Bank

President Donald Trump was openly rebuked by Republicans this past week on several fronts, and in such an open manner that one analyst argued GOP lawmakers are already eyeing “life after Trump.”

Journalist and CNN host Manu Raju asked a panel of experts on his “Inside Politics Sunday” show whether Trump was “losing grip” on the Republican Party, citing several recent instances of the president being openly defied by GOP lawmakers.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) openly condemned President Donald Trump’s push for GOP-controlled states to redraw their congressional districts Sunday – laying equal blame on Democratic Party leaders’ retaliatory efforts like in California – and warned that continued gerrymandering could ultimately “lead to violence.”

Trump launched what some have referred to as the “redistricting wars” in June when he encouraged Texas state lawmakers to approve new congressional maps, and in a manner that the Trump administration hoped would give the GOP five additional House seats. That push sparked a wave of mid-decade redistricting efforts in both GOP and Dem-controlled states, and one that Paul warned could produce deadly results.

Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, faced an emotional and pointed question during a CBS News town hall on Saturday night when a Utah student urged her to condemn violent political rhetoric from President Donald Trump. The question came from Hunter Kozak, the last person to speak to Kirk before his assassination at a campus event. Kozak acknowledged Erika Kirk’s calls for peace but pressed her to use her platform to urge Trump — whom he described as “the most powerful and influential person on earth” — to lower the temperature surrounding political violence.

Asked directly whether she would condemn Trump’s rhetoric, Erika Kirk declined to single out the president, instead emphasizing her personal opposition to violence and shifting the focus to family and individual responsibility. “No, I will never agree with political violence,” she said, adding that what people absorb from the outside world can influence behavior. Her response, while reiterating a rejection of violence, stopped short of addressing Trump’s specific statements, highlighting the ongoing tension over political rhetoric in the aftermath of her husband’s killing.