Free Republic

A number of House Republicans are privately bashing former President Trump’s selection of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, warning that the pick will not help — and could hurt — the party’s chances of winning in November. The Republicans, speaking to The Hill on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic, raised concerns about Vance’s foreign policy positions, lack of experience and inability to expand the Republican coalition beyond Trump’s base. There are, to be sure, plenty of Vance supporters in the House GOP conference, particularly hard-line conservatives — including those in the House Freedom...

Jill Biden is taking a bold stance in secret negotiations regarding President Joe Biden’s potential exit. Her demands for a $2 billion presidential library fund, legal immunity for the Biden family, and a $100 million book deal highlight a dramatic shift in political power dynamics. Discover the high-stakes maneuvers shaping the Biden legacy and the future of American politics. In an unprecedented turn of events, First Lady Jill Biden is reportedly taking a hardline stance in secret negotiations concerning President Joe Biden’s potential exit from office. According to well-placed sources, these high-level discussions have reached a fever pitch, with Jill...

President Joe Biden reportedly believes Hunter Biden is a victim of the weaponization of justice following his gun conviction on Tuesday. A Delaware jury found Hunter guilty of all three gun charges. He faces up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines. The octogenarian pledged last week in France he would not pardon Hunter. He has not, however, spoken about whether he would deliver a commutation. The president feels guilty over Hunter’s legal predicament, two people not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations about Hunter told Politico. They also told the outlet Joe Biden believes he contributed...

Another day, another leak. Special Counsel Jack Smith has uncovered new details about Trump’s so-called ‘inaction’ to stop the protestors on January 6 in a leak to ABC News ahead of Trump’s pitch to the appeals court on immunity claims. President Trump told supporters on January 6 to “peacefully and patriotically” protest. The new hit piece targets Trump’s senior advisor Dan Scavino. “Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has uncovered previously undisclosed details about former President Donald Trump’s refusal to help stop the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol three years ago as he sat watching TV inside the White House,...

The Office of Global Access (OGA) - a wing of the CIA - has played a central role in collecting alien spacecraft since 2003, sources tell DailyMail.com At least nine 'non-human craft' have been recovered by the US government – some wrecked from a crash, and two completely intact A secretive CIA office has been coordinating the retrieval of crashed UFOs around the world for decades One source said that at least nine apparent 'non-human craft' have been recovered by the US government – some wrecked from a crash, and two completely intact. Top Stories by Daily Mail 00:54 Jimmy...

After hundreds of thousands of lives lost and hundreds of billions of dollars spent, American officials have reportedly begun quietly pressuring Ukraine to open peace talks with Russia amid growing concerns about dwindling manpower. Despite Moscow’s overwhelming military advantage over Kyiv in terms of manpower being apparent from the outset of the war — with Russia having three times the population to draw on than Ukraine — officials in the United States are apparently finally realising the impossibility of the former Soviet state defeating Putin’s forces.

The Ukrainian army has lost over 26,000 men and over 3,000 items of military hardware in its failed Spring Counter-Offensive, said Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, including 12 US Bradley fighting vehicles and 17 German Leo II tanks.Since the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive on Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia June 4, Ukraine’s losses “have reached over 26,000 servicemen and 3,000 items of various pieces of armament,” Shoigu said, according to TASS.According to the Russian Defense Minister, Russian troops destroyed 21 planes, five helicopters, 1,244 tanks and other armored vehicles, 17 German-made Leopard tanks, five AMX tanks produced by France and 12...

WASHINGTON — A senior Russian general had advance knowledge of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plans to rebel against Russia’s military leadership, according to U.S. officials briefed on American intelligence on the matter, which has prompted questions about what support the mercenary leader had inside the top ranks.The officials said they are trying to learn if Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the former top Russian commander in Ukraine, helped plan Prigozhin’s actions last weekend, which posed the most dramatic threat to President Vladimir Putin in his 23 years in power.Surovikin is a respected military leader who helped shore up defenses across the battle lines after...

Yevgeny Prigozhin used a false pretext to lead his Wagner Group forces in an armed insurrection against the Russian state, according to a senior U.S. official. Prigozhin had been plotting ways to reverse his fortunes in the face of waning power and came up with a plan to claim his forces had been bombed, which he would then use to justify actions against Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian defense leaders, the senior official said. The precipitating factor for Prigozhin’s military march was the directive that his forces be increasingly incorporated into the Russian military, the official said. Prigozhin...

Ukrainian forces have suffered losses in heavy equipment and soldiers as they met greater than expected resistance from Russian forces in their first attempt to breach Russian lines in the east of the country in recent days, two senior US officials tell CNN.One US official described the losses – which include US supplied MRAP armored personnel vehicles as “significant.”Ukrainian forces managed to overrun some Russian forces in the east around Bakhmut. However, Russian forces, armed with anti-tank missiles, grenades and mortars, have put up “stiff resistance,” with their forces dug into defensive lines that are several layers deep in some...

WASHINGTON — The man accused of ramming a U-Haul truck into barriers near the White House earlier this week isn't a U.S. citizen, authorities said Wednesday. Sai Varshith Kandula, a 19-year-old from suburban St. Louis, wore an orange jail-issued jumpsuit in his brief courtroom appearance — his first since the Monday incident — when prosecutors requested pre-trial detention. A government prosecutor told the court that Kandula is not a citizen or lawful permanent resident. But later on Wednesday, a Department of Justice official clarified the open-court remarks and said Kandula does hold a green card for lawful, permanent U.S. residency....

QORQANYA, Syria — U.S. military officials are walking back claims that a recent strike in Syria killed an influential al-Qaeda figure, following assertions by the dead man’s family that he had no ties to terrorists but was a father of 10 tending to his sheep when he was slain by an American missile.Lotfi Hassan Misto, 56, whose family identified him as the victim of a Hellfire missile attack on May 3, was a former bricklayer who lived quietly in this town in northwest Syria, according to interviews with his brother, son and six others who knew him. They described a...

Many Russian troops are dying in Ukraine because of non-combat issues such as alcohol consumption and poor weapons handling drills, the UK defense ministry said in an intelligence update on Sunday. The ministry estimated that Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties since its invasion of Ukraine over a year ago and that a "significant minority" has not been due to the fighting. A Russian Telegram news channel reported in March that alcohol consumption is a particular issue amongst the deployed Russian troops and that "extremely high" incidents, crimes, and deaths have been linked to it. The ministry noted that...

While President Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have failed, according to a report. US officials told CNN on Tuesday that Russia used a deconfliction line to notify the US in advance of the missile test, which reportedly did not pose a risk to the country. According to the officials, the US did not view the test as an anomaly or an escalation. The test was of a nuclear-capable heavy SARMAT missile, dubbed Satan II by NATO, and classified as a “superweapon” by the head of Russia’s aerospace research agency. US...

During his national address, Putin blamed Western governments for the war in Ukraine, accusing them of ‘letting the genie out of the bottle’ and plunging the world into chaos. He said Ukraine and the West started the war and Russia was “using force to stop it”. "Ukraine and Donbas have become a symbol of total lies," Putin said.

Russia carried out a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have failed while President Joe Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, according to two US officials familiar with the matter. Russia notified the United States in advance of the launch through deconfliction lines, one official said. Another official said that the test did not pose a risk to the United States and that the US did not view the test as an anomaly or an escalation. The test of the heavy SARMAT missile – nicknamed the Satan II in the West and capable of delivering multiple nuclear...

It happened with the Russia hoax, it happened all during Trump’s time in the White House, and it happened again with the Chinese spy balloon. Anonymous sources were once rarely used in journalism. They would only be cited when trying to preserve someone’s physical safety or report on the most sensitive national security matters, and there was an expectation that such unusual sourcing be reviewed by editors and carefully corroborated whenever possible. Now anonymous sourcing has become the norm in reporting and is frequently used as a political weapon to disseminate Democrats’ talking points and smear their enemies. The illicit...

I reported last week that my source from Ukraine, not Russia, was placing the Ukrainian military casualties at 150,000 with 35,000 unaccounted for – missing in action. Including the civilian deaths, over 250,000 people have died. Ukraine is losing the war. With the UK claiming they will now train Ukrainian pilots and provide fighter jets, this is obviously putting the UK at risk and such pilots with a few weeks of training will only crash and burn. Our targets coming into play for April and May are critical. We see major shifts in the financial markets coming even by June....

TOKYO -- Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly a full year ago, attacks against military and civilian targets alike have caused numerous deaths, with no end to the fighting in sight. Intelligence analysts, however, have taken interest in one specific part of the death toll: the number of Russian generals killed in the conflict Generals command hundreds or thousands of soldiers. A larger number of general deaths thus signals a weak military. British media reported in June that over 10 generals had been killed. Japan estimates the total at more than 20, based on intelligence gathered in cooperation with the...

Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to recapture Crimea from Russian troops in the near future, four senior Defense Department officials told House Armed Services Committee lawmakers in a classified briefing. The assessment is sure to frustrate leaders in Kyiv who consider taking the peninsula back one of their signature goals. It’s unclear what led the briefers to that assessment. But the clear indication, as relayed by three people with direct knowledge of Thursday’s briefing’s contents, was that the Pentagon doesn’t believe Ukraine has — or soon will have — the ability to force Russian troops out of the...