Former Senator Jeff Flake speaks on impeachment trial and GOP

Both arguments have been filed in the upcoming impeachment trial of Former President Donald Trump over his role in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. We spoke to Former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake about Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial and the state of the GOP.

Trump’s Impeachment Trial

If Flake was still a senator today, he said he would vote to convict Trump.

“I do believe he incited a riot and should be held accountable,” he said.

Since Trump is no longer in office and President Biden’s administration has already taken over, there are concerns that the trial will prevent the country from moving forward. However, Flake said accountability is still important.

“I don’t believe the president will be convicted. I don’t think the votes are there. We saw that given the test vote on the constitutionality. I do think it’s still important to remind the country what went on. If nothing else, assure that we will never get there again,” Flake said.

Future of the Republican Party

Flake, a Republican, is concerned about where the party is headed.

“If you look at just politics. Put policy aside and whether or not it’s good. On the political side, since President Trump was elected, we lost the House of Representatives in the midterms. We lost the Senate in November. We lost the White House in November. In the midterms, we lost more than 400 legislative seats nationwide. Maybe, a few of them were gained back but the net is very down. The party itself doesn’t seem to know what we believe in anymore,” Flake said.

In Arizona, the Republican party continues to allege the election was stolen. Recently, the party censured Flake, along with Governor Ducey and Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Senator John McCain.

“In Arizona, if we want to move ahead, we have got to get away from Trumpism. We’ve got to get back to limited government, economic freedom, individual responsibility. I believe we can win those arguments. This is still, I think, a center-right state, as it is a center-right country. We’ve got to be making the policy arguments, not to have this cult personality,” Flake said.