Bob Corker: Trump's family separation policy done in 'ready, fire, aim way'

NASHVILLE — Appearing on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker said President Donald Trump's administration was ill prepared for its policy that led to the separation of babies, children and adolescents from their parents.

Corker described the roll out of the "zero tolerance" immigration policy as one that was "done in a ready, fire, aim way."

"There was no preparation for it," Corker continued, saying the administration made a "large mistake."

Trump signed an executive order Wednesday seeking to end the practice of separating children from parents who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

Corker said some in the White House want to use immigration as a "force to activate the (Republican) base for elections."

"But obviously the president realized that was a mistake and now it's to us in Congress to work with them to come up with a longer term solution," he said.

On Saturday, Trump said on Twitter that Republicans should "stop wasting their time on immigration" until after the November election.

Corker admitted with the mid-term elections nearing, the likelihood of major accomplishments in terms of immigration would be slim. "We need to deal with the whole of the issue," he said.

Beyond the family separation policy, Corker also continued to blast the Trump administration for its recently implemented tariffs.

"It has successfully united the world against us," Corker said.

Corker said like the recent immigration policy, the administration had no preparation for its plan to implement tariffs on China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union.

"There's not a person at the White House that can articulate why they are doing this other than to create leverage on (the North American Free Trade Agreement)," Corker said.

Although he unsuccessfully tried to amend a measure to reign in Trump's tariffs, Corker said he thought "there's a jailbreak brewing."

Corker questioned whether the administration would grant exemptions from the tariffs based on political contributions.

"We're getting ready to have a similar situation to what happened on the immigration policy and I'm hoping there will be a jailbreak and that we will move towards passing this legislation," he concluded.

Follow Joel Ebert on Twitter: @joelebert29

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