Top GOP senator: Republicans should keep concerns about Trump ‘within the family’

The Senate’s third-ranking Republican ripped his retiring colleagues for their criticisms of President Trump.

In an interview with NPR’s David Greene, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said that it would have been better if Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) had expressed their criticisms of Trump in private, rather than in public.

“I think that there are always going to be differences of opinion and disagreements, and that’s true in any family,” Thune said. “But I just think it’s better if you can keep those in-the-family feuds and fights within the family.”

Corker has publicly feuded with Trump, exchanging insults with the president via Twitter, and Flake used his retirement announcement this week to slam the president and the divisive political climate Trump has caused.

Thune called for Trump to withdraw from the presidential race after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape from 2005 showing the then-candidate making lewd comments about women, but told NPR that now that Trump has been elected, lawmakers who are not retiring need to do their best to make headway on their agenda.

“Those of us who are still here have a responsibly to do the best job we can to try and get results,” he said.

{mosads}Thune also spoke about the challenge of adjusting to Trump’s leadership style, particularly his use of Twitter to share information.

“I think the president has an entirely different style, unlike anything we’ve seen before,” Thune said. “I’m not a big fan, frankly, of his use of social media platforms to get his message out, but many people are very active on social media platforms and a lot of them get their information that way and so that’s how he communicates.”