supported leftist Joe Biden for president.” (RELATED: Arizona Republican Party Censures McCain, Flake And Gov. Ducey)
Flake pointed out that there were multiple occasions in the past when Republicans supported Democratic candidates, such as former Arizona Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater supporting a Democrat for Congress in the 1990s.
“He knew that it would do damage to the party if we continued that way. And that is the way it is right now. There is no future with Trumpism,” Flake said. “It just — there is no coherent governing philosophy. It is more of an attitude than a philosophy. And in just — look, since President Trump was elected we lost the House, we’ve lost the Senate, we lost the White House, and in the midterms we lost more than 400 legislative seats nationwide. I don’t know how much more winning we could stand as a Republican Party. So we have got to go a different direction.”