Donald Trump's outspoken Republican congressional critic, Sen. Jeff Flake, said he will work with the president-elect and urged Americans to give the White House transition team a chance.
"I'm of the mind to give the president a lot of deference when he's putting together his team," the Arizona senator told "CBS This Morning" Wednesday.
"It's never easy to do, particularly when you're coming in not having been in government . . . It's a tough thing under any circumstances. Under these circumstances, I think it's doubly difficult."
Even as criticism continued over Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon as a top White House strategist, Flake said it was too soon to pass judgement on the selection of the former head of Breitbart News.
"I don't know him at all," Flake said of Bannon. "I haven't studied to see what remarks were actually his. I just have seen some things attributed to the publication that he used to run."
He told CBS some of the information printed in Breitbart concerned him, but added: "How much he can be blamed for that, that's another question."
The GOP senator has said he will be able to work with the new president, Politico reported.
"I'll work with him when we need to but also push back when I need to," Flake said, according to Politico. "There will obviously be areas of disagreement, but there are also lots of areas of agreement."
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