WASHINGTON, DC (OSBORNE) -- A mid-state political historian says President Trump and Tennessee Senator Bob Corker are hardly the first two high-office holders to resort to public name-calling.
The two men unloaded on each other in recent weeks in dueling Twitter posts. Corker questioned the president’s competence and suggested the White House had become an “adult day care center.”
Trump questioned Corker’s courage, accusing him of lacking the “guts” to run for a third term in office.
Dr. Thomas Schwartz teaches political science and history at Vanderbilt University. He notes that in the 1960s President Lyndon Johnson and fellow Democrat Senator J. William Fulbright carried on a public spat over the war in Vietnam, with Fulbright airing his grievances in public hearings.
“(He really) challenged many of the assumptions of Johnson’s policies in Vietnam. (They) were televised and were quite a media event and led to a real breakdown in the relations between the two men who had been fairly friendly.”
Schwartz says the Trump-Corker spat probably won’t be as historically significant as the Johnson-Fulbright affair, unless it impacts larger policy concerns such as possible conflicts with North Korea or Iran.
“I think then the policy differences between the two, which have been a little bit submerged in the middle of this personality dispute would make this a far more consequential matter for historians.”
Dr. Schwartz says another possible impact of the dispute is that Tennessee may next fall elect a senator to fill Corker’s seat who is far more supportive of President Trump.