well as republicans. all the earmark spending and we basically abandoned the principle of limited government. i m concerned now that the course that we re on with some issues like trade, with protectionism, and with populism, that we re similarly we re going to write ourselves out of the majority again. that s my concern. we ve got to get back to traditional limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility. you ve been asked, senator, if you ve left the republican party. you your party, you said no. but has your party left you? no, i think by and large, the party has been an mated by conservative principles. but i am concerned lately, populism you may be able to win an election with it, but it s not a real governing philosophy. and on free trade, i m very concerned about the direction there. we are going to handicap our economic future if we don t
collusion when he was a vietnam con artist. he told story about his vietnam battles and conquests, how brave he was. it was all a lie. he cried like a baby, he begged for forgiveness, he cried like a child. now he judges collusion. why is he doing this? they must not have indoor golf in the northeast. i presume he has a lot of time on his hands. if you look at this, there is one aspect of this if you re trying to be an optimist which i would not be, typically to say in the past he would have gone after the department of justice as he would have done, as his attorney general. after the special counsel. at least he s chosen the member of the owe mowsing party so chief of staff and other people in the party say if you have to vent, and this guy has to vent, please don t vent at the people running the investigation and please don t vent at other republicans. go after a democrat. i think it s sort of a step up from the third grade to the 5th grade, but that s optimism. does it make do
return to principle. senator, i want to get to the book in a moment. first of all, do you think it s appropriate for the president to launch this twitter attack against senator richard blumenthal today? it went on and on. well, i don t think it s helpful. we in the senate, we have a 60-vote hurdle to pass almost anything or we need unanimous consent just to move ahead. and in order to be able to work with our colleagues across the aisle, it s tough if we get so personal with them. so, i don t think that it s helpful in terms of legislation moving ahead. but you couldn t even pass the, what s called the skinny repeal, anti-obamacare legislation with 50 votes. right. well, that s what i m saying. i think we ve reached about the limit of what we can do as one party. so, we re going to need to work with our colleagues across the aisle and it s difficult enough to do so. they ve really obstructed putting together the president s
enter into bilateral and multi-lateral trade deals. we have globalized as a world. certainly it s happened, and the question is do we latch onto it and harness it, or are we left behind by it? and also on immigration, i think that we ve got to be a more welcoming party. i was very heartened by the autopsy we did on the party and on our policies after 2012, and we seem to have abandoned that. and i think in the future we re going to need to get back to playing the game of addition rather than subtraction. the white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders pointedly was asked last week if the president was still considering helping to fund a $10 million challenge against you. i want you to listen to what she said. listen to this. i m not sure about any potential funding of a campaign, but i think that senator flake would serve his constituents much better if he was less focused on writing a book and attacking the president and passing legislation.