Free Republic

We fool ourselves if we believe that the televised hearings of the January 6 committee are changing the direction of the Republican Party, or that the hearings will end the attempted coup that Trump launched immediately after the 2020 election. The GOP is becoming ever more divorced from reality. Trump’s attempted coup continues unabated. The first three hearings of the House January 6 committee demolished the myths of voter fraud repeated incessantly by Trump and his supporters and amplified by Republicans in Congress. A parade of Republican witnesses -- including his attorney general William Barr, Ivanka Trump, and his own...

Donna Brazile has joined ABC News as a contributor, after a stint as a regular for Fox News. Brazile made her first appearance at the network on This Week with George Stephanopoulos last Sunday. ABC News confirmed a Variety report on Brazile’s move. -snip- The release of Wikileaks emails revealed that in 2016, Brazile, as a CNN contributor, had leaked potential town hall topics to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Brazile later called it a “mistake I will forever regret,” -snip- Brazile and a Fox News spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on her move.

By almost any measure, Joe Biden’s first 100 days have been hugely successful. Getting millions of Americans inoculated against Covid-19 and beginning to revive the economy are central to that success. In his first 100 days, how has Biden handled the four crises he outlined? Read more Two-thirds of Americans support Biden’s $1.9tn stimulus plan, already enacted. His infrastructure and family plans, which he outlined on Wednesday night at a joint session of Congress, also have broad backing. The $6tn price tag for all this would make it the largest expansion of the federal government since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society....

The notes continue: Girls “as young as 12 but younger the better.” Notes from a visit in Thailand with handwritten note “w/ name of girls - written by Maxwell.”

CNN Political Analyst Joe Lockhart criticized Nick Sandmann after the Covington Catholic graduate gave his speech during the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, calling him “a snot-nosed entitled kid from Kentucky.” Joe Lockhart @joelockhart I'm watching tonight because it's important. But i don't have to watch this snot nose entitled kid from Kentucky.

Film producer and philanthropist Steve Bing died Monday of an apparent suicide. Bing lived at a high-rise luxury tower in Century City, where a death investigation was underway. It is believed he jumped from the building. Bing, 55, was a prominent Hollywood producer and contributor to charitable and political causes who was behind films such as "The Polar Express" and the Rolling Stones concert film "Shine A Light." Bing also contributed millions of dollars to nonprofit charities as well as Democratic candidates. "I loved Steve Bing very much," former President Bill Clinton ...

The Lincoln Project, led by anti-Trumpers like George Conway and Rick Wilson, had been asking for cash to help blast a disgusting anti-Trump coronavirus ad “Mourning in America” across the TV airwaves. The pleading apparently attracted the cash of a prominent billionaire. Walmart heiress and billionaire Christy Walton contributed $20,000 to the group in January. The Washington Post reported that The Lincoln Project “has a much smaller war chest than other independent groups going after [President Donald] Trump.” The Post continued: “But it is aiming to make the most of its unique position by directly antagonizing the president.”

A week after being roasted for tweeting a fake conversation between Republican senators, CNN political commentator and former Clinton White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart claimed Wednesday night during the Senate trial’s dinner break that an argument used by Trump legal team member Alan Dershowitz was “un-American” and akin to those used by “authoritarian people” to justify “genocide.” OutFront host Erin Burnett asked Lockhart what he made of Dershowitz’s claim that a presidential action done “in the national interest...cannot be a quid pro quo that results in impeachment.” Without hesitation, Lockhart stated that while he’s “worked on about a dozen...

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe apologized to an FBI investigator after changing his story regarding a leak to the media in October 2016, according to documents released Tuesday. McCabe was interviewed May 9, 2017, the same day James Comey was fired as FBI director, regarding two separate leaks to the media. During the interview, FBI agents also asked McCabe whether he knew how FBI information wound up in an Oct. 23, 2016, Wall Street Journal article about an investigation of the Clinton Foundation. McCabe said during that sit-down he did not know how the Journal story came about, but...

Getting tired of all this #WINNING yet? – The Trump economy just will not cooperate with the Democrat/media effort to create a recession out of whole cloth. On Monday, all three major stock indexes – the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq – finished at all-time record highs. True to form, CNBC, in its coverage of this happy event for America, noted in a sub-head that this latest major rally has come as a shock to all the experts: “Nearly everyone on Wall Street underestimated the strength of this year’s stock market.” ummm, if the “experts” are always wrong about everything,...

On the face of it, Michael Gerhardt is qualified to serve as a CNN legal analyst on constitutional questions. He is, after all, a Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law at the UNC School of Law in Chapel Hill, and a Scholar in Residence at the National Constitution Center. But there was one part of Gerhardt's resume that CNN hid when New Day's John Berman on Wednesday brought him in to comment on President Trump's decision not to cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry: Gerhardt is also a long-time Democrat activist. As per Wikipedia: His two clerkships were for judges appointed...

Remember, in the deep & factional political weeds George Stephanopoulos is ‘team Cinton’. Team Obama are exposed in the Biden-Ukraine pay-to-play scandal. The aspect that exposes Team Clinton is the FBI false construct of the vast Russian conspiracy with Crowdstrike, DNC server hacking and the Ukraine dirt-digging participation for 2016. As a result, Stephanopoulos is more concerned with defending Team Clinton (DNC hack via Crowstrike) than defending Team Obama (Joe Biden selling influence). Giuliani knows the factional nuance; and as a result he immediately side-steps the part of the Ukraine narrative that Stephanopoulos is prepared to defend (Clinton). Instead, Giuliani...

Washington -- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York says her relationship with Hillary Clinton is strong and Clinton has given her advice about her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Gillibrand, appearing in a town hall televised by CNN Tuesday night, fielded questions about her record, including policy shifts she's made on immigration and gun control, and offered an update on her long-standing relationship with Hillary and Bill Clinton. In 2017, Gillibrand said Bill Clinton should have resigned from the presidency after his inappropriate relationship with White House intern Monica Lewsinsky came to light two decades ago. Gillibrand said...

Embattled Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said he had provided "amazing leadership" to his department on Sunday, drawing disbelief from CNN host Jake Tapper. Tapper pressed Israel during a nearly half-hour interview about the response of his department before and during the Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead. Israel announced Thursday that school resource officer Scot Peterson had been suspended and decided to retire rather than be terminated after learning Peterson failed to enter the school during the massacre and engage the shooter. Israel also defended the conduct of his department in response to...

...“All I’ve ever done is tell the truth,” says Jones, seated on a couch in his palatial Bel Air home, and about to dish some outrageous gossip. “I’ve got nothing to be scared of, man.”... ...You just mentioned the Clintons, who are friends of yours. Why is there still such visceral dislike of them? What are other people not seeing in Hillary, for example, that you see? It’s because there’s a side of her — when you keep secrets, they backfire. Like what secrets? This is something else I shouldn’t be talking about. You sure seem to know a lot....

Former FBI director James Comey made a quiet visit to The New York Times building on Thursday, one of few public outings since he admitted leaking stories to the newspaper about President Trump before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8. Comey kept his sunglasses on and his gaze forward as he marched through the front entrance of the Times Square office building which houses the publication. He was accompanied by his wife Patrice Failor who also wore sunglasses. Unmistakable as he towered over the crowds in a crisp navy suit and tie on one of the warmest days of...

Get ready for a big … nothingburger? Everyone in Washington and the media awaits James Comey’s testimony on Thursday with bated breath, but they may be in for a deep disappointment. ABC News’ Justin Fishel and Jonathan Karl report that sources close to the former FBI director say he will not claim that Donald Trump attempted to obstruct the investigation into Michael Flynn. He will, however, tell the Senate Intelligence Committee that Trump didn’t tell the truth about whether the investigation into Russian influence had excluded him as a subject: Although Comey has told associates he will not accuse...

Lew Lukens, the highest-ranking U.S. official in London, is a piece of work.  The Chargé d'Affaires, or acting U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, undercut President Trump's criticism of London's Mayor Sadiq Khan in the wake of the recent terror attack by brazenly tweeting high praise to the leftist leader, whose hostility to Trump is well known. Lukens's tweet, spotted as a retweet on former Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes's Twitter feed, reads: I commend the strong leadership of the @MayorofLondon as he leads the city forward after this heinous attack. – LLukens 3/3 https://t.co/p4dDZuCpyO — U.S. Embassy London (@USAinUK) June 4,...

RICHMOND, Va. — The Democratic governor of Virginia has vetoed a religious freedom bill which would have prohibited the government from punishing those who believe in biblical marriage and conduct their public lives in accordance with that conviction. “Although couched as a ‘religious freedom’ bill, this legislation is nothing more than an attempt to stigmatize,” Gov. Terry McAuliffe asserted in a statement on Thursday in rejecting S.B. 2314 and H.B. 2025. “No person shall be required to participate in the solemnization of any marriage, or subject to any penalty by the Commonwealth, or its political subdivisions or representatives or agents,...

Don’t call it corruption. Call it … a confluence of interests. In other words, whatever interested the Clintons became what interested the State Department. A new series of e-mails emerging from FOIA lawsuits and reported by the Wall Street Journal show how Clinton Foundation interests took precedence over matters of state during Hillary Clinton’s tenure: On Jan. 27, 2011, Clinton Foundation Chief Operating Officer Laura Graham sent an email to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills, voicing concern about a rumor. Ms. Graham had heard that Foggy Bottom was thinking about revoking the U.S. visa of...