party. the president tweeting out about senator jeff flake. phoenix crowd last night was amazing - a packed house. i love the great state of arizona. not a fan of jeff flake, weak on crime and border! he is the sitting incumbent senator there. politico has a piece saying before taking the stage in phoenix, the president huddled backstage with state treasurer jeff dewitt and former g.o.p. chairman robert graham. both considering running against flake. we have a picture. that obviously showing some different takes on the situation on the reelection. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell backing jeff flake. let s bring in the panel. guy benson, political editor at townhall.com. susan page, washington bureau chief at usa today. byron york, chief political correspondent at the washington examiner. what do you make of the speeches and the messages and the interpretations?
in phoenix, where the president reportedly huddled with state treasurer jeff dewitt and gop chairman robert brant who are both considering a run against flake. kelly ward who has officially launched a bid against him. the president went after flake without mentioning him by name. take a listen. and nobody wants me to talk about your other senator, who is weak on borders, weak on crime. so i won t talk about him. nobody wants me to talk him. no one knows who the hell he is. he tweeted phoenix crowd last night was amazing. a packed house. i love the great state of arizona. not a fan of jeff flake, weak on crime and border. senator flake is responding to the continued attacks from the president. you know, the president is going to do what the president
shepard: this time yesterday, president trump was being widely praised for his speech the night before on strategy in the afghanistan war. last night, he blew it all up. attacking fellow republicans, railing against the news media and so much more. many analysts suggested that this was the president s attempt with his approval rating tanking to shore up his base. his one remaining block of support. our next guest says that s not it. amber phillips is here. she s from the washington post. what is your take? yeah, my take is the president went to phoenix with a chip on his shoulder that he had to unload. why do i say that? because he took the first few minutes to, you know, talk about his successes and where he s going with the country and then he pivoted almost immediately to a paper he pulled out of his pocket that he said were his
unfortunately last night the president gave a speech that did continue to divide this country. he did nothing to unite this country and did indicate he will be pardoning sheriff joe. he decided not to do it last night but made it clear he was planning on doing it. it s a tragedy for the people in phoenix. he was thinking last night s speech was divisive. i think the president would not use those words to describe it. i think, shep, he would probably push back on this idea that there seemed to be two president trumps. he would likely say i m the same person. but being in a campaign style rally is a different environment. shepard: one scripted, one from the heart. the president defended his comments about the deadly violence in charlottesville. he said he was going to reread his original statements from that rally. but he didn t. he left out three key words. listen. so here s what i said really fast. here s what i said saturday. we re closely following the terrible events unfold
right there in the state of arizona. we were just one vote away from victory after seven years of everybody proclaiming repeal and replace, one vote away. one vote away, i will not mention any names. very presidential, isn t it? very presidential. and nobody wants me to talk about your other senator, who is weak on borders, weak on crime, so i won t talk about him. president trump was talking about the two arizona senators and john mccain and senator jeff flake, the junior senator from arizona. also said the president did begin to name some names, quote, phoenix crowd last night was amazing, packed house.