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GOP senator: Other candidates should ‘repudiate’ Trump in debate

by Jonathan Swan - 12/15/15 5:00 PM ET

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Saying Donald Trump’s views have no place in the Republican Party, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) wants all candidates in Tuesday’s debate to repudiate the GOP presidential front-runner.

In an exclusive interview with The Hill at Las Vegas’s Venetian Hotel, where the debate is being held, Flake said he was troubled by the direction his party’s views on immigration were heading at the presidential level.

{mosads}”I think [Trump’s] comments were ill-informed and ill-advised and certainly not good for the Republican Party,” Flake said.

“I hope to see [Trump’s views] repudiated by the other candidates,” he added. “I hope we do because that has no place in the Republican Party. It really doesn’t.”

Asked his views about the conversation surrounding immigration in the GOP presidential campaign so far, Flake said, “Well it’s similar there. The comments that Trump has made about Mexican immigrants and others, it’s just, it should be … certainly outside of the debate of mainstream Republicans.

“That’s just not how we should treat immigrants and talk about immigrants,” he added.

Flake joined with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to pass the “Gang of Eight” bipartisan immigration reform bill through the Senate in 2013. The bill died in the House, and Republican presidential candidates like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have attacked Rubio, among others, for supporting “amnesty” for illegal immigrants.

Flake refused to be drawn on whether he grouped Cruz in with Trump when it comes to comments on immigration that have no place in the GOP.

“We’ll let him [Cruz] explain that,” Flake said.

Flake attended a mosque recently to provide outreach to the Muslim community following Trump’s controversial ban on Muslim entrants into the U.S.

Tags Donald Trump Jeff Flake