Jeff Flake calls out Donald Trump, but he likes the president's policies Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., says he is a conservative who likes conservative policy but still feels like he has to call out President Donald Trump.

Bill Goodykoontz | The Republic | azcentral.com

If you’ve ever wondered why Sen. Jeff Flake talks tough against President Donald Trump and then so often votes for his policies, here’s your answer.

Not that it was ever a secret. Flake is a conservative — just a conservative who isn’t afraid to speak out against his party or his president. But few things are as predictable on social media as the outrage Flake generates when he wears his conscience on his sleeve (and on-camera).

At least some of the drama surrounding the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was enhanced by Flake’s call for an FBI investigation into allegations of sexual assault. Flake talked about how he was troubled by the allegations, sought and got an 11th-hour investigation — and then voted to confirm Kavanaugh.

During an appearance on “Citizen by CNN,” a political forum held Monday in New York, moderator Jake Tapper spent a half-hour chatting with Flake about all manner of things — including his sometimes seemingly contradictory speeches and votes.

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“You’ll give a speech or you’ll speak out,” Flake said. “Or if you don’t speak out, they’ll say, ‘Why didn’t you speak out?’ And when you do speak out, you’ve got to go further. ‘You voted against (confirming CIA Director) Gina Haspel. You should have voted against Kavanaugh. You voted against the president’s immigration plan. You should vote against this or that.’

“I think that it’s our responsibility to follow our conscience. I’ve tried to do that. And our philosophy. I’m a conservative. I like conservative policy. There’s some things that the Congress has done that the president has supported that I like. Some things that the president has done that I’ve voted against that I dislike. But when the president goes so far on certain things that are so antithetical to American values, it’s our responsibility, particularly as Republicans, as members of his party, to speak up.”

Leaving the door open to a presidential run

Flake is stepping down at the end of his term, so of course it’s easy to be forthcoming when voters aren’t going to hold your words or your votes against you at the ballot box. But Flake was remarkably candid about making political hay, even when he knew it was wrong. He talked about the Troubled Asset Relief program Congress passed in 2008 to stem the tide of economic disaster after the collapse. In principle, he said, he found the bill “offensive,” since it amounted to a bank bailout, despite clear evidence that it was needed.

“I justified a vote against it because I could,” he said, “because there were enough votes for it that I knew it would pass. It was a cowardly thing to do on my part. I knew that it had to be done. ... It passed without my support. Like I said, I knew it wasn’t something good, and I was certainly consistent with my philosophy to vote against it, for free markets. But it needed to be done, and I let others carry my water for me. That one, when I think back, I think I shouldn’t have done that.”

Will there be other regrets? Possibly. But as the session wound down, Tapper looked to the future, not the past. Is Flake going to run for president?

“Every senator thinks he’s going to run,” Flake said, grinning. “This one, less so.”

That’s not exactly a “no.” And if anything, Flake knows just the right words to use.

Bill Goodykoontz is a film critic and columnist at The Arizona Republic, where this column first appeared. You can follow him on Twitter: @goodyk.