GOP senator won't rule out run against Trump in 2020

Sen. Jeff Flake

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake – who has compared President Trump to a communist dictator who starved, imprisoned and murdered as many as 20 million people – says he fully expects Trump to face a Republican challenger in 2020, and his statements are causing some to suspect the challenger could be Flake himself.

MSNBC's Kasie Hunt asked Flake during a Sunday broadcast if he believes Republicans have a "moral obligation or duty" to challenge Trump for the party's nomination in 2020.

"I don't want to put it that way, but I think he will have a challenge," responded the Arizona senator, who announced earlier that he will not seek re-election to the Senate. "He'll certainly have a challenge from somebody as an independent. But I think he'll likely have a challenge in the Republican Party as well.

"I am not the only one — the only Republican who is saying, 'You know, I'm not sure this is my party. We used to stand for limited government and free trade, free enterprise and not this kind of nationalist, protectionist kind of party."

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Asked if he'd consider throwing his own hat into the ring in 2020, Flake said: "I won't rule it out. It's not in my plans. But I'm not ruling it out. I don't think anybody should."

Watch Flake's comments: 

Just weeks ago, Flake told ABC News that Trump is "inviting" a challenger in 2020.

Flake is scheduled to give a speech Wednesday on the Senate floor in which he is expected to compare President Trump to communist dictator Josef Stalin. Wednesday is the same day Trump plans to celebrate the "most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media" by giving out "Fake News Awards."

The following is an excerpt of Flake's upcoming speech released by his office:

"The enemy of the people" was what the president of the United State called the free press in 2017.

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Mr. President, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies. It bears noting that so fraight with malice was the phrase "enemy of the people" that even Nikita Khrushchev forbad[e] its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of "annihilating such individuals" who disagree with the supreme leader. ...

This alone should be a source of great shame for us in this body, especially for those of us in the president's party. For they are shameful, repulsive statements. And, of course, the president has it precisely backward – despotism is the enemy of the people. The free press is the despot's enemy, which makes the free press the guardian of democracy. When a figure in power reflexively calls any press that doesn't suit him "fake news," it is that person who should be the figure of suspicion, not the press.

In February 2017, President Trump had specifically called out a select group of news organizations as "fake news" and said the group is "the enemy of the American People."

Trump tweeted, "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!"

WND asked Sen. Flake's office Monday: "As you're aware, Stalin was a communist dictator who murdered up to 20 million people. Does Sen. Flake sincerely believe President Trump's statements calling a select group of purported 'fake news' purveyors an 'enemy of the American People' is comparable to Stalin using the term against any and all enemies of his murderous regime?"

Flake's office hadn't responded to WND's request for comment at the time of this report.

But just one hour after WND asked Flake's office for clarification, the senator tweeted: "There is no comparison between POTUS & Stalin. Stalin was a maniacal killer. The point I will try to make in my speech is POTUS should not use a phrase so associated with Stalin like 'enemy of the people' to describe our free press."

WND also asked if Sen. Flake is actively considering challenging President Trump for the White House in 2020. However, the senator has not responded.

Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino told Fox News Monday: "I can't take this guy anymore. I mean, if he spent half as much time going after far-left Democrats trying to ruin the country as he does going after the president, who's had an extremely successful first year based on conservative measures by any conservative metric, we'd be in a far better place. But what does he do? He's got an approval rating of negative 672 in his own state. He can't even run in his own state. So he's auditioning for a spot on a cable news channel that's not here, by the way. He's not interested in the whole 'fair and balanced' thing. He wants to go far to the left or he's setting himself up for a 2020 run. Really, I can't take it anymore. He's giving the left ammunition every day."

During the 2016 presidential election, Trump called Flake "a very weak and ineffective senator." He has blasted Flake as "weak on borders, crime" and called him a "non-factor in the Senate."

"He is toxic," Trump tweeted in August 2017.

When Flake announced his resignation from the Senate in October, he called President Trump's behavior "reckless, outrageous and undignified."

Flake has a 37 percent approval rating and the third highest disapproval rating in the U.S. among senators, according to Morning Consult.