The Tennessee Senate race took a strange turn on Wednesday when retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker lauded the Democratic candidate running to replace him.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner’s editorial board later that day, National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Cory Gardner, R-Colo., expressed displeasure with Corker. Arguing the Democrat Corker praised, Phil Bredesen, is a supporter of former President Barack Obama — an alignment that puts him at odds with the state — Gardner said, “No, it’s not helpful when you have Republicans say that they’re going to get out of the way of an Obama acolyte.”
Asked if he’d spoken with Corker about the comments, Gardner replied, “Those conversations, I’m sure, will be forthcoming.”
Corker has asserted he would back Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican nominee, by cutting her a check, but said on Monday of Bredesen, “I’m not going to campaign against someone who I’ve been a friend with and worked with, you know?”
Corker had a lot to share on Wednesday, also contending that “any Republican senator who hasn’t been conflicted over this presidency is either comatose or is pretty useless in their blindness.”
“It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, you’re going to work with the president where you agree, you’re going to object where you object, and you’re going to try to find a better direction where you need to,” Gardner continued. “And it doesn’t matter what the policy is — if it’s tariffs, I think there’s a better way than tariffs. If it’s Syria, I think the president is right. So those are things we have to recognize.”
When asked by the Washington Examiner which of Corker’s categories he falls into, Gardner laughed, “Can I take Option D?”
Remembering a lesson he learned from his 2014 race, Gardner recalled how “Democrats used the media as a fundraising tool,” telegraphing their campaign strategies in the press to create a “self-fulfilling” prophecy that routed money to certain candidates.
Applying that lesson to 2018, Gardner is concentrating resources in the Volunteer State. “Chuck Schumer says that the road to his majority goes through Tennessee. I take him seriously, I take him at his word. And that’s why we’re building a firewall around Tennessee that won’t allow that to happen,” he explained.
