Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon took a victory lap Tuesday after Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) announced he would retire at the end of his term.
Bannon, the Breitbart News chairman who is recruiting primary challengers to GOP incumbents, claimed credit for Flake’s decision not to seek reelection, according to Breitbart’s editor in chief Alex Marlow.
In a stunning speech on the Senate floor, Flake announced Tuesday that he would not seek a second term in 2018.
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Flake, who wrote a book about how Republicans need to reclaim conservativism from Trump, said he was alarmed and frustrated by the president’s behavior.
“If I have been critical, it not because I relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If I have been critical, it is because I believe that it is my obligation to do so, as a matter of duty and conscience,” he said.
“The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters — the notion that one should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided.”
Flake has been a top target for Bannon, Breitbart and their allied outside group Great America Alliance for his criticism of Trump.
The group is backing former state Sen. Kelli Ward (R) in the Arizona Senate primary and polls showed that Flake faced a tough path to reelection.
Bannon has vowed to recruit primary challengers to all Republican incumbents with the exception of Sen. Ted. Cruz (R-Texas). Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who similarly lashed out at Trump on Tuesday, likely would have attracted a Bannon-backed challenger had he not decided to retire after 2018.
Others reportedly in Bannon’s crosshairs include Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
Breitbart celebrated Flake’s exit over Twitter and with the flashing headline: “Winning: Flake Out.”