New Trump-Corker rhetoric war: ‘utterly untruthful president’ vs. guy who ‘couldn’t get elected dogcatcher in TN’

President Donald Trump and Republican Sen. Bob Corker returned to their war of rhetoric Tuesday, trading what NBC News describes as “personal insults and name-calling on a number of topics.”

The latest blows between the two kicked off when Corker said Trump’s aggressive comments about North Korea “kneecap” his secretary of state’s diplomatic efforts with Pyongyang and move the world closer to war.

“When you send out tweets into the region to raise tensions, when you kneecap, which is what he’s done publicly, when you kneecap your secretary of state, whose diplomacy you have to depend upon…you really move our country into a binary choice which could lead to a world war,” Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told NBC’s “TODAY.”

Corker, a key vote on the president’s tax-cut plan, also said that Trump’s attendance later Tuesday for a lunch with Senate Republicans is just a “photo op” that’s “not really about substance.”

Trump quickly hit back hard, tweeting that Corker, “who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts.”

“Corker dropped out of the race in Tennessee when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!” Trump added, referring to the lawmaker’s announcement last month that he would not run for re-election when his term ends in 2018.

Later, the president insulted the GOP senator a a “lightweight” and called him “liddle Bob Corker.”

Corker then responded with his own tweet.

“Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president,” he wrote, adding the hashtag, “#AlertTheDaycareStaff” — a reference to a tweet he posted earlier this month.

Asked later Tuesday by reporters on Capitol Hill if Trump were “debasing” the nation, Corker responded, “I don’t think there’s any question that that’s the case, just in the way that he conducts himself and goes to such a low level.”

“It’s obvious his political model and governing model is to divide,” the senator said.

Note: See also  CBS’ report on Corker’s criticism of Trump for commentary the senator sees as jeopardizing the current tax reform efforts in Congress. And here’s a Corker quote excerpt from a CNN report:

“I think at the end of the day, when his term is over. I think the debasing of our nation, the constant not truth telling, just the name calling, the things… I think the debasement of our nation will be what he’ll be remembered most for and that’s regretful.”