Free Republic

South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott said Thursday he would oppose the nomination of Thomas Farr to the federal bench over his links to voter suppression efforts in North Carolina targeting blacks. Scott’s decision assures that President Trump’s nominee will not be confirmed by the Senate, where retiring Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake had already said he would oppose Farr’s nomination. Senate Republicans have a slim 51-49 majority and could not afford to lose more than one vote since all 49 Democrats oppose Trump’s pick. In a statement explaining his decision, Scott, who is black, cited a 1991 Department of...

Senate Republicans on Thursday delayed a vote on one of President Trump's judicial nominees after a determination that they don't yet have to vote to confirm him. The Senate was set to vote at noon on Thomas Farr, who was nominated by President Trump to serve on the federal bench in North Carolina's Eastern District. But that vote was moved until some time next week. Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are still deciding whether to support Farr, a former campaign lawyer for the late Sen. Jesse Helms who has been accused participating in a scheme to suppress...

Confirmation proceedings for President Trump’s judicial nominees have partially stalled on Capitol Hill, as outgoing Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake is standing firm in his vow to oppose all Trump nominations until the Senate votes on legislation to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. Flake, a frequent Trump critic who opted against running for re-election this year, followed through on his threat Wednesday afternoon and joined Democrats in opposing a bid to advance Thomas Farr’s nomination to serve on the federal bench for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Vice President Pence was then forced to break a tie on...

TUCSON, Ariz. – Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents were assaulted during two separate incidents west of Tucson Tuesday. The first assault occurred when agents disrupted a human smuggling attempt south of Three Points. While attempting to arrest four male suspects, one of the men became combative. The 25 year-old Guatemalan national resisted arrest by throwing dirt at an agent’s face, and by swinging his belt and affixed buckle, attempting to strike the agent. After a struggle, the man was handcuffed by assisting agents and placed in a service vehicle, where he again assaulted another agent by spitting in his face....

PHOENIX — A group of Arizona voters is suing Republican Gov. Doug Ducey to try to force him to call a special election to replace their late Sen. John McCain. The federal lawsuit announced Thursday alleges that Ducey’s September appointment of Jon Kyl to fill the seat until the 2020 election violates the Constitution.

An internal memo from the Arizona Republican Party is shedding light on Rep. Martha McSally's narrow loss for the Senate this year. The memo, obtained by the Washington Post , lists a number of factors as contributing to McSally's loss, including ad spending, a brutal primary, name recognition and President Trump's popularity in Arizona.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced Wednesday that he is canceling votes on nearly two dozen of President Trump’s judicial nominees that were expected to come up in the Judiciary Committee this week. The cancellation of the committee’s Thursday business meeting comes as Senate Republicans are in a standoff with outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has vowed to oppose all court picks until he gets a vote on legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller. The notification from the Judiciary Committee didn’t specify when, or if, the committee votes on the nominations would be rescheduled. Six circuit court nominees had been...

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A video released by the U.S. Forest Service shows how a gender reveal event led to a costly wildfire in southern Arizona that forced about 200 people out of their homes. The information gleaned from the video isn't new, but it's the first public visual of how quickly the tall, dry grass on state land near Green Valley went up in flames after an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent fired a rifle at a homemade target. The rectangular target with a diamond checkered design marked with "boy" or "girl" explodes, sending a blue substance in to the...

he house at 1212 1/2 West Front Street in Plainfield, N.J., is a conventional midcentury home with slate-gray siding, white trim and Victorian lines. When I stood in front of it on a breezy day in October, I could hear the cries of children from the playground of an elementary school around the corner. American flags fluttered from porches and windows. The neighborhood is a leafy, middle-class Anytown. The house is set back off the street, near two convenience stores and a gift shop. On the door of Superior Supermarket was pasted a sign issued by the Plainfield police: ''Safe...

The Sawmill Fire is shown erupting from an exploding target — with blue smoke curling off the fire's fringes — in a video just obtained by the Arizona Daily Star. The 49-second video clearly shows the fire starting in yellow grassland near a stand of mesquite trees from the exploding target on state land in the Santa Rita Mountain foothills on April 23, 2017. Towards the end of the video, a male voice is heard saying "Start packing up!" twice. ***** The Star obtained the video from the U.S. Forest Service through the Freedom of Information Act. The service, which...

<p>PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's chief of staff is stepping down after helping the Republican governor negotiate his first term in office.</p> <p>Kirk Adams is a former Arizona House speaker who became chief of staff after the governor was elected in 2014. The chief of staff helps the governor set policy and negotiate with lawmakers on budget and other issues.</p>

FULL TITLE: Border Patrol Official: Caravan Migrants Pushed Women and Children to Front of Clash While Assaulting Officers Forty-two caravan migrants broke into the United and were arrested on Sunday, while organizers pushed women and children to the front of the melee, a top border patrol agent told CNN. “Forty-two [caravan migrants] crossed the border and were arrested … there were numerous people that actually made it across the border,” said Rodney Scott, Chief Patrol Agent for the San Diego Sector of the border. The caravan’s organizers also pushed women and children to the front of the clash, Scott said...

Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer pleaded with Republican Senators on Monday to defeat President Trump’s nominee to a North Carolina judgeship, saying Thomas Alvin Farr has shown he doesn’t respect black voters’ rights. Mr. Schumer said all 49 Democrats will vote against Mr. Farr, as will one Republican, Sen. Jeff Flake. If they can sway another GOP senator, they could defeat the nomination, dealing a blow to Mr. Trump. “This is a man who stands for disenfranchisement of voters, particularly minority voters, that is what he stands for. You can try to parse it any way you want, but that...

It took several days after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) publicly announced introduction of a new bill to fund the border barrier and implement important immigration measures before the text of the proposed legislation became available. The bill McCarthy announced was the "Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act of 2018", H.R. 7059,(1) which was described in the media as a "new get-tough immigration bill that would build the rest of President Trump's border wall, punish sanctuary cities and stiffen penalties on repeat illegal immigrants."(2) The legislative language of the bill may not completely live up to its media...

It should tell us something about her home country that a mother is willing to travel 2,000 miles with her 4-month old son to come here. Should tell us something about our country that we only respond to this desperate need once she is at our border. So far, in this administration, that response has included taking kids from their parents, locking them up in cages, and now tear gassing them at the border. People are leaving violent countries where they fear for their lives. Without money, they are subsisting on hope for their kids, for themselves, that they can...

Mexico will deport almost 500 migrants who attempted to storm the US border, according to its interior ministry. The group were rounded up after trying to cross the border "violently" and "illegally" on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement. Video footage shows dozens of people - including women and children - running towards the fence that separates the two countries near the city of Tijuana. They were repelled by tear gas used by US border officers. Mexico's interior ministry said all those who were identified as having tried to cross would be deported immediately. It added that, "far from...

Last night, Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents and a CBP pilot had rocks thrown at them when they tried to arrest a subject who claimed to have been part of the migrant caravans. On Friday night, at approximately 5:45 p.m., Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents discovered footprints from a subject who had illegally crossed from Mexico into the United States just east of the Andrade, Calif. port of entry. Agents radioed for a CBP Air and Marine helicopter to assist and it responded a short time later. The agents tracked the suspect for almost a mile until he was encountered...

The Trump administration is attempting to negotiate a deal with Mexico over the thousands of Central American caravan migrants camped out in Tijuana and Mexicali, and last night, announced there was one , with asylum applicants having to wait out adjudication of their claims in Mexico, not the U.S. The idea was to disincentivize junk asylum claims from applicants whose real aim is to work in the U.S. for a couple years and remit the earnings until courts get around to dismissing the claims and deports them. Well, until Mexico said there wasn't a deal. Which is about par for...

The narratives of the midterm elections were set when suburban voters turned against President Trump, women racked up record numbers of electoral wins and Republicans dominated rural states and counties. But dive deeper into the results and some more surprising storylines emerge, from familial ties to long shot candidates, expanding suburbs and new battlegrounds. Here are the overlooked stories that didn’t get enough coverage after the polls closed. Did Puerto Ricans elect Rick Scott? When Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico devastated in 2017, almost 400,000 of the island’s residents moved to the mainland. Many of them landed in Florida, where...

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector stopped several criminal aliens and three gang members from making their way successfully into the U.S. interior. Those arrested included two child rapists, two killers, a member of the 18th Street gang and two MS-13 gang members. On the day before Thanksgiving, McAllen Station agents arrested a man who illegally crossed the border from Mexico near the town of Hidalgo, Texas. During processing at the station, agents discovered the man is a Honduran national and a confirmed member of the 18th Street gang. Later that same day, other agents working near...