Free Republic

BREAKING: Speaker Mike Johnson just inexcusably voted against the American people and his voters by casting the tie-breaking vote 212-212 to defeat a FISA 702 amendment requiring a warrant to spy on Americans. This is how the Constitution dies. Brought to you by the House GOP.

House Republicans are probing whether the Department of Justice retaliated against one of their impeachment witnesses — a former business associate of Hunter Biden who revealed a 2014 conversation then-Vice President Biden had with his son and the former mayor of Moscow. Jason Galanis, who is currently serving a 14-year federal prison sentence for defrauding an American Indian tribe, disclosed a May 4, 2014, speaker phone conversation between Hunter and Joe Biden and Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and her husband, the ex-Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Galanis was interviewed last month from his prison cell in Montgomery, Ala., and during his...

Hunter Biden appeared for a last-minute press conference on Wednesday morning, much to the surprise of House Republicans who met in a hearing room across Capitol Hill at the same time awaiting a scheduled deposition with the president’s son. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Biden to appear before the committee for a private deposition on Wednesday, a request he repeatedly denied to push for a public hearing instead. When Republicans refused to do so until a private meeting was held, Biden staged public remarks of his own — appearing outside the Capitol to respond to the committee’s allegations...

Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) slammed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy again Tuesday morning for his “eight months of inaction” on Joe Biden and the Biden Crime Family. Gaetz further called on McCarthy to sign a subpoena for Hunter Biden that he took the initiative to draft. The subpoena orders Hunter to testify under oath and produce records such as documents, contracts, agreements, and financial records from his shady business dealings; communications with Joe Biden, domestic and foreign business partners; and what appears to be records pertaining to secret global phone lines and email pseudonyms used by then-Vice President Joe Biden to...

The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday sent letters to several asset managers and climate organizations over potential antitrust violations related to "decarbonization" agreements between firms as part of a larger investigative inquiry into Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices in the financial sector. ESG investing is the practice of using investor capital to advance non-financial goals, among them those outlined in ESG initiatives. Conservative critics have contended that the practice may constitute a breach of an asset manager's fiduciary duties to its investors. The Judiciary Committee in June issued a subpoena to climate group Ceres over a concern that its...

House Republicans will vote on legislation next week to kill the Biden administration’s controversial rule that allows private retirement plan fiduciaries to consider environment, social and governance (ESG) factors when making investment decisions for their clients. The Department of Labor’s controversial rule, which took effect in February, has been derided by Republicans and dozens of trade associations as an effort to impose a social agenda on the more than 140 million Americans whose retirement plans are governed by standards set by the federal government. For decades, those standards have said investment decisions must be guided by the goal of maximizing...

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is demanding that President Biden’s special climate envoy, John Kerry, turn over documents related to secret negotiations with the Chinese Communist Party that the Republican says “undermine the United States’ interests.” Comer informed the former secretary of state in a letter on Thursday that the House panel will investigate his role in the While House and his talks with Beijing, claiming that Kerry’s office has so far ignored requests for information. “In the 117th Congress, we requested information from you regarding your position as special presidential envoy for climate (SPEC) — a cabinet-level...

House Republicans are calling on the Biden administration to investigate the Chinese government’s economic espionage efforts at U.S. research labs following a damning report about Beijing’s apparent extensive efforts at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Republicans wrote to “express our serious concerns” about a new report seeming to show decadeslong Chinese government-linked infiltration into New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, a U.S. weapons and nuclear research site, “and to learn what steps your offices are taking to protect our critical research from malign talent recruitment programs.” The Tuesday letter, led by Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) and 10 other House...

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is out as Republican conference chair in the House of Representatives. The story has dominated American news outlets over the past week. Most Americans are probably hard-pressed to care about the story, but to the political press in the United States, the story has mattered deeply. This past Tuesday night, as rockets rained down on Tel Aviv from Gaza, the press was focused on Cheney's pending ouster, which happened Wednesday morning. On Wednesday afternoon, while President Joe Biden was holding a press conference about the Colonial Pipeline shutdown, MSNBC was holding a panel discussion about Cheney...

This week’s removal of Liz Cheney from House Republican leadership is of monumental, symbolic importance. As with most things, it primarily has to do with Donald Trump. That is, of course, if you believe the mainstream media and its loyal partner, the #NeverTrump commentariat. According to the haters’ telling, this is yet another moment in the epic struggle for democracy between themselves—the “principled” and “enlightened” conservatives—and the rest of us, the Neanderthals in the Republican Party still in thrall to our dastardly former president. And naturally, any criticism of the honorable Cheney over her behavior only shows that the GOP...

@RepThomasMassieI oppose mask mandates decreed by executives under “emergency powers” when the so-called emergency has existed for 6 months and the executive branch hasn’t consulted the legislative branch. The US Constitution guarantees residents of every state a republican form of government.

House Republicans are intensifying a multipronged assault to chip away at special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election. A vocal group of conservative members has for weeks blitzed the airwaves decrying bias in Mueller’s investigation and on Thursday, two prominent members called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step down from the Department of Justice (DOJ) — a resignation that could clear the way for the special counsel’s dismissal. On Wednesday, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), secured the backing of Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to enforce a swath of subpoenas...

A string of recent GOP defeats suggest a 'blue wave' in next year's midterms. It's a nice theory, but Democrats simply aren't up to the task. In the wake of Roy MooreÂ’s loss in AlabamaÂ’s special Senate election last week, together with a Republican loss in the Virginia governorÂ’s race last month, pundits are beginning to murmur that the GOP should brace for huge losses in the 2018 midterms. Democrats, weÂ’re told, are poised to take control of the Senate, the House of Representatives, at least five statehouses, and maybe even a half-dozen governorships. ItÂ’s going to be a blue...

House Republicans leaders say President-elect Donald Trump wants a short-term spending bill to keep the government running through March of next year. […] Such a move would let the Republican-controlled government boost military spending while making deep cuts in domestic programs next year. …

A federal judge on Thursday ruled for House Republicans in their lawsuit against the Obama administration over ObamaCare. In a major ruling, Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that the administration does not have the power to spend money on "cost sharing reduction" payments to insurers without an appropriation from Congress. Collyer stayed her ruling so that the administration can appeal the decision.

Republicans controlling the House are pressing ahead with an annual fiscal measure despite hardening opposition from tea party conservatives over its endorsement of higher spending permitted by last year’s bipartisan budget and debt deal. Several GOP lawmakers exiting a Monday evening strategy session said House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price is expected to unveil a 10-year budget plan on Tuesday and hold a committee vote this week. The committee confirmed later Monday that it is moving ahead. […] Price, R-Ga., has worked hard to try to develop consensus but has so far been stymied by several dozen conservatives who continue...

Now is when the adults in the room are supposed to rise from their rocking chairs and send us uppity conservatives to our room without our supper. But instead, we’re going to stay right here and have another cheeseburger. And another beer. And there’s nothing you Chamber of Commerce-kissing, Obama-submitting moderates can do about it. When Paul Ryan was drafted for Speaker, who held the real power in that dynamic? Not Ryan – he knew he couldn’t say ‘No” because he would catch the blame if everything went to hell. No, the guys with the real power were the dreaded...

But Boehner's retirement announcement — like McCarthy, he sprung it on a surprised world — didn't resolve any of the conflicts inside the GOP conference. Many of that core 30-40 member group of the most assertive conservatives saw McCarthy as more of the same. And they realized, again, that if they voted as a bloc against leadership, McCarthy couldn't become speaker. And why should he asked the conservative rebels, who like everyone else watched as public approval of GOP leaders went down and down. "When 72 percent of Republican voters disapprove of the congressional leadership it's hard to simply promote...

House Republicans announced Tuesday they will recommend dispatching the National Guard to South Texas and speeding Central American youths back home as their response to the immigration crisis that’s engulfing the border and testing Washington’s ability to respond. The recommendations, to come from a working group established by House Speaker John Boehner, will set up a clash with leading Democrats who oppose changing U.S. law to eliminate automatic immigration hearings for Central American kids and return them more quickly to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, where some areas are overrun by brutal gangs. With Democrats and the White House under...

The DCCC, the campaign arm for Rep. Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats, has raised $22 million more than the House GOP for the fall elections. That result is surprising enough, as Democrats' minority status gives them little political leverage in the House. More surprising, though, is that Democrats have raised almost three times as much money, $46 million v. $17 million, as Republicans from small-dollar grass roots donors. The political landscape and recent polling would suggest the opposite situation.