WASHINGTON – Sen. Bob Corker refused Thursday to say whether he would back President Donald Trump for re-election and questioned whether Trump would even run for a second term.
“Whether the president runs again I think is very questionable,” the Chattanooga Republican said on CNN.
Corker, who publicly feuded with Trump last year and at one point labeled the White House “an adult day care center,” has dodged repeated questions over the past few days about whether he would vote to give Trump a second term.
“I have no idea who’s going to run for president in 2020,” he said during the CNN interview on Thursday. “And I’m not about to say who I will support for that. We have no idea who’s going to run.”
Reminded that Trump has said he would run again and has already raised $4 million for his campaign, Corker said he’s not convinced that Trump will seek re-election.
“Any president that’s 18 months into their term – or 15 or 16 or 17, whatever it is – is likely to say they are going to run for re-election,” he said. “They do not want to be viewed as a lame duck. So I take it with a grain of salt. It’s just another thing going across the internet.”
Asked whether he’d back Trump if he’s the nominee, Corker again dodged.
“I want to know who else is in the field,” he said.
Corker, a two-term senator who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has decided not to seek re-election and will leave Congress at the end of the year.