Corker calls Trump‘ utterly untruthful’ as feud relights
Outgoing senator blasts president in series of interviews
Turns out, President Trump’s feud with Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker isn’t over.
Their war of words escalated on Tuesday as the president insisted the prominent Republican senator “couldn’t get elected dog catcher” — and Corker described the president as “utterly untruthful.”
Trump attacked Corker over Twitter after the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee defended his previous comment that the White House resembles an adult day care center and criticized his aggressive approach to North Korea.
“Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts....” Trump tweeted.
Trump then referred to Corker’s decision not to seek re- election next year: “Corker dropped out of the race in Tennessee ( sic) when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!”
Corker — who says Trump did actually offer to support his re- election bid — responded with a zinger: “Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDaycareStaff.”
The back- and- forth came hours before Trump and Corker found themselves in the same room. The president attended the weekly Senate Republican policy lunch at the U. S. Capitol. Earlier, in an appearance on ABC’s
Good Morning America, Corker said Trump is unnecessarily raising tensions by escalating conflict with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program — and suggested that he let diplomats deal with the problem.
“The president undermines our secretary of state, raises tensions in the area by virtues of the tweets that he sends out and I would just like for him to just leave it to the professionals for a while and see if we can do something that is constructive for our country, the region and the world,” Corker said.
The argument between the Republicans isn’t necessarily petty. While Republicans have a Senate majority, they control only 52 of the 100 votes. Every vote counts and only a few defectors can deprive the GOP of major legislation, as happened with attempts to repeal and replace President Obama’s health care plan.
Later Tuesday morning, Corker told CNN that Trump “has great difficulty with truth on many issues” and that, if he had it to do over, he would not support him for president.
Asked whether he considered Trump a role model for children, Corker replied: “No. Absolutely not.”
Corker said he doesn’t want his feud with Trump to turn into a daily issue.
“He currently is a person from the executive side that we have to deal with,” Corker said. “And the shame of it is there are some really good people around him. If he would stay out of their way and let them perform, people like ( Secretary of State Rex) Tillerson and ( Defense Secretary Jim) Mattis and others, we could really make progress on things that really matter greatly to our country.”