Panicked White House launches smear campaign against GOP senator who dared criticize Trump

Bob Corker may ultimately be remembered as the Republican senator who belatedly conceded that Emperor Trump has no clothes. Now the Tennessee Republican’s scathing rebuke of Donald Trump over the weekend has sparked alarm among Trump’s team of loyalists as they scramble to contain the political damage.

Dealing with a senior, respected Republican member of Congress — Corker chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — who aggressively pulled back the curtain on Trump’s “adult day care center” White House has created a burgeoning headache for Trump, as his approval rating drops in all 50 states.

And the signs of panic are everywhere, including the absurd calls for Corker to immediately step down from the Senate. Corker’s “honor” and “decency” are also being questioned by White House surrogates.

On Tuesday, Trump continued to push his petty, name-calling feud:

Meanwhile, Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon, who used to work at the “adult day care center” and who appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Monday night, endorsed the emerging Corker smear tactic of demanding that he be banished for the sin of criticizing the mighty leader.

Bannon started by saying “it is totally unacceptable” for Corker to criticize Trump “in a time of war [when] we have troops in Afghanistan, in the Northwest Pacific in Korea.” He then went on to agree with the Trump campaign’s communications director, Jason Miller, who on Monday called on Corker to resign:

BANNON: I tell you what – Senator Corker is an absolute disgrace. And I agree with Jason Miller. He was the comms director on our campaign – I think one of the best comms people around. Jason was on CNN.

HANNITY: I’m sorry to hear that.

BANNON: Well, he called for Senator Corker to resign —

HANNITY: I agree with him.

BANNON: — for the governor of Tennessee to replace him with Marsha Blackburn, a real conservative. If Bob Corker has any honor, any decency, he should resign immediately. He should not let those words stand on what he said about the president of the United States.

Yes, Bannon endorses the blatantly undemocratic strategy of essentially removing Corker from office for daring to criticize Trump, and then bypassing voters by having the governor of Tennessee appoint a hand-picked Bannon lackey, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, to replace Corker in the Senate.

Note that Bannon comically used the excuse that Trump simply cannot be criticized because “we have troops in Afghanistan, in the Northwest Pacific in Korea.”

Who needs elections when Trump’s team can simply force senators to resign and then select their replacements?