Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) took another two cheap shots at President Trump this week, and this time conservatives in Tennessee responded by smacking down the junior senator who is up for re-election in 2018.
On Monday, Corker joined several Democratic senators in undermining President Trump’s foreign policy on Russia.
“Senior senators in both parties on Monday night reached a bipartisan deal to add new sanctions on Russia and allow Congress to disapprove of any attempt by President Donald Trump to ease penalties on Moscow, the most significant GOP-backed constraint on the White House so far this year,” Politico reported:
Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) assured reporters earlier Monday that the Russia deal would provide for congressional review of any future rollbacks of Russia sanctions, a plan pushed by Schumer as well as Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). The review language would be structured “much like we did in other places,” such as the 2015 legislation that required former President Barack Obama to submit his administration’s nuclear pact with Iran to Congress, Corker said. . .
Asked about the prospects of a veto threat from Trump, the Foreign Relations panel’s top Democrat, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, told reporters Monday that while “there’s no administration that wants Congress interfering” with its sanctions policy, “I think we’ll have the support of the administration” for any bipartisan Russia deal that might pass this week.
Then on Tuesday, Corker launched into a gratuitous attack on Trump’s budget cuts for foreign aid, asserting, without any supporting evidence, the cuts were merely designed as a distraction from failure to cut entitlements. As the Washington Examiner reported:
President Trump proposed deep spending cuts to the State Department and foreign aid in order to appear fiscally responsible while ignoring entitlement spending, a top Senate Republican charged Tuesday.
“This president took an inordinate amount of cuts in this particular area to demonstrate that he was trying to address fiscal issues because, in fairness, [he’s] unwilling to address all the other issues that are driving spending so much,” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said during a Tuesday hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He spoke just before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was set to testify there about the State Department budget.
Corker’s two most recent attacks on President Trump are the latest in a long string of criticisms of the Republican president, the most notable of which came last month when he claimed that President Trump was “out of control” and “the White House is in a downward spiral.”
Corker, who is up for re-election in 2018, is taking a huge risk with his constant criticisms of President Trump, who remains very popular with Republican primary voters. A recent Tennessee Star Poll found that 86 percent of Republican primary voters approve of President Trump’s job performance, while only 11 percent disapprove.
In contrast, Corker himself is extremely vulnerable. Only 41 percent of likely Republican primary voters think he deserves another term, according to the recent Tennessee Star Poll. An equal 41 percent want to give someone else a chance.
In one theoretical one-on-one matchup, Corker is in a statistical tie in a race against Rep. Marsha Blackburn in the August 2018 Republican primary, 41 to 39.
In contrast to Corker’s constant criticisms of Trump, Blackburn has consistently voiced support for President Trump and his agenda.
Two other potential challengers to Corker in 2018 blasted him for his lack of support for President Trump.
“It concerns me that the Senate Republicans are teaming up with the Democrats to restrict and pre-empt President Trump’s foreign policy. We didn’t see these actions taken to tie the hands of President Obama,” State Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville) tells The Star.
“The Senate Democrats have done nothing to help the President resolve the disastrous effects of Obamacare, relieve the tax and regulatory burdens on American companies, control our borders, or protect our citizens from the increasing threat of radical Islamic terrorists coming to our shores,” Green adds.
“Suddenly partnering with them to tie the President’s hands sends the absolute wrong message,” Green concludes.
Former State Rep. Joe Carr also takes exception to Corker’s recent comments.
“Senator Corker once again decides that he is going to publicly chastise President Trump and side with Democrat Senators Patrick Leahy, and Robert Menendez along with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham this time by opposing President Trumps budget proposal to cut a bloated State Department Budget,” Carr tells The Star.
“What was most egregious about Chairman Corker’s remarks was his inability to even read the budget recommendations for more than ‘five minutes’ before declaring ‘it was a waste of time.’ The only thing that is a waste of time is the time Bob Corker spends imitating a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee. I think Bob Corker’s constant opposition to President Trump illustrates perfectly why his re-elect number in Tennessee is 41 percent,” Carr concludes.
Potential 2018 challengers are not the only Tennesseans baffled by Corker’s non-stop attacks on President Trump.
“The recent Tennessee Star Poll makes it clear that Senator Corker’s critical comments about President Donald Trump do not play well with likely Tennessee Republican primary voters who Senator Corker will presumably answer to next August,” media consultant and political analyst Steve Gill tells The Star.
“Trump’s popularity in the state remains very high, and siding with Senator Chuck Schumer and the Democrats against the President is not going to help Corker in a GOP primary,” Gill adds.
“The Senator’s recent comments about the President are as politically reckless as dancing around a blazing fire with a bucket of gasoline in your hands and he’s likely to get burned very badly if he keeps it up,” Gill concludes.
A Capitol Hill insider thinks Corker is making a serious political mistake.
“I have been around Bob Corker for over thirty years. Anyone in Washington, D.C. will tell you that when he is challenged, he immediately goes on the attack,” the insider says.
“That may have worked before President Trump came along, when Bob was the Republican foreign policy ‘top dog.’ But now he has moved several places down the foreign affairs pecking order and this nipping at the president makes him look more like and ‘attack chihuahua’ than a top dog,” the insider adds.
“It’s like he is going out of his way to take shots at a man who overwhelmingly carried nearly every county in Tennessee. If he keeps it up, he is going to generate a serious primary opponent for himself, the insider concludes.
Bob corker is doing everyone a favor by not running again he’s a idoit
Corker is a despicable traitor. It’s simply unfathomable why on earth he would have gone to such extremes as to condemn his own president by maligning him for allegedly saber-rattling and precipitating World War III. Is that guy bound for an insane asylum?
My wife and I are so disappointed in Senator Corker’s comments. I will not vote for him again. So sad. I’ve written him to express our disappointment, too. I doubt he cares but if a person stays quiet, they’re just as guilty.
CORKER HAS BEEN A RINO SINCE DAY 1. HE REALLY DOES HAVE TO GO!! MARSHA WOULD BE A GREAT NEXT SENATOR FROM TENNESSEE!!!
FOR TRUMP ALL THE WAY!!!
Corker is a total fool, and should be voted out of office. He is not a Republican; and he is not a Conservative. He is Soros-type liberal with no interest in protecting Tennessee or the United States. Anybody who runs about with McCain and Graham is a jerk who does not have his supporters interests at heart. VOTE HIM OUT!
Any politician in Tennessee that doesn’t support President TRUMP will definitely not get my vote in ,2018
What a lair this guy turned out to be.
Bob , if you dig a big enough hole maybe you can take Lamar with you as you leave.
Amen!
Amen! They both need to go!!!!!
Hear, hear! The never trumpers and neocons have got to go in 2018!
When you are in a hole…..stop digging
Little RINO puke. GOP just keeps dishing them up, idiot Repub’s just keep voting them in.
Poor guy. Trying to hold to a middle course in a GOP Party that is at war with itself. Time will tell where the Rep Party winds up. Meanwhile, he seems a reasonable man struggling through a time of change. I am a Tennesean as he is and I respect his efforts even if I basically disagree with most of his views.
I too have lived in Tennessee my whole life and it is most certainly time for him to step down. He’s out of touch with his constituents and so is Lamar Alexander. Trump is our president and this state was totally behind him and Mr Corker we are no longer behind you. 2018 is going to be a tough year for you…
My last post on Bob’s email me page:
Subject: Best wishes for your Post-Senate life
Message:I wish to be one of the first to wish you adieu as you leave the Senate of these United States of America.
As you consider options on where to live after your exit from the Senate, I recommend a state like New York, California, or Washington.
Farewell and Goodbye
I helped vote him in and I can help vote him out.
Coker you’ve been dangling by a thread for sometime now, you best keep your mouth shut about President Trump….or are you seriously out of touch with us too? Come 2018 I’ll be more than ready to cut the thread, IT’S TIME TO GO!!!!
I supported “CARR” last time he ran and I will again, if he runs.
I have some problems with Marsha and her past perfomance on some issues.
“…in fairness, [he’s] unwilling to address all the other issues that are driving spending so much,…”
That’s rich (pun intended), coming from Bailout Bob (R-Wells Fargo). How’s that “good deal for the American People” Government Motors stock working for you?
Corker has made his bed….
I was already against Corker for his antics re the Iran nuke deal. This just ices it.
Corker sounds like a total jerk! Remember: He was an Obama boy to the detriment of Tennessee and the United States. Vote him out! On the other hand, Marsha is a terrific lady, and would make a find governor.
I totally agree! Marsha Blackburn is by far the better choice!
He is a rotten brown nosing scum who thinks by trashing Trump he will get brownie points from the rotten Anti-Americans in the democratic party – this guy is a coward and wimp – vote him out now – disgusting traitor to the Republican party with his lies!~
Thanks for pointing out that I am a rotten Anti-American because I’m a Democrat, I didn’t know that. Would you like me to launch a tirade about my feelings for the Republic party? Did I hear them whining about unity? Oh right, that was yesterday while they were getting mowed down on the baseball field.
I completely agree about Ms. Blackburn.. Class act and has better sense than to disrespect our president!
We have a chance to get this guy out next year so let’s find a good candidate we can all support and push them relentlessly. We almost got Alexander and he should be next
Corker….out
Blackburn….In
Corker has to go now! Don’t wait for election time. Get him out NOW!