Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said Wednesday he would not vote to impeach President Trump, even though he has harshly criticized Trump, and will deliver a Senate floor speech today to denounce some of his actions.
“I’d vote no,” Flake said on MSNBC when asked how he’d vote.
“I don’t think the president has committed impeachable offenses,” he said. “I don’t like some of his behavior, and I’m going to talk about some of that today with regard to his treatment of the press.”
“But I don’t that he has committed impeachable offenses, and I never have,” Flake said.
Flake has been especially worried about Trump’s decision to say the press is the “enemy of the people.” He said in his speech today, he would warn that the president shouldn’t use that term, which Russian dictator Josef Stalin used.
“An American president shouldn’t be using a term so associated with a maniacal killer like Stalin,” Flake said. “I don’t make comparisons between Trump and Stalin, I’m just saying an American president shouldn’t be using that language, because it is so fraught with malice.”
He also said Trump shouldn’t be saying it’s a “hoax” to say that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.
“Russia did try to intervene in our elections,” he said.
