Former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake (R) has never been a fan of President Donald Trump — and the Republican says many of his former colleagues aren’t either.
Fox News reports that Flake was answering questions at the 2019 Texas Tribune Festival on Thursday when he indicated that almost three-quarters of the Senate’s Republican caucus would vote to remove the president if they could do so anonymously.
“I heard someone say if there were a private vote there would be 30 Republican votes. That’s not true,” Flake insisted. “There would be at least 35.”
Secret ballots?
Flake’s remarks seemed to come in response to a similar prediction made by longtime political consultant Mike Murphy, who has worked with Republicans like John McCain and Mitt Romney.
Appearing on MSNBC on Wednesday, Murphy “suggested many Republican lawmakers in the Senate would support impeachment with a ‘secret ballot,'” Fox News reports.
“I can tell you this,” Murphy said. “One Republican senator told me if it was a secret vote, 30 Republican senators would vote to impeach Trump.”
Long-time foes
For his part, Flake’s disdain for the president has drawn criticism in recent years from the White House as well as rank-and-file Republicans. During now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, Flake was seen by many as capitulating to Democratic demands when he pushed to extend the process by another week.
“I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation, limited in time and scope to the current allegations that are there, limited in time to no more than one week,” Flake said last fall, according to the Associated Press.
Flake was also a heavy critic of Trump during the 2016 election, even going so far as to write a book that was described by The New York Times as “a thorough assault on the way Donald Trump is betraying” the Republican Party.
Of course, President Trump has never been shy about punching back.
“How could Jeff Flake, who is setting record low polling numbers in Arizona and was therefore humiliatingly forced out of his own Senate seat without even a fight (and who doesn’t have a clue), think about running for office, even a lower one, again?” Trump tweeted in June 2018.
“Let’s face it,” Trump added, “he’s a Flake!”
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