Flake says Trump’s attacks on media, facts could damage US long term
Jan 17, 2018, 9:24 AM | Updated: 2:33 pm
PHOENIX — U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said in a speech Wednesday that he was concerned President Donald Trump’s attacks on both the media and facts could cause long-term damage to the United States.
“Without truth, and a principled fidelity to truth and to shared facts, Mr. President, our democracy will not last.”
Related: Flake: Russian ‘hoax’ claim is a falsehood | Full speech text, video
Flake said Americans have a birthright to question their leaders and do not simply bow to those in charge, no matter how facts may be manipulated.
“We know, no matter how powerful, no president will ever have dominion over objective reality,” he said. “No politician will ever tell us what the truth is and what it is not.”
Flake also criticized Trump’s branding of the media as an enemy of the people. He said the opposite was actually true.
“This alone should be the source of great shame for us in this body, especially for those of us in the president’s party for they are shameful, repulsive statements and, of course, the president has it precisely backward: Despotism is the enemy of the people,” Flake said in his Senate floor speech.
“The free press is the despot’s enemy, which makes the free press the guardian of democracy.”
Flake said Trump’s labeling of the media as an enemy echoed the words of former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, as had been previously reported.
“‘The enemy of the people’ was how the president of the United States called the free press in 2017,” Flake said. “Mr. President, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies.”
The senator went on to say that when leaders throw around terms such as “fake news,” the public should be suspicious of the leader, not the messenger.
“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 that danger,” he said.
Flake then called on his colleagues to speak up and halt the president’s attacks on media.
“Together, we have it within us to turn back these attacks, to right these wrongs, repair this damage, restore reverence for our institutions and prevent further moral vandalism.”
After his speech, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Flake was just looking to turn heads.
“He’s not criticizing the president because he’s against oppression,” she said. “Se’s criticizing the president because he has terrible poll numbers. I think he’s looking for some attention.”
