President trump just got a blistering salvo from another republican senator, arizonas jeff flake, who slammed the president on the senate floor while announcing he wont run for reelection in 2018. Flake, a trump critic who has been attacked repeatedly by the president , said reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior from the top of our government is dangerous to a democracy. He accused the president of the United States of undermining americas norms and values. And that came after the president went to capitol hill to talk tax reform with Senate Republicans over lunch. But there may have been cases of indigestion as the meal was proceeded today by a breathtaking war of words between the president and senator bob corker, who will also not run again in 2018. After corker urged the white house to leave tax reform to the professionals, the president lashed out on twitter, claiming falsely that corker helped president obama with the iran
far too many principles. We were not made great as a country by indulge in or even exall thing our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorifying in the things that divide us, calling fake things true and true things fake. We did not become the beacon of freedom in the darkest corners of the world by flouting our institutions and failing to understand just how hardwon and vulnerable they are. This spell will eventually break. That is my belief. We will return to ourselves once more, and i say the sooner the better. Reporter just a remarkable speech there on the floor, and he got a Standing Ovation from some and a round of applause from some in that chamber this afternoon. Now, the white house, wolf, in response, they suggested it is time for flake to retire. Sarah sanders saying this is a good move and called his comments petty today. Somebody trying to get a headline or two on his way out
the door. Flake in an interview with our colleague jake tapper later went on to say that he did have a very narrow path to his reelection, given the Political Climate of late. He said its not enough to be conservative, you have to be angry about it. Wolf . All right, sunlen, thank you very much. Sunlen serfaty up on capitol hill. President trumps latest personal feuds are eclipsing a move to push ahead with one of the biggest items on his agenda. Lets go to our senior White House Correspondent jeff zeleny. Jeff, the president is getting in his own way once again. Thats what it certainly seems like. Reporter wolf, it does, indeed. We saw the president there making his first visit to meet with Senate Republicans during their weekly lunch. This whole idea was to sell his tax plan to rally support for that tax plan, but at the end all of it was overshadowed by this widening gop civil war. President trump on capitol hill today trying to sell his tax plan and revive the agenda of a fractured republican party. But only an hour after leaving with a wave and a smile, republican senator jeff flake delivered a stinging rebuke of the president. We must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our Executive Branch are normal. They are not normal. Reporter flakes announcement, that he would not seek reelection, and his blunt concession that hes no longer comfortable with Trumps Republican Party there is an undeniable potency to a pop list by mischaracterizing our problems and giving into the impulse to scapegoat and belittle threatens to turn us into a fearful, backwardlooking people. Reporter came on the same day the republican picked a new fight with senator bob corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations committee. It was an extraordinary moment for a party in power. White House Press SecretarySarah Sanders called flakes decision to leave the Senate Good News and blasted his speech
as inappropriate. I notice that a lot of the language i dont think was befitting of the senate floor. Reporter she also defended the president s fight with corker. Hes a fighter. Weve said it many times before, the people of this country didnt elect somebody to be weak, they elected somebody to be strong. Reporter after corker said in a round of Morning Television interviews that the president should leave the details of tax reform to congress, mr. Trump issued a searing attack on twitter. Corker, who Couldnt Get Elected dog catcher in tennessee, is now fighting tax cuts. Seven minutes later, the president added, corker dropped out of the race in tennessee when i refused to endorse him and now is only negative on anything trump. Look at his record. The senator fired off this rebuttal. Same untruth from an utterly untruthful president the extraordinary exchange between a republican president and one of the partys senior statesman devolved from there. Corker who also decided against seeking reelection next year said the president did not refuse to endorse him. No, its not accurate. You know, nothing that he said in his tweets today were truthful nor accurate. He know it is. People around him know it. I would hope the staff over there would figure out ways of controlling him. Reporter when asked by cnns manu raju if the president is a liar, corker had this to say. The president has great difficulty with the truth. On many issues. Reporter asked whether he would support him again, corker did not hesitate. No way. No way. No, think that hes proven himself unable to rise to the occasion. Reporter taken together, the decision by flake who also has quarrelled repeatedly with mr. Trump, underscored the challenges facing the gop and potential complications to the president s agenda. Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as telling it like it is, when it
is actually just reckless, outrageous and undignified. And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else, it is dangerous to a democracy. Reporter the move stunned republicans and overshadowed discussion of a tax plan the party still hopes will be the one major legislative accomplishment of the year. House Speaker Paul Ryan was among gop leaders trying to extinguish the unusual and to many the unseemly civil war. So all of this stuff you see on a daily basis on twitter this and twitter that, forget about it. Lets focus on helping people reporter now, all of these talk of early retirements certainly are putting a smile on the face of steve bannon, the former white house chief strategist here, who an ally said that he called the resignation for the retirement of jeff flake was another scalp. But, wolf, the question is this, despite all of their stronger rhetoric, senator flake and Senator Corker were reliable
voters with this white house, voting with him some 85 to 90 of the time. The question is, how do both of these affect the midterm elections and trying to get anything accomplished, particularly that tax reform plan. Wolf consider. All right. Very important. Thanks very much. Jeff zeleny over at the white house. Lets get some insight now from our specialists. David chalian, let me start with you. I want you to listen to senator flake calling on his republican colleagues to not remain silent but to speak out when they see these kinds of abuses going on. Listen. What do we as United States senators have to say about it . The principles that underlie our politics, the values of our founding are too vital to our identity and to our survival to allow them to be compromised by the requirements of politics. Because politics can make us silent when we should speak, and silence can equal complicity. I have children and grandchildren to answer to. And so, mr. President , i will not be complicit or silent. How extraordinary is it, david, to hear a senator tell his colleagues, you must not be complicit . I cant think of an example of Something Like this that ive seen. I mean, on the same day, wolf, we heard senator flake tell his colleagues, we must stop pretending, we have fooled ourselves long enough. What is different about what senator flake did there is that he is doing Something Different than corker and mccain, hes challenging his fellow republicans to take their heads out of the sand. On the same day that we heard Senator Corker say that the president of the United States is debasing our nation, not living up to the job and showing no ability to turn it around. Hes thrown his hands up and basically declared the Trump Presidency a failure. One senator from the president s party declares the presidency a failure and the other is urging with a moral plea to his colleagues to not ignore whats
going on anymore. I have never seen anything like it. It truly is extraordinary. Everyone stand by for a moment. Republican Congressman Will Hurd of texas, a member of the house intelligence committee, is joining us right now. Congressman, thanks very much. Do you share that feeling of obligation to speak out against President Trump and his policies and what hes doing when he goes against your values . Well, wolf, i think you and i have had enough conversations that you know im going to agree when i agree and disagree when i disagree. The residents of the 23rd district of texas elected me to be their representative. Im always going to be honest and talk about what i believe is important. So thats what i stick to. You heard senator flake call on your party, the republican party, to defend the values of this nation. So what will you and your colleagues do right now, a critical moment as these other republican senators are suggesting, to heed that call . Well, i think one of the
things that were going to do is were going to make sure more Hardworking Taxpayers have more money in their pockets by continuing to do tax reform. Were going to make sure we continue to have Strong National security. You know, the fact that nine months from its been nine months and were talking about the defeat of isis and looking at how do we, you know, change the tide of problems in afghanistan. These are the things that im focused on. You know, ive missed some of this back and forth and tit for tat because i was in a hearing looking at how do we, you know, protect our Voting Infrastructure from political ads, from outside forces like the russians . And so i think for many of us, were going to continue to do our job that residents sent us up here to do and focus on that. Were going to get to those that russian interference in the u. S. Democracy in just a few moments. But you have spoken out repeatedly here with me in the situation room, to call out President Trump, for example, to apologize after his remarks
about the violence in charlottesville, virginia. But the house Speaker Paul Ryan, the Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell today, they dismissed all of these fights. Do you think republicans, congressman, are being wellserved by their leaders right now who remain silent in the face of a lot of this outrage . Well, i wouldnt i dont think id necessarily characterize it the way you did, wolf. I know speaker ryan was pretty clear about his opposition after charlottesville. I think he has spoken out on a number of times. I havent kept track, but i do think its important for all of us to do what we think is right and do what the folks that elected us sent us up here to do. And for me, whether its a president of my own party or a president of another party, i agree when i agree, i disagree when i disagree. Think that we can learn that we can disagree without being disagreeable. I think that is something that is important and weve got to show that as an example up here as elected officials. If we cant do it, our kids
wont be able to do it and our grand kids wont be able to do it. I ask the question because the Speaker Paul Ryan has said he doesnt have any major disagreements with the president of the United States. Which seems to be in stark contrast to what we heard today from these other two republican senators. Senator flakes powerful speech, as you know, follows that very Harsh Criticism of the president by senator bob corker, who is the chairman of the senate Foreign Relations committee. Publicly condemned President Trumps impact on National Security and Foreign Policy. His position as a role model for children. He says hes not a role model. And his relationship with the truth. He keeps saying the president is not telling the truth. Do you share those concerns . Well, like i said, i didnt hear all of all of that, wolf, im sorry. Its a little loud here. And also i didnt see what he said earlier, but for me when it comes down to it, im going to agree on things that i agree on, im going to disagree when i dont when i disagree. Im going to stand up for what i think is right and my own brand
of conservatism. I always have to remind people, we didnt elect an emperor, we elected a president and he is one member of the party. Now he has a pretty big bully pulpit, but the republican brand is larger than just any one individual, and the fact that we can have this kind of conversation amongst ourselves and, you know, spilling out into the open, i think this is a sign that you can see there is not group think when it comes to the republican party. There certainly is. Senator corker, senator flake, they apparently feel they can speak more honestly now that theyre not running for reelection next year, but do you and other republicans privately share the concerns they expressed . You speak to your fellow republicans on the house side all the time. Without mentioning names, do they share those concerns . Well, look, wolf, i think most of my colleagues i talk about, you know, they share their opinions. Theyre not afraid to say it publicly and in private, so, you know, i havent had those
conversations, but i also cant say i can speak for all, what, 247 of my colleagues in the house or the 52 in the senate. You held an important hearing today, congressman, on political ads, on social media. Right now if you see a political ad on facebook or another platform, you dont know who paid for that ad. Do you believe that should change . Well, i think what we have to remember is we have to separate political advertising from others, and when it comes to express advocacy like vote for this guy or dont vote for that guy or issue advocacy, call your congressman and tell them to vote against x, y or z, this is regulated by the federal elections act. There are a number of court cases. There is the Mccain Feingold law. Political advertisement and speak whether its new immediate or or old media are handled the same way. The Foreign Agent registration
act, and this says that, you know, Vladimir Putin cant buy or shouldnt be able to buy an ad in on broadcast or on print media and say dont send tell your congressman not to send defensive weapons to the unitkrainians. This is an area we can focus on and make sure were addressing the problem of russian influence. Political advertising is difference from political disinformation and we need to have a Counterdisinformation Strategy in how we deal with this issue that the russians have been doing for decades in europe and trying to do here in the United States. Ultimately the russians goal is to undermine trust in our democratic institutions. We cant let them get away with that. The president said its all a hoax, the Russian Investigation that you and your committee and others are investigating. The special counsel robert mueller. Its also a hoax. What do you say to the president when he says that this is not
serious, its a hoax . Well, in my 9 1 2 years as an Undercover Officer in the cia, i dont know too many occasions where the nsa, the cia and the fbi actually agreed upon, you know, a number of analytical judgements. It was clear the russians attempted to undermine trust in our institutions. You know, we still dont have enough understanding of the magnitude of some of these social media ads, but we do know that the russians didnt manipulate the vote counting machines. So russian activity to try to undergird trust in our institutions is a big deal and i think many folks within this administration have talked about how russia is an adversary, not an ally and one of the biggest threats to our country. You dont hear that from the president of the United States. Other aides, National Security aides of his, they speak like youre suggesting. The president does not. All right. Weve got to leave it right there. I know youve got to go vote. Congressman will hurd, thanks so much for joining us. Always a pleasure, wolf. All right. Weve got our panel here. Weve got a lot to assess. There is breaking news. Well be right back. I would hope the staff over there would figure out ways of controlling him when they know that everything he said today was absolutely untrue. You said hes an untruthful president. Yes. Are you calling no question . No question. I dont we grew up in our family not using the l word, okay . But, yeah, just, i mean, theyre provable untruths. Unfortunately, i think World Leaders are very aware that much of what he says is untrue. Is the president of the United States a liar .