President Donald J. Trump and Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) took a long-running feud very public onto Twitter, as the president bashed the retiring senator and Corker fired back at Trump by arguing he needed supervision.
The president attacked Corker on Sunday morning, arguing that Corker “begged” him for his endorsement for his reelection but he refused:
Trump also said that Corker asked him to nominate him for the Secretary of State position:
And he said Corker will stand in the way of his agenda:
In response, Corker fired back at Trump saying he needs supervision like those in adult day care:
Corker had announced his plans to retire from the U.S. Senate just hours before Alabama Republican primary runoff voters on Sept. 26 rejected establishment-backed appointed Sen. Luther Strange and elected conservative Judge Roy Moore.
Corker, who was particularly close with Strange and helped convince Trump to endorse and then campaign for Strange, was entangled in various financial and corruption investigations that connected to Strange and other establishment Republicans in Washington–including a suspect real estate tax deal in Mobile, Alabama, uncovered by Breitbart News’ Michael Patrick Leahy.
Corker’s planned retirement sent the Senate GOP conference, including embattled Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, into a tailspin. McConnell faces a cadre of candidates in other races in GOP primaries nationally aligned against him and his group of weak incumbents and establishment-propped-up candidates in some open primaries–a sign his source of power, his members, are losing their grip.
But it has also, oddly, entangled Trump in a woven web of political complexity as the president made a out-of-character decision–at the behest of the Washington establishment, including Corker and Trump’s son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner among others–to endorse Strange. After Strange’s embarrassing defeat in Alabama, the president showed his shame by deleting several tweets pushing Strange’s candidacy.
But the whole episode has left a particularly sour taste in the president’s mouth, as it really represents the first time voters–but more importantly, his voters in Alabama–rejected his new wayward shift away from his 2016 campaign agenda toward an establishment and political class vision in the Washington, D.C., swamp.
Interestingly, there appears to be a whole lot more to this story. For instance, CNN’s Manu Raju says that per multiple sources that Trump’s tweets on Sunday that he did not pledge to endorse Corker are not accurate.
Trump also apparently asked Corker not to retire:
So, ultimately, it appears the president–by first engaging with Strange to begin with at all–has found himself neck-deep in a swampy mess. And it appears that that swampy mess of the Washington establishment is only going to get worse for Trump the more he keeps trusting people like Kushner, Corker, Strange, McConnell, and others who are pushing him to do things for their own purposes, rather than the purposes of the agenda he campaigned on.
Sources close to the matter also tell Breitbart News that much more is yet to come out about Corker–including his real estate deal in Mobile and various things he is doing to abuse his power as Senate Foreign Relations chair to hold up Trump’s appointees–and that this saga is far from over.
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