Bob Corker is a mainstream conservative-- a wealthy businessman who served as the mayor of Chattanooga from 2001-05 and was then elected to the U.S.Senate in 2006, beating corrupt conservative Blue Dog Harold Ford, Jr. Rather than face the wrath of the Mercer/Bannon Machine, possibly backed by Trump, he announced a couple of weeks ago that he will not be seeking reelection in 2018. That came as a surprise since he had already amassed a $6,574,792 campaign war-chest. But now he's speaking out in a way that he might not do if he were worried that Trump would come after him in an election cycle. When he said-- on the above tape of an impromptu interview Wednesday-- that White House Chief of Staff, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are the "people that help separate our country from chaos," it can't be taking as anything other than a rebuke of their crackpot and criminal boss who thrives on chaos. When pressed by a reporter if he was referring to Trump when he said "chaos," he responded that they "work very well together to make sure the policies we put forth around the world are sound and coherent. There are other people within the administration that don't. I hope they stay because they're valuable to the national security of our nation." And he knows; he's the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. You notice he wouldn't deny that Trump is the agent of chaos he was talking about and a danger to anything "sound" or "coherent."Corker made it clear a couple of months ago that he doesn't consider Trump either stable or competent, an assessment shared by most Republican senators-- and all Democratic senators-- but that no one wants to say out loud. Reporting for the Washington Post Wednesday, Aaron Blake noted that Corker is speaking more candidly-- frankly and truthfully-- than he and others have until now. Blake writes that his latest comments about chaos go even further than the ones about stability and competence.
Suggesting that there would be “chaos” if not for the generals and Tillerson is to suggest that not only is Trump not a steady leader, but that things are basically ready to unravel behind the scenes. This reinforces a whole lot of reporting and what a whole lot of people already believe about the administration, but it's striking to hear it directly from a GOP senator who, according to his Tennessee colleague, has talked to Trump more than any other senator.Corker also didn't dispute that he was talking about Trump when he referenced “chaos.” He seemed to be choosing his words carefully, and he even laughed nervously when he made the “other people in the administration” comment.But when Corker says that Tillerson is “not being supported in the way I would hope a secretary of state would be,” it's difficult not to attach that to Trump's reportedly limited interaction with Tillerson. Their relationship has seemed frayed for a while now, most recently culminating in Trump's very public second-guessing of Tillerson's announcement of talks with North Korea last week.Given that, Corker's past commentary on Trump and what Corker said Wednesday, it's pretty clear whom he was talking about when he referenced “chaos.”
There's increasing unease among serious-minded Republicans, ones like Corker, that Trump can-- and will-- do irreparable damage to the country. Nicholas Fandos' reporting in Wednesday's NY Times, Senate Intelligence Heads Warn That Russian Election Meddling Continues addresses the same kinds of concerns, this time from very conservative Democrat Mark Warner (VA) and even more conservative Richard Burr (R-NC). Trump blew up when he woke up yesterday-- look at that time stamp on his tweet-- with their statements on his addled mind. What infuriated Señor Trumpanzee is that Burr and Warner together "broadly endorsed the conclusions of American spy agencies that said President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia directed a campaign of hacking and propaganda to disrupt the 2016 presidential election," something Trump is still telling his ignorant, moronic base is "fake news."
“The Russian intelligence service is determined-- clever-- and I recommend that every campaign and every election official take this very seriously,” Mr. Burr said.“You can’t walk away from this and believe that Russia’s not currently active,” he added.American intelligence agencies have concluded that Mr. Putin initially wanted to hurt Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, but later tried to explicitly help Donald J. Trump’s insurgent campaign. The senators said they have reached no conclusion on whether anyone around Mr. Trump was part of that effort.“The issue of collusion is still open,” Mr. Burr said.The news conference was the most extensive since the committee began its investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election early this year and the first time the senators have detailed so fully the trajectory of their secretive investigation and their sense of the stakes. Both men come from swing states where the presidential campaign was fought aggressively.That appeared to have made an impression.“There needs to be a more aggressive whole-of-government approach in terms of protecting our electoral system,” Mr. Warner said. “Remember, to make a change even in a national election doesn’t require penetration into 50 states.”He added, “You could pick two or three states in two or three jurisdictions and alter an election.”
Trump and his Regime of misfits is an existential threat to American democracy, the most dangerous malignancy this country has faced since I've been alive. At some point Congress is going to have to stop dancing around it and start facing up to it and to their duty.Deep State by Nancy Ohanian
