Wednesday on CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) commented on the political consequences of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump raising concerns over U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the judge presiding over the Trump University lawsuit and his Mexican heritage. He said Trump cannot win the White House if he keeps “making these statements that are simply toxic to the party.”
Flake said, “I am not in the Never Trump movement. I’m hoping that he will come around and stop making these statements that are simply toxic to the party.”
He continued, “I will not vote for Hillary Clinton, but I can tell you, we won’t have any Republican in the White House that takes these kinds of positions and makes these kinds of statements. So it’s a moot point whether you’ll have a Trump presidency because he won’t be in the White House if he continues to make these kind of statements.”
He added, “There’s a big difference between winning a primary and winning a general. You can take extreme positions in a primary and win a primary, but try translating that into a general election win and you just can’t. To make a statement that he made about the judge, to espouse a Muslim ban, to espouse the conspiracy theories that he’s espoused—I just can’t see that person winning the White House.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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