Free Republic

PHILADELPHIA — Leading donors for Joseph R. Biden Jr. convened this weekend for their first donor retreat since he announced his candidacy and struck a determined posture as Mr. Biden’s campaign found itself under assault from President Trump, losing its clear front-runner status and lapped in the money chase by multiple Democratic rivals, most notably Senator Elizabeth Warren. Over cocktails on Friday evening and a Saturday spent in a drab hotel conference room, Mr. Biden’s top financiers and fund-raisers received strategy briefings and PowerPoint presentations, and plotted the path forward for the former vice president, who suddenly found himself in...

Republican Indiana congressman Jim Banks could not follow NPR radio host Michel Martin's line of reasoning on Wednesday. By Martin's account, it sounded as if President Trump was guilty of obstruction of justice after his phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. In their conversation, Trump asked Zelensky about Joe Biden's relationship to Ukraine, in light of his son Hunter's having sat on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian gas company. Some critics interpreted the phone call to suggest Trump was guilty of quid pro quo, because it sounded like he was threatening to withhold military aid from Ukraine if Zelensky...

National Public Radio (NPR) regrets a live interview with a Republican lawmaker who called out Democrats and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which is overseeing investigations against President Donald Trump, for what he called a "political impeachment." NPR sent out its public editor, Elizabeth Jensen, to defend the taxpayer-funded, left-wing media outlet for it[s] "journalistically strong" coverage of the impeachment effort after its supporters criticized an interview with Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN): [The interview] "raised journalistic concerns that I don't think are explained away as pure partisan posturing..."

Democratic presidential candidates have begun to turn their attention toward one another instead of focusing their ire exclusively on President Trump, says Jesse Watters. One notable case is that of former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, whose demand for a mandatory firearm buyback program appears to have "tanked" his candidacy, Watters insisted Thursday on "The Five."

Joe Biden called Trump voters the “dregs of society” during an impassioned speech at an LGBTQ+P for Pedophile charity event. Donald Trump Jr. has hit back at the former vice president saying his statement went “too far”. Democrats want you to know two things right off the bat. First thing is pretty obvious, Donald Trump lives in their heads and they hate him for it. Second, the Democrats hate you if you voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Hillary Clinton referred to you all as “deplorables” and now Creepy Joe Biden wants you to know he thinks that you are...

The October debate, hosted by CNN and the New York Times, is set for a single night on Oct. 15, the Democratic National Committee told the presidential campaigns Friday. "To address several inquiries we have received, we are writing to let you know that, pending a final decision after the certification deadline, it is the intention of the DNC and our media partners to hold the October debate over one night," the DNC wrote in a memo obtained by ABC News. **SNIP** Twelve candidates are currently qualified for the upcoming matchup, according to an ABC News analysis: Former Vice President...

Former Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday there was "zero, zero, zero evidence" behind President Trump's allegations regarding the 2020 candidate's behavior with Ukraine. Trump is claiming Biden used his influence as vice president to push Ukraine to fire a senior prosecutor who at one point had investigated an energy company where his son, Hunter, had served as a board member. "There is zero, zero, zero evidence of any assertion being made," Biden said at the 2020 Gun Safety Forum in Las Vegas. "Look, the issue is this President of the United States engaged in something apparently that is...

Mayor Pete Buttigieg opposes the death penalty for prisoners, even if that prisoner happens to be Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg expressed his dissatisfaction with the concept of carrying a gun after serving in Afghanistan. “Over time, I realized having a gun made me feel smaller, not bigger,” he said during a conversation about guns with a BuzzFeed reporter as part of his bus tour in Iowa. The mayor was asked about his feelings on guns as a veteran who served in Afghanistan in the Navy Reserves but apparently did not engage in combat. Earlier in September, Buttigieg criticized men who had their “sense of manhood wrapped up in owning a gun.” “[I]f it gets to where your...

Mayor Pete Buttigieg criticized President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence after they left a United Nations climate summit early on Monday. Buttigieg described Trump and Pence as the “end of American leadership” in the world.

Wednesday on MSNBC, 202o presidential hopeful South Bend, IN Pete Buttigieg said President Donald Trump’s “ranting” about the House Democrats impeachment inquiry was “the stuff of tin-pot dictatorships.” Buttigieg said, “Well, the simple fact is that these rantings are not the words of the leader of a democracy. When you are being criticized, let alone, when you’re being called out for wrongdoing responding by describing somebody who is calling you out or disagreeing as being disloyal to the country because they’re being critical of you, this is the stuff of tin-pot dictatorships, not the presidency.”

Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Private-sector hiring increased by approximately 135,000 jobs in September, beating projections but indicating a slowing in growth, a report by ADP Research in collaboration with Moody's Analytics said Wednesday. Analysts said the number and three-month average is down from this point last year, suggesting that U.S. job expansion is losing steam. The report comes ahead of employment figures that will be released in the Employment Situation Summary by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. Economists interviewed by Dow Jones had anticipated 125,000 hires in September, but both numbers are down from the 157,000 hired in...

A staffer for Rep. Adam Schiff’s House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence took a trip to Ukraine last month sponsored and organized by the Atlantic Council think tank. The Atlantic Council is funded by and routinely works in partnership with Burisma, the natural gas company at the center of allegations regarding Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. The Schiff staffer, Thomas Eager, is also currently one of 19 fellows at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Congressional Fellowship, a bipartisan program that says it “educates congressional staff on current events in the Eurasia region.” Eager’s trip to Ukraine last month was...

The largest county in Indiana announced Monday it will no longer prosecute simple marijuana possession cases. Ryan Mears, the acting prosecutor of Marion County, which contains Indianapolis, said the end of prosecution against possession is “effective today.” “If it is less than one ounce of marijuana, we are not going to file that charge,” Mr. Mears said, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Indiana’s two Republican U.S. senators, Todd Young and Mike Braun, have written a letter to Attorney General William Barr calling for his assistance in Illinois and Indiana’s investigation into late Indiana abortion doctor, Ulrich “George” Klopfer. The letter follows the recent horrific discovery of more than 2,200 fetal remains in his Illinois home. Dr. Klopfer performed abortions in South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Gary for decades. “Dr. Klopfer’s blatant disregard of human life raises many questions about how the remains were transported across state lines, where and when the abortions occurred, the gestational age of each unborn child at the...

The United Nations released an “unprecedented” report on anti-Semitism on Monday, which pointed out that the frequency appears to be increasing. It also linked anti-Semitism to denunciations of Israel as well as the Palestinian-led Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for a boycott of all Israeli products. The report stressed that the “prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes and the risk of violence against Jewish individuals and sites “ is significant. The report, “Combating Antisemitism to Eliminate Discrimination and Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief,” was released on Monday by U.N. Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on freedom of religion or...

Deven Anderson, who recently joined Pete Buttigieg's (D.) presidential campaign as a regional organizing director in Columbia, S.C., has a history of praising anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and attended a sermon where Farrakhan said "You can walk with a Jew, but you can't walk with me." Between April 2010 and August 2013, Anderson tweeted more than 20 times about Farrakhan, praising his sermons and tweeting out quotes. Two days before Farrakhan spoke at Union Temple Baptist on April 25, 2010, in southeast Washington, D.C., Anderson tweeted about planning to attend the sermon. Deven D. Anderson @BrothaBlackMan So...

Once confined to the small scientific community of climate researchers and ecological economists, the idea of degrowth is now blazing into the mainstream. Not surprisingly, people are trying to figure out what to make of it. Is it an inspiring idea that points the way to a better economy? Or is it a mad notion that’s sure to plunge us all into poverty? Degrowth is a planned reduction of total energy and material use to bring the economy in line with planetary boundaries, while improving people’s lives by distributing income and resources more fairly. The scientific case for degrowth is...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) took the lead in a new Des Moines Register Iowa poll on Saturday night, marking the first time the Massachusetts Senator led both former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the first caucus state in the poll. According to the new survey, Warren narrowly leads at 22 percent, with Biden following at 20 and Sanders at 11 percent. No other candidate reached double digits but South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg followed at 9 percent, with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) at 6 percent to round out the top five. Additionally, the poll found...

South Bend, Ind., mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg compared the fight against climate change to such pivotal moments in American history as the American Revolution and the civil rights movement. "I actually think this is one of those moments that, like many moments in American history, really pivotal ones like maybe the American Revolution itself, the struggle for civil rights, it may be that of all the things we are doing right now, the thing we are going to be remembered for will boil down to where we were on this issue," Buttigieg said during MSNBC's climate forum...