After Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona excoriated President Trump on the Senate floor while announcing that he will not be running for re-election in 2018, New York Times columnist David Brooks and syndicated columnist Mark Shields sat down with Judy Woodruff during PBS News Hour and analyzed the growing rift in the Republican party.

The excerpts below are from a post by Ian Schwartz in Real Clear Politics:

David Brooks said Republicans who support Donald Trump have their “priorities messed up.” Brooks said if you believe by supporting Trump you will get your tax bill passed, “you’re putting money above morals.”

[…]

DAVID BROOKS NEW YORK TIMES: Well, it (Flake’s Speech) sounded like a call to arms at the moment, but it’s pretty clear it was Appomattox in reality.

What Flake made clear is that you can’t survive a Republican primary if you don’t sound like Donald Trump. And whether with Flake leaving, Corker leaving, McCain sort of in the end — toward the end of his career, the Republicans who want [to] have a political viability have to be Trumpian.

And so what you have is most of the Republicans saying, I may not like this guy privately, I may worry about this guy, but this is my guy, I am going to support him.

And so this was really the week, I thought, something atmospheric shifted and Donald Trump, and Steve Bannon really took control of the Republican Party…