Huckabee Sanders: If Corker breaks with Trump, ‘that’s sad for his constituents’

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) “ineffective” Tuesday, as the lawmaker continued to feud with President Trump ahead of a high-stakes meeting with the Senate GOP on tax reform.

“This is a president who wants to be aggressive, wants to take big action, and if Sen. Corker doesn’t want to be part of that, I think that’s sad for his constituents,” Sanders said Tuesday morning on Fox & Friends. “But we’re not going to let that get in the way of us moving forward.” 

Sanders’s comments came after Corker reportedly said Monday that the president’s lunch with Republican senators was just a “photo op,” adding that the White House should “step aside” on tax reform.

Trump and Corker then traded barbs Tuesday morning, just hours before the president was scheduled to meet with Senate Republicans on taxes.

Corker hit the president on foreign policy during an appearance on NBC News’s “Today” show. Trump fired back on Twitter, saying Corker “couldn’t get elected dog catcher.” 

Corker, who is not running for reelection, then told reporters he believes Trump will be remembered for debasing the nation, adding that he won’t support Trump in another election.

Trump once again took to Twitter, saying “People like liddle’ Bob Corker have set the U.S. Way back.”

Both Corker and Trump are expected to be in attendance at Tuesday’s lunch, a key part of Republicans’ push for party unity ahead of their tax-reform effort. 

“I hope the rest of the Senate that the president is going to sit down with today wants to talk about how to really make some productive change, including massive tax cuts,” Sanders said. “I think we’re going to have a lot of people within the Senate, particularly those at the lunch today, that really want to be part of that effort and want to join with the president in making sure that we make that happen by the end of the year.”