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 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| President Donald Trump’s claim that Sen. Bob Corker opted to leave the Senate only after the president refused to endorse him has been repeatedly disputed by the Tennessee Republican’s office. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Trump and Corker hurl insults as GOP strives for unity The Tennessee Republican offers a prediction: 'I think the debasement of our nation will be what he'll be remembered most for.' 
 
 President Donald Trump and Sen. Bob Corker dramatically escalated their feud on Tuesday, with the president accusing Corker of blocking tax reform efforts and the Tennessee Republican warning Trump that his legacy will be the debasement of America. 
 
 The nasty exchanges came ahead of a Capitol Hill lunch between Trump and GOP senators to project unity on an ambitious legislative agenda. While the two men generally avoided each other at the meeting, the rebukes still hung in the air. 
 
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 Corker set off the latest tiff, appearing on all three major broadcast morning news shows to needle the president and to call on him to “step aside” on tax reform. 
 
 Trump punched back on Twitter. 
 
 “Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts,” Trump wrote. “Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse [sic] when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!” 
 
 Corker quickly responded, lamenting on Twitter the "same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDaycareStaff." Trump’s claim that Corker opted to leave the Senate only after the president refused to endorse him has been disputed repeatedly by the Tennessee Republican’s office. In fact, it was Trump, Corker’s office has said, who asked the senator to reconsider his retirement. 
 
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 The spat escalated from there, and captured the civil war that is plaguing the Republican Party despite the GOP’s control of both the White House and Congress. Trump has sparred at times with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.), among others. 
 
 Flake grabbed his own share of the spotlight on Tuesday, announcing that he would not seek reelection in 2018, and delivering a searing speech on the Senate floor in which he railed against Trump. 
 
 "Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as 'telling it like it is,' when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified," Flake said. "And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else: It is dangerous to a democracy." 
 
 "Mr. President, I rise today to say: Enough," Flake added. 
 
 It's yet to be seen, though, if Flake will join Corker, who is also not seeking reelection in 2018, in taking up the mantle of the senator who consistently punches back against the president. 
 
 On NBC’s “Today" on Tuesday morning, Corker said, "The best way for us to have a success" on tax reform is for the legislation to be driven by Congress, not the president, a recommendation he said was "based on recent history and just, interactions." 
 
 The Tennessee Republican also called Trump’s scheduled lunch with Republican senators on Tuesday little more than a “photo op." 
 
 Speaking more broadly about the president in an interview on "CBS This Morning," Corker told anchor Charlie Rose that "it appears to be the governing model of this White House to purposefully divide." 
 
 Corker then notched up his rhetoric even further during an interview on CNN, saying Trump will most be remembered for "the debasement of our nation." 
 
 "At the end of the day, when his term is over, I think the debasing of our nation, the constant non-truth telling, just the name calling, the things — I think the debasement of our nation will be what he'll be remembered most for, and that's regretful," Corker said. 
 
 Asked whether he regrets supporting Trump during last year's election, Corker said, "Let's just put it this way: I would not do that again." 
 
 Trump continued the back-and-forth, asking his Twitter followers, "isn't it sad that lightweight Senator Bob Corker, who couldn't get re-elected in the Great State of Tennessee, will now fight Tax Cuts plus!" 
 
 In another two-post missive, Trump lobbed more criticism, resurrecting a nickname he pinned to the Tennessee Republican weeks earlier: "Sen. Corker is the incompetent head of the Foreign Relations Committee, & look how poorly the U.S. has done. He doesn't have a clue as the entire World WAS laughing and taking advantage of us. People like liddle' Bob Corker have set the U.S. way back. Now we move forward!" 
 
 While the war of words built expectations for a face-to-face clash at Tuesday's lunch, Corker called the meeting "uneventful” and that references to the feud did not come up. 
 
 He said on MSNBC that his earlier back-and-forth with the president was "to express concerns about, you know, the conduct and just what it means to America and Americans and what it means to the world. But I don't really have any agenda other than responding again to shots across the bow." 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, too, downplayed the conflict between Corker and Trump, telling reporters Tuesday afternoon that "I don't have any observation about that.” He predicted that Republicans' top priority, tax reform, would be unifying enough to bridge any fractures within the GOP. 
 
 The anticlimactic lunch meeting belied a morning of rhetoric from the president's Twitter account that was particularly biting. Corker willingly engaged the president, responding in kind with scathing criticism online and in a flurry of TV news interviews. 
 
 While some have feared that Trump's feud with a powerful committee chairman could imperil GOP priorities, including tax reform, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that the spat between the two men would not alter Republican policy efforts. 
 
 "At the end of the day, I know Bob well. Bob is going to vote for Tennessee, he's going to vote for America, he's going to vote for tax reform," Ryan continued at a news conference with House Republican leaders. "So put this Twitter dispute aside," he said. 
 
 The relationship between the two men, which had already been on rocky footing, soured further this month as Corker and Trump have lobbed increasingly barbed criticisms at one another through the media. Amid a separate reported spat between Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in early October, Corker came to the defense of the secretary, telling reporters that Tillerson and other top advisers "help separate the country from chaos." 
 
 Trump replied with a Twitter barrage, launching his claim that the senator had opted to retire only once a presidential endorsement had been taken off the table. Trump also said he had rejected Corker as a possible secretary of state and said the senator was "largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal!” Corker was quick with a sarcastic retort, writing that "it's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning." 
 
 The senator also delivered a scathing review of Trump in an interview with The New York Times, telling the newspaper that the president has behaved “like he’s doing ‘The Apprentice’ or something" and that he could put the U.S. "on the path to World War III." 
 
 Corker said on Tuesday morning that he tried being a helpful force to Trump — with little to show for it. 
 
 "Many of us, me included, have, you know, tried to, you know — I've intervened, I have had private dinner, you know, 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, but I don't think that that's possible," Corker said. "He's obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president." 
 
 Nolan D. McCaskill and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report. 
 
 ||||| Washington (CNN) Hours before Donald Trump was set to huddle with Senate Republicans to rally support for his tax cut measure, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker delivered an absolute bludgeoning of the President . And even that may be an understatement. 
 
 In an interview with CNN's Manu Raju , Corker said the President consistently doesn't tell the truth, dodged on whether Trump should have the nuclear codes, said Trump wasn't a role model for children, said he would not ever support him again and repeatedly suggested that Trump "debases" the country. 
 
 It was something else. Below, I've picked the nine roughest Corker lines and ranked them from least to most devastating. 
 
 9. "The shame of it is, there are some some really good people around him, and if he would stay out of their way and let them perform, people like (Rex) Tillerson and (James) Mattis and others, we could really make progress on things that matter greatly to our country." 
 
 Think about this. Corker is saying that if only Trump would get out of the way, Republicans could actually get some things done. He views Trump as the main impediment to getting things done in Washington. And this is the least damning thing Corker said about Trump in his interview with Manu! 
 
 8. "I would hope the staff over there would figure out ways of controlling him when they know that everything he said today was absolutely untrue." 
 
 This echoes Corker's comments about the White House functioning as an "adult daycare center" in which the job of lots of smart and serious people is to keep the President from doing anything truly destructive to the country. Rather than doing the work of the country, Corker suggests, the main focus of the White House is managing the President's moods and tempers. 
 
 7. "Four times he encouraged me to run and told me he would endorse me. I don't know. it's amazing." 
 
 Corker, again, is noting that he believes Trump is lying about the nature of their conversation last month at the White House. Trump continues to insist Corker begged for his endorsement and said he couldn't win -- and would have to retire -- without it. Corker has consistently argued that Trump not only asked him to run again but offered to endorse him and campaign with him. Someone is lying. And, based on track record, I think we have a pretty good idea who it is. 
 
 6. "I think that he's proven himself unable to rise to the occasion ... I don't think that that's possible. He's obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president." 
 
 This quote comes in the context of Corker telling Manu about dinners and meetings that he and other Republican senators have had with Trump in which they urged him to moderate some of his natural bomb-throwing tendencies. He didn't. And, according to Corker, he won't. This is as good as it gets, Corker is saying. Which is pretty damning. 
 
 5. "The President has great difficulty with the truth. On many issues." 
 
 Corker wouldn't call Trump a "liar" in the interview with Manu. But he did everything but. The quote above suggests that Corker believes Trump's natural state is to not tell the truth. Related: Corker is talking about the President, aka the single most powerful person in the country. 
 
 4. "I don't know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard, and debases our country in a way that he does, but he does." 
 
 That word "debase" is a powerful one. It means, quite literally: "To reduce in quality or value; adulterate." So what Corker is saying is that Trump is tarnishing the country by the way he acts and what he says. Wowza. 
 
 3. "We are going to be doing hearings on some of the things that he purposely is breaking down, relationships we have around the world that have been useful to our nation." 
 
 What exactly does this mean? Corker, as chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, is going to hold hearings seeking accountability for the decisions Trump has made as President? He is going to hold hearings aimed at restoring trust between the US and our traditional allies? Something else? No matter what, it's a big deal. 
 
 2. "I think world leaders are very aware that much of what he says is untrue." 
 
 Remember that this is the GOP head of a major Senate committee speaking. Corker isn't popping off. He actually talks to world leaders and, presumably, knows of what he speaks. Consider then what this means: World leaders -- our allies and our adversaries -- know that Trump is often lying. The chaos that can -- and will -- create in the world is hard to wrap your head around. And terrifying. 
 
 1. "When his term is over, I think the debasing of our nation, the constant non-truth telling, and the -- just the name calling, the things that I think, the debasement of our nation is what we will be remembered most important, and that's regretful." ||||| ...Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record! ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
– President Trump heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a meeting with GOP senators, but his feud with one of them in particular heated up in advance. In appearances on morning talk shows, Bob Corker said the president should leave senators alone to work on a tax plan. “I would recommend that, based on recent history and just interactions,” Corker said on Today, per the Washington Post. “I think that’s the best way for us to have success.” Trump quickly responded on Twitter. "Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts," Trump wrote. "Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse [sic] when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump," he added. "Look at his record!" After which, Corker returned fire on Twitter, criticizing the "same untruths from an utterly untruthful president" and, notably, using a hashtag of "AlertTheDaycareStaff." (The Post agrees that Trump is stretching the truth on both Iran and the endorsement issues.) Politico notes that the attacks and counter-attacks come just hours before what is supposed to be a "unity" meeting at which Trump and Republicans will talk about changes to the tax system and health care. Corker, meanwhile, doubled down on his Trump insults in a CNN interview. "I don't know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard, and debases our country in a way that he does, but he does." In fact, he added that Trump's legacy as president will be the "debasing of our nation." CNN analyst Chris Cillizza rounds up and provides commentary on more of Corker's slams.