Graham, Scott sad to lose a colleague in fiery Flake, who assails Trump

In a fiery and emotional speech on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Republican senator Jeff Flake of Arizona announced his retirement.

It was a move that caught many of his colleagues by surprise, including South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham.

“I’m very saddened and disappointed to hear that @JeffFlake is retiring from the Senate,” the U.S. senator from Seneca tweeted about his fellow Republican.

Tim Scott, South Carolina’s junior senator, echoed Graham’s sentiments.

“Terrible,” Sen. Scott, R-S.C., told the Washington Examiner. “He’s a good man and one of the better guys in the Senate, wish he was sticking around.”

One person who likely isn’t sad about Flake’s decision is President Donald Trump, who has been publicly critical of Flake. For his part, Flake has been no supporter of Trump, and insinuated he couldn’t abide working in congress because of the president.

In Flake’s speech, he said he would not be “complicit” with Trump, criticizing what he considered his party’s accommodations with the president. Flake said he could no longer play a role in them.

“We were not made great as a country by indulging in or even exalting our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorifying in the things that divide us and calling fake things true and true things fake,” he said.

In spite of Graham’s new-found close relationship with Trump, he only said positive things about Flake.

“Jeff is one of the smartest, most independent-minded senators in the Republican conference. His retirement will be a great loss to the body,” Graham wrote in one Twitter post, quickly adding another tweet. “@JeffFlake is a good man who will continue to make contributions to our nation and the conservative cause for years to come.”

Graham and Trump have bonded recently over Graham’s failed bid to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. South Carolina’s senior senator and the president played golf twice in one week earlier in October.

And Graham has rallied to support Trump in his opposition of North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear program.

Graham even complimented Trump in an appearance on Fox News Tuesday night, saying “I think Donald Trump has the best chance of fixing the broken immigration system, better than Obama and Bush.”

Trump was Graham’s nemesis on the 2016 campaign trail, where the senior senator from South Carolina failed to gain traction as Trump cruised to the Republican Party nomination.

During the campaign, Graham called Trump a “jackass,” before Trump responded, calling Graham a “lightweight” and an “idiot.” He even gave out Graham’s private phone number, urging supporters to “try it.”

But politics makes strange bedfellows, which can cause opinions to change unexpectedly. Flake’s announcement was certainly unexpected.

Until Tuesday, Flake had insisted he had no plans to retire. He was raising money at a good rate and casting his re-election campaign as a test case of conservatism against Trumpism. But he made clear Tuesday he’d concluded that, for now at least, Trumpism had prevailed.

“It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican Party,” he said, listing many characteristics that could describe Graham, who isn’t up for re-election until 2020.

This story was originally published October 24, 2017 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Graham, Scott sad to lose a colleague in fiery Flake, who assails Trump."