Free Republic

Judiciary Committee Member Steve King (R-Iowa) on the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s candidacy.

Police said a black University of Iowa student lied about being the victim of a racially motivated beating and that he instigated at last one of several alcohol-fueled fights. Marcus Owens told police that he was attacked April 30 by three white men who hurled racial slurs as they damaged his eye socket and knocked out his front teeth. The alleged hate crime stoked safety concerns and distrust among some minority students in the university. But police said Tuesday that his report was false. Investigators obtained surveillance video showing Owens had been a participant and instigator of fights that started...

"The fact of the matter is knowledge about Donald Trump is a mile wide and an inch deep," Guy Cecil says. The coming ad assault against Donald Trump from pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action is likely to drill a three-pronged message deep into the minds of swing state voters, if the group’s leaders have their way. The three central tenets of the message will be that the real estate investor is a divisive character, that he’s too dangerous to vote for, and that he’s a con man, Priorities’ chief strategist Guy Cecil explained to POLITICO on Monday —...

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! The Hillary Clinton campaign is in the process of screwing the Bernie Sanders supporters in a big way and it is absolutely HILARIOUS!!! The Sandernista DUmmies hardly even know what hit them. The big news now is how the Hillary campaign completely SCREWED the Sanders delegates out of their spots at the Nevada convention. You can read details about it HERE or at almost every other thread in DUmmieland right now. Why so surprised, DUmmies? You actually thought Team Hillary would play by something as ridiculous to them as RULES? Fortunately we have the experience of just how...

Administrators at the University of Iowa called the police and are offering counseling sessions after a Black Lives Matter message on a whiteboard was defaced. “On the evening of Friday, May 6, 2016, someone wrote offensive drawings on a whiteboard. The drawings were racially biased and defaced what was a positive Black Lives Matter statement with hate-speech directed at Black and African American people as an ethnic and racial group,” according to a memo obtained by the The College Fix.

Sen. John McCain is chastising GOP leaders for failing to embrace Donald Trump as the choice of millions of voters, laying out his most extensive views to date about Trump at the top of the ticket. He's also repudiating some of the presumptive nominee's comments -- particularly about prisoners of war. In a wide-ranging "State of the Union" interview in his campaign office in Phoenix, McCain criticized party leaders who are reluctant to back Trump, saying they are "out of step" with voters who have chosen the controversial businessman as the GOP standard-bearer. He defended Trump for being a strong...

A Planned Parenthood facility in Iowa has officially shut down after it announced its closure earlier this year. The location in Dubuque, which offered medication abortions only, reported a drop in clientele as reason for closure. The Dubuque location was in operation for eight years, and it is among almost a dozen satellite Planned Parenthood facilities to shutter in recent years. In 2014, Planned Parenthood closed facilities in Red Oak and Creston; and over the years, the abortion giant shut down similar facilities in Ankeny, Fort Dodge, Fort Madison, Knoxville, Newton, Mount Pleasant Storm Lake, Spencer and Washington. Dubuque County...

....Levin said, “I am not going to defend reckless comments, where a candidate or candidates defend the poison that is the Republican establishment, especially [Sen.] Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the United States Senate. I am not going to defend blowing out our federal budget subsidizing agribusiness and leftists with ethanol that screw up your engine and drive up the price of fuel and the price of corn. I am not going to defend an attack led by the media and the left trying to smear Antonin Scalia, who’s been on the Supreme Court for over 30 years, one of...

Ted Cruz speaking at the Bayliss Park Hall in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Oct. 23, 2015. Image Credit via screenshot, C-SPAN GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz is known for his principled and articulate constitutionalism, like a modern-day founding father who Rush Limbaugh recently declared as clearly the most “anti-liberal” candidate in the race — a huge compliment. Cruz is a constitutional fighter, who turned off the entrenched establishment leeches in both parties, as well as the corrupt Obama sycophants in the mainstream media.But one personality trait Cruz isn’t given nearly enough credit for is his sharp, witty and timely...

The Washington Post published an article listing five candidates likely to be considered to be Trump's vice president. U.S. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa is on that list. Ernst is Iowa's first female U.S. Senator. Ernst was not well known When she ran for the senate seat vacated by the retiring Tom Harkin. KWWL-TV caught up with Ernst and asked if she would consider serving as Donald Trump's vice president. "I would say, 'did my mother pay you to say that?', Ernst said. "But, no. I would have to consider it, but I love what I do in the United...

Female Republican lawmakers are making the case for Donald Trump to choose a woman as his running mate. Picking a female vice presidential candidate could help mitigate the damage Trump caused with women voters in the primary, they say, as well as counter Hillary Clinton if she is the Democratic nominee. Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) offered the idea, somewhat unprompted, at a Capitol Hill event hosted by the Heritage Foundation this week. When a reporter asked a panel of conservative House Republicans who Trump should choose as his running mate, most lawmakers demurred. But Lummis, the only woman on the...

Which begs the question: Who is he going to pick as his vice presidential nominee? The short answer: No one knows. Trump relishes being unpredictable so trying to game out how this most unconventional of politicians will make his mind up is a bit of a guessing game. Add to that the fact that Trump's inner circle remains, largely, devoid of establishment types and you quickly get into a situation where the people talking don't know much and the people who do know aren't talking.

For the past month, a media narrative has taken hold that something must be done to reform, simplify, streamline, and democratize the delegate selection system of the Republican presidential nomination process. Is our GOP presidential primary system rigged, meaning it is corrupt because it favors the establishment? Is it convoluted, arbitrary, arcane...and too often "voteless"? Is it wrong to allow "Trojan horse" delegates to change their vote on the second ballot of the national convention? Why do we have a separate election for delegates after we vote for candidates? The system is not rigged, convoluted, arbitrary, arcane, or voteless. It...

Free Republic stands for God, family, country! America! "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United State of America." Securing the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity is our mission on FR. We cannot secure the blessings of liberty with Hillary in the White House. When Trump wins the lion's share of the primary votes, states and...

Pro-abortion legislators in Iowa narrowly managed to kill a measure on Friday that would have stopped tax dollars from going to the abortion industry. “[Iowa state] Senator Ken Rozenboom’s amendment to defund the abortion industry failed today on a tie vote,” Jenifer Bowen, executive director of Iowa Right to Life, said in an email. “We had bipartisan support, but needed one more vote.” The defunding measure was part of a health and human services budget bill, which passed the Iowa House earlier this week. The state Senate removed the language to stop tax dollars from going to abortion groups like...

Leaks would spring from the FBI if officials believed that the bureau took it easy on Hillary Clinton for political reasons, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley said Friday. Speaking at a breakfast meeting in Des Moines, the Iowa Republican said that while he would not want the FBI to leak information about its investigation into Clinton’s private email server, information would likely seep out if it was perceived that the bureau decided not to issue indictments because of politics. “Is there going to be political interference? If there’s enough evidence to prosecute, will there be political interference?” Grassley asked...

Republican Donald Trump’s top staffer in Iowa accused rival Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) campaign Tuesday of blatantly bribing delegates but backpedaled on the accusations when pressed for specifics. Asked on CNN whether the Cruz campaign has proved better at “gathering” delegates so far in the race, Tana Goertz, Iowa co-chair for the Trump campaign, responded they haven’t been ethically collecting delegates at all. “Oh, no, no, no, not gathering delegates, stealing, lying, and bribing people to become delegates. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear,” Goertz, a former contest on “The Apprentice,” responded with a smile. But when CNN hosts John...

There are several resident status classifications in the United States: natural born citizen, naturalized citizen, diplomatic immunity, temporary resident (on a visa), lawful permanent resident (green card holder), and illegal alien. Ted Cruz isn't the child of diplomats, and he was never naturalized as a citizen. So either he is an illegal alien or a natural born citizen. There is no middle ground. If you don't believe he is a natural born citizen, then you believe there is an illegal alien serving in the U.S. Senate. There is no middle ground. You should immediately call for his deportation. The Constitution...

Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley told Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland to his face Tuesday that the Senate won’t consider his nomination. Over breakfast, the Iowa Republican “explained why the Senate won’t be moving forward during this hyper-partisan election year,” his office said. The statement added that Mr. Grassley “thanked Judge Garland for his service,” and that their 70-minute meeting in the Senate dining room was “cordial and pleasant.” Both men arrived early for the meeting and avoided journalists later. Mr. Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are blocking Judge Garland’s nomination, saying voters should have a role in...

ARLINGTON, Iowa (Reuters) - Tim Burrack, a northern Iowa farmer in his 44th growing season, has taken to keeping a wary eye out for unfamiliar vehicles around his 300 acres of genetically modified corn seeds. Along with other farmers in this vast agricultural region, he has upped his vigilance ever since Mo Hailong and six other Chinese nationals were accused by U.S. authorities in 2013 of digging up seeds from Iowa farms and planning to send them back to China. The case, in which Mo pleaded guilty in January, has laid bare the value -- and vulnerability -- of advanced...