Retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) marveled at the chaos on Capitol Hill on Thursday as President Donald Trump suddenly refused to sign a temporary spending bill passed by the Senate and threatened — again — to shut down the government.
“Y’all have fun,” Corker told journalists, apparently relieved to be heading home for the holidays. “I might not see y’all again for a while. I’m getting ready to drive to Chattanooga.”
The House voted in a scramble Thursday night to pass a measure that would provide more than $5 billion for Trump’s promised border wall, reported USA Today.
But the measure has little chance of passing the Senate in a planned vote Friday. And scores of lawmakers have already left town for the holidays.
Corker said there was no real leadership to help move out of the legislative morass. “I think they’re just sorta swirling around,” he told reporters.
When asked if he would return for an upcoming vote, Corker said: “I doubt it.” Asked what would happen next, Corker responded: “Who knows? Does the person sitting beside [the president] at the White House know?”
Corker compared Trump’s change of heart in signing a temporary spending bill to his “precipitous” decision Wednesday to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, which the senator warned will have a far more significant long-term impact.
He laughed again as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) walked by and told reporters: “I think we need to follow through” with funding for the wall.
Corker quipped: “You can’t make this stuff up.”