A "real primary" would drive substantive debate, former Sen. Bob Corker said at the TIME 100 Summit in New York on Tuesday. | Richard Drew/AP Photo 2020 elections Bob Corker: Primary challenger for Trump would be ‘good thing for our country’

Former Republican Sen. Bob Corker said Tuesday that the country would benefit from a formidable primary challenger to President Donald Trump.

“You could look at it and say that it would be a good thing for our country should that occur,” Corker said in an interview at the TIME 100 Summit in New York. “If you had a real primary, where you had someone that was really being listened to, and of substance, things that we were talking about — and I could go through a list of them — they would actually be debated in a real way.”


But Corker warned that if Trump faced a less threatening opponent, no one would pay attention. So far, only former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld has mounted a primary challenge against Trump.

Corker, the former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, who retired earlier this year, was one of the most vocal Republican critics of Trump in the Senate. Trump repeatedly attacked him on Twitter, at one point calling him “Liddle Bob Corker.” In his interview with TIME, Corker criticized Trump for dividing the country further.

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“Typically, to unite people, you have to wish to do so, and I think that currently, the president has not found that to his benefit or to his liking,” Corker said.

When asked about his own political future, Corker replied: “I have no thoughts about future public service. As far as what is next, I truly don’t know. I’m trying to discern that.”

