Washington Post
By Philip Rucker
July 9, 2015
Sen.
Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) is calling on the local Republican Party to
withdraw its sponsorship of a campaign event scheduled for Saturday that
will feature presidential
candidate Donald Trump and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
In
an interview with The Washington Post on Thursday, Flake said both
Trump and Arpaio's inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants and about
President Obama's place of birth
are not indicative of the Republican Party's values. The event at the
Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix is hosted by the Republican Party of
Maricopa County, but Flake said he had called the party chairman to ask
him not to sponsor the event.
"As
an elected official and as a Republican, I’m not excited about this, to
say the least," Flake said. "I don’t think that [Trump's] views are
reflective of the party,
particularly in Arizona, a border state."
Republican
Party of Maricopa County Chairman Tyler Bowyer issued a statement in
response to Flake's comments saying the party is "thrilled" to welcome
Trump and accusing
the senator of violating former president Ronald Reagan's commandment
that "thou shall not speak ill of any other Republican."
"It
is saddening that at a time when Republicans should be exposing the
negligence and failed policies of Democrats -- from sanctuary cities to
DACA and catch-and-release
to Obama's refusal to secure the border -- some Republicans choose to
instead gossip about which GOP presidential candidate was invited to
meet with voters in their home county," the statement read.
Flake
-- who, like Arizona's senior senator, John McCain (R), is a leading
proponent of immigration reform -- said Trump's recent comments about
Mexican Americans are
"ill-informed" and "not accurate" and threaten to damage the Republican
Party's image.
“It’s
not just on the immigration side. Donald Trump is just about the last
unapologetic birther in the country," Flake said, referring to Trump's
false contention that
Obama was not born in the United States. Flake added that Arpaio also
is an "unapologetic birther."
In
2010, Arizona was considered ground zero for the immigration debate
after then-Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed one of the strictest
anti-undocumented immigrant laws in the
country. Flake said he fears Trump may stoke raw feelings about
immigration held by Arizona's more conservative activists.
“I
had hoped that we had moved on from some of the coarse rhetoric and
these statements," Flake said. However, he said the Trump event "is just
a bad reminder of the statements
of the past that the state has largely moved on from."
Flake said he would be out of the state on a family vacation this weekend and would not attend the Trump event.
“There will likely be a crowd," Flake said. "But I think that his views aren’t shared by as many as he would like to think.”
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