
President Donald Trump's decision to publicly threaten his former FBI director sent shock waves through the political world on Friday morning, and some Congressional Republicans are already hitting the panic button about what this means for enacting their legislative agenda.
Some top Republican congressional aides are telling Axios' Jonathan Swan that "there is widespread concern among Congressional leadership about Trump's frame of mind" in the wake of the president's decision to fire and then publicly attack and threaten former FBI Director James Comey.
"It has to stop," said one source described as a senior Senate aide. "Never seen anything like this in my entire career."
A House leadership source, meanwhile, told Swan that there is "a lot of anxiety" right now because Republicans "don't know" about the "next shoe to drop."
Among other things, the aides say they are concerned that Trump is keeping focus off the Republicans' legislative agenda and on personal scandals of his own making.
"We need our asset out there every day barnstorming for tax reform, health care," the Senate aide explained.
Instead, the congressional GOP is watching in horror as Trump careens from one crisis to another, and they tell Swan that they're alarmed at Chief of Staff Reince Priebus' seeming inability to stop Trump from imploding.