Free Republic

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the powerful House Democrat who represented Baltimore for more than two decades and was a vocal critic of President Trump, died early Thursday after battling health problems, his office said in a statement. Cummings, who was 68, died at Gilchrist Hospice Care, a Johns Hopkins affiliate. As chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, he was one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, and played a key role in the House Democrats' ongoing efforts to impeach Trump.

Full title: Newly uncovered tax documents show Trump 'kept two sets of books for his buildings in New York City - one for lenders and another for inspectors - and may have committed financial fraud' Tax documents relating to President Donald Trump's properties in New York City have been uncovered - with experts suggesting they could point to financial fraud. The documents obtained by ProPublica were part of records detailing four Trump properties: The Trump International Hotel and Tower, 40 Wall Street, Trump Tower, and 1290 Avenue of the Americas. The website claims that there are discrepancies in the tax...

"I think it is important for us to send a signal that we are not hellbent on regime change,” presidential candidate Barack Obama said in 2007. He was talking about Iran but citing former President George W. Bush’s disastrous precedent of ousting Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Obama defined his candidacy in opposition to that 2003 regime change war and eventually became president. Times have changed. Most Democrats in Tuesday night’s CNN/New York Times presidential debate blasted President Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria and said they believe his decision endangers the Kurds. But only one candidate said...

Washington (AFP) - Former Republican governor Mark Sanford announced Sunday he is entering the race for his party's presidential nomination, in a long-shot challenge to President Donald Trump. Sanford, who would be the third Republican to mount a primary bid against Trump, said he had decided to run because of the "astounding" debt and deficits piled up during his presidency. "I think as a Republican party we have lost our way," he said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday." "The president has called himself the king of debt, has a familiarity and comfort level with debt that I think...

A tremendous deception has been perpetrated on the American public. The fake news, Democratic Party, and neoconservatives within the GOP have gone into hysterics over President Donald Trump’s recent decision to remove troops from Northern Syria, in what they are calling a betrayal of Kurdish allies. Big League Politics has reported on the Kurds setting ISIS terrorists free at several key junctures throughout 2017 when the war against the caliphate was not yet decided. We also reported that the Kurds have been releasing ISIS terrorists in recent days as a ploy to lure U.S. troops back into the region. The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) cloud computing arm is making an aggressive push into one of the most sensitive technology sectors: U.S. elections. The expansion by Amazon Web Services into state and local elections has quietly gathered pace since the 2016 U.S. presidential vote. More than 40 states now use one or more of Amazon’s election offerings, according to a presentation given by an Amazon executive this year and seen by Reuters...snip

Michael Flynn's legal counsel says phones that belonged to Joseph Mifsud likely contain exculpatory evidence The Department of Justice (DOJ) has obtained two phones of Joseph Mifsud, one of the central figures of the 2016 Russia investigation, and the lawyer of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has requested them, saying they likely contain exculpatory evidence. The phones, two BlackBerry models, “only recently” came into the government’s possession, said Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, a former prosecutor, in an Oct. 15 court filing (pdf). Data and metadata on the phones “is material, exculpatory, and relevant to the defense of Mr. Flynn,” she said....

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) - A new poll shows Gov. Matt Bevin and Attorney General Andy Beshear are in a dead heat just weeks ahead of November's gubernatorial election. A Mason-Dixon Kentucky Poll shows both Bevin and Beshear have 46 percent of the vote. Libertarian John Hicks has one percent while seven percent of voters remain undecided. There is a margin of error of no more than four percentage points. The polling lines up with a Politico report which said Bevin is gaining ground in the governor's race. He was down eight percent against Beshear in Mason-Dixon's December 2018 poll. The...

Full title: What a Head Scratcher: Biden Lectures Crowd About Not Getting 'Do-Overs When It Comes to National Security' 1:40 min. Video at link. Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday lectured Iowa voters about the dangers of making the wrong decisions when it comes to international relations, saying there's no "do-overs when it comes to national security." "All the consequences I’ve mentioned, every single one can be laid at the feet of Donald Trump. You know, he green-lighted Turkish invasion. Now he’s left asking Turkey to stop it. But the damage is done," Biden explained to the crowd. "You...

A poll released Wednesday found that 57 percent of Republicans support President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria. An Economist/YouGov survey shows 25 percent of Republican respondents said they strongly approve of pulling out troops, while 32 percent stated they somewhat approve of the move. Further, 26 percent of Republicans surveyed said they oppose the move and 18 percent said they do not hold an opinion on the matter. The poll surveyed 1,500 people between October 13th-15th and had a margin of error of plus or minus of 2.7 percentage points.

Nervous Nancy's unhinged meltdown! 

The Democratic presidential candidates didn’t hold back in their debate on Tuesday night when it came to making sure everyone knew how much they’re in favor of killing preborn human beings. Twitter had quite the story to tell…

The overseas trip is generating new attention over Hunter Biden's business dealings. WASHINGTON — At the time, it seemed mildly noteworthy, but not particularly unusual: then-VP Joe Biden, traveling to China on an official visit, had brought his son Hunter Biden along with Hunter's daughter, Finnegan. And when the two appeared in public together in Beijing, there were all the typical trappings of a mini-family vacation tacked on to a business trip. They sipped tea in a Confucian-style teahouse, leafed through books at local shops and treated themselves to mid-afternoon ice cream. Almost six years later, Biden’s trip is coming...

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...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced at a news conference outside the White House on Wednesday that they had just walked out of a meeting with President Trump on Syria policy, after he apparently called Pelosi a "third-rate politician" and angrily suggested the Democrats probably appreciated communist Islamic State terrorists in the Middle East.

In the #MeTooMaybe hoopla over the former vice president’s hair-sniffing and hand-slipping and personal space-invading, much cataloguing of Joe Biden’s peccadillos has emerged — for example, in Jonah Goldberg’s new column. It’s a handy summary. But missed in these lists is a deeply troubling — I guess the right word is “lie.” It is one that Biden contrived — or at least perpetuated — over a deeply painful event: the death of his first wife and daughter. The lie hides in plain sight, amongst all the other oddball anecdotes (like his vowing to use his rosary beads as a choking...

MONTREAL — Former President Barack Obama endorsed Justin Trudeau’s re-election as prime minister on Wednesday, potentially giving him a lift just days before Canadians go to the polls in closely fought elections. “I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President,” Mr. Obama wrote on Twitter. “He’s a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.” The approbation of Mr. Obama, who was very popular in Canada during his presidency, could buttress Mr. Trudeau at home,...

President Trump had a “meltdown” and called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a “third-rate politician” during a meeting Wednesday with congressional leaders on the situation in Syria, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters after they left the meeting early. The White House had invited leadership and top committee members of both parties and chambers of Congress to discuss Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria. That withdrawal paved the way for Turkey to initiate an onslaught against Syrian Kurdish forces that were instrumental in the U.S.-led fight against ISIS and has been widely criticized...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-nine percent (49%) disapprove.