Corker praises Trump’s move on Venezuela amid spat

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Friday praised the Trump administration’s new set of economic sanctions on Venezuela, amid an ongoing war of words with President Trump.

“I appreciated the detailed briefing I received from Vice President Pence this morning and applaud the Trump administration for standing with the Venezuelan people,” Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

“I look forward to working with them to examine additional policy options in the near future.”

A senior Trump administration official said the sanctions announced Friday are an attempt to block the South American country from having access to U.S. financial markets in the face of President Nicolás Maduro’s “liquidation of the Venezuelan economy.”

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Corker’s praise of the U.S. sanctions comes as amid a verbal battle between him and Trump. 

The Tennessee senator sparked backlash from Trump when he slammed the president’s response to the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this month.

“I do think there need to be some radical changes. The president has not yet … been able to demonstrate the stability, nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful, and we need for him to be successful,” Corker said.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the president on Thursday during the first press briefing in weeks, saying of Corker’s comments, “I think that’s a ridiculous and outrageous claim and doesn’t dignify a response from this podium.” 

Trump issued his own attack on Corker, tweeting Friday that the senator had privately asked him whether he should run for reelection next year.

Strange statement by Bob Corker considering that he is constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in ’18. Tennessee not happy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017

Corker is not the only Republican the president has targeted this week.

Trump ripped Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in a tweet on the debt ceiling on Thursday.

I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which just passed) for easy approval. They…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017

…didn’t do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy-now a mess!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017

The president also went after Arizona GOP Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake without naming them at a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday.