Post-Helsinki, Corker Chides Trump, Calls Pompeo To Hill

NASHVILLE, TN -- Sen. Bob Corker predicted Vladimir Putin was enjoying a sturgeon-egg-heavy celebration after President Donald Trump sided with his Russian counterpart against American intelligence at a press conference following the pair's highly scrutinized Helsinki summit.

"He knows he gained a lot. I would guess he's having caviar right now," Corker told reporters after Trump said he accepted Putin's denial that Russia interfered in the 2016 American election. Multiple United States intelligence agencies have concluded the Kremlin meddled in the election.

"I have great confidence in my intelligence people," Trump said during the news conference. "But I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today."

Tuesday, facing significant pushback at home, Trump said he misspoke at the press conference.

Corker, who is retiring at the end of his term and is frequently at loggerheads with the president, chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which would, theoretically, have the authority to call hearings into the Trump Administration's foreign policy, as it famously did when the committee, then chaired by Sen. William Fulbright, called for testimony about the Nixon Administration's foreign policy goals in 1969 and 1971. Tuesday, Corker said he wants Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to come before his committee next week to discuss what happened at the Putin-Trump meeting.

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"I felt like that everyone who's dealt with Putin understands fully that the best way to deal with him is through strength," Corker said Monday. "And I just felt like the President's comments made us look as a nation more like a pushover, and I was disappointed in that. ... I did not think it was a good moment for our country."

On Tuesday, Corker tweeted “The dam is finally breaking” and urged Congress to pass tariff legislation in response to Trump’s cozy relationship with Putin.

“As the president taxes Americans with tariffs, he pushes away our allies and further strengthens Putin,” he wrote. “It is time for Congress to step up and take back our authorities. We have legislation to do that. Let’s vote.”

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Brentwood, emphasized in a statement that Russia is an "adversary" who "meddled in the 2016 election," putting her in the rare spot of being opposed to the president, for whom she is a frequent surrogate. Blackburn, who is running to succeed Corker, frequently touts her support for Trump - and his for her - on the campaign trail and is running on a decidedly Trump-friendly platform. In fact, Trump's most recent Nashville rally came after a high-dollar fundraiser for Blackburn's campaign; nevertheless, Blackburn said it is "incontrovertible" that Russia is the U.S.'s adversary.

“From their annexation of Crimea to their involvement in Syria, Russian aggression has been escalating for several years,” she said. “Our foreign policy must be shaped around these facts, which are incontrovertible. Russia is a bad actor, and we must treat them as such. They have been focused on our demise for decades.”

Tennessee's senior senator, Republican Lamar Alexander, said in his own statement there was "no doubt" Russia meddled in the election and called for investigations by both the Senate and Special Counsel Robert Mueller to run to their completion.

Even as the White House looked to combat the growing backlash Tuesday with the president scheduled to meet with members of Congress, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats issued a statement defending the veracity of the intelligence community's findings after the president called them into question.

"The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the President and policymakers. We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security," Coats said in the statement.

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