MSNBC always looks out for the best interests of Republicans, right?
During Monday night's edition of All In With Chris Hayes, the liberal host tried again and again to get guest Jeff Flake to condemn Donald Trump and recommend that members of the Republican Party not vote for him, even going so far as to ask the GOP senator from Arizona: “Who are you going to vote for for president this fall?”
Ironically, Hayes brought up Albert Einstein's motto “about insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result” while time after time asking Flake variations of the same question regarding the Republican presidential nominee.
The stern-faced host introduced the segment by stating that he'd just spoken with Flake, “who serves with John McCain in Arizona and has not endorsed Trump. I started by asking him how important he thought” Trump's recommendation of a ban on Muslims entering the country was.
“Well, that's very important,” the senator replied, “and when he made that statement, I think many Americans and many Republicans were incensed by it.”
“That's when I went actually to a mosque that week here in Arizona and ... spoke about the contributions that Muslim Americans have made … throughout the history of our country,” the GOP official stated.
They “fought in every war,” he noted. “They've been first responders to many of these terrorist attacks, and this notion that we ought to have a religious test for people entering the country is just the antithesis of who we are as Americans.”
Hayes then stated:
I cannot but notice that your friend, your colleague, your fellow in Arizona, Senator John McCain -- who's up for re-election -- who was personally insulted by Donald Trump way back at the beginning of this, who put out a very strong statement condemning Trump's words about Khizr Khan (the father of a soldier who was slain during the Iraq War), is nonetheless supporting Donald Trump.
Is there a breaking point for your colleagues at which point they feel they can no longer abide this?
“Well, I don't want to speak for any of my colleagues,” the senator replied. “I'd just say John McCain is a good man, and to stand by the Republican nominee, I think, it's largely because he was that nominee eight years ago, and he feels that's his duty.”
“I respect that, but I think some of us need to push back on these statements made by Donald Trump -- for the good of the party, for the good of the country -- we need to because somebody making these kind of statements shouldn't become president, and I hope that he changes.”
The All In host then approached the same topic from a different perspective.
“Just as a general principle here, it does seem to me that perhaps one's duty to one's party and some other moral commitments that a politician might have seem to be in conflict,” he stated. “I think we can all agree there are certain things that say a nominee of the party you support, would say or support, that would be out past what you could, in good conscience, continue to support.”
Flake responded that he does not support Trump's call for a Muslim ban and some of the positions the GOP candidate has taken “and not just the tone and tenor of the campaign.”
“We in Arizona need meaningful immigration reform,” he noted before referring to the candidate's negative statements “about NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and our security arrangements with European countries.”
“We can't have that position and move ahead,” Flake continued, but he said he respects the “many Republicans … who say 'I'm going to support the nominee. We hope that he changes.'”
That was when Hayes mentioned Einstein's statement that insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” “I mean, isn't that just people lying to themselves when they say he might change?”
Flake responded:
Hope springs eternal. We have some time left, and he chose a good running mate. Mike Pence is a good man.
I hope that he's able to move him, move Donald Trump on some of these positions, but … it becomes increasingly unlikely that he is going to change, and I think that's too bad for us.
“Finally,” Hayes asked, “can I ask you, Senator, who you'll be voting for for president this fall?”
“I've said again and again I will not vote for Hillary Clinton,” Flake replied. “I know too much about her record. … But like I said, I can't vote for Donald Trump given the things that he's said. I hope he changes. I still want to support our nominee.”
