Free Republic

On Friday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) discussed the state of the House Speaker’s race in the wake of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) announcement that he was no longer running for the spot, which is soon to be vacated by Rep. John Boehner (R-OH).

Amid renewed debate over gun control at home and tumult aplenty abroad, President Barack Obama arrives in the Bay Area on Friday to hold two fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee -- including one with a rap artist harboring his own White House aspirations. On Friday night, Obama will attend a reception at a private residence in San Francisco, and on Saturday morning he heads to San Francisco's Warfield Theater for an event featuring rapper Kanye West.

Yesterday’s brutal knife attack on the U.S.-born French train hero Spencer Stone is yet more evidence suggesting that Stone and his fellow heroes are being targeted, possibly by Islamic terrorists. In just the span of a week, this is the second time a world-famous American Christian who overwhelmed a would-be mass-murdering jihadist terrorist on a train in Europe two months ago appears to have been targeted. Stone, Oregon National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, and civilian Anthony Sadler, devout Christians who have been friends since childhood, all subsequently received France's highest honor, the Légion d'Honneur, from French president François Hollande and were...

A Green Beret who may be pushed out of the Army for beating up an alleged child rapist sees a parallel between the U.S. military's failure to stop child rape in Afghanistan and a scandal at home: The abuse of children in the Penn State University football program. Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland, a former college football player, made the comparison in a letter sent to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R.-Calif., Tuesday night and released to The Washington Post. It comes as he faces the possibility of involuntary separation for his actions in September 2011, when he and his commanding officer,...

ICYMI: CRUZ: We Have No Business Getting in the Middle of the Syrian Civil War; Goal Should be to Defeat ISIS Speaks with WRKO’s Jeff KuhnerHOUSTON, Texas – Today U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke with The Kuhner Report regarding the Obama administration’s disastrous foreign policy, the 2016 presidential race and the President’s decision to politicize the tragedy in Oregon.Below is an excerpt. Listen to the full interview here:Ted Cruz on the Kuhner Report (Audio)“I think it would be a mistake to get involved in the Syrian civil war. There have been voices in Washington eager for us to send...

Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy stunned House colleagues when he announced that he would withdraw from the race to be the next House Speaker. In the immediate aftermath, Rep. Charlie Dent says "anything is possible now." To get anything done "we might have to assemble a bipartisan coalition, that’s the reality of this place," Dent told CNN moments after McCarthy withdrew from the race. REP. CHARLIE DENT: The next Speaker should not appease those who make unreasonable demands. There are a number of members of our conference. You cannot get the yes on anything. For them the end will be...

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday he will stay in the top post in the House of Representatives until his successor is elected, adding that he would announce the date of that vote later. "We will announce the date for this election at a later date, and I’m confident we will elect a new speaker in the coming weeks," the Ohio Republican said in a statement released after the surprise withdrawal of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy from the race.

Powerful Republican Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) stood firm on Thursday in his desire not to become the next Speaker of the House. Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, issued a statement after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy shocked the GOP when he abruptly ended his candidacy to replace Speaker John Boehner. "While I am grateful for the encouragement I've received, I will not be a candidate," Ryan said. "I continue to believe I can best serve the country and this (Republican) conference as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee." CNN reported McCarthy was with his wife...

The Daily Mail is a British paper, and in the British press, “Asian” is the universally-employed code word for “Muslim.” If this British paper is suddenly using the word to refer, as in the American custom, to people from China or Japan, they’re not saying so. And so now the plot thickens. Police are insisting this attack had nothing to do with terrorism, but they always do that, no matter what the circumstances. If Spencer Stone was indeed stabbed by Muslims, then the possibility that the stabbing was related to his stopping the jihad attack on the French train cannot...

<p>McCarthy's demise comes hard on the heels of Boehner bowing out of the speakership as a sort of human sacrifice to the tea party right. And it happens as Donald Trump is in the midst of his fourth consecutive month as the Republican front-runner for the party's presidential nomination -- and with Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, two other people who have never held elected office before, running in second and third place, respectively.</p>

A group of hard-line conservatives threatened to upend the Republican race to succeed outgoing House Speaker John A. Boehner, announcing on Wednesday it will throw its support behind a little-known Florida lawmaker to become the next speaker. The House Freedom Caucus’s backing of Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) ahead of a crucial internal party vote Thursday deeply complicates Majority Leader Kevin O. McCarthy’s bid to succeed Boehner. The group counts enough members — about 40 — to deny McCarthy the majority of the whole House he would need to claim the speaker’s chair. But in an opening for the California Republican,...

Three political outsiders with no prior experience in political office are now leading in California among Republicans likely to vote in the state's June 2016 presidential primary. Businessman Donald Trump, at 17%, and physician Ben Carson, at 15%, and businesswoman Carly Fiorina, at 13%, are besting the crowded field of current an d former U.S. Senators and Governors, who collectively receive 42% of the vote. Another 13% are undecided SNIP The findings come from a Field Poll completed September 17-October 4, 2015 among 1,002 registered voters in California, of whom 214 are consider likely to vote in next year's June...

Spencer Stone, one of the American heroes who stopped a terrorist attack on a French train in August, was stabbed multiple times early Thursday in downtown Sacramento and is in stable condition, the U.S. Air Force confirmed to USA TODAY. "A1C Spencer Stone has been transported to a local hospital, and is currently being treated for injury," Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Karns said in an email in Air Force Times.

DEVELOPING: Spencer Stone, one of the three Americans hailed a hero in the French train attack in August, is in stable condition after being stabbed near Sacramento, a senior Pentagon official told Fox News. The Air Force Times reported that Stone was stabbed four times in the chest early Thursday. "A1C Spencer Stone has been transported to a local hospital, and is currently being treated for injury," an Air Force spokesman said, according to the report. "The incident is currently under investigation by local law enforcement." Details of the stabbing early Thursday are unclear. A reporter for ABC 10 tweeted...

Spencer Stone, one of three Americans hailed as heroes for stopping a suspected terror attack on a French train in August, was stabbed Wednesday night in the Sacramento area and is in stable condition, Air Force officials said.The Sacramento Police Department on Thursday morning declined to identify the victim, but described a stabbing incident that occurred around 12:46 a.m. in downtown Sacramento.Police received a report about a man in his 20s who had been stabbed in the 2100 block of K Street in Sacramento, an area with a number of nightclubs nearby.Officers responded and found the man, who had been...

Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, who helped subdue an attacker on a French train in August, is in stable condition after being stabbed in California, an Air Force spokesman said Thursday. The spokesman, Lt. Col. Christopher Karns, said details are sketchy. He said Stone is being treated in a hospital in the Sacramento area. …

French train attack hero Spencer Stone was in a stable condition after being stabbed in Sacramento on Wednesday night, police said. CBS first reported that Airman Stone, one of three Americans who helped thwart a terror attack on a French train in August, had been "repeatedly stabbed." Stone, 25, tackled Morocco-born Ayooub El-Khazaani after the heavily armed terror suspect emerged opened fire on a Paris train in August.

BREAKING: French train attack hero Spencer Stone was repeatedly stabbed last night, is in critical condition, Any other reports on this?

The conservative House Freedom Caucus announced Wednesday that it would back Rep. Daniel Webster to be the next speaker, which would provide enough support to the Republican conference to deny the position to establishment favorite Kevin McCarthy, the current majority leader. Emerging from a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, conservative lawmakers pledged to present a united front in support of Mr. Webster, Florida Republican, signaling that the same rift in the conference that forced Speaker John A. Boehner to resign would continue to roil the largest Republican majorities in the House since the 1920s. Members of the Freedom Caucus, led...

Oakland police investigators have identified a 23-year-old man who is wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of an ice cream vendor inside his truck. Police said Wednesday that they believe Joevan Lopez was responsible for shooting 45-year-old Jasvir Singh at Peach Street and 93rd Avenue about 4:30 p.m. Saturday.