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Article snippet: President Trump falsely dismissed Senator Jeff Flake as a Democrat on Wednesday, offering a distorted timeline of their conflict a day after Mr. Flake, Republican of Arizona, announced his retirement with a strongly worded rebuke of the president. “Long before he ever knew me, during the campaign, even before the campaign — I mean, he came out with this horrible book, and I said, ‘Who is this guy?’” Mr. Trump told reporters on Wednesday afternoon. “In fact, I remembered the first time I saw him on television I had not really been — nobody knew me in terms of politics.” “But the first time I saw him on television, I said, ‘I assume he’s a Democrat. Is he a Democrat?’” Mr. Trump said. “They said he’s a Republican. I said, ‘That’s impossible.’” In truth, the two men met in early July 2016 at a private Republican summit meeting on Capitol Hill, after Mr. Trump had won the last primaries but before the Republican National Convention, where he accepted the party’s nomination. Mr. Flake has said that he began working on his book, “Conscience of a Conservative,” during the general election. Mr. Trump posted several tweets calling him “weak” in September 2016. The book was published in August. The White House did not respond to inquiries about when Mr. Trump initially saw Mr. Flake on television or what prompted the assumption that the senator was a Democrat. But the characterization is perplexing given the Mr. Flake’s consistent standing as one of the more conservative m... Link to the full article to read more