GOP Senator: Republicans Should Have ‘Stood Up’ to Birther Movement, ‘Lock Her Up’ Chants (Video)

“We Shouldn’t be the Party for Jailing Your Political Opponents”

Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said Sunday that he wished his party had spoken out against claims that President Obama wasn’t born in America and to calls to jail Hillary Clinton at Donald Trump’s rallies.

Flake joined host Chuck Todd for an interview on “Meet the Press” to discuss his new book, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle, which Todd called an “indictment of leadership” on the Republican party.

“You were pretty rough on some conservatives,” Todd said, quoting a portion of Flake’s book where he called some in his party “willing accomplices.”

“Well, I do I think that we’ve seen more people ready to stand up,” Flake responded, “and I wish that we as a party would’ve stood up, for example, when the birtherism thing was going on.”

Todd inquired if Flake had done enough, to which he replied he believed “on that, I think I did,” before turning to the cheers of “Lock Her Up” at Donald Trump rallies.  

“During rallies, when the chants ‘Lock Her Up,’ we shouldn’t be the party for jailing your political opponents,” the Republican Senator said. “Anybody at that rally, anybody at those rallies, ought to stand up and say ‘that’s inappropriate, we shouldn’t be doing that.”

Of note, over six months into his presidency, Donald Trump just this week sparked “Lock Her Up” chants at his rally in West Virginia.

“I wish we as a party, and elected officials, would do more,” Flake asserted. “Or when particularly ugly conspiracy theories come out, or simply fake news, stuff that is just demonstrably false, we have to stand up and say ‘hey, that’s just not right.’”

Some of the exchange can be seen below:

Flake also made headlines last last week for his piece in Politico, “My Party Is in Denial About Donald Trump,” in which he claimed Republicans “created him, and [are now] rationalizing him.”

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