Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said President Donald Trump is pushing young people away from the Republican Party, the Washington Examiner reported.
"Young people have been walking away from the party for a while," Flake said during an event in New Hampshire.
"I think now they're in a dead sprint because I think they expect a more decent politics than they're seeing and they expect Washington to work a little more than it is and don't understand why we can't get along."
His remarks came in the "Politics and Eggs series, a partnership between the New England Council and the Saint Anselm College New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
"We are told by the cognoscenti in Washington to ignore the president's words. 'Pay attention to what he does, not what he says,' people say," Flake added.
"Those calls, of course, ignore the entirety of American history and exhort us to adopt a new norm to accommodate undignified public behavior just for this one president. In the sweep of our history, we have never been urged to not listen to what a president says. Such admonitions are preposterous now."
Flake said lawmakers also must pay close attention to the voices of students, who are pushing for stronger gun laws as a result of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
"It behooves us all to take note of what's going on in Parkland and elsewhere," he said.
Flake, who is retiring from the Senate, has not ruled out running for president in 2020.
"It has not been in my plans to run for president, but I have not ruled it out," he said.
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