Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker came on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program to speak about foreign relations and ended up fielding questions from the show's panel about whether he has full confidence in Donald Trump's abilities.
"Look, I didn't come on this program to be that referee," Corker told show co-host Mika Brzezinski Wednesday morning. "Let me say I do believe that Donald Trump is growing in his understanding of these issues, and I think that he's beginning to get more and more people around him that have a depth of understanding as to the complexities. And I'm watching this evolve."
But still, Corker, who was once considered as a potential running mate for Trump, insisted that he's focused on Iran, Syria, and the South China Sea.
"We have numbers of issues that can go haywire while this president is in office that are being unattended to," Corker said.
The conversation, though, kept returning to Trump, after Corker talked briefly about his opinion on the reports about the United States making payments to Iran at the same time hostages were being released.
"There's no question the shah of Iran tried to purchase some weaponry from us and it was not delivered after he was overthrown," Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, commented. "Just their own description of using those dollars as leverage to cause these people to be able to leave, that I mean just look it up in Webster's Dictionary. It is ransom. And it pains me to say that . . . there's so much that's happening with Iran that is not transparent."
But rather than follow up on that question, political commentator Mike Barnicle turned the topic around to tease the Commander in Chief Forum, being broadcast Wednesday night on NBC and MSNBC, and to corner Corker on why he thinks Trump would be a better president than Hillary Clinton.
Corker replied that he did not come onto the program to speak about politics, and pointed out that he thinks "you know I came on to talk about public policy."
NBC's Willie Geist then jumped in, asking about Trump's plans for defeating the Islamic State.
"I haven't heard either candidate be very crisp as it relates to dealing with ISIS . . . 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," he replied.
Brzezinski, after earlier in the morning repeating her strong criticism of Trump, told Corker that she didn't think he felt comfortable talking about the GOP nominee.
"Well, I don't feel comfortable coming on a program and being sort of a judger if you will, of the two," Corker retorted. "I mean I've got a job as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. We've got a committee meeting today where we're basically looking at whether the administration is trying to go straight to the UN Security Council and bypass the Senate on an important issue."
Meanwhile, he told her and the others on the show that they "wake up each day" and focus on political arguments.
Brzezinski dug in deeper, telling him she'd make it "broad and easy" for him to answer whether or not he has confidence in Trump on foreign policy.
"My concern right now is we've got four or five months in an administration left with all kinds of instability around the world," Corker said, still refusing to answer her question.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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