Bob Corker says Senate is "taking up some of the vacuum" left by White House
Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who has become a vocal critic of President Trump in recent months, said Wednesday night that the Senate is "rising to the occasion" and "taking up some of the vacuum" that is left by the White House.
Corker, appearing in a speaking engagement on bipartisanship at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., with Democratic Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he didn't want to speak in a "pejorative" manner about the administration. Corker, who is retiring next year, has gained attention for calling the White House an "adult day care center" on Twitter, and questioning the president's "stability" and "competence."
"But there really isn't the kind of direction coming out of the White House that typically would come out of the White House," Corker said, describing how the White House didn't provide specific legislative suggestions to Congress to tackle health care reform, like other White Houses might have done.
The Senate, in some respects, is "rising to the occasion," Corker said, mentioning how the Senate is tackling a review of the authorization of military force, which governs the president's war powers. The Senate, he said, is "moving back" to the position many would like to see it in — of taking its legislative responsibilities very seriously.
Corker said he sees the Senate "taking up some of the vacuum" generally coming out of the White House.
That isn't to say, Corker said, that he isn't working with the Trump administration. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Ivanka Trump, assistant to the president, have both been in his office recently, and his office is in "constant contact" with the national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, he said.
But Corker said his relationship with Mr. Trump has changed tone after the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, when Mr. Trump blamed "both sides" for the violence. Things got more "terse" after that, Corker said.
Corker said the, "governing model of dividing your country to solidify your base is just not one I can adhere to."
"There was something about that episode that turned the volume a little bit," Corker added.
Corker is one of a growing number of Republicans retiring ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, who has also criticized the Trump administration, recently announced he will not seek re-election in 2018, as have a number of House Republicans.