Free Republic

Foreign meddling is bad Point out the inarguable fact that Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate, and they respond “Russians.” Remind them of her supreme arrogance and overconfidence, and they respond “Russians.” Show them that Hillary ignored the rust belt in favor of spiking the football in Arizona, and they respond “Russians.”

Democratic Minnesota Representative and Democratic National Committee chairman candidate Keith Ellison once called for slavery reparations and a separate country for black Americans in a university newspaper column. Ellison’s writings while a student at the University of Minnesota law school– under the name “Keith Hakim”– raised eyebrows when he announced his first congressional run in 2006. The Weekly Standard noted that “Ellison refers to ‘Minister Louis Farrakhan,’ defends Nation of Islam spokesman Khalid Abdul Muhammad, and speaks in the voice of a Nation of Islam advocate… ‘Hakim’ demands reparations for slavery and throws in a demand for an optional separate...

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed pushed back Saturday on President-elect Donald Trump’s assessment of civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis’ district. In a series of tweets, Reed said: “John Lewis is an American hero & a national treasure. Period. Full stop. “That PEOTUS Trump would attack Congressman Lewis on MLK Day weekend for “all talk…no action” when he bled to actually “Make America Great” is why far less than half the country supports him at the dawn of his presidency.” Trump said Lewis’s district was “in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested)” in an early...

Graham proceeded to take a thinly-veiled jab at his fellow Republican lawmakers. “I can only imagine,” Graham continued, “what we would have said if a Democrat said that.” The Republican senator apparently inspired many Democrats who cheered his remarks on Twitter where users issued a collective round of applause.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blamed former President George W. Bush and the Republicans on Friday for the more than $9 trillion that has been added to the national debt under President Obama's watch. Pelosi argued that under Obama, the annual budget deficit, which contributes to the national debt, has been reduced dramatically, and said that without Obama's work, the national debt would be even higher. She also mostly blamed Bush for not paying for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. "When President Obama stood on the steps on the Capitol eight years from next week, the [budget] deficit was...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to build a U.S.-Mexico wall has touched off a fierce debate in the U.S. border towns that would be most affected – with local Democrats vowing to fight Trump tooth and nail if he proceeds. “Mexico is an ally, not an enemy,” Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, told FoxNews.com. “It is our second-largest trading partner, and building a wall between two countries with such important ties is a senseless and wasteful exercise." Vela is a colorful Trump critic. He made headlines after calling the president-elect's illegal immigrant policies “hateful, dehumanizing, and frankly shameful.” In...

After driving up the cost of soda and other sugary drinks with a new tax, the mayor of Philadelphia is now trying to blame businesses for charging higher prices (and for the outrage those prices have generated). Mayor Jim Kenney, who proposed the soda tax and championed its passage through city council last year, told reporters on Tuesday it's not the new 1.5-cents-per-ounce tax that's making it more expensive to buy a can of Coke in Philly. No, according to the mayor, those higher prices are caused by city businesses price gouging their customers in order to stir up opposition...

Obamacare, the left’s grand attempt to create a national government-run health care system, has failed. They promised lower health insurance premiums, but delivered higher ones. They promised more choice and competition, but delivered less. They promised continuity and better access to care, but delivered disruption and dislocation. Despite promises that people could keep their plans and doctors, thousands of Americans were forced into more expensive insurance with higher deductibles and plans that didn’t include their doctors. After spending billions in tax dollars, Obamacare managed to increase the number of people with health insurance by much less than predicted—with over 80...

In an exclusive interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press," Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said he does not believe Donald Trump is a "legitimate president," citing Russian interference in last year's election. Asked whether he would try to forge a relationship with the president-elect, Lewis said that he believes in forgiveness, but added, "it's going to be very difficult. I don't see this president-elect as a legitimate president." When pressed to explain why, he cited allegations of Russian hacks during the campaign that lead to the release of internal documents from the Democratic National Committee, and Hillary Clinton's campaign co-chairman,...

McAuliffe joined Holder to head up the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a group devoted to ensuring that Democrats add representation during the redistricting process, which will be based on the 2020 national census. The two men worry that Democratic donors focus too much on presidential elections, and not enough on the elections which control down ballot races nationwide. “We’ve got to be smarter about how we’re building the future of this party,” McAuliffe told the Times. “We have been decimated at the state level, and it’s at the state level that they draw the maps. We raise all this money...

Thursday's New York Times has a report on how the highly suspicious dossier alleging that Donald Trump was compromised by Russian intelligence agents came into existence. Among the other interesting revelations was that the dubious opposition research report was put together by the research firm Fusion GPS: The story began in September 2015, when a wealthy Republican donor who strongly opposed Mr. Trump put up the money to hire a Washington research firm run by former journalists, Fusion GPS, to compile a dossier about the real estate magnate's past scandals and weaknesses, according to a person familiar with the effort....

Julia Limitone January 12, 2017 Linda Bean on calls for L.L. Bean boycott: It's bullying L.L. Bean Board Member and Co-Owner Linda Bean on calls for a boycott of the company because of her support for President-elect Donald Trump and the state of the U.S. economy. Linda Bean, the granddaughter and co-owner of L.L. Bean, on Thursday said U.S. businesses are under attack and being bullied by anti-Trump groups. A group, Grabyourwallet.org, called for a boycott of L.L. Bean after Linda Bean, one of 50 family members that own the outdoor apparel maker, contributed $60,000 to a political action committee...

Observers of this week’s confirmation hearings for the post of U.S. attorney general might think it odd to see Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., rewind the clock to a single voter fraud case from the 1980s. Under persistent questioning, Sessions has had to defend his decision to prosecute a case of brazen voter fraud—something that was his job to do. The repeated references to this case by some senators represent just how far the civil rights industry has swerved from its honorable roots to derail a confirmation. Character assassination, false testimony, performance protests aimed at securing retweets instead of reconciliation, and...

Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks said in a radio interview on Tuesday that criticism of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who is Donald Trump's pick to be attorney general, is part of an ongoing "war on whites" by Democrats. "It's really about political power and racial division and what I've referred to on occasion as the 'war on whites.' They are trying to motivate the African-American vote to vote-bloc for Democrats by using every 'Republican is a racist' tool that they can envision," the Republican congressman said on "The Morning Show With Toni & Gary" on WBHP 800 Alabama radio. "Even if...

Democratic lawmakers are calling for President Obama to close Guantanamo Bay because "Donald Trump must be deprived of the use” of the controversial prison. Representatives including New York City’s Hakeem Jeffries, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez and Jose Serrano signed a letter sent to the White House Wednesday. Obama promised during his first presidential campaign to close the facility on Cuban soil, which was filled with suspected terrorists during the Bush administration, some of whom have stayed there for years without a trial or charges. The White House has said that it is working to move the 18 inmates who remain...

Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath gives a voice to victims of the Church of Scientology despite public attempts to discredit them.

Nancy Pelosi has the answer to Democrat unemployment To paraphrase the immortal Albert Rosenfield, “This is what we call a real three-hanky story.” The folks at The Politico are pacing the floor, wringing their hands, furrowing their brows, and fretting about jobs. No, they’re not distraught over the 95 Million people who are out of the labor force. Those people can fend for themselves. They’re troubled by the impending poverty facing Hillary loyalists and operatives in Washington D.C.

In the days that followed Donald Trump’s election victory, liberal assessments about what went wrong and prescriptions for how the Left can move forward were in short supply. There were, however, exceptions. Notable among those was Mark Lilla’s piece in the New York Times ten days after Hillary Clinton’s loss describing the need to bring about an end to the “age of identity liberalism.” Lilla’s case in favor of a “pre-identity liberalism” is a convincing one, but he doesn’t propose a method to bring about a return to this providential status quo ante. There’s a reason for that: there isn’t...

RUSH: I mentioned something yesterday that I think is a golden opportunity for the country, and that is Trump’s cabinet selections. And particularly the people he has chosen who are from the epitome, the heights of success in the business world and in other areas of personal achievement. Because I believe people like that should be the role models — among the role models — that people in this country have. And I believe these people should… It’s okay for them to be aspirational. It’s okay for people to want to be like them, and the left wants no part...

Meryl Streep's speech condemning President-elect Donald Trump for perceived bullying tactics and intolerance didn't go over well with at least two of the stars in the gilded Golden Globes audience on Sunday night. Mel Gibson, known as conservative, and Vince Vaughn, known as libertarian, death glared throughout Streep's speech - with Vaughn demonstrating the ability to not blink for an uncomfortably long period of time. Gibson looked confused as he frowned and touched his chin as Meryl took Donald Trump to task for mocking a disabled reporter, bullying, and inciting disrespect and violence. Twitter noticed that the pair's stony mugs...