Virginia Politicians Weigh In – or Stay Silent – On Jeff Flake’s Big Speech

See below for video of Sen. Jeff Flake’s speech to the U.S. Senate this afternoon, and reactions from Virginia politicians. How much do you want to bet that Ed “Profiles in Cowardice” Gillespie won’t say anything about this?

For my part, while I certainly agree with Flake’s words in this speech and wish that every Republican would express the same sentiments, in the end I look at actions much more than words, no matter how stirring those words might sound. In Flake’s case, for instance, here’s 538’s scorecard for Flake: 91.7% “Trump Score,” +31.1 “Trump plus-minus” (“Difference between Flake’s actual and predicted Trump-support scores”). For instance, Flake voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to throw millions of Americans off of health insurance. Flake also voted to ram through the stolen Supreme Court seat nomination of Neil Gorsuch. And Flake voted for the horrendous FY 2018 GOP budget resolution. I could go on all day, but the bottom line is that Flake is no hero; if he were, he’d STAY in the Senate, switch to “independent,” fight Trump with every fiber of his being, and run for reelection. Instead, Flake undoubtedly just made ultra-cynical, calculating, soulless Mitch McConnell very happy (if someone so cynical and soulless can even be happy!) today, as this makes it more likely Republicans will hold that Senate seat next year…ugh.

When @JeffFlake and @SenBobCorker—people of real conscience—express alarm, we all should wake up. It’s up to us to protect our democracy.

— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) October 24, 2017

That GOP politics have become so toxic and upside-down that @JeffFlake “can’t in good conscience” run again to serve his state is tragic.

— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) October 24, 2017

.@JeffFlake is a good man who’s in politics for all the right reasons. We need principled, decent public servants like Jeff more than ever.

— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) October 24, 2017

Simple question for @EdWGillespie – are you Team Trump or Team Flake?

— Tom Perriello (@tomperriello) October 24, 2017