Elizabeth Warren Blasts Sens. Flake And Corker For Helping Trump Rip Off The Middle-Class

Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and Bob Corker may have received praise for speaking out against Donald Trump’s dangerous presidency this week, but Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren blasted the two men for failing to walk the walk when it mattered most.

“What really matters are not words, it’s the actions,” Warren said, blasting GOP senators who speak out against Trump but failed to back up those words with meaningful action on Tuesday night.

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When MSNBC’s Chris Hayes pointed out that both Flake and Corker ended their day of speaking out against Trump by voting to help the president rip off the middle class, Warren said:

That’s the problem here. I’m really glad to see someone like Jeff Flake step up. I think it’s really important. What really matters are not words, it’s the actions. It’s whether or not you’re actually going to step up and say, I’m going to do my part to make sure that Washington works for the people, not just those who’ve got money and power and exercise it right here in the halls of Congress.

As Warren said, it doesn’t matter how many anti-Trump speeches they give on the Senate floor. What matters most are the votes they take from the chamber.

And when it mattered on Tuesday night, the two GOP senators voted to help Trump rip off the middle class by supporting the repeal of a key rule that allowed consumers to take on banks and credit card companies.

As Jason Easley noted shortly after the vote, “Republicans just screwed over hundreds of millions of Americans by forcing them into arbitration if they are taken advantage of by a big bank or predatory lender.”

Not to be outdone by Flake and Corker, Arizona Sen. John McCain – another Republican senator being praised for his tough stance against Trump – also voted to screw over middle-class voters in favor of big financial institutions.

Symbolic floor speeches and cable news interviews denouncing Trump are nice, but they are not enough. If these Republican leaders really want to tell future generations that they stood up against this president when it mattered, they’ll vote accordingly.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.