Sen. Jeff Flake says Trump's border wall plan is 'just a bit, you know, out there'

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published 25 August 2017

In further evidence that tensions are rising between President Trump and Republican Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Flake just criticized Trump's signature proposal to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. "This notion of a 2,000-mile wall has always been just — for anybody who spends time on the border — just a bit, you know, out there," Flake said in an interview Thursday with ABC15 in Arizona. He offered to show Trump the landscape of the Arizona-Mexico border to prove a wall isn't necessary.

Flake's criticism came two days after Trump worked hard to avoid calling the Republican senator out by name at a rally Tuesday night in Phoenix — only to call him out the next morning on Twitter. After a quick brag about the "packed house" at his rally, Trump tweeted that he is "not a fan of Jeff Flake, weak on crime & border!" Politico reported that at a meeting before the Tuesday rally, Trump referred to the senator as "the flake."