Flake: Trump stop labelling press ‘the enemy of the people’

Sen. Jeff Flake said Wednesday that President Trump should continue calls for unity and stop labelling the press the enemy of the people.

“What the President says matters and if he were to take a more civil tone, it would make a difference. It would help,” Flake told CNN.

“I hope that he does. What he said just a few moments ago was right,” Flake said. “We all need to come together. We need to tone down the rhetoric. And I hope that he’ll follow his own council there and do so as well.”

{mosads}”Civility can’t wait until after an election,” Flake said, likely riffing off of Hillary Clinton’s comments earlier this month that Democrats can’t be civil with Republicans unless they flip Congress in the midterms.

“The president shouldn’t refer to the press as the enemy of the people,” he continued. “We all need to watch the rhetoric that we use. People hear that and they follow it.”

“We can’t go on like this,” Flake said. “We’ve got to reach across the aisle and find common ground. If we don’t, it’s just going to escalate further.”

“What the President says matters and if he were to take a more civil tone, it would make a difference … the President shouldn’t refer to the press as the ‘enemy of the people.’ We all need to watch the rhetoric that we use.” @JeffFlake with @ChrisCuomo https://t.co/WjOKiwqfW1 pic.twitter.com/Tx4sBtxh93

— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) October 24, 2018

Flake’s comments come hours after authorities intercepted improvised explosive devices addressed to former President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former CIA director John Brennan.

Two more suspicious packages were found addressed to former Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

Flake earlier Wednesday condemned the attacks, saying, “[W]e need to tone down the rhetoric. Both sides. We gotta see people as opponents, not enemies.”

President Trump and lawmakers on the right and on the left also decried the attempted bombings.

“In these times, we have to unify,” Trump said. “We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the Untied States of America.”