Furious Jeff Flake comes close to calling Trump a traitor: 'He gave aid and comfort to an enemy of democracy'

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on Thursday lit into President Donald Trump's behavior at the Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin -- and he came surprisingly close to branding the president an outright traitor.

During a speech on the Senate floor, Flake slammed Trump's refusal this week to say whether he believes his own intelligence agencies more than Putin when it comes to whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

"The findings of our intelligence community regarding the Russian aggression are not matters of opinion, no matter how powerful and strong Putin's denial," Flake said. "To reject these findings and to reject the excruciating specific indictment against the 12 named Russian operatives in deference to the word of a KGB apparatchik is an act of will on the part of the president and that choice leaves us contemplating the dark mystery, 'Why did he do that? What would compel our president to do such a thing?'"

Flake admitted that he had no answers at the moment to explain Trump's behavior, but he said there could be no doubt about the implications of the president's actions.

"The president let down the free world by giving aid and comfort to an enemy of democracy," Flake said. "In so doing, he dimmed the light of freedom ever so slightly in our own country."

The phrase "giving aid and comfort" to enemies is used in the United States Constitution to define treason.

Watch the video below.