Flake Admits It's Difficult To Work Across Party Lines When Seeking Office

By Holliday Moore
Published: Tuesday, October 2, 2018 - 12:08pm

Arizona U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake took a moment in Boston Monday to explain why he pushed for the FBI investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh last week.

He told the crowd at a Forbes "Under 30 Summit" that he understood it was unusual to reach across the political aisle to work with Democratic Senator Chris Coons, but felt it was necessary under the circumstances.

"We don't do bipartisan things in the senate very often any more, but I thought it was important to do this," he explained. "So I pulled Chris out of the hearing, we talked about it, we brought some others in and we were able to make that arrangement."

Flake is leaving office at the end of the year and admitted the ability to compromise these days in Washington is no longer appreciated and hard to do for anyone seeking office.

"There's just no incentive right now to reach across the aisle," he said. "When you do, it just ends up in your opponent's campaign ads. And, it's just a shame."

Flake said he wants the FBI to conduct a real investigation, not to give his GOP colleagues cover, but to uncover everything that happened between Kavanaugh and his accusers.

"It does no good to have an investigation that just gives us more cover," he said to the crowd. "We actually need to find out what we can find out, and we have to realize that we may not find everything that happened."

In an interview Sunday night on 60 Minutes, Flake also said he would be willing to disqualify Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court if he lied while under oath in Friday's Senate hearing.

Politics