Flake after hot mic: ‘No news here’

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Saturday declared there was “no news here,” after reports surfaced of the Arizona Republican warning that the GOP will be “toast” if it aligns itself with President Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R).

“No news here,” Flake tweeted. “I’ve been saying this to anyone who will listen.”

No news here. I’ve been saying this to anyone who will listen https://t.co/50klmeSm5a

— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) November 18, 2017

Flake was caught on a live microphone by ABC affiliate KNXV during a tax event in Arizona saying that the GOP could face trouble if it stands by Trump and Moore, an insurgent conservative who has faced mounting allegations of sexual impropriety in recent days. {mosads}

The Arizona Republican has routinely blasted Trump and the populist politics that catapulted him to victory in the 2016 presidential election. 

In a lengthy speech on the Senate floor last month, Flake delivered a thinly veiled attack on Trump, and announced that he would not seek reelection in 2018, saying that his brand of conservatism did not mesh with the current political climate.

“It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, and who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican party — the party that for so long has defined itself by belief in those things,” Flake said at the time.