Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona says there is "some mixture of fear and loathing" of Donald Trump among his Senate colleagues.
Flake, who has said he will not vote for his party's presumptive nominee, criticized Trump for appealing to what he called white "identity politics."
"Donald Trump did not receive a lot of — well, I guess there was one endorsement from the Senate prior to his claiming the nomination or being the presumptive nominee, just one," Flake said on KTAR's Bruce St. James and Pamela Hughes on Tuesday. "It's not as if a lot of senators were clamoring to support him during the process. In fact, many had supported one of the other candidates or hadn't supported any at all. So, there's not a lot of enthusiasm. There's some resignation and some mixture of fear and loathing to think about what the next couple months will bring given the statements that he has made."
"Some of this, let's face it, you can do it in the primary and you can get some support for some extreme statements," continued Flake. "Translating that into a general election victory is difficult."
Flake remarked that Trump's racial appeals went against the Republican Party's history.
"To have somebody from the party of Lincoln play with the identity politics that he's been playing with, basically saying that if you are descendant of Mexican heritage that you're disqualified to sit in judgement with someone who might disagree with your positions. It's just wrong. It's just wrong."