An uncomfortable clash took place on MSNBC’s Morning Joe early Wednesday. Republican Senator Bob Corker, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was a guest on the program. He came on to discuss Iran and the recent cash payments that Republican opponents of President Obama have been calling a ransom.
Things began amiably enough, and Sen. Corker went on to express cogent points about his misgivings with the Iran deal. The interview started to take a turn, however, when Mike Barnicle asked the Senator why he believed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would make a better commander-in-chief than Hillary Clinton.
The Focus Should Be On Policy…
Corker stressed that he did not want to talk politics and that foreign policy was his primary focus. He stated that it appears, from his position, that Trump was “evolving” on the issues. Corker noted, though, that in his opinion, that current policy has deviated from what he sees as the winning strategy:
“The foreign policy establishment in Washington, generally speaking, has made multiple mistakes. We’ve moved away from viewing things through a realism prism, which was the way that America looked at foreign policy for decades.”
Corker cited Syria as an example of where things had gone awry. He then agreed that he would welcome “a little shake-up” in respect to America’s foreign policy approach.
This prompted co-host Willie Geist to ask Corker if he agreed with Donald Trump’s proposed strategy for countering ISIS. Corker, it appears, interpreted Geist’s questioning as an attempt to set him up for an embarrassing sound bite:
“I know that because I’m a Republican, and I’m here in front of you, you want to slant this in a particular direction…”
Geist questioned the Senator further about his support for Trump, to which Corker turned the focus back to the Obama administration, Syria, and Secretary of State John Kerry.
Geist and Brzezinski clarified their position, essentially asking Senator Corker if Trump could do a better job. Corker did not have a direct answer:
“I think certainly we’ve got some debates that are coming up. My guess is that intelligent people like all of you on this broadcast will be asking those questions, and my guess is those kinds of things will be illuminated over time. And they’re spending time, each of them, trying to figure out how more crisply they can lay out their plans. That’s what a campaign does, that’s how it evolves, and I look forward to that when it happens.”
It Looks Like He Supports Trump, But Can’t Say It On Live TV
At this point, Brzezinski called into question Corker’s degree of confidence in Donald Trump. He countered:
“Well, I don’t feel comfortable coming on a program and being sort of a judger of the two.”
Mika repeatedly tried to get the Senator to express whether or not he was confident in Trump’s policies. She even went as far as to ask him outright:
“Do you have confidence in Donald Trump as commander-in-chief, especially as it pertains to foreign policy? I’ll make it really broad and easy.”
Corker, again, was unable to provide a simple answer:
“Again, look, neither of the campaigns to my knowledge have laid out much anything that is specific relative to getting people back to work, growing our economy, dealing with the entitlement programs…”
Guess he forgot what the words “Yes” and “No” mean. You can watch the clip in its entirety here:
Featured Image Via YouTube Video
