Flake reiterates he’s staying out of 2020 presidential race, but …
Feb 28, 2018, 8:14 AM | Updated: 8:42 am
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX — Retirement is on the horizon for Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, but he plans to appear at an event next month that brings in potential presidential candidates.
But no one should read too much into that, Flake said. “I just like New Hampshire,” he joked Wednesday on KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News, later adding he had no intentions to run for president for the time being.
“I don’t ever rule anything out, but it’s not in my plans right now,” he said. Flake said the same thing in December.
The Republican will be in the state that hosts the first presidential primary at the yearly Politics and Eggs on March 16.
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“I received an invitation, I accepted it. It should be fun,” the 55-year-old said.
The event is sponsored by the Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics and the New England Council.
The 2020 election is “a long way off,” he said but the direction of the GOP is an issue for him right now.
A frequent critic of President Donald Trump, Flake said, “I don’t think anger and resentment are a governing philosophy.”
When he announced his retirement in October, Flake said from the Senate floor “our democracy seems more defined by our discord and dysfunction than by our own values and principals.”
He’s still got work to do, including a bipartisan proposal on a “no fly, no buy” bill. It would prohibit known or suspected security threats who are on the no-fly list from buying guns.
