One of the most prominent anti-Trump Republicans just wrapped up a rollercoaster of a tenure as U.S. ambassador to Turkey. And in an exit interview with Punchbowl News, former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) dropped hints about when he might weigh in on the 2024 election.
Flake made waves when he endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020. Flake was eventually nominated and confirmed to serve as the top U.S. envoy in Ankara.
Since then, Flake has refrained from engaging in politics while dealing with a series of complex negotiations between the United States and Turkey over NATO, Ukraine, F-16s and more. While it’s no secret where he stands on former President Donald Trump, Flake — who officially wrapped up his ambassadorship five days ago — isn’t quite ready to weigh in on the current campaign.
“I had gone this far up until my last day without bringing politics into the equation and I’m not about to,” Flake told us with a laugh.
But Flake clearly wanted to be home before the final stretch of the campaign, and he strongly suggested to us that he’ll be speaking out at some point.
Flake also told us he’s “always been a big fan of continuity” when it comes to foreign policy. Of course, Vice President Kamala Harris would represent continuity in U.S. foreign policy from the Biden administration.
In the meantime, Flake plans on doing some guest lecturing at BYU in Utah and ASU back home in Arizona.
Does a Cabinet position await? If Flake decides to endorse Harris, he’ll join a handful of former GOP lawmakers who have done so. Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) spoke at the Democratic convention last month, and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) revealed this week that she’ll be voting for Harris.
Flake would also be a contender for a Cabinet position in a Harris administration. The vice president said last week that she intends to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet. Flake’s decision to endorse Biden in 2020 undoubtedly helped him get the Turkey job, and Democrats believe Flake was successful in that role.
Congress and Ankara: Turkey’s relationship with Congress has been fraught over the last decade. Flake’s goal was to change that — and to push Turkey to relent in its opposition to approving Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO.
Flake lamented that it was a “long, drawn-out event” that ultimately became tied to the issue of whether the United States would sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. Congress was already holding up the F-16 sale for different reasons.
Interestingly, Flake told us that the intransigence from lawmakers like Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) — the top Foreign Relations Committee Republican — actually helped him during negotiations with Turkish officials.
“The strong position [from Congress] that F-16s would not move, that we couldn’t progress in our bilateral relationship with Turkey until Sweden was a member — that was incredibly helpful for me to go to my interlocutors here and say, ‘Hey, you know where the Congress is,’” Flake said.
But Flake also had to make the case to lawmakers like Risch that Ankara is an important security partner. Flake, who served on the Foreign Relations Committee, said it’s easy for lawmakers “to overlook some things that a country brings to the table and focus on one issue.”
— Andrew Desiderio
