--- title: Donald Trump: Jeff Flake Accuses Republicans of 'Denial' description: Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake criticized fellow Republicans for maintaining "an unnerving silence as instability has ensued" under President Trump canonical: https://time.com/4881786/donald-trump-jeff-flake-gop-denial/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-01T01:17:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:26:30.944Z article:section: Politics og:title: GOP Senator Jeff Flake Accuses Party of 'Unnerving Silence' og:description: Under President Trump og:url: https://time.com/4881786/donald-trump-jeff-flake-gop-denial/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24fa2c4110e2ff62/6988d7e7cf40a826edc48c72/jeff-flake-donald-trump-essay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) Holds Town Hall In Mesa, Arizona og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: GOP Senator Jeff Flake Accuses Party of 'Unnerving Silence' twitter:description: Under President Trump twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24fa2c4110e2ff62/6988d7e7cf40a826edc48c72/jeff-flake-donald-trump-essay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Republican Senator Jeff Flake Accuses GOP of 'Unnerving Silence' Under President Trump > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=71212708-08c1-434f-9349-8e70274af731&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: In Their Words: Republicans on Trump's Meeting with Putin [Watch (HLS stream): In Their Words: Republicans on Trump's Meeting with Putin](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uBo88CZy.m3u8) (2:09)  _Published 2017-07-10. Republican leaders react to President Trump's meeting with President Putin at the G20 Summit._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 1, 2017 1:17 AM UTC  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 1, 2017 1:17 AM UTC Arizona Sen. [Jeff Flake](http://time.com/4864307/jeff-flake-deedra-abboud-arizona-senate-race/) on Monday [criticized fellow Republicans](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/31/my-party-is-in-denial-about-donald-trump-215442) for maintaining “an unnerving silence as [instability](http://time.com/4881686/donald-trump-white-house-chaos-poll/) has ensued” under Donald Trump’s presidency. “To carry on in the spring of 2017 as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy required a determined suspension of critical faculties. And tremendous powers of denial,” he wrote in an [essay Politico](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/31/my-party-is-in-denial-about-donald-trump-215442) published Monday. Flake — whose book, _Conscience of a Conservative_, will be released Tuesday — directly criticized Trump for his “seeming affection for strongmen and authoritarians” and for his administration’s denial of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. “If this was our Faustian bargain, then it was not worth it,” Flake said of Republicans winning the White House and both houses of Congress in the 2016 election. “If ultimately our principles were so malleable as to no longer be principles, then what was the point of political victories in the first place?” Read Flake’s full essay [here](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/31/my-party-is-in-denial-about-donald-trump-215442). ## Transcript Think he will be empowering the Russians and betraying democracy at The president handled it We can't trust Russia and we won't ever trust Russia. It's not the dumbest idea I've ever heard, but it's pretty close. He gave a really good speech in Poland, President Trump did, and he had, what I think is a disastrous Meeting with President Putin. Two hours and fifteen minutes of meetings, Tillerson and Trump are ready to forgive and forget when it comes to cyberattacks on the American election of 2016. Nobody's saying, Mr. President, the Russians changed the outcome. You won, fair and square, but they did try to attack our election system. They were successful in many ways, And the more you do this the more people are suspicious about you and Russia . >> The president, absolutely, did not believe the denial of President Putin. What the president did is he immediately came into the meeting, talked about Russian meddling in the U. S. election, went after that issue at least two separate times . >> From a cyber standpoint, we need to get together with Russia. We need to tell them, You know what we think should happen, shouldn't happen and if we talk to them about it, hopefully we can cut this out and get them to stop. It doesn't mean we- Do you think that they can be trusted? Ever take our eyes off the ball. It doesn't mean we ever take our eyes off the ball. It doesn't mean we ever trust Russia. We can't trust Russia, and we won't ever trust Russia, but you keep those that you don't trust closer so that you can always keep an eye on them, and keep them in check, and I think that's what we're trying to do with Russia right now. What he did was bring up right away the election meddling, and he did that for a reason. One, he wanted him to basically look him in the eye Let him know that yes, we know you meddled in our elections. Yes we know you did it and cut it out. And I think President Putin did exactly what we thought he would do, which is deny it. So this is Russia trying to save face, and they can't. They can't I think what we should be focused on is that the president handled it brilliantly. Look at what was discussed and what was accomplished. He fully addressed the election situation, he focused on the ceasefire in Syria, which is a major accomplishment. 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