Republican voters in Ariz. speak out about current political landscape
PHOENIX -- With President Trump under attack by both of Arizona's Republican senators, CBS News gathered four Republican voters at a coffee shop in Phoenix.
Sen. Jeff Flake went after President Trump in Washington: "I will not be complicit or silent."
Sen. John McCain's criticism last week was in Philadelphia: "For the sake of some half-baked spurious nationalism."
Some 2,300 miles from both cities, there are no clear winners in Arizona.
"It's absolutely a lose-lose," Manny Siperut told CBS News at The Henry coffee shop. "It is absolutely a lose-lose. I think the president loses credibility when he does this stuff."
"I feel like our senators lost because President Trump has a very loud base and aggressive and somewhat angry base," Karri King said.
King and Kristine Desmangles side with their senators.
"The biggest thing that I see is he is fighting for unity, he is asking us to unite," Desmangles said.
"I think he walked away from a fight that he shouldn't have walked from," Frank Tasnadi said.
And Manny would've liked Sen. Flake to hang in there, saying, "I was disappointed that he threw in the towel somewhat premature."
All four want the name-calling by the president to stop -- and all said their patience is starting to wear thin with the president -- not his policies, but his demeanor.
"I believe agree that the president is more divisive than he is uniting," King said, "And I believe we need to unite as Republicans."
"We vote for these people we give them our proxy to represent us and when President Trump attacks his people personally … he is attacking all of us," Manny said.
All four of the Republican voters say they're a bit more concerned about the 2018 Senate race in Arizona. As deeply unpopular as Sen. Flake is with GOP voters in Phoenix, his departure opens the door to the possibility for a candidate who has an even tougher time holding onto a Senate seat that's been in Republican hands for more than two decades.
