Free Republic

When Amanda Berg heard reports that President Donald Trump mocked the accents of the leaders of South Korea and Japan at a recent fundraiser, it brought back painful memories from her childhood. Berg, a Korean American who grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado, recalled kids doing the “stereotypical pulling at the eyes and the mocking accent.” It made her feel like she was a foreigner in her own community. Berg, a registered Democrat, is among a growing and crucial bloc of Asian American voters leaning further to the left in the age of Trump, and his stunt, reported by the...

From Cincinnati, the Associated Press reported that 24-year-old Connor Betts [the young man responsible for the mass shooting] “opened fire with an assault-style rifle.” (See: “The Latest: Dayton Shooters’ Friend Will Stay In Jail,” apnews.com, Aug. 15.) My question is: “So freaking what?” Would it have made a difference if he had cut loose with baked-bean farts and rotten eggs that resulted in the asphyxiation of the nine murdered and 27 wounded? Would it have made a difference if he had used a six-shot revolver that fired .22 bullets? I don’t know who wrote the Associated Press piece, but it’s...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — In a barn down a gravel road in Iowa,Joe Biden tore into President Donald Trump’s moral character,declaring in one of the fiercest speeches of his campaign that the words of the American president matter.

Suburban women recoil as Trump dives into racial politics ROOKFIELD, Wis. (AP) — Carol Evans approves of Donald Trump’s immigration policy. She gives him credit for the strong economy. But the Republican from the affluent Milwaukee suburbs of Waukesha County, a GOP bedrock in the state, just can’t commit to voting for the president next year like she did in 2016. “I just don’t like the way he talks about other people,” Evans, a 79-year-old retired data entry supervisor, said recently as she walked through a shopping mall in Brookfield, Wisconsin, days after Trump fired off a racist tweet at...

DETROIT (AP) — A high-profile clash pitting pragmatism against ideological purity dominated the early moments of the second round of presidential debates on Tuesday as moderate Democrats warned voters against nominating liberal candidates who embrace “wish-list economics.”

Upping a feud with an influential black lawmaker, President Donald Trump on Sunday assailed Rep. Elijah Cummings as a “racist” over the “rodent-infested mess” in his district while White House aides sought to downplay his comments as frustration over Democrats’ unrelenting investigations. In a series of tweets, Trump insisted that his comments Saturday referring to Cummings’ majority-black district as a disgusting mess where “no human being would want to live” were not racist. On the contrary, Trump argued, “if racist Elijah Cummings would focus more of his energy on helping the good people of his district, and Baltimore itself, perhaps...

<p>A veteran Arizona legislator is apologizing while defending herself from criticism for comments she made on immigration and birth rates.</p> <p>The Phoenix New Times posted audio of a July 15 speech during which state Sen. Sylvia Allen said a flood of immigration and low birth rates among whites amid a lack cultural assimilation mean “we’re going to look like South American countries very quickly.”</p>

Pope Francis is hoping that the 50th anniversary of the first moon walk inspires efforts to help our “common home” on Earth. […] He expressed hope that the memory of “that great step for humanity” would spark the desire for progress on other fronts: “more dignity for the weak, more justice among people, more future for our common home.” …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Joe Biden was at a soul food restaurant in Los Angeles on Thursday when he blasted President Donald Trump’s “racist” taunts at a rally the night before. “This is about dividing the country,” the early Democratic front-runner, who has been criticized for his own handling of race, told reporters. “This is about dividing and raising the issue of racism across the country because that’s his base, that’s what he’s pushing.” But Michael Fisher, an African American pastor from Compton who attended the event, warned Democrats to ignore Trump.

Kamala Harris bemoaned the influence of the powerful and connected elite last Tuesday when she called on top Justice Department officials to recuse themselves from any matter related to Jeffrey Epstein. She said their former law firm’s work on behalf of the financier accused of sexual abuse “calls into question the integrity of our legal system.” Yet the same day, Harris’ husband headlined a Chicago fundraiser for her presidential campaign that was hosted by six partners of that firm — Kirkland and Ellis, according to an invitation obtained by The Associated Press.

Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris ripped a law firm’s work on a controversial plea deal involving deep-pocketed pedophile Jeffrey Epstein — the same day she took money from some of its attorneys at a fundraiser. Harris had no problem allowing six partners from the firm, Kirkland & Ellis, help raise dough for her campaign last week by hosting the Chicago event — which even featured her husband, lawyer Douglas Emhoff, the Associated Press reported. Yet the same day, she joined several other presidential contenders in blasting the 2008 plea deal that the law firm helped negotiate for Epstein, which allowed him...

A U.K. newspaper has published more leaked memos revealing a British ambassador’s blunt assessments of the Trump administration, including one in which the envoy to Washington claimed President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal to spite predecessor Barack Obama. In the May 2018 cable published by the Mail on Sunday, U.K. Ambassador Kim Darroch called Trump’s decision to abandon the international accord “an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons” because the pact “was Obama’s deal.” Darroch wrote the memo after then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited Washington in a failed attempt to persuade the...

The solid economy is doing little to bolster support for President Donald Trump. Americans give Trump mixed reviews for his economic stewardship despite the growth achieved during this presidency, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Nearly two-thirds describe as “good” an economy that appears to have set a record for the longest expansion in U.S. history, with decade-long growth that began under Barack Obama. More people consider the economy to be good today than did at the start of the year. But significantly fewer approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, even...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Pete Buttigieg, who hopes to become the first openly gay presidential nominee from a major political party, said at an LGBTQ event Saturday that activists must band together to deny President Donald Trump a second term. "We've got a lot to worry about, a lot to fight for, but we have the means to do it," he said. The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, stressed the need for people to vote and to become involved in politics. Speaking before an audience gathered for Des Moines LGBTQ pride festivities in front of the Iowa statehouse,...

LONDON — President Donald Trump has waded into the most controversial issue in British politics by urging the U.K. government to leave the European Union without a deal if it can’t get better terms from EU leaders. Trump told the Sunday Times in an interview published Sunday that Britain should “walk away” from talks and refuse to pay a 39 billion pound ($49 billion) divorce bill if it doesn’t get better terms from the EU. The president also says Brexit party leader Nigel Farage should be given a role in the negotiations. The comments come just before Trump begins a...

Without saying his name, Hillary Clinton assailed President Donald Trump during a commencement speech in New York on Wednesday, saying the president should be held accountable for defying Congress and ignoring special counsel Robert Mueller's findings on Russian attempts to interfere in U.S. elections. Clinton's bluntly political speech to members of the class of 2019 at Hunter College was delivered at Madison Square Garden hours after Mueller made his first public comments about his probe into election meddling. Referencing Mueller's remarks, Clinton said the allegation that Russians had attempted to sway U.S. voters "deserves the attention of every American," and...

The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee is sounding the alarm about the new powers that President Donald Trump has granted to Attorney General William Barr. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, in a letter obtained by The Associated Press, said he fears Trump is giving Barr “the right to selectively declassify certain information for purposes of political gain.” He asked that the leaders of the nation’s spy agencies contact lawmakers if Barr’s investigation threatens their work. Trump last week granted Barr the power to review and potentially release classified information as he analyzes the origins of the FBI’s Russia...

President Trump might be openly hostile to the mainstream media, but it was the Obama administration that was engaged in a widespread effort to thwart the media. Which do you think is more harmful to a free press? The full extent of Obama’s actions against the press are only now coming to light. The Columbia Journalism Review reports on a newly released government document showing that the Obama Justice Department engaged in a far more sweeping effort to spy on the Associated Press than previously believed. “In 2013, the Justice Department launched a brazen attack on press freedom,” the CJR...

Intelligence professionals warned Friday that President Donald Trump’s decision to give his loyal attorney general carte blanche to disclose still-secret material from the Russia investigation will let William Barr cherry-pick intelligence to paint a misleading picture about what started the probe. The president claims his campaign was spied upon, though Trump administration officials have said they have no specific evidence that anything illegal was done when the campaign came under FBI surveillance that was approved by a court. On Thursday, Trump gave Barr full authority to publicly disclose information about the origins of the investigation the president has repeatedly dismissed...

“Party of Five,” a 1990s teen drama that focused on a family grappling with life after the death of their parents, is getting a reboot with a Mexican American family whose parents are deported. Disney announced this month that the Sony Pictures Television retooled Generation X-era show will air on the Freeform network and will star a Latino cast. The new series is headed by the show’s original creators Amy Lippman and Christopher Keyser and comes as millions of Latinos in the U.S. wrestle with the uncertainty around deportations and aggressive immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. The original series,...