Trump criticizes Jeff Flake by name less than 12 hours after saying he wouldn’t

“Phoenix crowd last night was amazing – a packed house. I love the Great State of Arizona. Not a fan of Jeff Flake, weak on crime & border!” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.

The president also slammed the “fake news media” in a subsequent tweet, which he argued misrepresented his comments on Charlottesville, Va. Trump re-hashed his remarks on the violence in Charlottesville, reading from sheets of paper he pulled out of his jacket pocket, during the rally Tuesday.

“Last night in Phoenix I read the things from my statements on Charlottesville that the Fake News Media didn’t cover fairly. People got it!” the president tweeted.

Trump delivered a wide-ranging speech Tuesday night to a crowd of supporters, where he jumped from issue to issue.

The president continued his attacks on the media, defended his response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., hinted at a forthcoming pardon for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, urged Republicans to abolish the legislative filibuster, and criticized Arizona’s two Republican senators, John McCain and Flake, though not by name.

“Nobody wants me to talk about your other senator, who’s weak on border, weak on crime, so I won’t talk about it,” Trump said of Flake, with whom he has long sparred. “Nobody wants me to talk about him. Nobody knows who the hell he is.”

Trump has criticized Flake in the past for his stance on immigration, and last week, the president said he supported Kelli Ward, who is challenging Flake in the Republican primary for his Senate seat.

Though the president has pushed Senate Republicans to change Senate rules so 51 votes instead of 60 are needed for legislation to pass, the move has little support from GOP lawmakers. The most recent attempt to pass an Obamacare repeal failed, even though it required only 51 votes.

Despite all that, Trump continued to press the issue on Twitter.

“If Republican Senate doesn’t get rid of the Filibuster Rule & go to a simple majority, which the Dems would do, they are just wasting time!” he tweeted Wednesday.