Karl Rove and Chris Christie slam Trump allies Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell on Fox News

"The GOP is plunging into open warfare over President-elect Joe Biden's election victory" and President Trump's "increasing embrace of conspiracy theorists as the defeated president and his most ardent allies continue to plot efforts to subvert the outcome of the Nov. 3 election," The Washington Post reports. "Advisers and allies who have called Trump to check in or wish him a merry Christmas have been encouraged to go on TV and fight for him amid complaints that others are not doing so."

Two Trump allies, veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), did go on Fox News on Tuesday, but not to back Trump's election fraud conspiracies or the most prominent figures enabling him, fringy lawyer Sidney Powell and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Trump is "intrigued" by Powell's conspiracies, one person told the Post, but others around him are telling him "it's crazy and she has no idea what she's talking about."

Flynn's suggestion to send the military to force a handful of states to redo their elections is "an idiotic idea," Rove told Fox's John Roberts. "There's no ability for any president to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1803, claiming that the issue has got to do with the hubbub around the election." Flynn is "at the bottom of the list" of people who should be advising Trump about politics, he added, and as for Powell, "what she has done to sort of throw mud on the president through her antics is unbelievable," Rove added. "The president has been so ill-served by this crowd, and she's chief among them."

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Christie agreed about Flynn and told Fox News' Martha MacCallum that the push by Powell and her allies to try to overturn Biden's win "is a very, very dangerous thing." Peter Weber