Wow, Sen. Jeff Flake had some powerful words to say against Donald Trump and his disregard for the truth today on the Senate floor. Some of the highlights:
“An American president who cannot take criticism – who must constantly deflect and distort and distract – who must find someone else to blame – is charting a very dangerous path. And a Congress that fails to act as a check on the President adds to the danger.”
“2017 was a year which saw the truth, objective empirical evidence-based truth more battered and abused than at any time in the history of our country at the hands of the most powerful figure in our government. It was a year which saw the white house enshrine ‘alternative facts’ into the American lexicon, as justification for what used to be called old fashioned falsehoods.
“Mr President, it is a testament to our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies,” Flake said. “It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase ‘enemy of the people,’ that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of ‘annihilating such individuals’ who disagreed with the supreme leader.”
“For without truth, and a principled fidelity to truth and to shared facts, Mr. President, our democracy will not last.”
Flake will not be running for re-election in 2018, which gives him, a Republican, the freedom to speak out against Trump’s bullshit. Too bad those seeking re-election can’t do the same.
Via CNN