On MSNBC Monday, historian Michael Beschloss compared outgoing President Donald Trump to Herbert Hoover — unfavorably.
"[Trump] makes Herbert Hoover look like Mother Teresa," said Beschloss. "Hoover was personally a very compassionate person ... you want someone as president who has compassion and empathy," and merely disagreed with Franklin Roosevelt on the federal government's responsibilities in the Depression.
Trump, by contrast, he argued, doesn't even have that compassion on a personal level.
"Donald Trump is the kind of person that we have never, ever seen before in the presidency, and I hope we never, ever see again," added Beschloss. "When you have a president who has no empathy, who has no compassion, you see a spectacle like what we've seen this week."
In what could be construed as a testing of the waters for a presidential run, former New Jersey Gov. Christ Christie took aim at three potential rivals for the GOP's 2024 nomination during a town hall in the key state of New Hampshire on Monday nightday night.
Speaking at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, the former governor, who now toils as an ABC political commentator, suggested someone needs to bump Donald Trump off his pedestal as the GOP frontrunner while hinting he is just the man for the job, USA Today is reporting.
While taking shots at the former president, he first told the crowd, "You have to be fearless because he will come right back at you. So you need to think about who's got the skill to do that and who's got the guts to do that because it's not going to end nicely. No matter what, his end will not be calm and quiet."
He then added, "The only person he cares about is him. If we haven't learned that since Election Day 2020 until today, we're not paying attention," before taking on former vice president Mike Pence for not calling out Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection.
According to USA Today's report, "Christie took issue with Pence saying he would let the American people decide whether Trump's call to suspend the Constitution to overturn an election was disqualifying for the presidency."
"Who needs him?" he exclaimed to the crowd before stating, "If it's up to the American people to decide, then stand out of the way and don't pretend to be a leader."
The shooter who murdered three young students and three faculty at the private Covenant Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee "personalized" the guns used in the attack, say Nashville police, who released photos of the weapons, according to The Daily Beast.
The killer was identified by police as 28-year-old Audrey Hale — a former student at the Covenant School who recently began using "he/him" pronouns and goes by the name "Aiden" on some social media platforms.
"An AR-style rifle, a pistol, and a handgun were all included in a number of pieces of evidence released by police Monday night, including CCTV footage showing the suspect, who was identified by the Metro Nashville Police Department as Nashville resident Audrey Hale," reported Matt Young. "The photos show Hale had personalized the guns, with one of the firearms seen clearly with the name 'Aiden' on it ... The guns are also decorated with stickers."
"A release from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said writings recovered from Hale revealed that her attack was calculated and planned, while a search warrant executed at Hale’s home resulted in the seizure of a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun, and other evidence," said the report.
This comes after another report that Hale had messaged a friend minutes before the attack began, saying, “You’ll probably hear about me on the news after I die.”
Police have not yet publicly identified a motivation, but have said that Hale left behind a "manifesto" that also included another possible target.
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) says there's nothing the 535 elected officials in the House and Senate can do to reduce gun violence and gun deaths.
"We're not gonna fix it," Congressman Burchett said on the steps of the Capitol.
"I don't see any role that we could do other than mess things up, honestly," he said in response to Monday's school mass shooting in Nashville, where three nine-year olds and three adults were shot to death by a shooter with two AR-15 style assault rifles and a handgun.
Instead of Congress enacting stricter gun laws, background checks, and a ban on assault weapons, Congressman Burchett said, "you've got to change people's hearts," as he called for a Christian revival.
"As a Christian, we talk about the church. I've said this many times, I think we really need a revival in this country."
Monday's shooting at the Covenant Presbyterian Elementary School was the 130th mass shooting this year in America, bringing the death toll from all gun violence across all causes to 9989, including 403 children 17 or younger, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Congressman Burchett is a member of the far-right Republican Study Committee, which has strong ties to the National Rifle Association (NRA).
On Monday, Burchett released a statement saying, "Kelly and I are praying for everyone at The Covenant School, especially the families of the shooting victims. No one should have to go through that kind of horrific event or lose a loved one like that. I'm so thankful to those brave folks who brought down the shooter and took care of the students and their families."
