WASHINGTON, DC (OSBORNE) -- Tennessee Senator Bob Corker is again slamming President Donald Trump.
In a Senate committee hearing Wednesday, Corker blasted the president for repeatedly questioning the value of America’s 70-year-old NATO military alliance with Europe.
Corker is chairing a series of Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings focused on the threat posed by Russia. He accuses the president of making that threat worse.
“Purposely using false information in an effort to turn public opinion against the alliance, in effect inviting our rivals to test it, NATO is undoubtedly weakened. And of course, this in turn plays right into the hands of Vladimir Putin.”
Back in July, President Trump angered NATO allies when he accused them during a breakfast meeting of not fully funding their financial commitments to the alliance.
“I don’t think it’s fair to the United States, so we’re gonna’ have to do something because we’re not gonna’ put up with it. We can’t put up with it.”
In Wednesday’s Senate hearing, Corker agreed with President Trump that our NATO allies need to spend more on military readiness, but also defended the alliance.
“At the end of the day NATO is a very good investment for U.S. National Security. I think it’s important that we give the American people a clear-eyed assessment of NATO; its value and its relationship to our country.”
Tennessee’s junior Senator has had an unsettled relationship with the president since Trump took office last year; at times warm and cooperative, but more often openly and bitterly antagonistic. Corker plans to retire in November.