Oct 14, 2017

Corker: Trump is publicly castrating Rex Tillerson

Haley Britzky

Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Senator Bob Corker told the Washington Post on Friday that one of his biggest concerns is Trump's treatment of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and "inviting 'binary' situations in which the United States will have to choose between war and a North Korea or Iran capable of threatening the United States with nuclear weapons."

He said the U.S. has good diplomatic relations with China, but it's being threatened by Trump's behavior: "When you jack the legs out from under your chief diplomat, you cause all that to fall apart ... When you publicly castrate your secretary of state, you take that off the table."

Bottom line: Corker, a senior Republican senator, continues his public campaign against Trump.

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Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 9 p.m. ET: 1,513,358 — Total deaths: 88,415 — Total recoveries: 329,329 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 9 p.m. ET: 430,376 — Total deaths: 14,739 — Total recoveries: 23,707 — Map.
  3. Federal government latest: Top Trump administration officials had been developing a plan to give cloth masks to huge numbers of Americans, but the idea lost traction amid heavy internal skepticism.
  4. States latest: New York has reported more cases than the most-affected countries in Europe. Chicago's Cook County jail is largest-known source of coronavirus in U.S.
  5. Business: One-third of U.S. jobs are at risk of disappearing, mostly affecting low-income workers.
  6. World: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to put politics aside "if you don’t want to have many more body bags.”
  7. Environment: COVID-19 is underscoring the connection between air pollution and dire outcomes from respiratory diseases.
  8. Tech: A new report recommends stimulus spending to help close the digital divide revealed by social distancing.
  9. What should I do? Pets, moving and personal health — Answers about the virus from Axios experts — What to know about social distancing — Q&A: Minimizing your coronavirus risk.
  10. Other resources: CDC on how to avoid the virus, what to do if you get it.

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