--- title: Donald Trump: GOP Lawmakers' Blistering Presidential Attacks description: Jeff Flake issued a blistering critique of President Trump on Tuesday, joining other Republicans who have been unusually outspoken critics canonical: https://time.com/4996507/donald-trump-gop-lawmakers-criticism-jeff-flake/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-25T12:54:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:58:37.470Z article:section: Politics og:title: 'Outrageous and Undignified.' GOP Lawmakers' Blistering Attacks on Trump og:description: "It is dangerous to a democracy" og:url: https://time.com/4996507/donald-trump-gop-lawmakers-criticism-jeff-flake/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6045204c8c87e5da/6988e34d97cdff3a866b2ff8/jeff-flake-donald-trump-mccain-corker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Se. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) Announces He Will Not Seek Re-Election And Rebukes President Trump In Senate Chamber Speech og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Outrageous and Undignified.' GOP Lawmakers' Blistering Attacks on Trump twitter:description: "It is dangerous to a democracy" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6045204c8c87e5da/6988e34d97cdff3a866b2ff8/jeff-flake-donald-trump-mccain-corker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # ‘Reckless, Outrageous and Undignified.’ GOP Lawmakers Launch Blistering Attacks On President Trump > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=166b5ebe-1cbf-447e-b2b3-52d46ff8e0ce&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Arizona Senator Jeff Flake Will Not Seek Reelection: 'I Will Not Be Complicit' [Watch (HLS stream): Arizona Senator Jeff Flake Will Not Seek Reelection: 'I Will Not Be Complicit'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xfV1B0Af.m3u8) (2:08)  _Published 2017-10-24. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake said Tuesday he will not seek reelection, and gave an extraordinary rebuke on the Senate floor to President Donald Trump and the rightward shift of the Republican party._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Oct 25, 2017 12:54 PM UTC  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Oct 25, 2017 12:54 PM UTC Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake [issued a blistering critique](http://time.com/4995650/arizona-jeff-flake-retire-donald-trump-republican-party/) of President Donald Trump in a [speech on the Senate floor](http://time.com/4995730/jeff-flake-senate-speech-donald-trump-republican-transcript/) Tuesday, announcing that he will not seek re-election in 2018\. That speech followed weeks of scathing public criticism from another outgoing Republican Senator, Tennessee’s Bob Corker. Arizona Sen. John McCain has also regularly spoken out against Trump. The three lawmakers have become unusually outspoken critics of the president who shares their political party, drawing ire from Trump in return. Trump targeted Corker and Flake in several [tweets](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/923149037523566592) early Wednesday morning. “The reason Flake and Corker dropped out of the Senate race is very simple, they had zero chance of being elected. Now act so hurt & wounded!” he said, [adding](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/923149793974775810): “The meeting with Republican Senators yesterday, outside of Flake and Corker, was a love fest with standing ovations and great ideas for USA!” Here’s what these Republican lawmakers have said in their recent critiques of Trump: ## Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake “We must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal,” Flake said in his [speech](http://time.com/4995730/jeff-flake-senate-speech-donald-trump-republican-transcript/) on Tuesday. “Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as ‘telling it like it is,’ when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified. And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else: It is dangerous to a democracy.” Flake announced that he would not seek re-election in 2018 and condemned the direction of the Republican Party, warning that the GOP could become “a fearful, backward-looking minority party.” “I am aware that a segment of my party believes that anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to a president who belongs to my party is unacceptable and suspect,” Flake said. “If I have been critical, it is not because I relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If I have been critical, it is because I believe that it is my obligation to do so, as a matter of duty and conscience.” He went on: “The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters—the notion that one should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided.” ## Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker Corker praised Flake on Tuesday, calling him “a true conservative, an outstanding senator, and a cherished friend.” Corker has been engaged in a [relentless feud](http://time.com/4994789/donald-trump-twitter-bob-corker/) with Trump for the [past few weeks](http://time.com/4977185/bob-corker-donald-trump-feud-reality-show/), calling him an “[utterly untruthful president](http://time.com/4994797/bob-corker-donald-trump/)” in a tweet on Tuesday morning. > [](https://twitter.com/SenBobCorker/status/922807083526914049) In an interview on Tuesday, Corker said Trump is not a role model for children and predicted the President will be most remembered for the “debasement of our nation.” “When his term is over, I think the debasing of our nation, the constant non truth-telling, just the name calling, I think the debasement of our nation will be what he’ll be remembered most for, and that’s regretful,” Corker said. “And it affects young people. I mean, we have young people who for the first time are watching a President stating absolute non-truths non-stop. Personalizing things in the way that he does. And it’s very sad for our nation.” ## Arizona Sen. John McCain McCain [defended Flake’s speech](http://time.com/4995801/john-mccain-jeff-flake-arizona/) on Tuesday. “I have seen Jeff Flake stand up for what he believes in, knowing full well there would be a political price to pay,” he said, calling Flake “a man of integrity, and honor, and decency.” In a speech last week McCain [condemned nationalism](http://time.com/4985320/john-mccain-liberty-medal-nationalism-isolationism/) and the kind of isolationist policies on which Trump ran his presidential campaign. “To abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems,” McCain said, “is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.” ## Transcript The personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and institution, the flagrant disregard for truth, and decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing what so ever to do with the fortunes of the people That we have been elected to serve. None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. It must also be said that I arise today with no small measure of regret, regret because of the state of our disunion, regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics. Regret because of the indecency of our discourse. Regret because of the coarseness of our leadership. Regret for the compromise of our moral authority. And by our, I mean all of our complicity and this alarming and dangerous state of affairs. Is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end. We must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal. Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior Has become excused and countenanced as telling it like it is. When it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified. And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else. It is dangerous to a democracy. Such behavior does not projects strength because our strength comes from our values. It instead projects a corruption of the spirit and weakness. Sustained incumbency is certainly not the point of seeking office and there are times when we must risk our careers in favor of our principles Now is such a time. Mr. President, I rise today to say, enough. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4996507/donald-trump-gop-lawmakers-criticism-jeff-flake/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4996507/donald-trump-gop-lawmakers-criticism-jeff-flake/"},"headline":"‘Reckless, Outrageous and Undignified.’ GOP Lawmakers Launch Blistering Attacks On President Trump","datePublished":"2017-10-25T12:54:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:58:37.470Z","description":"\"It is dangerous to a democracy\"","url":"https://time.com/4996507/donald-trump-gop-lawmakers-criticism-jeff-flake/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Congress","White House","John McCain","Bob Corker","Jeff Flake","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6045204c8c87e5da/6988e34d97cdff3a866b2ff8/jeff-flake-donald-trump-mccain-corker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6045204c8c87e5da/6988e34d97cdff3a866b2ff8/jeff-flake-donald-trump-mccain-corker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Se. 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