Sen. Bob Corker, who is being considered by Donald Trump’s transition team for the secretary of state post, met privately with Vice President-elect Pence Thursday morning.
Corker confirmed the meeting to the Washington Examiner but would not discuss any details of the conversation, including whether the meeting centered around his candidacy to become President-elect Trump’s top foreign diplomat.
Pence is on Capitol Hill to meet with the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as well as top Democratic leaders.
The Tennessee Republican, who chairs the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters Tuesday told reporters Tuesday night that he is in the running for secretary of state but didn’t think he was a top candidate.
That was before new broke that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had too many potential conflicts of interest from his private consulting firm to serve in the secretary of state post. Giuliani’s private consulting firm has reportedly taken money from Qatar, Venezuela’s Citgo, as well as an exiled political party in Iran.
John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is also believed to be under consideration for the post.
Corker could have some trouble of his own with Trump’s base, specifically his history working with the Obama administration on the Iran nuclear deal.
Over negotiations played out on the international stage, Corker played various roles in the Iran deal, sometimes harshly criticizing the Obama administration, other times carefully trying to carve out a middle ground on the highly charged issue.
Some on the right, however, blame him for a late decision to author a bill with Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the ranking member of the committee, that set up a congressional vote on a resolution of disapproval barring the president from waiving sanctions imposed by Congress on Iran.
Conservatives argued that the Corker-Cardin resolution of disapproval violated the Constitutional role of the Senate to ratify treaties with a two-thirds vote.
Over the last week, Corker has predicted that Trump won’t “tear up” the international agreement during his first weeks and months in office. Bolton, however, has advocated just the opposite — that it should be completely overturned.
