Corker Won't Rule Out 2020 Primary Challenge To Trump

GATLINBURG, TN — First he was an ally, now he's a critic and in a few years, he may be an opponent.

Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker refused to rule out a presidential campaign in 2020 during an appearance at an economic development conference in Gatlinburg, Tenn., Friday. Once one of President Donald Trump's most reliable allies in the Senate, he's rapidly risen to be come one of the White House's most prominent Republican critics and, like Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, has stepped on the accelerator and ramped up the rhetoric since he announced he will not seek a third Senate term in 2018.

Though he's ruled that race out, he refused to rule out a presidential bid.

“You know, I don’t know what I’m doing next Sunday,” Corker told reporters who asked him if he was running for president, according to the Associated Press.

Instead he said he was focused on his final 14 months as a legislator and as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Corker said he doesn't want presidential ambitions to cloud what he has planned for the homestretch.

“I think that if you even begin thinking those things, everything you do becomes viewed through a different lens,” Corker said, speaking generally about presidential ambition.

Corker also said impeachment of the president — who Corker has called an "utterly untruthful" person responsible for "the debasement of our nation" and who is leading the country toward world war — is unrealistic.

According to the latest Middle Tennessee State University poll of Tennessee registered voters taken October 16 to 23, Corker’s disapproval rating in his home state jumped 14 points from the spring poll to 41 percent, while his approval dropped 8 points to 45 percent. Meanwhile, the president’s approval remained steady at 50 percent in Tennessee, though his disapproval rating climbed to 40 percent. The president won nearly 61 percent of the vote in Tennessee in the 2016 general election.

Corker noted that his team expected his approval rating to fall even farther and that it's still relatively high for an incumbent.

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File