Republican senators are afraid of upsetting President Donald Trump in this election year so they are not supporting his amendment that would require Congress to approve of tariffs, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said in a fiery speech Tuesday.
Corker has been pushing for his amendment, which would be tacked onto the National Defense Authorization Act, to be put up for a vote amid Trump's talk of placing tariffs on imports from certain countries. But Corker said lawmakers do not want to make Trump upset.
"I heard the senator from Texas, the senior senator from Texas, saying the other day, 'well, gosh, we might upset the president. We might upset the president of the United States before the midterms,'" said Corker, referring to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. "'So, gosh, we can't vote on the Corker amendment because we're taking, rightly so, the responsibilities that we have to deal with tariffs and revenues, we can't do that because we'd be upsetting the president. The president of the United States.'"
Corker said he is convinced more than 95 percent of Republicans in the Senate chamber would vote yes on his amendment, but they are afraid of what Trump might say about them with the midterms looming.
"'Gosh, we might poke the bear!' is the language I've been hearing in the hallways," Corker said, his voice rising. "'We might poke the bear. The president might get upset with us as United States senators if we vote on the Corker amendment, so we're gonna do everything we can to block it.'"
Corker has clashed with Trump in the past, although the two seemed to patch things up earlier this year.
Corker, who is not running for re-election in the fall, disagrees with Trump's tariffs on U.S. allies. He even asked Democrats to join him in opposing them.