Flake: 'Mr. President, I Will Not Be Complicit'; Senate Kills Rule That Made it Easier to Sue Banks
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president now has three people who have broken with him. He can't lose more than two on any big vote.</s>SEN. BOB CORKER (R), TENNESSEE: I think the debasement of our nation will be what he'll be remembered most for.</s>SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They were not likely to be re-elected. That shows that the support is more behind this president than it is those two individuals.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both of these really started with personal jabs from the president to these members.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a tough situation for the Republican Party. We're seeing buyers' remorse play out publicly.</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: We're going to concentrate on what our agenda is and not any of these other distractions that you all may be interested in.</s>FLAKE: History will look back and say why didn't we stand up? I hope that more of us do.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We begin with something that was certainly unusual. The impact we'll have to see, but this Republican rebuke against a sitting president, we haven't seen anything like it, at least in a very long time. Two retiring GOP senators calling out President Trump, a member of their own party, remember, as dangerous and utterly untruthful. Senator Jeff Flake says he will, quote, "no longer be complicit or silent," issuing a call to arms to fellow Republicans. Senator Bob Corker says the Trump presidency will be remembered for, quote, "debasing the nation."</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So could these defections and attention inside the GOP threaten the president's agenda? The White House spokesperson defending Mr. Trump's clashes with both men, saying it's probably best they leave. Coming up in just minutes, Senator Jeff Flake will join us live. So let's begin with CNN's Joe Johns is live for us at the White House. Another intense day, Joe.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's for sure, Alisyn. And, look, here at the White House they are saying it's all good, even with freewheeling criticism of the president by two prominent Republican senators. They're free to speak their minds, because they're not running for re-election. But that free will could affect the Senate arithmetic and the president's agenda.</s>FLAKE: It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): Outgoing Senator Jeff Flake fiercely denouncing President Trump's policies and behavior as dangerous to democracy and calling on his fellow Republicans to do the same.</s>FLAKE: When the next generation asks us, "Why didn't you do something? Why didn't you speak up?" what are we going to say?</s>JOHNS: Flake railing against the politics of the era of Trump, the undermining of democratic ideals, the personal insults, and what he called the flagrant disregard for truth and decency.</s>FLAKE: Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as "telling it like it is" when it is actually just reckless, outrageous and dignify -- and undignified. 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.</s>JOHNS: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praising Flake but punting when asked by reporters how the party would respond.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At what point do you have an obligation as a leader of this party to weigh in on these very serious criticisms of the president?</s>MCCONNELL: What I have an obligation to do is to try to achieve the greatest cohesion I can among 52 Republicans to try to achieve for the American people the agenda that we set out to achieve.</s>JOHNS: Flake's sweeping indictment coming hours after Republican Senator Bob Corker also blasted Mr. Trump.</s>CORKER: The president has great difficulty with the truth. I don't know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard and debases our country in the way that he does, but he does.</s>JOHNS: The retiring Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman expressing concern that the United States' position in the world is suffering under President Trump.</s>CORKER: World leaders are very aware that much of what he says is untrue. He purposely is breaking down relationships we have around the world that have been useful to our nation.</s>JOHNS: Their feud reaching a boiling point, with the president responding to Corker's attacks in a series of tweets, again calling him "little." The White House brushing off the criticism as petty while welcoming the decision of the senators to retire.</s>SANDERS: I think they were not likely to be re-elected. And I think that shows that the support is more behind this president than it is those two individuals.</s>JOHNS: A source familiar with the president's thinking says he is in high spirits after Flake's announcement. An ally of Mr. Trump's former chief strategist also celebrating, saying, "Steve Bannon added another scalp to his collection as another establishment domino falls."</s>JOHNS: Senators Flake and Corker won't be going anywhere anytime soon. They'll be in the United States Senate until January of 2019. The president, for his part today, headed to Dallas for a fund-raiser -- Chris and Alisyn.</s>CUOMO: All right, Joe, thank you very much. All right. Let's discuss with CNN political analyst David Gregory; and reporter and editor at large for CNN Politics, Chris Cillizza. Let's play a little bit more of this sound so we can do a good discussion on, really, the full complement of things that were said. We have Flake and Corker.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think that President Trump is setting a bad example for the nation's children?</s>FLAKE: Yes. Some of the statements that are made about people and seeming to ascribe the worst motives to people, as well. That's something we tell our kids not to do.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think he's a role model to children in the United States?</s>CORKER: No.</s>RAJU: You don't?</s>CORKER: No. Absolutely not. We have young people who for the first time are, you know, watching a president stating, you know, absolute nontruths, nonstop. Personalizing things in the way he does. And it's -- it's very sad for our nation.</s>CUOMO: All right. So there they are. David Gregory, it's interesting. You know, the little bit of this is a matter of perception. Are they defecting? I would say, no, they're doing the opposite. They're actually redoubling their commitment to what they say their party is about and stepping away from the president on that basis, not a defection at all. How do you see it?</s>DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, they're -- but they're going to be gone. I mean, they're doing the thing that I think resistors of the president want them to do, which is to stand up and say, "This is not right. This is not right for America. This is not how a president ought to behave. And this is not right for the Republican Party." So they will get kudos for that. The other side of it is that those voices, brave voices -- you know, Jeff Flake is someone, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you can say, "This is a guy who should be senator." He's very smart. He's very dedicated. He's a terrific public servant. Well, he's now going to go. Now, he probably wouldn't have won anyway. He recognized he was going to be primaried many, many months ago; and things had accelerated to the point where he isn't able to win. So the immediate impact of this is to say, well, if you're a Republican president, you have these defections. You can blame him as being, you know, part of the establishment that needs to be drained. But you're losing votes for your priorities. In this case tax reform. That has obvious pain to the president here and now. And maybe history will judge this as a moment of unraveling for the Trump presidency. But the immediate effect is for Trump and his allies to stand up and say, "Yes, these guys are part of the problem." It's amazing to hear the White House spokesperson call these things that they're saying, Corker and Flake, petty. This from a president who often doesn't tell the truth, who personally insults people and is certainly a bad influence on America's children. But that's the state of affairs in the Trump presidency. People know it. Voters know it. It's the reality that we're living through.</s>CAMEROTA: So, Chris, these guys are retiring but not for 14 months.</s>CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT AND EDITOR AT LARGE: Right.</s>CAMEROTA: So why now? Why did they feel they needed to make these statements now?</s>CILLIZZA: Well, you know, I think when you think about your next election, particularly given the cost of these elections, you have to sort of make these decisions about now. You simply can't wait and wait and wait and wait. It makes it difficult for the party to hold your seat, particularly in Arizona, and it makes it difficult for you to win. So I think some of it is they're having these heart-to-hearts with themselves at a time when you have to make a go or no go decision. I do think David's point is important as it relates to Jeff Flake. This is in some ways, he will be touted as a truth teller to the Trump presidency by those who oppose Trump. It will be seen in many ways, though, within the Republican Party, particularly the Trump base of the Republican Party, as two things: a victory for the Steve Bannon/Donald Trump wing of the Republican Party; and also a cautionary tale for sort of the governing wing of the Republican Party. Remember, the reason that Jeff Flake's poll numbers are where they are -- and that's not in a good place -- is not because he's too moderate. He's one of the ten most conservative senators in the Senate. It's because he wrote a book that was deeply critical of Donald Trump and was unafraid to go out and talk about it.</s>CAMEROTA: So wait a second. So his poll numbers plummeted after that. He was going to win re-election, you're saying, until the book?</s>CUOMO: Well, we don't know that.</s>CAMEROTA: I just want= to ask what Chris says about that.</s>CILLIZZA: Yes. No. Look, I think he had some issues before anyway. This exacerbated those issues tenfold. If he had said nothing about Donald Trump other than, you know, "He does his things and I do mine," he would have had a decent to better than decent chance of winning a primary.</s>CUOMO: Any poll you look at says that you have at least -- I mean, Chris and I, we were talking about this yesterday -- at least two out of three of people--</s>CILLIZZA: Yes.</s>CUOMO: -- who identify as Republican are for Trump.</s>CILLIZZA: That's right.</s>CUOMO: So you go out, you're technically going out on a limb.</s>CAMEROTA: Of course. I know he went out on a limb with the book. I just didn't know what his political standing was--</s>CUOMO: -- any criticism. It's--</s>CILLIZZA: Alisyn, I would say he had -- this was not a lock--</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>CILLIZZA: -- before he wrote about Donald Trump, but he was in a much better place within the Republican Party than he was afterward. After that book came out -- and David made this point -- it was going to be a very uphill climb to win the nomination.</s>CUOMO: It also depends on what happens next. That's the big factor. You know, I was watching "The Walking Dead" last night with my son. And like at one point, these two guys, "I've had enough," and they run out -- nobody follows them.</s>CAMEROTA: And you saw it as a metaphor.</s>CUOMO: Yes. And so they come out. Jeff Flake gives a speech yesterday and you hear -- [APPLAUDS] -- because they are countenancing what the president says and does. He came out about Bob Corker, and the definition of a lie, if you want to use it, is you know it's wrong and you say it anyway with an intention to deceive. Them saying, David Gregory, that "Corker is why we have the Iran deal" is not just demonstrably false; it's a lie. And these guys hear them say it, hear it repeated, and do nothing. And McConnell says, "Well, I'm here to enforce an agenda." The senator with Wolf says, "Well, it's your job to call lies. I'm here to" -- come on. But, again, why are they doing it? Two out of three Republicans like Trump.</s>CILLIZZA: That's right.</s>CUOMO: All weighed in with all the stuff that goes along with it. So what happens next here? You could argue nothing.</s>GREGORY: Well, again, it's also what are your priorities? Mitch McConnell is gritting his teeth through the Trump years and saying, "OK, I've got to work with this guy, because I want to keep control of the Senate as a Republican, and we have an opportunity, despite how erratic he is, to actually get tax reform done." Now we'll see what happens. The reality, too, is that this is basically the "never Trump" movement of the campaign happening while he's governing. Trump surmounted that obstacle during the campaign. The "never Trumpers: didn't succeed. So now, even as he's governing, he's facing some of that. If he can't get anything passed, if the Republicans lose the Senate and the House, then we have a new reality, because then you start asking questions about whether Trump in re-election can actually keep the party together. Right now, there's enough Republican leaders who say, "Yes, we can," and these others are going to be marginalized.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. David Gregory, Chris Cillizza, thank you very much for the analysis. So how does Senator Jeff Flake feel this morning? He joins us live here on NEW DAY in just minutes.</s>CUOMO: All right. We're following breaking news, as well. Senate Republicans reversing another Obama-era policy late last night. The Senate is making it easier for banks to avoid any type of litigation. Right now, you have consumer protections that allow for arbitration clauses to be upset and that you can sue. No more. CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with more. I thought we were supposed to be about the little guy in this administration.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.</s>CUOMO: How do you reconcile that with this?</s>ROMANS: It's a really good question, because the president wants to loosen Wall Street regulations, Chris, and this is his biggest win yet; and it's a blow to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Gone now is a CFPB rule banning forced arbitration clauses. That's in the fine print of contracts for banks, for credit cards and other financial companies. They force customers to resolve any disputes outside a courtroom, blocking them from banding together in class- action lawsuits. The Republicans call the rule an overstep by the CFPB head Richard Cordray, who was, by the way, appointed by President Obama. And they claim the class action lawsuits, they just benefit trial lawyers. They don't help consumers. Consumer advocates fiercely disagree. They say that arbitration favors companies. All the leverage is with the big financial companies. Here's an example I'll give you. Wells Fargo, victims have had trouble suing because of arbitration clauses. This new rule that was just killed was only issued in July. The CFPB, the government watchdog here, found that customers struggled to open arbitration cases against their banks. The power is with the big financial firms, not with the little guy -- Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: So interesting, Christine. Thank you very much for all of that. So a past president and three Republican senators publicly denouncing President Trump in just the last week. So what does the future look like for this divided party? We debate that, next.