White House fires back at Corker 'ridiculous' comment

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders fired back at Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, who last week said Trump hasn't demonstrated the "stability" or "competence" he needs to display as president.

"I think that's a ridiculous and outrageous claim that doesn't dignify a response from this podium," Sanders said Thursday, in the White House's first response to the comments.

Corker, who is the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, was among the Republicans who leveled biting criticism in the wake of Trump's much-criticized response to the violent protests that broke out after white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"The President has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful," Corker said last Thursday. "He has not demonstrated that he understands what has made this nation great and what it is today, and he's got to demonstrate the characteristics of a president who understands that."

The criticism was particularly striking coming from Corker, a one-time Trump ally whom the President considered as a candidate for secretary of state.

Corker leveled his criticism alongside several other Republicans who slammed Trump's initial response to Charlottesville, when Trump failed to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis by name and instead blamed "many sides" for the violence.

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Trump drew additional fire from his side of the aisle after he defended his initial response to Charlottesville in remarks days later, in which he argued that there were "fine people" among the white supremacists rallying in Charlottesville.

The fight between Corker and the White House pressed forward on the same day Trump continued to level attacks against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The two men have not spoken in more than two weeks and the relationship has sunk to new lows as Congress prepares to return to Washington to tackle a slew of critical legislative issues and priorities on the Republican agenda.