Free Republic

Congress fell short Thursday in its second attempt to end the national emergency President Donald Trump declared to secure money for his proposed border wall. Both chambers of Congress have passed measures to block Trump’s declaration twice since the president took the step in March, prompting two vetoes. Lawmakers failed to override the second veto Thursday as the GOP-held Senate could not muster the two-thirds majority needed. The chamber voted by a 53-36 margin to end the emergency. Ten Republicans voted with Democrats in supporting the resolution. Democrats and some Republicans have accused the president of overreaching and disregarding Congress’...

Hundreds of pro-Trump protesters gathered in front of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to show support for President Trump and demand that Congress stop the impeachment inquiry that's moving at breakneck speed through the House of Representatives. The "March for Trump" rally, organized by the pro-Trump group Women for America First, started at Freedom Plaza before marching to the Capitol Building's West Lawn. On a brisk fall day with a gusty wind that lifted dozens of pro-Trump flags held by protesters dressed in red, white and blue, speakers and attendees extolled Trump's successes and railed against impeachment depositions that have...

Laurence Tribe explains why Congress should aim to work at three speeds. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick spoke to Laurence Tribe, professor of constitutional law at Harvard, about some of the legal questions the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s behavior has brought up. A portion of that conversation, which has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity, is below. Dahlia Lithwick: We’ve had quite anxious listener mail this week saying, what does Congress do? What teeth can Congress put into a system where essentially the nihilist argument has been made—“I spit on your system, your system does not...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff expressed confidence in Democrats' ongoing impeachment inquiry and efforts to obtain records and testimony from the Trump administration in court, while defending their inquiry from Republican criticism. Pelosi defended their timeline, without providing any new updates on Tuesday, and dismissed questions about Republican calls for a formal floor vote. "I'm not concerned about anything," she said. Republicans "can't defend the president so they're going to process."

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives work through an impeachment inquiry regarding alleged abuses of office by President Donald Trump, approval of Congress is now at 25%. That is up from 18% in September, prior to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing the impeachment inquiry following news of possible wrongdoing by the president in communications with Ukraine. The increase in approval of Congress over the past month is the result of a 15-percentage-point jump among Democrats (from 19% to 34%) as well as a smaller increase among independents (from 19% to 25%). Republicans' rating of Congress...

Despite all the headlines and breathless commentary on impeachment from the media, House Democrats have yet to hold a vote that would formally -- constitutionally -- authorize an impeachment inquiry.What is Speaker Nancy Pelosi worried about?Last week, she seem poised to bring the issue of impeachment to the floor of the House for a vote. But yesterday, Pelosi decided to once again delay a vote,The Hill: After back-to-back meetings with party leaders and then the full caucus, Pelosi announced that no such vote would take place. Democratic aides emphasized, however, that the process remains fluid and that Pelosi may reverse course and stage...

The chairman of the House Intel committee, who is leading the impeachment inquiry, couldn't be more different than his prey. No one understands the political perils of impeaching a president quite like Rep. Adam Schiff. In 2000, he won a House seat centered in the north Los Angeles suburbs of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena by defeating Republican incumbent James Rogan, a colorful and camera-loving former prosecutor who had become nationally prominent as a House manager of President Bill Clinton's impeachment. While Schiff concentrated on district-specific issues, Rogan's high profile in going after Clinton made it easier to portray him as...

House committees are expected to continue their series of closed-door transcribed interviews as part of their impeachment-related investigation of President Trump this week, and Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga. claims the secrecy is due to the Democratic majority not wanting the public to know that the testimony does not support their narrative. Earlier this month, former U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson and former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch went before Democrat-led committees to face questions about President Trump and whether he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into helping investigate Joe and Hunter...

The retirement of longtime New York Rep. Nita Lowey could open the door for a political newcomer with big political name — Chelsea Clinton. “Is Chelsea Clinton going to make her move?” one New York Democrat asked shortly after learning of Lowey’s retirement. Page Six first reported in 2016 that the former first daughter was being groomed for the 17th district seat. The district includes Rockland County and portions of Westchester, including the Chappaqua home of Bill and Hillary Clinton. “Chelsea would be the next extension of the Clinton brand,” a source said at the time. A spokesman for the...

Anything worth doing is worth doing right, or so Hunter S. Thompson would say. Clearly Nancy Pelosi is not a fan of the late gonzo journalist. If she were to adopt that simple belief, perhaps the country could move on from the most recent and ridiculous manufactured impeachment crisis. If Nancy Pelosi were interested in doing things the right way, she would hold a vote on the House floor to open an impeachment inquiry. A vote that was held for the Clinton impeachment inquiry, a vote that was held for the Nixon impeachment inquiry, but a vote that Pelosi refuses...

Radio host Christopher Hahn predicted Wednesday that President Trump will ultimately be impeached and he called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to schedule a floor vote on the matter. Hahn, a former aide to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told "The Ingraham Angle" he is awaiting a potential U.S. Senate trial in which Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts would oversee the proceedings. He dismissed Republicans' criticisms of the impeachment inquiry process, telling host Laura Ingraham there is nothing untoward about what's going on in Congress. "This is basically the grand jury portion of this investigation, and in...

On Wednesday, The Intercept published a lengthy and detailed exposé on how Joe Biden's family has financially benefited from his career in politics. While Democrats pursue impeachment of Trump for defeating Hillary in 2016, the Democrats are ignoring a huge problem: when Hunter Biden’s career is scrutinized, it clearly shows "that he, along with Joe Biden’s brother James, has been trading on their family name for decades, cashing in on the implication — and sometimes the explicit argument — that giving money to a member of Joe Biden’s family wins the favor of Joe Biden." In 1973, one year after...

Full header: Schiff: Preventing Sondland from testifying is strong evidence of obstruction; Update: Dems to subpoena Sondland Ed is exactly right about Trump’s strategy in holding Sondland back, I think. He’s going to boycott the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry on grounds of procedural unfairness — namely, there hasn’t been a formal House vote to open the inquiry, which would have given Republican members more power over the proceedings, and there’s been way too much secrecy already in how Schiff is questioning witnesses. For cripes sake, he’s reportedly considering how to interview the whistleblower while obscuring his/her identity so that Republicans on...

The White House's blanket refusal to cooperate with Democrats' inquiry will test Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her caucus in the days ahead. President Donald Trump has set his strategy for the impeachment fight with House Democrats — minimum cooperation, maximum confrontation. Whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats have learned how to counter him is the big question. Trump dramatically upped the political ante on Tuesday, with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone blasting the Democrasts’ impeachment inquiry as “illegal” and “dangerous,” and declaring the administration won’t cooperate with a probe it considers constitutionally improper. Democrats now have to work quickly...

Chairman Adam Schiff, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; Chairman Elijah E. Cummings, Committee on White House Oversight; Chairman Eliot L. Engel, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, continue sending carefully worded letters under the guise of ‘subpoenas’ today. [Main Link Here]However, you’ll notice in these latest versions they are modifying: (#1) now they actually include attachments that would be “subpoenas”; yet they shift language to ‘subpoena schedules’. Why? Because (#2) the letters and subpoenas omit any penalty for non-compliance. They cannot assign a penalty because the letters do not carry judicial authority.Obviously Lawfare, instructing Pelosi’s group, realizes the larger...

If you watch cable or network news, all you hear about is impeachment. To the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC, it’s as if it already happened. Reps Pelosi, Schiff, and Nadler speak as if it’s a foregone conclusion, and shed crocodile tears about being “heartbroken and prayerful” over the process.The fact is, an impeachment inquiry has yet to begin. Opening such an inquiry would require a full House vote, making vulnerable representatives in districts President Trump won handily in 2016 go on record in favor of removing a duly elected president for the high crime of doing his...

A Heritage Foundation expert, Amy Swearer, left Congress members speechless after she presented them with gun facts they don't want to hear.

The president has been under siege, literally, since before he took office in January 2017. Since then, he’s had to endure withering attacks on his motives, his character, his policies, and his family, up to and including an outright attempt to remove him from office and, if the deep state can manage, to throw his ass in jail afterward. And all because he managed to beat the most corrupt bitch ever to run for the Oval Office and, in doing so, screwed up the deep state’s plan to transform our country and all Americans into a global piggy bank for...

Three Democratic Committee Chairman – Elijah Cummings of the House Oversight Committee; Adam Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee; and Eliot Engel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee – came together on Friday to issue a subpoena against the White House as part of the House's impeachment inquiry. The Committees sent a letter to Acting Chief of Staff John Mulvaney, demanding documents be provided by October 18th. "The Committees are investigating the extent to which President Trump jeopardized national security by pressing Ukraine to interfere with our 2020 election and by withholding security assistance provided by Congress to help Ukraine...

WASHINGTON (Nexstar) — In recent years we’ve seen the craft beer industry grow from a handful of breweries in major cities to thousands of smaller, artisanal breweries spread across all 50 states. Brewers said the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (passed in 2017) has helped with that growth. But those tax breaks expire this year, and advocates want Congress to act fast. **SNIP** Cheston is one of nearly 7,000 craft brewers in the United States, who along with beer lovers, raised a glass after Congress passed the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act 2 years ago. Jim...