Jordan Buie

The Tennessean

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker said Thursday that he believed Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump went “far too far” in statements claiming President Obama founded ISIS.

Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was unfamiliar with the comments, but responded to questions about Trump's latest remarks, made at a rally in Florida and repeated during a radio interview Thursday.

"In many respects, you know, they honor President Obama," Trump said at the Wednesday rally. "He's the founder of ISIS.”

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Then, on Thursday morning, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked the candidate if he actually meant that Obama’s actions had created a vacuum in Syria.

"No, I meant he's the founder of ISIS," Trump said, doubling down on his previous statement. "I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton."

Corker, R-Tenn., first said that he believed Trump may have been referring to the vacuum caused by the decision to remove troops from Iraq in 2011 and the unrest after Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi was deposed the same year.

He said Republicans and Democrats agree that these actions have allowed the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, to flourish in the Middle East.

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But Corker said if Trump is saying that Obama founded the terrorist group, the statement went too far.

“This has been a very unusual election,” Corker said. “And regardless of whether the candidate on my side of the aisle says things that I disagree with or not, if you ask me, I’m going to share my disagreement on certain things and my agreement on certain things. But to say that an elected official in our country founded a terrorist organization like ISIS is taking the facts that took place in 2011 and carrying that far too far.”

Corker answered the questions about Trump and the current election cycle following his address to a banquet hall full of farmers and rural community insurance providers at the Tennessee Farm Bureau President’s Conference in the Franklin Marriott Cool Springs in Williamson County.

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