White House trade adviser Peter Navarro had harsh words for conservatives who have condemned President Trump for his role in the storming of the Capitol by his own supporters.
As Congress began its joint session on Wednesday to certify the Electoral College for President-elect Joe Biden, a swath of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the session at the president’s insistence. The chaos resulted in five deaths, countless injuries, destruction of federal property, dozens of arrests, and a lockdown of the Capitol, but it did not stop Congress from certifying the results.
Conservatives such as Sens. Lindsey Graham and Mitt Romney and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley “just need to shut up” with their criticism of the president, Navarro said.
“What I see now, the Nikki Haleys and Mitt Romneys, even Lindsey Graham, these people just need to shut up,” he told Fox Business’s Charles Payne on Friday. “What happened was tragic on Capitol Hill. It should not be laid at the feet of President Donald J. Trump.”
The president put out calls for his supporters to stop as the insurgence was happening, but he also said that he loved his supporters who descended upon the Capitol. He later issued a statement condemning the events, but it has not stopped an onslaught of criticism from across the political aisle.
Trump encouraged his supporters to go to the Capitol during his speech at the Save America rally, which occurred Wednesday morning. He repeated a litany of unsubstantiated claims that he actually won the election and that it had been stolen from him, and the president also inaccurately told his supporters that Vice President Mike Pence had the constitutional authority to overturn the results.
“All the president has been doing since Nov. 3, as I document in two reports, ‘The Immaculate Deception’ and ‘The Art of The Steal,’ is get to the bottom of what half of this country thinks was a stolen election,” Navarro added, referencing two reports he wrote since the election in which he detailed his unsubstantiated theories of election fraud.
He also affirmed that he will remain in his position until the inauguration, even as there has been an exodus from the White House after rioting on Capitol Hill.
