Free Republic

UPDATE:President Donald J. Trump finished his address moments ago, offering the Democratic Party a compromised illegal immigration solution that would bring an end to the government shut down, institute extended protection for DACA recipients and other illegal aliens, as well as provide initial funding for 230 miles of steel barriers along the southern border. "If we are successful in this effort, we will have the best chance in a long time at bipartisan immigration reform, and it won’t stop here, it will keep going until we do it all,� the president told the nation."Our immigration system should be a source...

President Trump, in a televised White House address Saturday, offered Democrats a compromise package on immigration in an effort to end the nearly monthlong partial government shutdown -- although Democrats dismissed the olive branch as a "non-starter" before Trump even spoke. Trump announced that he was prepared to back a three-year extension of protections for 700,000 immigrants who came to the country illegally as children and were shielded from deportation under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, in exchange for the $5.7 billion he has requested for a barrier on the southern border. "Walls are not immoral,"...

Even before President Trump's shutdown remarks on Saturday, Democratic aides on the Hill were dismissing his planned shutdown compromise offer as inadequate. As first reported by Axios, Trump was expected to make two offers to Democrats in exchange for $5.7 billion in funds for a border wall: Extend DACA protections for Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and extend the legal status of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders. But hours before the speech, Democratic Whip Dick Durbin said in a statement: "I cannot support the proposed offer as reported and do not believe it can pass...

President Trump vowed in a video message to the March for Life on Friday to veto any legislation that “weakens the protection of human life.” “If they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life, I will issue a veto and we have the support to uphold those vetoes,” Trump said in the message displayed to a crowd gathered for the annual anti-abortion march in Washington. “Every child is a sacred gift from God,” Trump said in the message. Vice President Pence spoke in person at the march, calling Trump a “champion” for abortion opponents....

The White House announced Friday afternoon President Trump plans to hold a second summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. “President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February. The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders released in a statement. Trump's first summit with Chairman Kim was held in June 2018 from Singapore. This is a developing story, stay tuned...

"Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace said a new report that President Trump directed his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress could be huge, but it should be taken with "a giant block of salt" until definitive proof emerges. The allegations were detailed in a BuzzFeed report published Thursday night. It cited two unnamed federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation on the matter who said Cohen acknowledged to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office that he was instructed by Trump to lie to Congress in 2017 about discussions of a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow. The...

A second summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place next month, the White House announced Friday. President Trump met with a top North Korean official Friday afternoon in the Oval Office. “President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and a half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February. The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date," the White House said in a statement. The face-to-face came after Secretary...

Minnesota Democrat criticized for anti-Israel statements, BDS supportHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been hit with a backlash over her decision to assign freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, despite the Minnesota Democrat’s record of anti-Israel advocacy. The House Republican leadership blasted the decision, citing Ms. Omar’s 2012 tweet saying that Israel had “hypnotized the world” and was guilty of “evil doings,” as well as her support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. “It is disgraceful that Speaker Pelosi and her Democrat majority gave a coveted seat on the House Foreign Relations Committee to a...

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a ruling that allows Texas to strip Planned Parenthood of its Medicaid funding.... to have Planned Parenthood removed as a qualified Medicaid provider following the release of several damning undercover videos, should come as a major blow to not just the abortion provider, but also the press. Four years later, we learn from the 5th Circuit that the videos were neither selectively edited, nor was it false to say that Planned Parenthood associates circumvented legal, medical, and ethical guidelines in pursuit of salvaging human remains. The ruling shatters the claim that the...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats are pretty enraged President Trump cancelled their taxpayer funded trip overseas -- in the middle of a government shutdown -- at the last minute on Thursday. In fact, they were already sitting on the bus ready to go to the airport. Democrat House members getting off the bus that was to take them on an overseas trip while the government was shut down. Adam Schiff looks unhappy he couldn’t go pic.twitter.com/mywvLNtsId #maga #democratShutdown— Matt Batzel (@MattBatzel) January 17, 2019 But it turns out these taxpayer funded Congressional Delegation [CODEL] trips lead by...

The White House on Friday banned the use of all government aircraft for congressional delegations without approval from the White House chief of staff during the partial government shutdown. In a letter to the heads of all federal agencies and departments, acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought told officials that Trump asked him to explain these temporary policies regarding “legislative branch travel.” “Under no circumstances during a government shutdown will any government owned, rented, leased or chartered aircraft support any congressional delegation, without the express written approval of the White House chief of staff,” Vought wrote. “Nor...

Calls for President Donald Trump's impeachment grew among Democrats on Friday after a report said he had directed Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer and fixer at the time, to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. BuzzFeed News on Thursday evening reported that Cohen told special counsel Robert Mueller the president personally instructed him to lie to Congressional investigators in order to minimize links between Trump and his Moscow building project, citing two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter. The report also alleged that Cohen was directed to give a...

Prosecutors on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating alleged “collusion” between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia knew all along that the anti-Trump “dossier” compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele that fueled their probe was biased and likely phony. Yet instead of investigating those individuals at the FBI and Justice Department who actively participated in the dossier fraud – as he should have done – Mueller hired several of them to investigate Trump. Newly confirmed congressional testimony of former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr shows that he warned both the FBI and the Justice Department that Steele was...

The Trump Administration has told California and seven other states that they cannot offer unemployment benefits to federal workers who aren’t getting a paycheck. Gov. Gavin Newsom last week encouraged thousands of California workers furloughed due to the federal government shutdown to apply for unemployment insurance, vowing that “we’ll cover you – we have your back.” But Wednesday, the California Employment Development Department was among those sent a memo from the Department of Labor which states that federal employees who are working without pay “are not unemployed and are, therefore, not eligible for UCFE” (Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees). Newsom...

Confused Democrat lawmakers were left sitting idle on a military bus near the Capitol after President Donald Trump postponed their seven-day foreign trip as the partial government shutdown continues. Photos shared to social media purport to show Democrats on a U.S. Air Force bus traveling to the airport when they received word that their access to a military plane had been blocked: ...House Members sitting on an Air Force bus b/t the Longworth and Rayburn House Office Buildings waiting to see if they are still going overseas after Trump cancelled the trip. ...The bus went around the block and back...

Chaos briefly broke out on the floor of the House Thursday as Republicans accused Democrats of trying to pull a fast one with a hasty vote to end the partial shutdown. The drama began in the afternoon when the Democratic-controlled House held a voice vote on an interim spending bill to re-open the government through February 28. Customarily, after a voice vote is held, the opposition party will demand a recorded roll call vote. But when no one was heard, North Carolina Rep. G.K. Butterfield, who was presiding over the House, did not hold a roll call vote and instead...

President Trump sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday afternoon informing her an upcoming taxpayer funded, military escorted trip overseas has been postponed."Dear Madame Speaker. Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed. We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over. In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event it totally appropriate. I also feel that, during this period, it would be better if you were in...

Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., announced his resignation on Thursday with the longtime lawmaker saying he was taking a job in the private sector. Marino, who was re-elected in November to a fifth term in the House, said that his last day in office will be Jan. 23. "Having spent over two decades serving the public, I have chosen to take a position in the private sector where I can use both my legal and business experience to create jobs around the nation," Marino said in a statement. He added: "I want to thank the people of the 12th Congressional District...

Sen. Kamala Harris, California Democrat, said Thursday she will not vote for William Barr, President Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Ms. Harris, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is the first prominent Democrat to officially announce her intent to vote against Mr. Barr.

The 2018 midterms were a disaster for House Republicans. Democrats gained 40 seats, retook the majority, and, to our horror, Nancy Pelosi is speaker again. They were elected to stop Trump, to block him at every turn, and lead the effort for his impeachment and removal from office. Any Democrat who says otherwise is lying. The base demands Trump go at all costs. The younger, feistier Democrats say that openly. The older crew tries to downplay it, but ultimately that’s their goal. They’re banking heavily that the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the DOJ’s Russia probe,...