Saying that he has “children and grandchildren to answer to” for his actions in this perilous political moment, Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake declared that he would not stand by and say nothing while Donald Trump takes this country down.
Quoting President Teddy Roosevelt, Flake called it “morally treasonable” that “we should say or do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavioral” as Trump has displayed.
Flake also announced that he would not seek reelection in 2018. Read an excerpt of Flake’s speech and watch the video below.
If I have been critical, it is not because I relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If I have been critical, it is because I believe that it is my obligation to do so, as a matter of duty and conscience. The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters - the notion that one should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided.
A Republican president named Roosevelt had this to say about the president and a citizen's relationship to the office:
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile." President Roosevelt continued. "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Watch the video below.