Another Republican Call to Arms, but Who Will Answer?
WASHINGTON
— A former Republican president. A senior Republican senator with a
critical illness. A retiring Republican senator. And now an
independent-minded Republican senator who faced a difficult, if not
impossible, path to re-election.
George W. Bush. John McCain. Bob Corker.
And now Jeff Flake of Arizona, who delivered a stinging indictment of
President Trump and his own party on the Senate floor on Tuesday
afternoon as he announced that he would not seek another term. His stirring call to arms came minutes after Mr. Trump concluded a private session with Senate Republicans meant to unite them over their shared agenda.
The
four men represent a new type of freedom caucus, one whose members are
free to speak their minds about the president and how they see his words
and actions diminishing the United States and its standing in the world
without fear of the political backlash from hard-right conservatives.
But who — if anyone — will follow?
Well
aware of the mercurial nature of the president, most congressional
Republicans are loath to do or say anything that could upset Mr. Trump
and risk provoking an early-morning Twitter tirade from the White House
when they are trying to delicately piece together a complex tax agreement.
One can practically sense Republicans tiptoeing around the Capitol,
taking extra care not to awaken the president to their presence in a way
that could draw a scolding or rebuke.
They
are equally wary of raising the ire of hard-right activists who already
had Mr. Flake in their sights, contributing to his decision. Those
activists celebrated Mr. Flake’s decision, claiming a Republican scalp.
While Mr. McCain, who is being treated for brain cancer
and has spoken bitingly of Mr. Trump in recent weeks, glowingly praised
his home-state colleague for his “integrity and honor and decency,” he
did not use the Senate floor to second Mr. Flake’s worrisome message of a
government and nation at risk. Mr. Flake is popular with his
colleagues, and his fellow Republicans quickly noted how sorry they were
to hear of his decision. But none joined him publicly in urging
Republicans to stand up more defiantly to the president.
Senator
Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader,
credited Mr. Flake as a “team player” and man of high principle after
Mr. Flake’s speech. But Mr. McConnell quickly turned the Senate floor
back to a minor debate over a budget point of order.
It was a jarring transition in a day of political shocks.
In
a stunning one-two assault, Mr. Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee, and Mr. Flake took on the president in
terms rarely, if ever, heard from members of a sitting president’s
party.
Mr.
Corker, who has been feuding with the man he once contemplated serving
as vice president, accused Mr. Trump of serial lying and debasing the
office.
Mr.
Flake, who has been a persistent Trump foe since 2016, never mentioned
Mr. Trump by name in his remarks. But there was no doubt who he was
talking about when he pointed to the “indecency of our discourse” and
the “coarseness of our leadership,” and suggested his beloved Republican
Party was being complicit in an “alarming and dangerous state of
affairs.”
“We
must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our
democratic norms and ideals, we must never meekly accept the daily
sundering of our country,” Mr. Flake said.
But Mr. Corker, Mr. Flake and Mr. McCain remain the outliers. Mr. Corker’s exceedingly harsh assessment of Mr. Trump — delivered in a series of morning TV interviews
in a reasonable, studied tone — and Mr. Flake’s announcement and
damning speech bookended what was to be the initial centerpiece of a day
on Capitol Hill intended to get lawmakers and the president on the same
page with a difficult tax debate looming.
Mr.
McConnell left his lunch with Mr. Trump and members of the caucus to
emphasize the issues that bind congressional Republicans to Mr. Trump
and play down the divisions underscored by Mr. Flake and Mr. Corker.
“There’s
a lot of noise out there,” said Mr. McConnell, who made clear what the
interests of the party are. “Tax reform is what we are about.”
That
statement defined the reluctance of other congressional Republicans to
challenge Mr. Trump too directly. They have been willing to look past
some actions and pronouncements by Mr. Trump that they consider beneath a
president in hopes of pushing into law some of their long-sought goals,
the most important of which are tax cuts. And with no substantial legislative achievements so far,
the party is all in on a tax overhaul, recognizing that failure to
deliver one will be a political disaster. That necessity ties them
tightly to Mr. Trump, at least for now.
To
be sure, there are Republicans in both the Senate and the House who are
fully committed to the president and reject the views expressed by Mr.
Flake or Mr. Bush, who recently expressed remorse about political
“discourse degraded by casual cruelty” — an obvious reference to the
Trump era in Washington.
But
many others see Mr. Trump more as a means to an end, a way to enact
their agenda since the president, as Mr. McConnell is fond of saying, is
the only American who can sign a bill into law.
Mr.
Flake’s remarks were a warning against that kind of thinking, the idea
that some accomplishments — if they ever come — could compensate for the
continuing upheaval and discord emanating from Washington and somehow
reset the nation’s course.
“With
respect and humility,” he said, “I must say that we have fooled
ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the
corner, a return to civility and stability right behind it.”
Mr.
Flake and Mr. Corker, along with Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain, represent
significant cracks in the Republican wall of support and deference to
the president despite widespread misgivings within the party. But they
have nothing to lose politically. What is uncertain at this stage is
whether Republicans with more at stake are going to join them in tearing
down that wall.
