PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — “It’s a soap opera. We’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

That’s how Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley described the situation in the Nation’s Capital following blistering condemnations of President Trump by fellow senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker.

Flake announced on the floor of the Senate he could no longer be “complicit” in debasing America and American values by not speaking out against Trump. Corker said the president is “utterly untruthful” and is “debasing” the US.

Merkley also talked about other topics in a wide-ranging phone interview with KOIN 6 News.

The Senate voted Tuesday to kill a rule that made it easier for consumers to sue banks. “It’s a rigged system,” Merkley said, adding it was “a license to cheat millions of people.”

He said he was also surprised the investigation into the circumstances of the ambush in Niger that left 4 US servicemen dead didn’t start sooner.

One of those troops, Sgt. La David Johnson, 25, was the center of a controversy between Trump and Johnson’s widow.

Merkley said he hopes the President simply misspoke, and wasn’t trying to upset the widow

However, Merkley added the President has had incident after incident of demeaning veterans, including Senator John McCain, whose captivity as a prisoner of war in Vietnam is well documented.

He also described Republican efforts on tax reform as a “bank heist.” Merkley said the GOP is trying to steal $4.5 trillion, with most of it going to the top 1%. Republicans are trying to ram the legislation through in the waning weeks of the session.