Republican senator, Trump trade insults
WASHINGTON — In a startling verbal assault on the president of his own party, Republican Sen. Bob Corker charged Tuesday that Donald Trump “debases our nation” with constant untruths, name calling and bullying, and will leave behind a sad legacy of damaging division.
A furious Trump lashed back over Twitter, calling Corker “incompetent,” saying he “doesn’t have a clue” and claiming the twoterm lawmaker “couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee.”
The angry exchange unfolded just hours before Trump lunched with GOP senators at the Capitol to try to unite the party around a rewrite of the nation’s tax code. The meeting lasted nearly 90 minutes, and Corker said afterward that he and the president did not interact during the meal.
Afterward, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sidestepped reporters’ questions about Corker’s characterization of Trump.
“We’re going to concentrate on what our agenda is, and not any of these other distractions that you all may be interested in,” McConnell said.
Tax overhaul is an urgent task for Republicans who’ve failed to notch a single significant legislative achievement this year despite controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress. Yet the dramatic escalation of the feud between Corker and Trump seemed certain to divert lawmakers’ attention.
Trump faced criticism from another Republican senator Tuesday.
Sen. Jeff Flake said he would not seek re-election next year, delivering a forceful condemnation of the “flagrant disregard of truth and decency” and bemoaning political complicity in a Senate speech clearly directed at Trump.
Speaking to a rapt audience of other senators, the first-term Arizona lawmaker spelled out his frustration and disappointment in a floor speech before relaying the news that he would not be on the ballot in 2018.
Flake, who has criticized the path that the Republican Party has taken under Trump, said the impulse “to threaten and scapegoat” could turn America and the GOP into a “fearful, backward-looking people” and a “fearful, backwardlooking party.”