Trump in a war of words with GOP Senator Corker
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 two-term lawmaker “couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee.”
The extreme exchange unfolded just hours before Trump was to lunch with GOP senators at the Capitol to try to unite the party around a rewrite of the nation’s tax code. The 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.
“When his term is over, the debasing of our nation, the constant nontruth-telling, just the name-calling, I think the debasement of our nation will be what he’ll be remembered most for and that’s regretful,” Corker told reporters at the Capitol. “His governing model is to divide and to attempt to bully and to use untruths.”
Corker, who is retiring from the Senate and therefore can fear no political repercussions, said that he and others had attempted to intervene with Trump over the months but “he’s obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president.”
Tuesday’s war of words intensified a simmering feud between the two men. Corker has been starkly critical of Trump in recent weeks, alleging at one point that the president’s careless rhetoric toward foreign powers could lead America toward World War III. That prompted Trump to label his antagonist “Liddle’ Bob Corker” and claim, falsely, that Corker had decided to retire after begging for an endorsement Trump wouldn’t give.
The latest exchange began when Corker said Tuesday morning on NBC’s “Today” that Trump should leave it to Congress to set the course on taxes instead of intervening to shoot down one idea or another, as the president did Monday when he assured voters over Twitter that the tax package would leave their 401(k) plans intact.
That led to an angry Twitter response from Trump, who said, “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 . ... ”
Corker, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, responded on his own Twitter account: “Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDaycareStaff.”
The back-and-forth then escalated even further as Corker launched a series of withering criticisms against Trump in hallway interviews, first with CNN and then in scrums with other journalists including The Associated Press, prompting more Twitter fire from Trump and still more angry retorts from Corker.
In one tweet, Trump wrote, “People like liddle’ Bob Corker have set the U.S. way back. Now we move forward!”
Meanwhile. Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said Tuesday he would not seek re-election next year, delivering a forceful condemnation of the “flagrant disregard of truth and decency.”
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, backward-looking party.” Flake didn’t mention Trump by name, but clearly was directing his remarks at the president and his administration.