The White House fired back at U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R.-Tenn., on Thursday, calling his recent rebuke of the president, in which he questioned Donald Trump’s competence and stability, “a ridiculous and outrageous claim.”
Trump’s defense of white nationalists after a violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., that left a protester dead gave rise to Corker’s blistering criticisms last week, including a demand for “radical changes” in the White House.
“The president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful,” Corker said in Chattanooga last week.
“If I’m going be a respectable public official, it had to be spoken to,” Corker said the following day. “I’m an American first.”
Corker’s remarks put him in the vanguard of Republican lawmakers uneasy with Trump. And then on Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded.