Free Republic

As he had done at several stops in his first campaign trip as a presidential candidate, Beto O’Rourke on Friday climbed atop a counter at a local Iowa business and addressed a small but adoring crowd. People clapped and cheered. Outside, some waited in the cold, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. By that measure, his tour across eastern Iowa last week was largely a success. But by no means was O’Rourke considered a front-runner. And that underscored the challenge he faces as he competes for the 2020 Democratic nomination. O’Rourke, a former three-term U.S. congressman from Texas, became...

Liberal Muslim activist Linda Sarsour tweeted that she is “triggered” by a “hate mob” against Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar that is “now giving condolences” to the Muslim community in the wake of the Christchurch, New Zealand shootings. “I am triggered by those who piled on Representative Ilhan Omar and incited a hate mob against her until she got assassination threats now giving condolences to our community,” Sarsour tweeted Saturday morning. “What we need you to do is reflect on how you contribute to islamophobia and stop doing that.”

Bernie Sanders is “the nutty professor”; Elizabeth Warren is “Pocahontas”; Beto O’Rourke’s hand movements are “crazy”. Donald Trump is already taking pot shots at his potential opponents in the 2020 presidential election, evoking memories of his chaotic 2016 campaign with its raucous rallies and taunting tweets. But something will be different this time. The US president is now backed by a Republican party reshaped in his image, a huge war chest and a newly sophisticated political data operation. Whereas some regard him as an accidental president who fluked his way to the White House in 2016, his lieutenants hope that,...

Lawmakers in the Illinois state House of Representatives voted Wednesday to approve a plan that includes historical figures in the LGBT civil rights movement in K-12 textbooks, NPR reported. The measure, which now heads to Gov. J.B. Pritzker's (D) desk for a signature, requires schools to include "the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the history of this country and this State" in official textbooks. Supporters of the rule say the measure is intended to reduce anti-LGBT bullying in schools by teaching students about the historical place of LGBT figures in American society.

Bernie Sanders didn't hold back on what he thinks of Donald Trump. The Democratic presidential candidate, speaking before an audience of a few thousand supporters gathered in a conference center here, called Trump "the most dangerous president in American history." Sanders said Trump "simply does not know the difference between truth and lies." And Sanders called Trump's criticism of the media "beyond disgraceful." "This is what demagogues always do," Sanders said, near the end of a six-minute attack last week focused exclusively on Trump. "Rather than accept responsibility for what they do, they claim what anyone is saying about them...

President Trump said he encouraged Republicans to “vote for transparency” after the House unanimously voted on Thursday for the Justice Department to publicly release special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his Russia investigation. “On the recent non-binding vote (420-0) in Congress about releasing the Mueller Report, I told leadership to let all Republicans vote for transparency,” Trump tweeted Saturday morning. “Makes us all look good and doesn’t matter. Play along with the game!” The resolution was introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York, who said there is “overwhelming public interest” to see the report. It would...

Last week, a man named Dion Cini was refused service at a bar in New York City. He claims he had done nothing wrong and was discriminated against. A video of the incident confirms that Cini doesn’t appear overly inebriated or obviously violating any other rules of decorum at Jake’s Dilemma; instead he was kicked out for what he was wearing: a Maga hat. The owners of the bar have since apologized and said all are welcome there, and that the bartender in question has been disciplined, but the entire situation might have been avoided had a new app called...

This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump under fire from some in his own party over his national emergency declaration to build the wall but a step ahead of the crowd of Democrats hoping to unseat him in the 2020 election. Democratic pollster John Zogby, who weekly grades the president along with conservative analyst Jed Babbin, said that while Trump continues to struggle in the polls, the Democrats aren’t offering a credible alternative. “Trump will be hard to beat,” he said in his grade comments. He noted that the president isn’t polling well in the states he shocked...

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Former FBI Director James Comey on Friday said that he did not know if Democrats could obtain an unredacted copy of the Mueller report with a subpoena if the Department of Justice declined to release it. "I'm sure they can subpoena. They definitely can issue subpoenas for anything they want to the Department of Justice. Whether the department will compel, will abide an order to compel, if they resist that, I don't know where that ends up," he said. But Comey said he hoped that a subpoena would not be necessary. "There is a lot of transparency...

A former Fox News employee plans to tell Congress about allegations that the outlet tried to stop her from reporting on the Stormy Daniels controversy during the 2016 election, citing an exception to a nondisclosure agreement she signed. On Thursday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings formally requested that the reporter, Diana Falzone, talk with committee investigators and provide documents related to her attempts to report on Daniels’ allegations that Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer, paid her hush money after an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. Falzone’s lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, told MSNBC on Thursday night...

Donald Trump Jr. is defending Chelsea Clinton after the former first daughter was blasted by NYU students who blamed her tweet for the New Zealand mosque attacks. “It’s sickening to see people blame @ChelseaClinton for the NZ attacks because she spoke out against anti-Semitism,” Trump tweeted Saturday. “We should all be condemning anti-Semitism & all forms of hate. Chelsea should be praised for speaking up. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is part of the problem.” The political foes became bedfellows after an NYU student confronted Clinton, who is pregnant with her third child, at a Friday night vigil for the...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is urging support for the Muslim community following mass shootings at two New Zealand mosques on Friday that left at least 49 people dead and nearly 50 injured, saying that we must come together to “stand up for neighbors.” “This is a time of great vulnerability for our communities,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. “We must come together, fight for each other, & stand up for neighbors. Isolation, dehumanizing stereotypes, hysterical conspiracy theories, & hatred ultimately lead to the anarchy of violence. We cannot stand for it.” In another social media post, the freshman congresswoman from New York urged...

Candace Owens responded after being named in the alleged manifesto of one of the men accused of carrying out mass shootings at two mosques in New Zealand which left at least 49 people dead. The 74-page document, which is filled with ironic and sarcastic statements as well as references to internet memes, is believed to have been written by an Australian male citizen before he carried out the attack at one of the mosques in Christchurch. In the manifesto, he named Owens, a conservative political commentator and activist, while answering a question about which person radicalized him the most.

President Trump’s former primary rival Jeb Bush called on a Republican candidate to challenge the president in the 2020 GOP nomination because the party “ought to be a given a choice." "I think someone should run. Just because Republicans ought to be given a choice," said Bush in an interview with former Obama adviser David Axelrod, which is set to air Saturday on CNN. Bush, who served as Florida’s governor from 1999-2007, acknowledged a Republican opponent’s chances of beating Trump in 2020 will be an uphill climb because “he has a strong, loyal base.”

Vice President Pence, in an exclusive "Fox & Friends" interview Thursday, said Joe Biden “caved to liberal activists” when the former vice president backtracked after calling Pence a “decent guy.” Pence was asked about Biden’s comments, and then his apparent backtrack, after liberal and far-left Democrats shamed him for defending Pence’s character. He also weighed in on Biden potentially entering the 2020 presidential race. “Well look, they’ve got an awfully big field,” Pence told “Fox & Friends.” “On the other side, the reality that you see — on the Democrat side, is it’s largely being driven by the most extreme...

President Trump's focus on late-night talk show hosts stretched into a second day on Thursday, when he shared a quote lauding the late NBC "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson and declaring Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon will be unemployed after he finishes a second term. "The three very weak and untalented late night 'hosts' are 'fighting over table scraps. Carson did a great job, it wasn’t political. I don’t know what they’re going to do in 2024 when he’s no longer President? Will be wacky in the unemployment line,' " Trump tweeted to his more than 59 million...

Beto O’Rourke, the youthful Texan who gained a national following with his long-shot election battle against U.S. Senator Ted Cruz last year, on Thursday launched a bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.The 46-year-old O’Rourke, a former three-term U.S. congressman and a punk rocker in his youth, pledged to tackle “the interconnected crises in our economy, our democracy and our climate.” “This moment of peril produces, perhaps, the greatest moment of promise for this country,” he said in an online video.

New York prosecutors Wednesday announced the indictment of President Donald Trump's former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, only minutes after his sentencing in a federal case. The 16 charges unveiled by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance relate to mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records. "No one is beyond the law in New York," Vance said in a statement. Manafort's alleged actions "strike at the heart of New York's sovereign interests, including the integrity of our residential mortgage market," Vance added.

Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno has some choice words for the current generation of late night hosts. In an interview with NBC’s Today, Leno lamented the current state of late night shows, which he believes have gone downhill now that “everyone has to know your politics.” The comedian went on to say that he’d like television to bring back “a bit of civility,” as he believes shows have become too “serious” for viewers. While the likes of Stephen Colbert and Samantha Bee may disagree, Leno has at least one supporter: on Wednesday morning, President Trump praised the longtime host’s...

Nepotism displayed in the privileges given to President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, constituted a national security issue, a prominent former federal prosecutor and ethics campaigner said. “White House advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner show why nepotism laws exist: This is not only an ethics [issue] but a national security issue. They have received special treatment, including security clearance, and apparently can’t be fired,” Noah Bookbinder, a former federal corruption prosecutor and the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, tweeted. Bookbinder was responding to a The New York Times report that...