Free Republic

The Jan. 6 committee takes its place alongside the Watergate panel, the Truman committee and a few other congressional investigations that leave a profound historical mark. While unique, it’s a case study in how to conduct a serious investigation. The careful, exhaustive and private preparation of interviews and gathering evidence set the stage for the compelling public hearings — which left no doubt that the President of the United States attempted a coup to remain in power and sabotage democracy. The panel, led by Democratic chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Republican Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), showed that the Jan. 6 deadly...

Democratic strategist James Carville cursed out unvaccinated individuals on his podcast last week, saying anyone without a vaccine was a "piece of ----" and he wanted to punch them in the face. On Thursday's "Politics War Room with James Carville & Al Hunt," Carville and Hunt took a listener question wondering why President Biden would not pass a bill that bars unvaccinated citizens from interstate travel. "I wouldn’t be against that at all. I’d be for it actually, as long as you put ‘or testing.’ Before you get on a plane or bus or interstate train, you want to be...

Following Chief of Staff Ron Klain's logic, 1929 wasn't all bad if you somehow overlook the stock market crash that led to a 10-year global depression. And 1968 wasn't all bad if you overlook the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, and riots in the streets all over America. Likewise, 2021 wasn't all bad if you overlook a plethora of problems. So who would write the latter article? None other than liberal shillmeister Al Hunt. And what is really funny is that Hunt's article, which was originally published in The Hill...

Al Hunt, Bloomberg News' former Washington editor and one of the organization's most visible faces in politics until his 2018 exit, was accused over the course of years by multiple women of giving unsolicited massages and verbally berating employees for minor infractions, Business Insider has learned. Despite at least two financial settlements with women who complained about the editor, he continued in his position for years, sources said. That's one of the findings in a weeks-long investigation conducted by Business Insider into the company's culture. The investigation involved interviews with more than 40 current and former Bloomberg LP employees and...

A CNN poll last week showed that most Americans think Barack Obama was a better president than Donald Trump has been. The margin was huge: 19 percentage points. Trump supporters will yell “fake news,” but they’ll be wrong. Respondents to the same survey thought Hillary Clinton would have been a better president than Trump, but only by three percentage points. By comparison, she bested Trump in the 2016 popular vote by 2.1 percentage points. The wide preference for Obama over Trump (and Clinton) has little relationship to public attitudes toward policies on taxes, health care or Iran policy. (Obama and...

Has Al Hunt never having heard of de mortuis nil nisi bonum? On the day she was laid to rest, Hunt has repeatedly said that Nancy Reagan "was not a good mother." Interviewed by John Heilemann on today's With All Due Respect, here was Hunt: "she was a formidable person. Sometimes unpleasant, not a great mother, but she loved her Ronnie and had great political instincts . . . She was not a good mother. I think actually Patti Davis, as moving as she was today, if you really listened to it, all was clear: she was not a good...

Members of the Morning Joe panel got a good laugh today as Al Hunt reported on anguish in establishment GOP ranks. Hunt said that he "was at an event Saturday night with a lot of establishment Republicans and some Rubio people and despair so understates the case. [ Laughter ] I -- really, I've never seen anything like it. There was a lot of heavy drinking" after that. A bit later, Hunt imagined a scenario in which someone informs Mitch McConnell that they had figured out a way to stop Trump: with Ted Cruz, "at which point Mitch has a...

Al Hunt did stop short of predicting something so horrible it could never happen in America--federal marshals armed with assault weapons hunting down children cowering in closets to forcibly return them to a Communist dictatorship. Oh, wait, that really did happen, under President Bill Clinton, when Elian Gonzalez was returned to Cuba at the point of a gun. On today's Morning Joe, an Al Hunt on the verge of hysteria predicted that Donald Trump's immigration plan would lead to "federal raids on maternity wards." He claimed that implementing the plan would cost "11 trillion dollars," which assuming 11 million illegals...

Prediction: Al Hunt will pay no price for calling Donald Trump the "Caityln Jenner of American politics." But can you imagine the outraged reaction on the left if a conservative commentator had said something similar about Hillary for her changing positions on everything from the Iraq war to gay marriage? Reacting to Hunt's crack on Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough told Hunt "I think I can get you a job at Fox," an allusion to the tough questioning to which the Fox News panel subjected Trump last night. View the video here.

Liberal media types like Al Hunt haven't called Donald Trump a Hitler. Yet. But Judy Woodruff's husband has branded Trump a modern-day version of an iconic personification of racism. On today's Morning Joe, Hunt declared that Trump is "George Curley Wallace, 40 years later." View the video here.

Is Al Hunt the most oblivious man in Washington, or was he just not telling the truth? On today's Morning Joe, lauding Bob Schieffer upon his retirement, Hunt actually said "I have no idea what Bob Schieffer's politics are." No idea? Really? Maybe Al hasn't been watching Scheiffer, but NewsBusters and its parent MRC have. Take a look at this link for a compilation of Bob's greatest hits on Republicans and his gushing praise of Democrats. Then come back and see us, Al, and let us know whether you now have an idea of Schieffer's politics. View the video here.

It brings to mind that old narcissistic boast: I've never been wrong except that one time when I thought I was wrong. In the current case, we have Al Hunt playing the role of President Obama's alter ego. Hunt the Hilarious made his curious claim on today's Morning Joe after a clip was rolled of President Obama, just last year, saying that were he to grant amnesty to illegals "I would be ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally." Responded Hunt: "I don't agree with his analysis back then. I think...

Let's break out the old standard: if Barack Obama has lost Al Hunt, he's lost America—or at least the liberal-media part. On today's Morning Joe, discussing the James Rosen outrage, Hunt called President Obama "no better than Richard Nixon" when it comes to the press. He then strongly suggested that Attorney General Eric Holder should go. View the video here.

Al Hunt prefaced his remark by describing the issue of ethnicity and IQ as a "swamp". But did he then proceed to wade right into it? Morning Joe today took up the topic of the flap over a report on immigration produced by the Heritage Foundation. The panel's particular focus was a statement by report co-author Jason Richwine contained in his Harvard dissertation that "the average IQ of immigrants is substantially lower than that of native whites." Rather than rejecting the notion out of hand, Hunt asked "is that true of Asian immigrants? Is that true of all immigrants?" Ruh-roh!...

Ronald Reagan's memory is being defamed in an effort to defend a Democrat attorney general caught lying about his military service. The tactic has deep roots on the left. On Thanksgiving in 2003, President Bush made a surprise visit to troops in Iraq. The initial wildly enthusiastic public response to Bush's visit was dampened by reports that the roast turkey the president held for photographers was fake. The stories turned out to be erroneous, and newspapers subsequently issued corrections. But the damage was done, and the "plastic turkey" story persisted for years. A potentially inspiring moment for Bush's presidency instead...

On today’s Meet the Press, moderator David Gregory seemed surprisingly sympathetic to Rick Santelli’s epic, on-air denunciation of Pres. Obama’s plan that would force responsible homeowners to bail out the others. In contrast, Al Hunt played the part of the predictable liberal to perfection, dismissing Santelli’s soliloquy as “sophomoric.” Gregory aired a clip of White House press secretary Robert Gibbs’ contemptuous comments about Santelli, including the bit in which Gibbs holds up a copy of the president’s plan and sneeringly suggests Santelli print it off and read it. Gregory indicated he had indeed read the plan–then explained why Santelli and...

Manchester – When a piece of chicken got stuck in journalist Al Hunt's windpipe Friday night, Sen. John Sununu came to the rescue. "John was terrific," said Hunt, 65, executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News. "He quickly jumped up, put his arms around me, did the (Heimlich) maneuver. Within about two seconds, it came out." Hunt and Sununu were sitting next to each other Friday night at the Hanover Street Chop House in downtown Manchester. The table was packed with powerbrokers, politicians and prominent journalists, including columnist Bob Novak, New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson and Hunt's wife,...

I've noticed that Al Hunt replaced Mark Shields as the moderator of "Capital Gang." Does anyone know why? I doubt that this show is even watched by most Freepers. I watch it because I really like what Kate O'beirne has to say and usually Robert Novak. I generally manage to watch it a few minutes before I develop an incredible urge to up-chuck due to some gloating or sarcastic comment from the two libs. Is there some sort of rift between Hunt and Shields? Just curious.

In 1993, I had lunch with The Wall Street Journal's editorial-page editor, Bob Bartley, to discuss launching what he envisioned as a contrarian column. With Bob, who passed away a year ago, small talk never was easy. But he was very smart and had lots of views about column writing and what would work. It made sense, I replied, but noted there were areas where I shared the editorial page's viewpoint, free trade for example. "In all due respect," my taciturn luncheon partner replied, "if I want a column on free trade, I can do better than you."

He'll (Bush) have even less (support) if Iraq continues to deteriorate. The official line that we're making progress and it'll get much better after the Jan. 30 elections has no credibility. This week the New York Times revealed a bleak picture painted by a classified cable from the CIA's Baghdad station chief. Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, after a recent trip to Iraq, said some areas are actually more dangerous than a few months ago. The early line on training Iraqis to take over the security tasks is not encouraging. "Peter Galbraith, a serious student of the Iraqis and Kurds, just...