GOP Senator Says Trump Should Apologize to Obama and Move On, and He’s Right

In a radio interview, Senator Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) stated that he believes President Trump should apologize to President Obama for his false allegations of “wiretapping” Trump Tower. That’s pretty sound advice, so the chances of Trump paying any heed are virtually nil.

Flake, one of Trump’s foremost Republican critics during the campaign, was asked on “Mac & Gaydos” on KTAR Arizona radio if he felt Trump should publicly admit he was wrong.

“I think that ought to happen and we ought to move on,” Flake replied.

Asked later in the interview if his worst fears about Trump had been confirmed, Flake repeated his view that the President should apologize to his predecessor, though he said he didn’t think that Trump’s campaign had colluded with the Russians to defeat Hillary Clinton.

This will surely be a tedious 4 to 8 years if President Trump and his allies refuse to yield every time he says something untrue, offensive, or just plain stupid. Jay Caruso is absolutely right in his post from earlier today.

The continuing apologia for Trump over his wiretapping allegations is a perfect example. He made specific accusations about Trump Tower and his phones. His personal accusations against President Obama only add to the irresponsibility. After the hearings yesterday I had people telling me Trump’s claims were “accurate” if not “precise.” The reason? If somebody in the Trump campaign was surveilled in any way by law enforcement last year, it “confirms” what Trump said.

My primary concern about Trump from the very beginning was that his nomination and election would cause many nominally conservative people to sacrifice their credibility to defend Trump simply because he’s wearing the right colored jersey.

A single flippant (and false) tweet has caused a great deal of chaos and continues to. Whether Trump’s refusal to admit a mistake is because of his own vanity or because he still believes Trump Tower was wiretapped despite all evidence to the contrary, I don’t know. I do know that defending him only enables more ill-conceived brain farts. No one is helping Trump by refusing to tell him he’s wrong.

Flake said earlier in the radio interview that Comey’s testimony further confirmed his belief that Trump’s allegation was false.

“I never believed it from the beginning and it’s been confirmed by every intelligence arm that we have,” the Arizona Republican said. “That would’ve been a big, big deal had that happened and I was quite confident that it didn’t and it’s now, there’s simply no evidence that it occurred.”

The wire tapping allegation has already become a farce. Senator Flake is right. Trump needs to own his mistake and move on. I doubt that’s going to happen though. More than likely this nonsense will simply give way to some other nonsense in which partisans will choose to be blindly loyal rather than smart.

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