By this time, Jeff Flake thought it would all be over.
Flake, the former Republican senator in Arizona and outspoken critic of Donald Trump, admits that he expected the ripple effects in the Republican Party Trump’s loss to the White House to be even greater by now.
Instead, Flake had to watch Trump leave office, but Trumpism refused to fade into the country. These include Flake’s homeland, where the Republican Party recently condemned him along with the two other most prominent Republicans – Cindy McCain, the widow of late Senator John McCain, and Doug Ducey, the governor of Arizona.
“I do think this fever will break, but it was slow,” Flake said in an interview with the Guardian. “It was really slow.”
For much of the Trump administration, Flake was a lone voice in his party, opposing him first as a rare anti-Trump government-elected official and then as a member of the Republican club opposed to the 45th president rose only to return. .
Throughout the hope, Flake hoped that Trump would somehow leave, that other Republicans would see the same light as him, and that opposition to the 45th president would increase. Flake calls it a “migration” of Republicans away from their allegiance to Trump.
“This migration will start,” Flake said. “It’s just slow to get started.”
These days, the outlook for anti-Trump Republicans may feel bright and bleak. Trump is not in office and there are elected Republican officials who are actively working to move away from Trump amid fears of backlash from activists within the IDP.
Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger has convened a political action committee to fight the QAnon movement that is saturating the Republican Party. House Speaker Liz Cheney and nearly a dozen other Republicans voted to continue accusing Trump again.
Other Republicans opposed Trump while making unfounded allegations of voter fraud after Joe Biden won the presidential election, but before taking office.
But these forces are rather a small rebellion or uprising and less an army involved in a civil war between parties. The anti-Trumpists are growing very slowly, Flake admits. Flake believes that the fact that Trump is successfully convicted in his forthcoming prosecution will help speed things up.
“I think if there are enough elected officials who say ‘we’re done,’ then that’s the threshold, we cross the column about what we need to cross, and then Trump fades quickly,” Flake said.
That was not supposed to be the case for Flake, a libertarian leaning conservative with a soap opera star. He served in the House of Representatives for more than a decade before winning the Senate seat once held by conservative icon Barry Goldwater in the then trusty red state of Arizona. But as Trump’s unlikely presidential bid began, Flake refused to go along with most of his Republican colleagues and fall in line. In October 2017, he delivers a speech in which he says he will not seek another term.
“I did not want to leave the Senate. I wanted to do at least one more term, ‘Flake said. ‘But the thought of standing with Donald Trump on a campaign and laughing at his jokes and staring at my feet while mocking my colleagues – I just could not do it. There is nothing worthwhile. But I look and think to leave the party or start a third party that just does not – we need two strong parties in this country. I think we’re back, I hope we will. I want to be a part of it. ”
Since then, Flake has not hesitated to speak out against Trump, and he intends to do so, in addition to the education he does at Arizona State University. Flake is also a well-known face on cable news and in political reporting.
Flake is also optimistic. He predicted in his interview with the Guardian on Tuesday that extremist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a supporter of QAnon’s conspiracy theory, would be deprived of her committee mandates, which would be an effective legislative neutralization for any member of Congress. will be. She was – even though it was Democrats, not Republicans who did it.
He also does not think Cheney is doomed to lose re-election as Trumpists oust her. On Wednesday, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy chose to support Cheney in the wake of a row over her move to help accuse Trump.
“You’re soon to have some important moments here with Marjorie Taylor Greene and what they’re going to have to do with her, and that might speed things up, I think,” Flake said. ‘I will not count Liz Cheney out here. She has some benefits and ties that are now just so high that she can survive them. Maybe Adam Kinzinger too. I hope and pray for sure. ”
Asked if he was in touch with Cheney or Kinzinger, Flake said he did not, but said he was talking to a like-minded Republican.
‘Trumpism requires a certain amount of what you lose when you lose. And he lost, ‘Flake said. “In Georgia, he could not cross the finish line. So yes, I strongly believe that would be the case and it would happen much faster if more elected officials said ‘yes, we need to move on.’ I think they will get to that point, but my son, it was slow. ‘
He also saw promises at home. His neighbors in the suburbs of Pheonix, where he lives, once raised Trump flags on their properties. Not anymore.
“There were actually two neighbors, one on either side, who had Trump flags, they’re both down,” Flake said, warning that Trump supporters elsewhere in his neighborhood support their support.
Recently, Flake and his wife took a long, leisurely bike ride through his neighborhood, picking up the Trump signs. They cringe when they see signs at houses they know. They then went to one house with three cars in its driveway. As they passed, he shouted ‘thank you for doing what you did. We need to get past this. ”
He surprised Flake, he recalls. He did not know the man and he assumed that all the houses he passed would be the home of a Trump supporter.
“We had a very enlightened conversation about the future of the party and how he wanted to stay, but it was difficult,” Flake said.