Appearing on the 1:00 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC on Monday, New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters proclaimed that Arizona Senator Jeff Flake’s outrageous comparison of President Trump to mass-murdering Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was actually an attempt by the retiring Republican lawmaker to “save” the GOP.
After playing a clip of Flake making the Trump-Stalin comparison during an interview with MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt on Sunday, anchor Craig Melvin wondered: “Jeremy, what does it say about where we are politically when a sitting Republican senator compares a sitting Republican president to Joseph Stalin?” Peters declared: “I think it shows the crisis within the Republican Party right now over this president, Craig.”
The Times political reporter lamented that Flake “remains only one of a small minority of Republicans who’s willing to speak out against the President” and that “until you see the Republican Party breaking from Trump in a big way” the President would “continue to kind of have this Teflon around him.”
Melvin followed up: “Senator Flake’s taking, though, to the floor of the upper chamber, what would his motivation be? What would possess a sitting senator...to decide to denounce the President in a floor speech and compare to, again, Joseph Stalin?”
Peters argued: “I think he’s trying to save his party.”
“You’ve heard a small number of Republicans, just really a handful...say that they do not like what this president has done to the country’s politics, to civility, and I think that basically you are seeing people reach their breaking point,” he continued.
So the best way to promote “civility” in public discourse is to compare people you don’t like to genocidal authoritarian leaders?
Here is a transcript of the January 15 exchange:
1:46 PM ET
(...)
CRAIG MELVIN: Jeremy, speaking of the mid-term elections, one of those Republicans who won’t be on the ballot, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. He is going to reportedly be speaking on the Senate floor in a speech that is expected to be highly critical of this president. He gave MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt a preview of one of his remarks. Take a listen.
KASIE HUNT: You compare, in the speech, President Trump to Joseph Stalin, who called – by calling the free press, quote, “the enemy of the people.” That’s a tough charge.
SEN. JEFF FLAKE [R-AZ]: Well, I’m saying he borrowed that phrase. It was popularized by Joseph Stalin, used by Mao as well, “enemy of the people.” It should be noted that Nikita Khrushchev, who followed Stalin, forbade it use, saying that that was too loaded. I don’t think that we should be using a phrase that’s been rejected as too loaded by a soviet dictator.
MELVIN: Jeremy, what does it say about where we are politically when a sitting Republican senator compares a sitting Republican president to Joseph Stalin?
JEREMY PETERS [NEW YORK TIMES]: I think it shows the crisis within the Republican Party right now over this president, Craig. And right now, if Jeff Flake remains only one of a small minority of Republicans who’s willing to speak out against the President, I think you can really make an argument that Trump has taken over the Republican Party.
There are many Republicans who are, of course, concerned about that and have been concerned for two years now. That they believe he’s not really a conservative, that he doesn’t represent what Republicans have historically stood for. The problem is, though, those people are in the minority.
They don’t – and until you see the Republican Party breaking from Trump in a big way, which is kind of hard to imagine right now, that would take scores of lawmakers distancing themselves from him publicly denouncing him in a way they have shown a complete and utter unwillingness to do – until you see that moment, the President is going to continue to kind of have this Teflon around him where fellow conservatives just won’t go near him. And even if they do, I’m not convinced that it ultimately really hurts the President with his core of supporters.
MELVIN: Senator Flake’s taking, though, to the floor of the upper chamber, what would his motivation be? What would possess a sitting senator to – on a random Wednesday – to decide to denounce the President in a floor speech and compare to, again, Joseph Stalin?
PETERS: I think he’s trying to save his party. You’ve heard a small number of Republicans, just really a handful – two of them happen to be from Arizona, John McCain and Jeff Flake – and a smattering of others say that they do not like what this president has done to the country’s politics, to civility, and I think that basically you are seeing people reach their breaking point. But again, will there be a critical mass of people walking away from this president? Not right now. Not until they feel that the President – that they derive no more political power from this president, that he’s too politically weakened. And we’re just not there yet.
MELVIN: Or you could start to see, again, some folks who walk away from the President for a few months and then manage to always find their way back, whether it’s Senator Ted Cruz or – we could play this game all day.
(...)
