WASHINGTON _ Sen. Bob Corker ventured farther than most Republicans in Congress who have criticized President Donald Trump when he suggested recently that Trump has not shown the "stability" or "competence" needed in the White House.
Yet Trump, who has taken to Twitter to lambaste other Republican Senate leaders, has kept quiet about Corker, an ally who was once under consideration to be secretary of state.
On Thursday, however, Trump's press secretary did not hold back.
Asked about Corker's criticism, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "That's a ridiculous and outrageous claim and doesn't dignify a response from this podium."
The Tennessee senator's striking critique of the president, which as been replayed repeatedly on cable television, and now the White House's rebuke of him captured as well as anything the disintegrating relationship between Trump and his party in Congress.
Corker, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, may have felt more at liberty to speak up last week, in the aftermath of Trump's much-criticized response to a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, in part because he has maintained a relationship with the president.
Their ties also may explain Trump's apparent reluctance to tweet against Corker afterward, and his willingness to let his press secretary fire back instead.
Huckabee's reprimand of Corker was itself remarkable, and perhaps was a warning to others. Rarely has a White House aide so publicly attacked a senator of the president's own party. Corker, moreover, is up for re-election next year.
