Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell distanced himself from other Republican lawmakers who have called for the National Guard to be sent in to break up the antisemitic riots and demonstrations that have taken over multiple university campuses throughout the US over the last week and a half. “What needs to happen, at least at the beginning, is these university presidents need to get control of the situation, allow free speech, and push back against antisemitism,” McConnell told Margaret Brennan on the CBS 'Face the Nation' program. “I thought that was largely gone in this country, but we’ve seen a number...

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) took a shot at former President Donald Trump on Tuesday. The Utah Republican Senator said of Trump’s character during an interview that aired on CNN’s “News Central” that you don’t pay someone not to have sex with you. On the steps of Capitol Hill, speaking to CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju, Romney said, “I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump’s character. And so far as I know, you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.”

Matt Gaetz floated the prospect on Thursday that Representative Lauren Boebert could be better suited to serve as House speaker than current Speaker Mike Johnson who continues facing outrage from conservatives over his support for Ukraine aid.

Former Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) said Monday on CNN’s “OutFront” that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had “backbone” for advancing foreign aid funding in separate bills, which did not include border security funding as many in his caucus preferred. Buck said, “I think Mike Johnson’s on the right side of history. And I think that Republicans and Democrats will rally around someone who is showing leadership on Capitol Hill. It is a rare commodity on Capitol Hill. Mike has the backbone to move forward with very important and controversial legislation. The vote should be to vote for or against this package,...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had kind words for far-left CNN host Jake Tapper Wednesday after the cameras appeared to turn dark. “You’re always fair,” a mic’d up Johnson said during an exchange heard by Breitbart News moments after Johnson’s long appearance on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper. Johnson joined Tapper remotely from outside the House floor in the Capitol as a handful of reporters looked on. He remarked during the interview that he had known Tapper, a proven leftwing partisan known for broadcasting false claims, for a long time. Johnson used his CNN appearance to tout his foreign aid...

Several frustrated House Republicans are breaking with congressional norms to boost the primary opponent of House Freedom Caucus chairman Bob Good. The Virginia Republican was one of eight lawmakers who voted to remove their party’s leader, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, in October. McCarthy, who resigned in December, now plans to return the favor. McCarthy, and his friends on the Hill, including House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., have endorsed and fundraised for Good’s primary challenger, state Sen. John McGuire, CNN reported on Sunday. The delayed fallout from the removal of McCarthy forms...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday explained his apparent flip-flop on a controversial surveillance law, saying that he now favors limited reforms after receiving a classified briefing. Speaker Johnson was asked by reporters why he changed his opinion on reforming Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a controversial surveillance law that is meant to target foreign adversaries, but often surveils Americans’ communications without a warrant. Johnson this week came out against a warrant requirement for Section 702 and moved not to allow an amendment that would have barred intelligence and law enforcement agencies from purchasing Americans’ private...

Hidden Camera captures Principal Economist @federalreserve talking about Jerome Powell’s legacy as “somebody who held the line against like, Trump.” The influential agency responsible for maintaining a stable monetary system appears to not just be establishing interest rates, but to be setting policies for desired social outcomes. “Under Powell, the Fed has changed to think about equity issues, like racial issues, think about wealth inequality as part of the mandate, as part of the things we are following. Think about climate change.” Aurel Hizmo, Principal Economist at the Federal Reserve, who prior to working at the Fed was an Assistant...

The Biden re-election campaign should be dead in the water. Inflation is surging again, wokeness is deeply unpopular with most Americans, bills are beginning to come due for the Left’s “green” initiatives, and, most of all, Biden himself is so far gone in dementia as to be dysfunctional. How can he possibly win in November? By running on abortion. We saw it in many areas of the country in 2022. What should have been a red wave petered out, as the Democrats grabbed the lifeline that Dobbs gave them and often rode it to victory. Can it happen again in...

McCarthy says he's not Speaker anymore because “one person a member of Congress wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17 year old…”

Republican strategist Karl Rove urged Democrats to “go hard” at former President Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, calling the former president’s pledge to free imprisoned rioters a “critical mistake.” “If they were smart, they’d take the January 6 and go hard at it. And they would say, ‘He wants to pardon these people who attacked our Capitol,'” Rove said told MSNBC’s Ari Melber. “One of the critical mistakes made in this campaign is that Donald Trump has now said ‘I’m going to pardon those people because they’re hostages,'” Rove said in the interview, which...

The popular opinion among many on both sides of the aisle about why the 2022 red wave turned into a red trickle is that the overturning of Roe vs. Wade ruined it for the Republicans. To the surprise of no one who's been reading me for a while, I don't agree with the popular opinion. It was 40 years ago this spring that I first volunteered on a Republican campaign. I've seen a few elections. I cannot stress enough how one should never underestimate the ability of the GOP to blow an election simply because the party doesn't execute the...

Donald Trump suffered a blow in a number of primary votes on Tuesday, after thousands of Republicans refused to vote for him.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 82, intends to remain in the U.S. Senate to oppose conservatives who support a truce between Russia and Ukraine, he said Monday. McConnell announced in February he would step down as Senate minority leader at the end of the cycle following health issues and incidents of freezing up during press conferences. He is the longest-serving party leader in Senate history. In an interview on WHAS, Terry Meiner asked McConnell what his “mindset” is “when your feet hit the floor in the morning?" "I’m not leaving the Senate,” McConnell said. “I’m particularly involved in actually fighting back...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday that he expects to move a package including aid for Ukraine with “some important innovations” when the House returns from recess. In an interview on “Sunday Night in America With Trey Gowdy,” Johnson stressed the difficult position he’s in, with a historically narrow House majority, but said he was working throughout the current work period to come up with a package and plans to put it on the floor when the House gavels back into session.

As president, I will restore American strength on the world stage and focus our attention and resources on deterring Xi’s Chinese Communist Party — the greatest economic and security threat facing America today. My goal is straightforward: We win, and they lose. My treasury and commerce secretaries will focus on American interests, not Wall Street’s access to Chinese markets. I will create an Office of Economic Security and Competition to prioritize reshoring and friendshoring critical production, protecting technologies and reducing reliance on adversaries. I will defend American workers and innovators from illicit technology transfer and intellectual-property theft. I will align...

Former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday said he is not voting for his old boss but left the door open to voting for President Biden. “I’m not there yet,” Esper said after being asked by comedian Bill Maher on his HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” if he would vote for the current president. “I’m definitely not voting for [former President Trump], but I’m not there yet.” Trump announced that he fired Esper from his position as Defense Secretary back in November 2020, following Biden being projected to win the 2020 presidential race. He has since become...

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Michael Steele called former President Trump a “visceral animal” after Trump shared a video depicting President Biden tied up in the back of a truck and a string of attacks against judges overseeing his court cases. Steele, a political analyst for MSNBC, said Saturday the concept of thinking before speaking “is way above Donald Trump’s paygrade, or I think, intellectual capacity because he’s a visceral animal politically and in business.”

The advocacy group Republican Voters Against Trump announced a new six-figure campaign highlighting former Vice President Mike Pence‘s refusal to endorse former President Donald Trump in his 2024 campaign. The 15-second digital ad is set to run in five battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, while the billboard campaign will be featured in Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee. “This is someone who worked with Donald Trump all four years of his presidency. He saw Donald Trump up close and personal every single day,” said John Conway, the group’s director of strategy, in an...

Within moments of widespread media reports that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire when the current term ends this summer, the Washington parlor game of making a short list of judges President Joe Biden might consider to replace him began. ... There’s one major problem facing Biden’s prospects, though: he might not be able to win confirmation for the expected pick. [Snip] But the nuclear option can go into motion only if the Judiciary Committee reports the nomination to the floor, a procedural move that says whether a majority on the committee recommends the full Senate consider the pick....