In a recent television appearance, establishment Senator Jeff Flake compared President Trump to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
Flake, a Republican who decided not to run for reelection because of his unpopularity in Arizona, is an anti Trump, establishment hack who is close to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Flake cited Trump’s use of the phrase “enemy of the people” as the reason for his comparison.
According to Politico:
“Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s declaration that media is “the enemy of the people” is a throwback to Josef Stalin that should have no place in political discourse.
“I’m saying he borrowed that phrase,” Flake told MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt of Trump’s choice of words. “It was popularized by Josef Stalin, used by Mao as well — enemy of the people. It should be noted that Nikita Khrushchev who followed Stalin, forbade its use, saying that was too loaded and that it maligned a whole group or class of people, and it shouldn’t be done.
“I don’t think that we should be using a phrase that’s been rejected as too loaded by a Soviet dictator.”
One of the Republican Party’s most vociferous critics of Trump, Flake decided not to run for reelection after his popularity dove in Arizona, in part due to his criticism of the president.”
