Embattled Trump lashes out at ‘pathetic’ critics and ‘broken’ system

Reporting from LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA —  In a respite from the tumult in Washington he set off with the firing of his FBI director this week, an embattled President Trump on Saturday lashed out at “pathetic” critics and the establishment class he charges with trying to block his path.

Speaking to graduates at Liberty University, the president returned to his outsider message. He spoke defiantly about challenging the Washington order as he grapples with a political crisis that has intensified amid his administration’s contradictory explanations for the FBI shake-up.

“I’ve seen firsthand how the system is broken,” Trump said, and how a “small group of failed voices” attempts to dictate how to live and how to think.

“No one has ever achieved anything significant without a chorus of critics standing on the sidelines explaining why it can’t be done,” Trump said. “Nothing is easier or more pathetic than being a critic, because they’re people that can’t get the job done. But the future belongs to the dreamers, not to the critics.”

Trump is struggling to contain the fallout from his firing of FBI Director James Comey amid the president’s admission that Comey’s investigation into Russian connections to Trump’s inner circle was a factor. Trump’s threatening tweet warning Comey that he may have taped private conversations between the two of them has intensified concerns on both sides of the aisle about whether Trump is working to undermine the independence of the nation’s top law enforcement agency.

But on Saturday, he talked of courage of conviction and how those who lack it don’t have “the guts or the stamina” to do what’s right. “Being an outsider is fine. Embrace the label,” Trump said. “Because it’s the outsiders who change the world and who make a real and lasting difference.”

The speech was Trump’s first public appearance outside the White House since Comey’s firing on Tuesday. On Saturday, officials from the Department of Justice were set to interview several candidates to replace Comey, who served less than half of the 10-year term he began after being nominated by President Obama and being overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate in 2013.

Trump told reporters he could make a “fast decision,” before he leaves for his first foreign trip on Friday.

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