President Donald Trump again attacks Sen. Jeff Flake on Twitter
Nov 19, 2017, 4:49 PM
(AP Photos)
(AP Photos)
PHOENIX — President Donald Trump again attacked U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Twitter over an apparent comment the Arizona senator made about the Republican Party.
In a discussion that was caught on an open microphone, Flake said the party is “toast” if it follows Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who is accused of pursuing sexual relationships with teenage girls.
“(If we) become the party of Roy Moore and Donald Trump, we are toast,” Flake told Mesa Mayor John Giles.
In a Sunday tweet, the president attacked Flake’s decision to not run for re-election next year, claimed he purposely said “bad things about your favorite President [sic]” and said his political career is “toast.”
Sen. Jeff Flake(y), who is unelectable in the Great State of Arizona (quit race, anemic polls) was caught (purposely) on “mike” saying bad things about your favorite President. He’ll be a NO on tax cuts because his political career anyway is “toast.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017
Trump’s tweet was also in response to an earlier tweet about LaVar Ball, whose son was among the UCLA basketball players who were arrested in China for shoplifting.
The president touted his influence in getting the players released and Ball, in a later conversation, suggested Trump had little to nothing to do with the move.
The two tweets do not appear to have anything to do with one another.
Trump’s tweet on Sunday also did not address Giles’s comment in response to Flake that appeared to refer to Trump as an “idiot.”
“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,” he said.
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.
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.
But Sunday was not the first time the president and the Arizona senator exchanged jabs over the social media site: In August, Trump called Flake “toxic” and encouraged a rival for his seat.
