GOP Senator Defends Trump At Town Hall, Gets Shouted Down By Constituents (VIDEO)

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake found out Wednesday evening in Mesa that his constituents are not the least bit pleased with their so-called president, and they wound up taking it out on Flake when he defended Donald Trump.

At one point, a constituent mentioned Trump’s frequent trips to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, and the rising cost to taxpayers, asking Flake:

“Does this concern you at all? Do you approve a budget for these weekly excursions. If yes, how much is that? And if no, why do you have no desire to control President Trump’s spending or his personal profit from that spending?”

Flake responded:

“As I mentioned, I wasn’t critical of the last president or the president before that for what they do on their time off. That’s something we will deal with when we deal with the budget, but I’m not going to tell the president where he can and cannot spend his weekends.”

The crowd booed lustily in reaction to Flake’s answer.

Later in the town hall, Flake was asked about his and the GOP’s refusal to give Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, a hearing and an up or down vote. Flake attempted to defend himself by using the same worn GOP talking point: Garland was nominated in Obama’s last year in office. To that, one person shouted, “Bullshit!” and was cheered by others in the crowd.

Ever since Trump took office, GOP town halls have been raucous affairs, with people showing up to criticize their elected representatives for their proposals to go along with Trump’s plans to gut the Affordable Care Act, cut taxes on the rich, and appoint completely unqualified nominees for cabinet positions. This could be very bad news for Republicans in the 2018 mid-term elections.

Election forecaster Nate Silver said this week that based on the narrow victory by a Republican in a Kansas congressional election earlier this week, Democrats could see one hell of a mid-term boost:

Donald Trump still has plenty of time to destroy the Republican party, and lots of GOP incumbents are already sweating.

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org

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