Two days after being impeached for the second time, Donald Trump continues to receive criticism from within his own administration.
Following the unsuccessful insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, three cabinet officials resigned: Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.
His top economic advisor joined the chorus of criticism during an 80-minute interview with The Wall Street Journal.
"I was hoping that he would come out quickly and make statements calling everybody back and stopping the violence," White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said.
"Once the electoral college declared Mr. Biden to be president-elect, we would have been better advised to acknowledge that and to pivot toward talking about our positive achievements and the policies that generated those policy achievements," Kudlow explained.
Kudlow was asked about Trump's public criticism of Vice President Mike Pence.
"I was very disappointed in the president," Kudlow said of his boss. "The vice president's legal experts were very clear in providing Mike with the knowledge that he had a very, very limited role in the congressional certification of the electors, and virtually, except for a few extremists, the entire legal profession agreed with Pence."
Kudlow also commented on Trump's refusal to push masks during the coronavirus pandemic.
"I don't think it helped the election and I don't think it helped solve Covid," he said. "I was not the only one who gave him that advice, by the way, on the economic team."
A Republican congressman on Saturday avoided directly answering a question on the GOP's credibility when it comes to the debt ceiling.
Rep. Tim Burchett, of Tennessee, appeared on CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta, and was asked about issues surrounding the debt ceiling. While Burchett said the debt ceiling debate was plagued by "rumors" about what might be in the final deal, he noted that he does believe negotiators are "close" to reaching one.
"I feel like they're close to a deal but they're not quite there," he told Acosta. "I think a lot of the rumors going on are made to scare people. You have people in their 20s, basically, in the White House putting things out that aren't accurate, and just things that they would like to see in it. I think speaker McCarthy is keeping to his word in what he said in the things that he put in there and that he'd like to keep in there. I think those are still in there."
Burchett added that his side will "spin" the White House's demands to resonate with their constituents.
"The Democrats are really pushing -- their side is more IRS agents. That's how we'll spin it," he said. "More IRS agents, more regulation and, you know, more spending. So, I think they're -- I think Kevin McCarthy is in a very powerful position right now."
IN OTHER NEWS: Charlie Kirk's group works with sex offender despite Kirk's 'groomer' claims against Target: report
But when Acosta asked Burchett about the credibility of the GOP on this discussion, reciting a quote from then-President Trump, who had promised to pay down the debt, Burchett was less than forthcoming.
"We're all at blame, Jim. You know, I voted against -- under Trump I voted against the budgets, actually, under him. I have a record -- a track record of that, you know?" he said. "Some people have the mentality of just paying the interest. I don't. We're Tennessee, we pay our debt. We're a balanced budget state. We balanced the budget every year. It's a reality that both parties are upping up and they call it one thing or the other."
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Charlie Kirk, the founder of the right-wing group Turning Point USA, recently accused Target of "grooming" kids by offering Pride youth apparel. Yet that reportedly hasn't stop his organization from being bankrolled by a registered sex offender, new reporting reveals.
Rolling Stone reported that Shawn Bergstrand is a "benefactor" of Kirk, and that his criminal history "opens up TPUSA to charges of hypocrisy."
"Rolling Stone has learned that one of the TPUSA summit’s corporate sponsors is a Christian fashion company that is led by a registered sex offender, Shawn Bergstrand, who served time in federal prison for attempted 'coercion and enticement' after trying to persuade 'a minor female' to 'engage in sexual activity,'" it wrote.
For its part, the organization said it wasn't aware of the "incident," but also provided a type of defense for the apparent hypocrisy.
"In a statement to Rolling Stone, TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said that TPUSA Faith 'was not aware of this incident' but emphasized that, as an 'exhibit sponsor,' Bergstrand was not a speaker, organizer, or 'professing doctrine from the stage,'" the report states.
IN OTHER NEWS: Stewart Rhodes' sentencing rant 'unwittingly' exposed 'deepening rift' among right-wingers: extremism expert
Going even further, the CEO appeared to lean on the tenets of the Christian faith:
“One of the core tenants of the Christian faith is forgiveness rooted in repentance. After discussing the issue with him, we believe [it] was critical to bringing him to faith,” Kolvet added, the report shows. “He doesn’t hide from what happened, he instead posts his testimony online on his company website. TPUSA Faith will not toss away a repentant, decent person because of a mistake that happened over a decade before, or because a leftwing outlet wants to write a hit piece on the amazing work our team is doing.”
"Kolvet included a reference to Colossians 3:13, a Bible verse that reads, in part, 'Forgive as the Lord forgave you," according to the news report.
According to extremism expert Juliette Kayyem, during Oath Keeper head Stewart Rhodes' rant before he was sentenced to 18 years in prison on sedition charges he threw fellow right-wing extremists under the bus.
As she notes, Rhodes' rage-filled diatribe and defense of his actions leading up to the Jan. 6th insurrection revealed a growing schism among extremist groups.
In her column for The Atlantic, she wrote, "Rhodes also unwittingly revealed deepening fissures in the far-right movement that, two years ago, resorted to violence to keep Donald Trump in the White House. The defendant used some of his time to distance himself from the Proud Boys, another extremist organization, with whom he had met in the days before the insurrection."
With his attack on the Proud Boys, she wrote, Rhodes was announcing to the world, "I’ve been misunderstood. The Proud Boys are the ones you want."
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As Kayyem explained, the growing mistrust between far-right groups is a bonus for Americans.
Writing that "the rift appears to be deepening," she added, "On January 6, a variety of groups put aside their differences, but solidarity is difficult to sustain. As prosecutions continue and participants in the insurrection try to save themselves, divisions within the far right over ideology and strategy—as well as conflicts driven by pure ego—are reasserting themselves."
"Over time, mismanagement and general pettiness distract many extremist groups from their cause. Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State similarly devolved into catfights as they lost on battlefields," she elaborated. "Rhodes, who imagines himself an intellectual, appears to feel tarnished by alliances with mere racists. That he would defend himself in court by complaining about the Proud Boys signals to would-be followers that he’s self-absorbed, not that he’s sacrificing himself for noble cause. An effective way to combat right-wing extremism is to put its leaders’ selfishness on display."
She added hopefully, "In the meantime, let the infighting continue."
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