Senator Bob Corker at the Chattanooga Rotary Club
photo by Jessica Kramer
Senator Bob Corker said there were candidates “on both sides of the aisles that no one ever could have predicted.”
Speaking to the press after a speech at the Chattanooga Downtown Rotary Club on Thursday, the former Chattanooga mayor said, “It’s part of our plan to support the Republican nominee.”
He also said he looked forward to hearing more in the future about specific plans from Donald Trump and that Trump’s recent speech on foreign policy was “an important step in that direction.”
“I don’t know Mr. Trump. I’ve never met him,” Senator Corker said. “I did receive a phone call from him, and we did talk at length about foreign policy.”
He said he expects to see an evolution in the campaign.
Senator Corker also spoke about Bernie Sanders.
“I don’t think anyone expected him to be where he is,” he said.
When asked about Sanders beating Hilary Clinton in Indiana, Senator Corker said, “Bernie is a very authentic person and what he believes, he has believed for 40 or 50 years. He’s been very consistent. On the Democratic side of the aisle, people have seen that and have been energized by that.”
He said Sanders has “an authenticity that is real” and that “these are not things that he concocted for a presidential race.” He said he thinks it was “for that reason people migrated to him.”
During his speech to the Rotary Club, Senator Corker said, "Now that we have a pretty good idea of who our candidate will be on each side of the aisle, we need to start dealing with the real issues our nation has.”
He said the “number one threat to our nation’s future” is America’s financial situation, and that the solutions aren’t really that difficult, but are difficult to talk about. He was disappointed that there has not been a serious debate on this topic.
“The greatest threat to our nation’s greatness is this issue,” Senator Corker said.
“What has become conservative in our country is to spend the same amount of money but not pay for it,” he said. “We just keep borrowing money every year.”
He hoped that in the next presidential debate candidates would talk about “the number one threat to our country.”
Senator Corker also wanted to know how America was going to relate to the rest of the world. He hopes that there will soon be a real debate on this topic, as well.
“As a nation, certainly we believe our country is exceptional. Certainly we believe our country needs to play a leading role around the world,” he said. “But at the same time we’re gonna have to understand that we’re gonna have to deal with people that are different than us. That’s realism.”
Senator Corker said Republican Presidential candidate Trump’s recent speech on foreign policy “was a really important step in a good direction.” He called the speech a “bringing back of realism” and said there was a “matureness that (he) saw in Bush 41.”
When asked how he would respond if a presidential candidate asked him to serve as his or her vice president, Senator Corker said, “Those kind of decisions are made by one person and to even respond to it is, from my perspective, out of bounds, because I have no control over it.”
“I’m now finally in a place that I know I’m affecting people,” he said. “I really do cherish the job that I have today.”