The Latest: Miffed Trump aims stinging tweets at GOP senator
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. (all times local):
11:10 a.m.
President Donald Trump is aiming a series of stinging tweets at a retiring Republican senator who's taken a critical line toward the White House.
Trump's targeting Tennessee's Bob Corker, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman who's not running for re-election in 2018.
Corker's apparently drawn Trump's ire for saying recently that the Pentagon chief, the secretary of state and Trump's own chief of staff are "those people that help separate our country from chaos."
Trump tweets that Corker "begged" for a presidential endorsement for re-election. Trump says he said "no" and then Corker decided not to run. But The Associated Press has reported that Trump and Corker met privately at the White House last month, and Trump urged Corker to run.
Trump says he now expects his fellow Republican "to be a negative voice and stand in the way" of the White House's agenda. And Trump's accusing Corker of being "largely responsible" for the landmark Iran nuclear deal.
But the Obama administration negotiated the international agreement, and Corker tried to require that President Barack Obama submit it to Congress for approval.
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8:15 a.m.
Sen. Bob Corker is always one to speak his mind.
The Tennessee Republican's new free agent status should make President Donald Trump and the party even more nervous.
The two-term senator isn't seeking re-election. That gives him even more elbow room to say what he wants and to vote how he pleases over the next 15 months as Trump and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill struggle to get their agenda on track.
Corker's a fiscal hawk and he's holding the GOP's feet to the fire on legislation to rewrite the tax system.
He says he'll oppose any legislation that increases the national debt by a single cent.
Republicans hold a narrow, 52-seat majority in the Senate. Just three defections would torpedo the party's top legislative priority in their partisan push.
