After Bob Corker Blasts Trump, GOP Mostly Shrugs
From NBC and Meet the Press .. by Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
First Read is your briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.
After Corker blasts Trump, GOP mostly shrugs
WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said that his party’s president could set the nation “on the path to World War III,” and the reaction yesterday was either silence or a shrug from the GOP.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell commented Monday from Kentucky, where he said: "Sen. [Bob] Corker is a valued member of the Republican conference in the Senate and a key player on the budget. We're going to be turning to the budget next week, and he'll be a big help in helping us get it passed."
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, added that both Corker and President Trump “ought to cool it,” per NBC’s Marianna Sotomayor .
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., responded: “You’ll have to ask Sen. Corker what led him to make that statement. I haven’t made that statement,” per the AP .
Retiring Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., on MSNBC’s “MTP Daily” yesterday : "I am glad that Sen. Corker has brought voice to this. My Republican colleagues ... are concerned by much of the dysfunction and disorder and chaos at the White House... I think more of my colleagues should speak up."
And Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said of Corker : "It's easy to be bold when you're not coming back."
That was pretty much it, and that relative silence or relative ambivalence from Congress speaks volumes. As NBC’s Capitol Hill team has reminded us, the House of Representatives returns to work today — so we could get more reaction — while the Senate is out all week.
Meanwhile, the most forceful defense of Trump came from Vice President Mike Pence — and that was equally telling. "President Trump is achieving real results on the international stage,” the vice president said in a statement. “While critics engage in empty rhetoric and baseless attacks, under the President's leadership, ISIS is on the run; North Korea is isolated like never before; and our NATO allies are doing more to pay their fair share for our common defense.”
Charlie Cook: GOP divisions reduce the odds of party retaining its majority in 2018
Trump vs. Corker isn’t the only thing dividing Republicans right now. As NBC’s Kristen Welker reported on Sunday, former White House strategist Steve Bannon is planning to launch a "full-on assault on the Republican establishment ." Bloomberg News has more : “Bannon plans to support as many as 15 Republican Senate candidates in 2018, including several challengers to incumbents, the people said. He’ll support only candidates who agree to two conditions: They will vote against McConnell as majority leader, and they will vote to end senators’ ability to block legislation by filibustering.”
Political observer Charlie Cook writes that this Republican-on-Republican conflict isn’t going to help the GOP in the midterms. “The party needs to sublimate its divisions, get mainstream Republicans to the polls, and persuade the Trump base to cast ballot for non-Trump Republicans. That’s a tall order. And it’s why last week’s news reduced the odds of the GOP retaining its majority from a good bet to even money.”
Trump on Tillerson: “I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests”
Talk about a potentially awkward lunch. At 12:30 pm ET, President Trump has lunch with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — who referred to the president as a “moron,” per NBC News — as well as with Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Trump responded to the “moron” description in an interview with Forbes : "I think it's fake news, but if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win."
NBC News stands behind its reporting.
Feinstein’s running for Senate re-election, and California’s top-two primary system makes it easier for her to hold onto her seat
NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald : “Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., announced Monday she will run for re-election in 2018, setting the stage for a potential Democratic battle in the heartland of progressivism .”
“Feinstein, 84, said in a Facebook post that while she's ‘immensely proud of my service,’ there is more she wants to do ‘from ending gun violence, to combating climate change, to ensuring proper and affordable access to healthcare, and to giving DREAMers the chance to stay in the United States.’”
While Feinstein could be vulnerable to a primary challenge in liberal California, remember that the state has a top-two primary system — meaning that the two primary candidates with the most votes, regardless of party, head to the general election.
So say a Bernie Sanders-like candidate challenges Feinstein from the left: It’s possible that this challenger might not even make the runoff (because a Republican could get more votes in the primary). And even if this challenger makes the top two, Feinstein could win by consolidating the GOP/indie vote. Bottom line: It would be very hard to beat Feinstein from the left.
Gillespie, Northam clash in final debate — but not over Trump
President Trump was barely a factor in the final Virginia governor debate, which took place in Trump-friendly Southwest Virginia. So Republican Ed Gillespie and Democrat Ralph Northam fought over other issues, the AP writes .
“A sharper tone emerged when Gillespie said that, as lieutenant governor, Northam has been a member of the Center for Rural Virginia board for years but hasn’t shown up to a single meeting. ‘He did not show up,’ Gillespie said. ‘I will make it a priority.’”
“Seizing a chance to contrast his personal bio with Gillespie’s, Northam said he had ‘showed up for this country’ by serving in the U.S. Army, treating wounded soldiers during Desert Storm and serving in the Virginia Senate. ‘While I’ve been showing up and serving the commonwealth of Virginia, you’ve been a K Street lobbyist in Washington,’ Northam said. ‘So the only time you have showed is when you get paid.’”
“Gillespie said he ‘did show up’ for the clients of his former company, once considered one of the top bipartisan lobbying and media firms in Washington, emphasizing that he was ‘effective on their behalf.’”
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Rather difficult to know what is happening within the administration, when all that is being heard from the outside is the fighting on the inside..
My bad .. forgot the link
Although I dont agree with Corker's policy positions, I think he wants good for the country. Thus he opposes Donald Trump openly. Honest people have no choice.
Corker nailed it on Sunday with his observation that the WH has become an adult day care center.......and somebody forgot to look after the terrible infant.
As a constituent, I too have been at odds with some of Corker's policy positions. Yet, I've not found him to be a man who speaks off the cuff, he's deliberate, choosing words to alleviate any possible misunderstanding.
Why does the crowd decrying the end to "political correctness" have issues with Corker? Thought we're in the era of speak your mind, no filtering required, vitriol is normal...someone forgot to tell Corker.
Trump wants what's good for the country and ALL of its citizens, not just Muslims, illegals, and transgenders.
I shrug, too. Who cares what names someone is calling someone else? It's all so much gossip. There are so many important, substantive issues to be covered in the news, but instead they focus on this unimportant garbage. The media would have you believe Trump spent all day thinking about Corker or anybody else who was critical of him. In truth, it takes only a moment to tweet, and the only people spending all day on this garbage is CNN and similar outlets.
Trump spent most of his campaign name calling. It's his signature and it seems to be a compulsion with him. Conversely, unless everyone pays homage to him, naming him the best, the smartest, the greatest, he boils over. He relies completely on others to gauge his self worth.
The 'unimportant garbage' you are talking about are statements made by the POTUS. Trump decides every morning where to direct the narrative. HE rarely chooses substantive issues and when he does he is almost always willfully uninformed of the facts.
Again, Trump COULD direct then to substantive issues. Instead he uses three tweets about Corker and then goes off to play golf.
To the extent that that's true, that's his personal problem.
Not everything that comes out of the president mouth is worth our attention.
No, the media chooses what it covers. No one is forcing them to reproduce his tweets for broadcast and then impanel "experts" to discuss it. Believe it or not, there are news media outlets who either barely cover this stuff or don't talk about it at all.
If you all you ever watch is NBC or CNN, you might think this is all he does. Common sense alone should tell you how unlikely that is.
The fact that it is true at all is OUR problem.
Is your posit that Trump does not intend his tweets to garner our attention? What possible other purpose would they have.
You DO realize that he has a couple of twitter followers right?
After 8 years of y'all dissecting Obama's every utterance, are we to ignore the daily proclamations coming from the 'throne' of the WH?
Well gee, since he said he wasn't going to have the time to play at all, one has to wonder where he found the time to be @ on the golf course 25% of his time in office. I mean, I know it takes a ton of time to sign his 49 Executive Orders but hell, he hasn't spent nearly as much time signing any of the 'ground breaking' legislation he promised. I also seem to remember all the bitching and whining every time Obama played a round of golf. Just 10 months ago every dime spent on Presidential travel was decried. Now, not so much...
Corker is one those establishment types who hates Trump and is trying to derail him and his policies. They all need to be voted out, including the far right wacky Conservatives.
The psychological instability of the president of the United States is not gossip, it is a very serious matter.
That is not a fact in evidence, the psychological / mental health instability of the President is opinion based on observation from a far. Psychiatric professionals have said that a diagnosis cannot be given under those circumstances
The President does have issues, but lieing is the only thing that can be shown as fact!
I agree. Unfortunately, partisan tribalism is causing politicians and media talking heads to treat it in a very unserious manner. They diagnose him from afar, in contravention of long-standing professional guidelines. They base their "expert analysis" solely on their ginned up outrage over perfectly ordinary and reasonable policy statements. Perhaps the best example of this was the collective outrage over his immigration policies, which are practically verbatim the policies promoted by Bill Clinton 25 years ago and cheered by Democrats.
By the way, those professional guidelines have been in place for about 50 years and are the result of psychologists pronouncing conservatives to be mentally ill. They are never asked to do the same for Democrats - perhaps because conservatives actually do take mental illness seriously.
lol.
But we all have our opinions.
Trashing the hundreds of years old norms of the office is evidence of psychological instability in itself. So is his constant self-regard. I posted a seed to day that has numerous examples of Trump publicly comparing his IQ to various and numerous public figures. This was a middle aged billionaire, not as a teenager.
The guy is off, its obvious and we have to keep that fact at the forefront of every consideration of his time in office.
Trump is neither a conservative or a liberal. He is a Trumper who worships at the altar of Trump. He became a conservative because that was the party that was willing to lay down in front of him and let him bulldoze their previous principles. The Democrats never would have done that for such an obvious asshole.
You guys delude yourselves every day about this man.
No one says he is unstable because of his immigration policies. He is unstable because he sees everything according to how much it will or wont please him and his ego.
Not going to argue with you JohnRussell - my opinion is that the President is off as well ... nonetheless it is still merely opinion, speculation, innuendo and conjecture.
Does not matter how many narcissistic definition article that are posted/seeded .. the fact remains the president has not been diagnosed with any disorder .. 'cept for perhaps having an over inflated self absorbed ego, there is nothing to run with...
My opinion as always
You strike me as someone who is very confused. Most people obsessed with Hillary Clinton are.
Yeah, I have to admit, even though the erratic behavior of the current President creates severe frustration - I too am glad H. is not President .. : )
I feel sorry for people who feel they have to defend Donald Trump, I really do.
My conscience is really clear on this topic.
Citation, please.
Thank you; will respond in detail tomorrow.
Personal attack.
Trump is as far from being a conservative as a person can get. He's a populist that is more concerned with the little guy, the working stiff, the large hard working, taxpaying, patriotic Middle Class, that everyone, especially the Democrats, has forgotten about. That's what got him elected, while the Democrats steered hard to port (left) and got way too involved in state's issues. The lefties still can't get their confused minds around that reality.
I promised a response and you shall have one … although why we are discussing "benghazi" at this point in time seems to me a way to turn our heads away from the foibles and inherent dangers of a Trump presidency.
Much of the "information" regarding Blumenthal comes from this FALSE statement …
— Donald Trump on Monday, October 10th, 2016 in a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Again, that is, in Trump World, what he, himself would call "Fake News".
Among other problems with that allegation, is the reality that Blumenthal didn’t write those words. Kurt Eichenwald, a Newsweek reporter, wrote an article in which he noted that he had written those words himself.
Shall I go on?
You made it about Blumenthal, and, the months of Benghazi hearings went nowhere.
Your Blumenthal allegation came from Wikileaks and Alex Newman/The New American
The New American (TNA) is a print magazine published twice a month by American Opinion Publishing Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the John Birch Society (JBS), an organization which has been described as a radical right and far-right organization. [2] [3] [4] [5] . The magazine was created in 1985 from the merger of two JBS magazines: American Opinion and The Review of the News .
Don't talk down to me when I give you the respect of an answer.
You wrote …
Since Bill is a racist, It is safe to assume Hillary is too. I don't think a racist and non-racist could be compatible. or are you asking why Bill is a racist?
You can't use one un-explained assumption to justify the claim of another …
Please cite examples of Clinton racism.
I can find no hard evidence from any credible source regarding your assertions regarding Blumenthal; unable to validate or disprove your contentions, i will call IMPASSE and give you the last word.
If what you assert is true, I am at a loss as to why Gowdy, et al did not go there when Blumenthal was questioned for more than 8 hours.
Obama’s foreign policy was a complete mess. He was smart but weak and indecisive. Trump, however, obviously has no idea what he’s doing and seems to be just sitting at the bottom of the learning curve. He’s strong but stupid and erratic.
He knows exactly what he's doing, and what he wants to get done. He's had to fight the left wing loons, the right wing idiots, and the traitorous press.
He knows exactly what he's doing,
wow.
Obama's middle east policy was a mess and we're not further along today. I'm still trying to determine what our foreign policy is today...not just in the middle east, but around the world. Wondering if our Commander-In-Chief has some master secret plan or just lost in the weeds with no direction. Policy silence, tweeting screaming...leaves me unsettled.
His plan is to pander to his fans, saying and doing whatever he thinks will get him the most applause. It’s like having a circus clown for president.
Hopefully, they they gave the real codes to Pence and Trump just has the telephone number to McDonald’s.