Trump Mocks Bob Corker’s Height, Escalating Feud with a Key Republican
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/u...iddle-bob.html
Trump can't afford to lose support from any Republicans if he wants to get his legislative agenda passed. Just see what happened with healthcare.
More childish attacks on people. Corker suggested Trump was leading the US to WWIII.
Quote:
WASHINGTON — President Trump escalated his attack on Senator Bob Corker on Tuesday by ridiculing him for his height, even as advisers worried that the president was further fracturing his relationship with congressional Republicans just a week before a vote critical to his tax cutting plan.
Mr. Trump gave Mr. Corker, a two-term Republican from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a derogatory new nickname — “Liddle Bob” — after the two exchanged barbs in recent days. He suggested Mr. Corker was somehow tricked when he told a reporter from The New York Times that the president was reckless and could stumble into a nuclear war.
In labeling Mr. Corker “liddle,” the president was evidently returning to a theme. He considered Mr. Corker for secretary of state during the transition after last year’s election but was reported to have told associates that Mr. Corker, at 5-foot-7, was too short to be the nation’s top diplomat. Instead, Mr. Trump picked Rex W. Tillerson, who is several inches taller but whose own relationship with the president has deteriorated to the point that he was said to have called Mr. Trump a “moron.”
Quote:
Mr. Trump’s gibe at Mr. Corker echoed his name calling during the presidential campaign when he labeled Senator Marco Rubio of Florida “Little Marco,” dubbed Senator Ted Cruz of Texas “Lyin’ Ted” and called Hillary Clinton “Crooked Hillary.” He has used belittling nicknames to diminish political foes but since taking office has generally avoided doing so with powerful Republican committee chairmen who control appointments and legislation.
It was not clear what Mr. Trump meant when he said The Times set up Mr. Corker by recording him. After Mr. Trump lashed out at the senator on Sunday by saying he “didn’t have the guts” to run for another term, a Times reporter interviewed Mr. Corker by telephone and recorded the call with the senator’s knowledge and consent. Mr. Corker’s staff also recorded the call, and he said he wanted The Times to do the same.
Quote:
Mr. Corker said in the interview that Mr. Trump ran his presidency like “a reality show” and his reckless threats could set the nation “on the path to World War III.” Mr. Corker said that Mr. Trump’s staff had to stop him from doing more damage.
“I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him,” he said.
He added that most Republicans in the Senate shared his concerns. “Look, except for a few people, the vast majority of our caucus understands what we’re dealing with here,” Mr. Corker said, adding that “of course they understand the volatility that we’re dealing with and the tremendous amount of work that it takes by people around him to keep him in the middle of the road.”
Quote:
While White House officials bristled at Mr. Corker’s comments, they also recognized that alienating the senator was fraught at a time when Republicans can afford to lose only two votes on any major issue where Democrats are lock step in opposition. Next week, the Senate plans to vote on a budget measure necessary to clear the way for Mr. Trump’s tax-cutting plan, and aides already assume they may lose Senators John McCain of Arizona and Rand Paul of Kentucky, leaving no room for further losses.
Mr. Corker has been a longtime deficit hawk and has expressed concern about a tax plan that would add as much as $1.5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, according to the budget resolution under consideration.
Some White House officials said they expected Mr. Corker to still support the budget measure next week because he already voted for it in committee, but other advisers to Mr. Trump have said privately that they worried the president was sacrificing his agenda for another round of personal sniping.
