Free Republic

President Trump gave a speech and signed an executive order on health care Thursday, casting the "Medicare for All" proposals from his Democratic rivals as harmful to seniors. His speech, which had been billed as a policy discussion, had the tone of a campaign rally. Trump spoke from The Villages, a huge retirement community in Florida outside Orlando, a deep-red part of a key swing state. His speech was marked by cheers, standing ovations and intermittent chants of "four more years" by an audience of mostly seniors. Trump spoke extensively about his administration's health care achievements and goals, as well...

President Trump launched a broadside against Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) at a joint news conference Wednesday afternoon with the president of Finland, after the House Intelligence Committee chairman warned the White House that “we’re not fooling around” on the impeachment inquiry. The president’s attacks on Schiff came after Democrats announced that they would subpoena documents related to Trump’s July phone call with the leader of Ukraine. House and Senate committee staff met with the State Department inspector general who gave them a packet of documents containing conspiracy theories about Biden’s son as well as the former U.S. ambassador to...

With the House now headed down a path that virtually guarantees President Donald Trump will be impeached, conventional wisdom has settled on the idea that the Republican-led Senate will never, ever remove him from office. Which, I get! If you were a betting person -- which I am not! -- the strong likelihood is that the Senate acquits Trump. Because, well, math. There are 53 Republicans in the chamber currently and 47 Democrats and independents who caucus with Democrats. In order to remove Trump from office, 67 senators would have to vote to do so -- meaning you would need...

In the summer of 2018, a transgender student at West Point High School in West Point, Va., had transitioned, asking his French teacher to refer to him with masculine pronouns: he, him, his. But the instructor, Peter Vlaming, did not comply, he said in a lawsuit. Citing his religious beliefs, he promised to use only the student’s name and avoid pronouns entirely. Administrators eventually gave the teacher an ultimatum: Use the student’s correct pronouns, or face disciplinary action, he said. Then, on Oct. 31, 2018, his second-year French students wore virtual-reality goggles and walked around the classroom. The transgender student...

President Trump continued to escalate his scorched-earth campaign against a whistleblower who accused him of pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, even as new evidence emerged Monday that he and his administration are urging other governments to provide assistance to a related Justice Department inquiry that has been pushed by the president. Trump said he was trying to “find out about” the whistleblower Monday, the latest move in an increasingly frenetic counterassault targeting the anonymous intelligence officer and top Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry. The comments came as his allies struggled to coalesce around a clear strategy to respond...

The rest of the title: It's 'time to risk your careers in favor of your principles.' Former GOP Sen. Jeff Flake on Monday urged Republicans in Congress not to support President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection bid, saying they have a moral obligation to put their principles first -- even if it means risking their careers. Flake, a longtime Trump critic who has before argued that the Republican Party should not support the President in 2020, made his case in an op-ed published in The Washington Post titled "Fellow Republicans, there's still time to save your souls," writing that Senate Republicans...

James Michael Meyer was charged with murder in the shooting at his home. Authorities say a 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a suspected burglar behind his home and then went back to bed before finally calling police nearly two hours later. The Dallas Morning News reports that James Michael Meyer has been charged with murder in the Thursday killing and was jailed on $150,000 bail as of Friday.

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg’s searing address at the United Nations earlier this week earned enthusiastic praise from climate researchers, with many saying that the 16-year-old has found ways to raise awareness of climate science, galvanize support and resonate with people in ways that they have struggled to for decades. “Speaking as a climate change scientist who has been working on this issue for 20 years and saying the same thing for 20 years, she is getting people to listen, which we have failed to do,” said Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change & Development in London.

2020 Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke said Saturday that the "single best thing" to unify the country would be for President Donald Trump to resign for his actions related to Ukraine. "The best possible path, especially if you're concerned about a country that's never been more divided, perhaps more highly polarized every day, is for this President to resign, allow this country to heal and ensure that we come back together with the greatest, most ambitious agenda we've ever faced, none of it possible while he remains in power," O'Rourke said at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.

Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, who is challenging President Trump for the Republican nomination next year, on Monday accused him of “treason” for pressing the leader of Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son. Weld’s comments came in response to reports that Trump repeatedly brought up investigating Biden, who is seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination, and his younger son, Hunter, in a July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election,” Weld said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It couldn’t be clearer,...

James South is about to hit a big milestone in his life and he's hoping others can help him celebrate by mailing him a birthday card. South turns 100 on October 7 and his birthday wish is to receive 100 cards. It's a wish his assisted living home is trying to make come true. Brookdale Senior Living in Watauga, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth, posted an image of South with a sign on Facebook on Friday. "Hello! My name is James South and I am a proud World War II Veteran! I will be turning 100 on October 7th,...

After a late night at a stock-car race, Carole and Verne King returned to their dog-friendly hotel in Kalispell, Mont., and made a devastating discovery. Their 7-year-old Border collie, Katie, was no longer in the room. She had apparently managed to unlatch the door, possibly spooked by a thunderstorm that had swept through the area. At the front desk, an attendant said she had seen an anxious dog bolt out the front door hours before. The Kings were stunned. In the small city of 23,000 people that backs up to the sprawling wilderness near Glacier National Park, surrounded by forests...

A New York judge earlier this month recommended a landlord pay $17,000 in fines for threatening to call immigration authorities on an undocumented tenant. This is the first case related to housing where threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to harass or intimidate a tenant has been found to be a violation of law, according to a spokesperson for the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Holly Ondaan, the tenant and an undocumented immigrant at the time the case was filed, testified in court that she became "an emotional wreck" when her former landlord, Dianna Lysius, threatened...

A New York judge on Friday ordered President Donald Trump to provide video testimony as part of an upcoming lawsuit brought by protesters who say they were assaulted by Trump's security guards during a 2015 protest outside of Trump Tower. Judge Doris M. Gonzalez wrote in her ruling that Trump's testimony is "indispensable" to the trial and so he must provide video testimony before the trial is set to begin Thursday. The Washington Post first reported the judge's ruling. The trial centers around a protest in September 2015 in front of Trump Tower in New York City where two protesters...

When President Donald Trump visits the UN on Monday, many of his fellow world leaders will be participating in a summit meant to address climate change. Trump won't be there. Instead, the President is chairing his own session focused on worldwide religious persecution. It's the latest evidence of Trump's isolation on the climate issue with his fellow world leaders. During the G7 summit in France, Trump skipped a session focused on climate change that all the other world leaders attended.

Millions of people around the globe joined in protests to demand "an end to the age of fossil fuels." Climate activist Greta Thunberg estimated she was joined by 250,000 in New York City. "How we can get more young people involved -- I think to just tell them the truth, tell them how it is," Thunberg told the crowd. Hundreds of Amazon workers walked out of their offices in Seattle. Thousands joined in marches in New York City, Chicago, Denver and more cities across the country.

A federal judge ordered a temporary injunction Thursday against California’s first-in-the-nation law requiring candidates to disclose their tax returns for a spot on the presidential primary ballot, an early victory for President Trump but a decision that will undoubtedly be appealed by state officials. U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. said he would issue a final ruling in the coming days but took the unusual step of issuing the tentative order from the bench. He said there would be “irreparable harm without temporary relief” for Trump and other candidates from the law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in July. Morrison...

Former national security adviser John Bolton didn't offer any praise of President Donald Trump in remarks at a private event Wednesday, but instead took aim at his former boss' policies on the world stage, according to an attendee. Bolton, who Trump fired earlier this month, made comments at an event hosted by the Gatestone Institute in New York that the attendee characterized to CNN as scathing in their criticism of Trump's approach to Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan. Politico was first to report on Bolton's remarks. "Bolton didn't have anything positive to say about Trump," the attendee said.

Oil prices dropped sharply Tuesday, following Monday's surge that sent shock waves around the world. US oil futures settled down 5.7% at $59.24 a barrel. It was the worst one-day drop for US oil since August 1, according to Refinitiv. Oil prices initially fell after Reuters reported Saudi Arabian oil production would return to normal within two to three weeks. Tuesday afternoon, Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman said the country's oil exports would not fall in September, as the kingdom will rely on reserves to keep exports stable. Investors took that as a positive sign about the impact of...

Shawn Pleasants has the kind of resume that would attract the attention of any job recruiter: high school valedictorian, economics major from Yale University, Wall Street banking jobs, small business entrepreneur. But a few wrong turns in life 10 years ago left him homeless, and today he's living underneath a tarp in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles. He's been told before that a smart and capable person like him should not be in this situation. "But I'm like, should anybody be here? Who should, then?" Pleasants said.