By Michael A. Memoli

Tribune Washington Bureau

LYNCHBURG, Va. —President Donald Trump Saturday lashed out at “pathetic” critics and the establishment class he charges with trying to block his path.

Speaking to graduates at Liberty University, Trump returned to his outsider message. He spoke about challenging the Washington order as he struggles with a political crisis that has intensified with his contradictory explanations for his firing FBI Director James Comey.

“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 has admitted that Comey’s investigation into Russian connections to Trump’s inner circle was a factor in his decision to fire the FBI director. Trump’s threatening Twitter post warning Comey that he may have recorded private conversations between the two has intensified concerns among both Republicans and Democrats about whether Trump is working to undermine the independence of the nation’s top law enforcement agency.

But Saturday, the president 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 Tuesday.