Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said Monday on CNN’s “The Source” that Vice President Kamala Harris is more conservative than former President Donald Trump on “free trade” and “rule of law.”
Host Kaitlan Collins said, “A lot of people who are watching this show and have watched it are familiar with Republicans who come on who say Donald Trump is not fit for office. But I like his policies better than I like Harris’s. I mean, I think the first, maybe most prominent is the former attorney general, Bill Barr, who has certainly argued that. I wonder, what do you say to those Republicans who argue that because they like his policies better than hers, it’s worth voting for him even if they think he’s not fit for office?”
Flake said, “Well, you know, all of us face that as Republicans. We say, well, I’m not going to vote for the former president. We have a lot of people saying that. But I just can’t bring myself to vote for a Democrat. And in 2016, I voted for a third-party candidate, 2020, I voted for Joe Biden. I’ve thought since 2016, you you need to not just, you know, lodge a protest vote, you have to vote for the alternative. And so that’s that’s what I’ve done. And I think that I’m not telling my fellow Republicans what to do. But that’s what I think should be done.”
Collins said, “If you’re not voting for Donald Trump but also not voting for Harris, you view it as a wasted vote?”
Flake said, “It can be seen that way. And like I say, I know Kamala Harris, I know Tim Walz. I think that they would represent, frankly, conservative values better than the former president. Certainly respect for the rule of law, free trade, and understanding who our allies are abroad. I’ve spent the past three years abroad representing the United States, and I want to support a presidential candidate who knows that we have very real enemies abroad, but that we also have indispensable allies. They need to be supported. I want to vote for a president who knows the difference and Kamala Harris knows the difference there.”
Collins said, “Yeah, I mean, interesting to hear you say that you think they embody conservative values even more than Donald Trump does.”
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