Religion & Politics

On Saturday, MarketWatch reported that after President Donald Trump leaves office on January 20, he could run into immediate problems if he needs to take out new loans for his business empire.

"Concerns about President Trump's ability to obtain debt on his bread-and-butter real-estate business follow a dramatic final two months of his presidency that reached a low point on Wednesday when hundreds of rioters, pushing past security barriers and security, breached the Capitol as lawmakers were going through the typically ceremonial procedure of confirming President-elect Joe Biden's win over Trump," reported Joy Wiltermuth. "The violent storming of the Capitol, which resulted in the death of four people and the ransacking of the seat of government, followed a rally where Trump urged his supporters to head to the Capitol and 'fight.'"

President historian Michael Beschloss on Saturday explained that the U.S. Constitution has a provision to prevent people like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) from serving in office.

"First of all, has this ever happened before in the United States?" MSNBC's Alex Witt asked. "Has a sitting president been delighted by scenes of chaos and carnage?"

The editorial board for the Houston Chronicle is now calling for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to resign from office after he led Republican efforts to invalidate the Electoral College certification.

The Chronicle, a stark critic of the Texas senator, published an editorial expressing concern about his role in the spread of misinformation about the presidential election which ultimately contributed to Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol.

Longtime Donald Trump "fixer" Michael Cohen predicted the possibility of a violent uprising at the U.S. Capitol over a year ago during testimony before Congress, but now fears there is nobody who can stop the president from inciting more violence.

Cohen was interviewed on Saturday by MSNBC's Alex Witt, who played a clip of his 2019 testimony before Congress.

On MSNBC Saturday, former Republican Congressional adviser Kurt Bardella demanded legal action against President Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the election and incite insurrection — and suggested if Trump is held to account, he'll have a hard time finding a lawyer.

"Our justice system is on the line here," said Bardella. "If he is not held accountable for all of the crimes that he has committed over the last four years — heck, we just found out there was another phone call that he made in Georgia trying to undermine the election and commit sedition — if there is not consequences legally, our justice system doesn't mean anything."

There is a multitude of reasons why President Donald Trump is at the center of heightened controversy following his "Save America" rally that, subsequently, contributed to his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6.

While many legal experts have expressed concern about Trump pardoning himself, one ex-prosecutor has expressed concern about another possibility: how the president could grant pardons to his supporters who are facing criminal charges for their involvement in the U.S. Capitol siege.

On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump called the top elections investigator in Georgia and demanded he "find the fraud" and be a "national hero" — an interaction some legal experts believe opens him up to new charges of obstruction of justice.

"Trump placed the call to the investigations chief for the Georgia secretary of state's office shortly before Christmas — while the individual was leading an inquiry into allegations of ballot fraud in Cobb County, in the suburbs of Atlanta, according to people familiar with the episode," reported Amy Gardner. "The president's attempts to intervene in an ongoing investigation could amount to obstruction of justice or other criminal violations, legal experts said, though they cautioned a case could be difficult to prove."

On CNN Saturday, commentator Brian Stelter broke down the significance of outgoing President Donald Trump losing his signature social media accounts two weeks away from his departure from office.

"Twitter has been under tremendous pressure from its own staff to take this step," said Stelter. "And frankly, it's a lot easier to do it in the final few days of the Trump administration than it would have been to do this a year or two ago. So Twitter is receiving some credit and also a lot of blame for not doing this sooner and blame from Trump supporters who are going to feel even more isolated."