Corker replacement draws quiet contrast
Trump loyalist Risch takes charge in foreign relations
WASHINGTON – Before he retired, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., frequently used his perch as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to lob cutting critiques at President Donald Trump – accusing the president of putting America on “a path to World War III” and being “submissive” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Don’t expect those kind of verbal bangers from Corker’s successor, Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, a Trump loyalist who is poised to win the Foreign Relations gavel this week.
A self-made millionaire, former trial lawyer and current cattle rancher, Risch is a low-key legislator, unlike Corker, a high-profile media star. Risch shuns public confrontations; Corker relished them.
Risch will take the helm of the committee at a turbulent moment in U.S. foreign policy: Lawmakers in both parties question the Trump administration’s approach to Saudi Arabia, Russia, Syria and North Korea, among other global hot spots. Risch will have to oversee the potentially controversial nomination of Heather Nauert, Trump’s pick to succeed Nikki Haley as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
How Risch will navigate that thicket remains to be seen. Foreign policy experts and even some of his Senate colleagues said they’re not sure what to expect from the Idaho Republican’s chairmanship, in part because Risch has yet to make a big mark in the foreign policy arena. In the previous Congress, he sponsored only one foreign affairs bill – a resolution commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. In the subcommittee he chaired, Risch convened just two hearings in the past two years, although he stood in for Corker three times to chair the full committee.
“We’re going to have a frankly much more quiet voice in the Senate majority on foreign policy than we did in the last two years,” said Michael Fuchs, who served as a senior State Department official in the Obama administration and is a fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress.
“I don’t know how he’s going to be,” Corker said of Risch in an interview last month as the Senate was in the midst of a contentious debate over the Saudi crown prince’s role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Corker said Risch was preparing for the post in a sober way – hiring topnotch staff and seeking advice. “He told me yesterday … ‘I really want you to know that I’m really taking this seriously. I know what a step it is.’ ”
Risch’s spokeswoman, Suzanne Wrasse, said the senator has been engaged on a wide range of foreign policy matters, from arms control treaties to Russia sanctions. “Risch is a workhorse, not a show horse,” Wrasse said. “He is extremely engaged on these issues, and whether his input is behind the scenes, member-to-member or more public, he is very strategic and focused on the end result. He has four decades of legislative and executive leadership experience, which includes a number of major policy victories, so it is no surprise when he succeeds.”
Wrasse said Risch wanted to wait until he is officially selected as chairman before speaking to the media about his priorities and outlook.
Risch’s allies said he will bring an open mind and self-effacing style to a panel that has often been run by senators with national ambitions.
“Jim Risch is just an energetic, happy Westerner,” said Sen. Cory Gardner, RColo.. Gardner said that because Risch also sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, “he will have, I think, an unparalleled understanding of the threats this nation faces.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who has voiced fierce opposition to Trump’s foreign policy, said he believes Risch will be fair and will make an effort to work with Democrats.
“He tends to back up the administration but not blindly,” Murphy said. “I think we’re going to butt heads a bunch, but I think he has the ability to be a real honest broker.”
“Risch is a workhorse, not a show horse.”
Suzanne Wrasse Spokeswoman for Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho