The spring Cultural Arts Series at Purdue University’s Black Cultural Center’s Dr. Martin Luther King Commemoration featured former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former Sen. Jeff Flake. The duo discussed the theme: “Democracy, Civility and Freedom of Expression.”
Lynch and Flake shared their individual perspectives on political issues and the current state of democracy at the Stewart Center’s Loeb Playhouse.
Flake, who opted out of running for re-election in Arizona due to his lack of popularity, has earned a reputation as a scold who frequently condemns expression with which he disagrees.
Flake appeared to be embarrassed when he said he had a sheltered life as a child in Snowflake, Arizona. His discomfort was met with polite laughter.
“The university was where I had the opportunity for the first time to see a more diverse group of people, and be involved in discussions that I simply hadn’t before,” a red-faced Flake said to the audience.
Flake took thinly veiled jabs at President Donald Trump while taking credit for his criminal justice reform package. Flake was a CBS News contributor at the time it passed.
In 2013, Flake was forced to apologize for heinous homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic comments that his teenage son posted online. The messages became widely public after the senator dragged his son into the spotlight by publicizing a survival expedition they had embarked on, making public the father-son bonding experience on his Facebook page, the Daily News reported in 2013.
Flake appears to be fixated on the whole survival experience as he suggested that Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer should be sent off to a deserted island with only a machete in order to learn to get along.