Free Republic

Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee announced Tuesday they are launching an investigation into the Trump administration’s dealings with Saudi Arabia after several whistleblowers expressed concern about efforts to sell the kingdom nuclear technology. The announcement came in conjunction with the release of a report by committee staff that said senior White House officials pushed for the sale of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia despite warnings from ethics advisers and national security officials to stop. “Based on this snapshot of events, the committee is now launching an investigation to determine whether the actions being pursued by the Trump...

The effort showcased an impressive list of black speakers in prominent roles vouching for President Trump and slamming Joe Biden and the Dems. Kim Klacik, a dynamic young Republican woman running for the late Elijah Cummings’ seat in Baltimore, set the tone by declaring: “The Democrats have controlled my city, Charm City, for over 50 years and they have run this beautiful place into the ground. “Abandoned buildings, liquor stores on every corner, drug addicts and guns on the street — that is now the norm in many neighborhoods.” Herschel Walker, the football great, added his personal experience after what...

An ad for a Republican running for the late Rep. Elijah Cummings’s (D-Md.) Congressional seat went viral, with the candidate pushing a message that “All Black Lives Matter.” The GOP candidate, Kimberly Klacik, who is Black, argues in the digital ad that Democrats have failed the people of Baltimore after more than 50 years as she is seen walking through part of the city. “Baltimore has been run by the Democrat party for 53 years. What is the result of their decades of leadership?” Klacik asks in the ad. Answering the question she posed, Klacick says the city is in...

Democrat Kweisi Mfume won a special congressional election in Maryland on Tuesday and will replace the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) for the rest of his term in the state’s 7th district. Cummings, who chaired the House Oversight Committee, died at 68 in October 2019. His office told news outlets that he died due to “complications concerning longstanding health challenges.” Following Cummings’s death, over 30 people—including some two dozen Democrats—announced bids for the seat he had held since 1996. Mfume defeated Republican Kimberly Klacik to win the seat, with The Associated Press calling the race after 8 p.m. local time....

Republican strategist Kimberly Klacik said after winning the primary election to run for the late congressman Elijah Cummings’s old seat in Baltimore that she won because of her “grassroots efforts," and she added that some of President Trump’s policies will help her historically blue district. “What I try to remind people is if you take a look at President Trump — take a look at prison reform, First Step Act, he’s actually just rewinding and fixing what was broken with that crime bill that led to so much mass incarceration that you really see in the greater Baltimore area,” Klacik...

The city of Baltimore will formally name a courthouse after the late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings in the first half of 2020. Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young on Friday unveiled the renderings of the bronze plaques that will be affixed to the building's exterior. One includes an image and biography of the congressman, and the other reads “Elijah E. Cummings Courthouse.” The powerful Democratic congressman and civil rights champion died Oct. 17 at age 68 of complications from longstanding health issues. He had represented Maryland's 7th Congressional District, which encompasses a large portion of Baltimore, since 1996. Cummings graduated from...

A 17-year-old MS-13 gang member will serve 50 years in prison for his involvement in the murder of a 14-year-old girl in Maryland last April. Josue Fuentes-Ponce pleaded guilty on Oct. 30 to charges of first-degree murder, participating in the crime as part of a criminal gang, and conspiracy to commit murder, according to NBC Washington. Prosecutors said gang members lured Ariana Funes-Diaz into a tunnel in Riverdale, Md., where they beat her to death with a machete and baseball bat on April 18, the outlet reported. "These individuals had demonstrated violent criminal behavior before, and because they were released...

Baltimore broke its annual per capita homicide record after reaching 342 killings Friday. With just over 600,000 residents, the city hit a historically high homicide rate of about 57 per 100,000 people after recent relentless gunfire saw eight people shot — three fatally — in one day and nine others — one fatally — another day. The new rate eclipses that of 1993, when the city had a record 353 killings but was much more populous before years of population exodus. By contrast, New York City, with more than 8 million residents, had 306 homicides through Dec. 15. The total...

From San Francisco to Amherst, hungover activists greeted Thursday’s mid-afternoon sun, rolling out of their waterbeds in the warm belief that Donald J. Trump was no longer president of the United States. Of course, he is still the president. Indeed, he might not even have been constitutionally impeached yet. That’s because every chapter of this story, from accusations to investigations, charges to impeachment, has been pure political theater. “Very sadly now… I solemnly and sadly open the debate on the impeachment,” Pelosi announced before Wednesday’s vote. “He gave us no choice,” she concluded.The speaker and her allies wore black, of...

BALTIMORE (AP) — More than two dozen correctional officers in Baltimore were charged Tuesday with using excessive force on prisoners at state-operated jails in a city plagued by decades of institutional corruption, inside and outside jailhouse walls.

The new acting chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party alleges the organization was overspending without strong financial controls under the leadership of former chairwoman Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, who is now seeking her late husband’s seat in Congress. State Sen. Cory V. McCray, who took over as party chairman this month, wrote in a letter Friday to Maryland State Central Committee members that he has discovered “major areas of concern" pertaining to the organization’s finances, including “overspending” and lack of “fiscal constraints.” “In 2019, the Party has spent more money than it has raised for 9 out of 10 months,” wrote...

President Donald Trump has achieved more concrete progress for blacks, gays, and Jews than any other American president.That claim is sure to be disputed, if not mocked, by those for whom grievance and identity politics are a profession or a psychological crutch.Yet it remains true — and was thrown into sharp relief this week, as the Jussie Smollett case turned from one of the most horrific attacks in recent memory to the worst hate crime hoax in history.There are two reasons the media, Hollywood, and the Democratic political elite believed Smollett’s claims.First, he belongs to several victim categories: black, gay,...

The late Rep. Elijah Cummings' daughters are backing his longtime aide Harry Spikes in a crowded primary field to succeed him - and not the longtime lawmaker's widow. Jennifer Cummings, 37, and her sister Adia, 25, both support Spikes, who served on Cummings' staff for more than a decade and who was defeated in a prior primary for the Maryland House of Delegates. Cummings widow, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, 48, is also seeking the seat, as is Cummings' predecessor, former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who was one of his oldest friends and is a former leader of the NAACP. All three of...

'Our country has lost a giant.' Elijah Cummings is first African-American lawmaker to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol as Congress bids farewell to sharecropper's son who went head to head with Donald Trump Elijah Cummings' body is lying lie in state at the Capitol - the first time an African-American lawmaker has been given the honor Congressional leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at a service in celebration of his life Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said: 'Our country has lost a giant.' Cummings was the son of sharecroppers. He earned a law degree and became a powerful...

CNN contributor April Ryan and CNN media reporter Brian Stelter attacked black Republican Kimberly Klacik on Saturday, implying she drove Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) to his death last month after her video exposé on rat and trash infested Baltimore neighborhoods in his Congressional District provoked a national firestorm from President Trump. Klacik, 37, was attacked by Ryan and Stelter over her announcement of her candidacy for Cummings’ vacant seat. **** Ryan wrote on Twitter, “This is the woman who created all the controversy that made @realDonaldTrump go after @RepCummings and Baltimore. Cummings never got over the attack on him and...

Many Baltimore residents were “very happy” that President Trump shed light on the issues in their city, according to Republican strategist Kimberly Klacik, who is running for late Rep. Elijah Cummings' seat in Maryland. “People got on Trump’s case for basically repeating what so many people in West Baltimore said. Not just the residents, but even the former mayor, Mayor [Catherine] Pugh said the same thing: rat-infested. There's problems there,” Klacik told, “Fox & Friends First" on Tuesday. Klacik said that the sentiments expressed from Baltimore locals give her hope that she, a Republican, would have a "shot" at winning...

The widow of late Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said on Monday that she will launch a campaign to win her husband’s seat as representative of Maryland’s 7th Congressional District. Maryland Democratic Party Chairwoman Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, 48, initially told The Baltimore Sun that she would formally announce her campaign on Tuesday, nearly a month after her husband died of cancer on Oct. 17 at age 68. Rep. Elijiah Cummings served nearly two decades in Congress and played an integral role in the early stages of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump as the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform...

CNN contributor April Ryan and CNN media reporter Brian Stelter attacked black Republican Kimberly Klacik on Saturday, implying she drove Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) to his death last month after her video exposé on rat and trash infested Baltimore neighborhoods in his Congressional District provoked a national firestorm from President Trump.

Former Rep. Kweisi Mfume said Wednesday he would be a "champion" for the district he once represented if elected to represent it again. Mfume, the former 7th District congressman, is running to succeed the man who succeeded him, Elijah Cummings. He spoke Wednesday to C4. Mfume, who left office to lead the NAACP out of a path to financial ruin, touted his credentials as "somebody at the very least who is proven, tested, trusted and most of all ready to go to work on day one." Mfume talked about his beliefs on health care, violent crime, affordable college and spurring...

A man seen in a viral video declining to shake Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) hand at the late Rep. Elijah Cummings's (D-Md.) funeral said the snub wasn’t based on his loyalty to Cummings as a friend. The man, identified as Bobby Rankin, told The Washington Post on Monday he blamed McConnell for denying veterans’ benefits to his brother before he died last October from cancer after being exposed to contaminated water while serving in the Marines. “When I saw Mitch McConnell, all I saw was my brother’s face,” Rankin told the Post. In a 16-second clip, Rankin, one...