Mesa mayor appears to call Trump an ‘idiot’ in talks with Sen. Jeff Flake
Nov 19, 2017, 1:42 PM | Updated: Nov 20, 2017, 8:20 am
PHOENIX — The mayor of a staunchly conservative suburb of Phoenix appeared to refer to President Donald Trump as an “idiot” during a recent conversation with U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) that was caught on an open microphone.
Mesa Mayor John Giles was talking to the Arizona senator on Friday, following a town hall session for aerospace company workers. The microphones were still on the pair when they started discussing Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore and the president.
Television cameras caught Flake saying “(If we) become the party of Roy Moore and Donald Trump, we are toast,” apparently referring to the GOP.
Giles then responded, “And I am not throwing smoke at you, but you’re the guy that could just for fun, think about how much fun it would be, just to be the foil, you know, and to point out what an idiot this guy is. Anyway, hope you do it.”
The conversation ended when an aide came to grab Flake and appeared to point out the microphone, to which Flake made a shocked expression.
In a statement to The Arizona Republic, a spokeswoman for the mayor said Giles is “troubled when candidates like Roy Moore send the wrong message about my party’s ethics and policies.
“We need more people like Jeff Flake in the U.S. Senate, not Roy Moore,” the statement continued.
While Flake and his fellow Arizona senator, Sen. John McCain, have spoken up against Trump in the past, the comments from Giles show the deepening divide within the Republican Party.
Giles, who referred to himself as a “lifelong conservative Republican” in the statement to the Republic, is the mayor of the most conservative city in the United States.
Mesa is also within Maricopa County, which voted 49 percent for Trump in the 2016 election.