Arizona lawmaker Jeff Flake compared Donald Trump to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin on Wednesday, delivering a blistering attack on the president to a nearly empty U.S. Senate chamber. The Republican has become one of Trump's favorite targets, earning a presidential nickname – 'Jeff Flakey' – since his impending retirement has freed him to openly castigate the White House on several fronts. But Flake let his disdain for the Trump White House show, saying that 'the free press is the despot's enemy, which makes the free press the guardian of democracy.' 'He's the one who was recently defending an actually oppressive regime,' White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said during a briefing on Wednesday. But the White House said Tuesday that it was merely a 'potential event.'

Source: Daily Mail January 17, 2018 16:09 UTC