U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a frequent critic of President Trump’s, is endorsing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden along with several other former Republican lawmakers,” The Hill reported Monday. “The list includes other former members of Congress who had previously announced their support for Biden, including former Sens. John Warner (R-Va.) and Gordon Humphrey (R-N.H.), who is now an independent, and Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.). Other former lawmakers on the list include former Reps. Steve Bartlett (R-Texas), Tom Coleman (R-Mo.), Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), Chris Shays (R-Conn.), Alan Steelman (R-Texas) and Jim Walsh (R-N.Y.).”
The move follows other high-profile “Republican” betrayals timed to help the Democrats take it all in November, as has been reported by AmmoLand features on the Lincoln Project/Defending Democracy Together defectors and on John Kasich sucking up to lefties at the Democrat Convention.
Some are no surprise here for gun owners who have been paying attention. Case in point, Warner endorsed gun-grabber Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanger against pro-gun Republican Dave Brat.
Humphrey tried to get the RNC to drop Trump for 2016 by mischaracterizing his speculation that “Second Amendment people” would stop Hillary Clinton as making a threat.
Bartlett supported a Democrat for Mayor of Dallas who went on to appoint a Moms Demand Action apparatchik to his “violent crime task force.”
“The NRA ended up defeating me because I voted for the Brady Bill,” Coleman told MSNBC. “I had an F rating.”
Steelman’s record on guns is unclear, meaning he never did anything remarkable to advance the right to keep and bear arms—he appears to have been a “moderate” squish whose one claim to congressional success was getting a federal building named after a former Dallas mayor alleged by conspiracy theorists to have rerouted the Kennedy motorcade as a favor to his brother.
Walsh appears to have been similarly squishy and unremarkable in terms of doing anything for the Second Amendment.
Shays was rated 100% by the Brady Campaign (he supported suing gun manufacturers and distributors for crimes committed with lawful products).
There are some stark betrayals though. Dent was endorsed by NRA, which sold him to its members as “a staunch defender of the Second Amendment freedoms of law-abiding gun owners, hunters and sportsmen in Pennsylvania and across America.” The same was said of Inglis. That must be why they’re all in for the Biden/Harris RKBA evisceration a Democrat win threatens to enact.
Flake is probably the biggest non-surprise of all – he’s been flaking out on his base for years. He’s also the biggest betrayer of those who trusted him with political power.
“Jeff Flake is the right choice to represent Arizona gun owners in the U.S. Senate,” NRA-ILA told members in 2012. “He opposes Supreme Court nominees who would overturn our fundamental freedoms. And he opposes any United Nations treaty that would restrict our Second Amendment rights.”
So “right choice” Flake is going to give Biden the choice on Supreme Court nominees now? And the UN treaty was a no-brainer for a politician dependent on Arizona gun owners to get elected.
OK, sure, Flake supported nationwide reciprocity, but that was a safe vote because he represented Arizona and he knew the Republican leadership used the bill to pander to gun owners but never intended for it to go anywhere. Ditto for opposing a federal database, but that will pass for sure if the Democrats do a November sweep. As for “sportsmen’s heritage,” fine and good, but there are plenty of Democrat Fudds and that’s not what the Second Amendment is about. And signing his name to the Heller brief was hardly controversial, seeing as how it was signed by 55 members of the Senate including several Democrats. All in all, pretty weak tea…
Now he’s trading that away for “The Biden Plan to End Our Gun Violence Epidemic.”
“The Second Amendment survived in the Supreme Court by just one vote,” NRA told its members when Flake wanted something from them. “We cannot risk even one more anti-gun justice. That’s why the NRA is endorsing Jeff Flake for Senate.”
Who the hell does Flake think Biden will appoint?
It’s too bad the gun owners he swindled for campaign contributions don’t have recourse. A look at his campaign literature ought to, at a minimum, provide ample evidence of mail fraud.
Also see: Flake Stance on Immigration Undoes His ‘Good’ Gun Votes
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.