We said we would do that accomplishes that. Well take you live to capitol hill where we just learned another powerful republican senator is retiring in the wake of the atmosphere around the trump presidency. And now we await the press briefing from the white house coming shortly. That should be quite the show. Lets get to it. Never in collective memory has washington ever looked like this. Now we wait to hear what comes next from the white house. The press secretary Sarah Sanders set to take to the podium during this hour. Well see if she responds to the president s ongoing fight with a former supporter, bob corker. Both men trading personal insults hours before they had lunch together. Senator bob corker has released the hounds. First through cnn and now through every camera and microphone on capitol hill. Standing up in front of the American People and stating untruths that Everybody Knows to be untrue. Just the attempted bullying that he does, which everybody sees through. Just the dividing of our country. You know, the namecalling. You know, for young people to be watching not only here in our country but around the world. Someone of this mentality or as president of the United States is something that is i think debasing to our country. You know, its you know, you would think he would aspire to be the president of the United States and act like a president of the United States. But you know, thats just not going to be the case apparently. Shepard the senator from tennessee chairs the Foreign Relations committee. Hes announced hes not running for reelection next year and he stepped up his criticism in recent weeks of the president. Before their lunch on the hill to talk taxes, senator corker said the president should stay out of the negotiations. And then the president went on a twitter tirade writing bob corker that helped president obama give us the bad iran deal and couldnt get elected dog catchner tennessee is fighting tax cuts. He dropped out of the race in tennessee when i refused to endorse him and now hes only negative on anything trump. Look at his record. More tweets. Isnt it sad that lightweight senator bob corker that couldnt get reelited in the great state of tennessee and will fight tax cuts. Plus, hes the incompetent head of the Foreign Relations committee. Look how poorly the u. S. Has done. He doesnt have a clue as the entire world was laughing and taking advantage of us. People like little bob corker have set the u. S. Way back. Now we move forward. Senator corker says the president did offer to endorse him if he ran for reelection. He said the president repeatedly encouraged him to run and the fact is, theres no truth to the president s claim that senator corker was somehow responsible for the iran deal. World powers reached that agreement in 2015 under the obama administration. Senator corker voted against the iran deal. He urged other lawmakers to do the same. Today senator corker hit back first on twitter writing same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. Alertthedaycarestaff that is a reference to a previous corker tweet in which the senator said the white house has been an adult day care center. He said the president s behavior is getting worse and he said the president s own aides have trouble controlling him. You know, multiple occasions where the staff has asked me to please intervene. He was getting ready to do something off the tracks. Look, i have seen no evolution in an upward way. As a matter of fact, it appears to me that its almost devolving. Shepard devolving. Senator corker told cnn that he regrets supporting the president during the campaign season. Do you regret supporting him in the election . Lets put it this way. I would not do that again. You wouldnt support him again . No way. No way. I think hes proven himself unable to rise to the occasion. Many of us, me included, have, you know, tried to intervened. Ive had private dinner, been with him on multiple occasions to try to create some kind of aspirational approach, if you will, to the way that he conducts himself. I dont think that thats possible. Hes obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president. Do you think hes a role model to children of the United States . No. You dont . No. Absolutely not. Shepard to recast some of the statements of senator corker. President s staff needs to control him. Hes not up to be a leader. President trump is untruthful. Its sad for the nation that the young people here see him as untruthful. President trump is not a role model for children. Does corker trust him with the Nuclear Codes . He doesnt answer when asked. He does say hes concerned about President Trumps stability. Senator corker says white house staff has asked him to intervene when the president was about to go off the tracks. He says the president s legacy will be his debasement of the nation. This from a man, mr. Trump, once considered for secretary of state and vice president. When manu asked whether corker would support the president again, he said no way. Now lunch together. John roberts is live on the north lawn. We heard from senator corker again moments ago. We did. First, some background here. Its interesting the last time that the feud erupted, which was about three weeks ago, it was the president who threw the first punch out of nowhere on a sunday morning. Today it was senator corker that threw the first punch in an interview on nbc when he suggested the president should keep his nose out of the tax reform legislation debate going on on capitol hill saying shepard im sorry, john. Breaking news. Now from the senator that is retiring, bob flake of arizona. Listen. Freedoms and institution, the flagrant disregard for truth and decency. The reckless provocations most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have been elected to serve. None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that that is just the way things are now. If we simply become part of this condition, thinking that it is just politics as usual, then heaven help us. Without fear of the consequences and without consideration of the rules of what is politically safe or palatable, we must stop pretending that the degradation of politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal. Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior is excused as telling it like it is when its actually just reckless, outrageous and undignified. When such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else. It is dangerous to a democracy. Such behavior does not project strength because our strength comes from our values. It instead projects a corruption of the spirit and weakness. It is often said children are watching. Well, they are. What are we going to do about that . When the next generation asks us, why didnt you do something . Why didnt you speak up . What are we going to say . Mr. President , i rise today to say enough. We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalous never becomes the normal. We respect and humility, we fooled ourselves that a pivot to governing is around the corner. A return to civility and stability right behind it, we know better than that. By now we all know better than that. Here today, i stand to say that we would be better served, we would better serve the country by better fulfilling our obligations under the constitution by adhering to our article one old normal. Mr. Madisons doctrine of separation of powers, this genius innovation which affirms madisons status as a true visionary and for which madison argued in federalist 51 held the equal branches of our government would balance and counter act with each other if necessary. Ambition counteracts ambition. What happens if ambition fails to counter act ambition . What happens if stability fails to insert itself in the face of chaos . If indecency fails to call out indecency . If the shoe were on the other foot, would we wrecks meekly accept behave i dont know from dominant democrats . Of course we wouldnt. We would be wrong if we did. When we remain silence and fail to act, when we know that silence and inaction is the wrong thing to do because of political considerations, because we might make enemies, because we might alienate the base, because we might provoke a primary challenge, because ad nauseam. When we succumb to those considerations in spite of what should be greater considerations in defense of our institutions and liberty, we dishonor our principles and forsake our obligations. Those things are far more important than politics. Now, im aware that more politically savvy people and i will caution against such talk. Im aware that theres a segment of my party that believes that anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to a president that belongs to my party is unacceptable and suspect. If i have been critical, its not because i relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If i have been critical is because i believe it is my obligation to do so. As a matter and duty of conscious. The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep america strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters. The notion that we should say or do nothing in the face of such mecurial behavior is historic. A republican president named roosevelt had this to say about the president and a citizens relationship to the office. The president is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed to the degree to which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct. His efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. He continued, therefore its necessary that there should be a full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an american citizen is both base and servile. He continued to announce that theres no criticism of the president for that we are to stand by a president right or wrong is not only unpatriot tick and servile but morally treasonable to the american public. Acting on principle is a way we expect ourselves and as such loyalty to conscious should supersede any loyalty to any party or man. I certainly put myself at the top of the list of those that fall short in this regard. I am holier than none. Too often we rush to not to salva salvage principal and excuse our failures until the accommodation becomes our principle. In that way and overtop, we can justify almost any behavior and sacrifice any principle. Im afraid that this is where we now find ourselves. When a leader correctly identifies real hurt and insecurity in our country and instead of addressing it goes to look for someone to blame, theres perhaps nothing more devastating to a society. Leadership knows that most often a good place to start in assigning blame is to look somewhat closer to home. Leadership knows where the buck stops. Humility helps. Character counts. Leadership does not knowingly encourage or feed ugly or debased appetites in us. Leadership lives by the american creed E Pluribus Enum from anyone. American leadership looks to the work and just as lincoln did, sees the family of man, humanity is not a zero sum gain. When we have been at our most prosperous, we have been at our most principaled. When we do well, the rest of the world does well. These articles of civic faith have been critical to the american identity for as long as we have been alive. Theyre our birth right about our obligation. We must guard them and pass them on for as long as the calendar has days to betray them or to be unserious in their defense is a betrayal of the fundamental obligations of American Leadership and to behave as if they dont matter is not who we are. Now the efficacy of American Leadership around the globe has come into question. When the United States emerged from world war ii, we contributed about half of the worlds economic activity. It would have been easy to secure our dominance. Keeping those countries who had been defeated or greatly weakened during the war in their place. We didnt do that. It would have been easy to focus inward. We resisted those impulses. Instead, we financed reconstruction of shattered countries and created International Organizations and institutions that have helped provide security and foster prosperity around the world for more than 70 years. Now it seems that we, the architects of this visionary rulesbased world order that has brought so much freedom and prosperity are the ones most eager to abandon it. The implications of this abandonment are profound and the beneficiaries of this radical departure in the american approach to the world are the idealogical enemies of our values. Despitism loves the vacuum. What do we as United States senators have to say about it . The principles that underlie our politics are too vital to our identity and survival to allow them to be compromised by politics. Politics can make us silent when we should speak and silence can equal complicity. I have children and grandchildren to answer to. So, mr. President , i will not be complicit or silence. I decided i would be better able to represent the people of arizona and to better serve my country and my conscious by freeing myself of the political consideration that consumed far too much band width and would cause me to compromise far too many principles. To that end, i am announcing today that my service in the senate will conclude at the end of my term in early january 2019. It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, who is pro immigration has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican Party, the party that has so long defined itself by its belief in those things. It is also clear to me for the moment that we have given up or the Core Principles in favor of a more viscerally satisfying anger an resentment that the people feel that the royal mess we created are justified. Anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy. There is an undeniable potency to a populous appeal by miss characterizing or problems and giving us the impulse to scapegoat and belittle. That threatens to turn us into a fearful backward looking people. In the case of the Republican Party, those things threaten to turn us into a fearful backwardlooking minority party. We were not made great as a country by indulging in or exulting in our impulses. We did flout our institutions and failing to understand just how hard one and vulnerable they are. This spell will eventually break. That is my belief. We will return to ourselves once more, and i say the sooner the better. Because we have a healthy government, we musts will have healthy and functioning parties. We must respect each other again in an atmosphere of share facts and shared values. Comety and good faith. We must argument our positions and never be afraid to compromise. We must assume the best of our fellow man and always look for the good. Until that day comes, we must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it because it does. I plan to spend the remaining 14 months of my senate term doing just that. Mr. President , the graveyard is full of indispensable men and women. None of here are indispensable. Nor were even the great figures of history that toiled at these very desks in this very chamber to shape the country that weve inherited. What is indispensable, the values that they created in philadelphia and in this place. Values which have endured and will endure for so long as many and women wish to remain free. What is indispensable is what we do here in defense of the values. A political career does not mean much if were complicit and undermining these values. I thank my colleagues for indulging me here today. Ly close by borrowing the words of president lincoln who knew more about healthy and preserving our founding values than any american that has ever lived. His words were a prayer in his time and no less in ours. Were not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Those passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of our affection. The mystic cords of memory will swell when again touched as surely as they will be by the better angels of our nature. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. Shepard senate eor jeff fla the arizona congressman from arizona. He said flagrant disregard for the truth and dee sen sen is upon us. Belittling the people is not normal. This is not politics as usual. Reckless outrageous and undignified behavior is dangerous to the democracy. If ive been critical to the president , he said its because its my obligation and duty to do so. Senator flake said we must never accept personal attacks, threats against peoples, freedoms and institutions. He said depotism loves a vacuum and World Leaders are looking elsewhere for leadership. He says i have children and grandchildren to answer to. So i will not be complacent or silence. There are times he said when we must risk our careers in favor of our principles. And today he announced his career in congress and the United States senate will end at the end of this term. Further, he said, this spell will eventually break. I say the sooner the better. Mitch mcconnell speak live on this matter. Senior senator from arizona. Mr. President , its very hard for me to add to the eloquence of my friend and my dear friend from arizona. But i do want to say that its been one of the great honors of my life to have the opportunity to serve with a man of integrity, honor and decency and commitment to not only arizona but the United States of america. I have seen jeff flake stand up for what he believes in knowing full well that there would be a political price to pay. I have seen him stand up for his family. Ive seen him stand up for his forbearers that were the early settlers of the state of arizona. In fact, theres a place called snowflake, arizona. That obviously the flake part comes from his direct predecessor. Its the flake family and families like them th