Free Republic

Rahm Emanuel gave the world a simple truth about politics when he wrote, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Obama the Goof was pretty good at it. In Trump’s second presidency, has mastered this. He used emergencies to shut down the border, lay heavy tariffs on trade cheats and to turn DC into a clean capital worthy of hosting world leaders at the White House. Trump now is using the government shutdown to do what people...

CNN host John Berman confronted Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday for previously opposing government shutdowns. Along with most Democrats, Schumer voted to shut the government down since the Republican-led stopgap bill did not include an extension of enhanced tax credits in the Affordable Care Act. While he defended his party for voting in favor of the shutdown on “CNN News Central,” Berman played previous clips of the New York Democrat previously calling government shutdowns “self-defeating” and “a politics of idiocy.” “That was you three times in the past,” Berman said. “That was in March, John, before they had...

Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie is desperately trying to keep his fight for political survival from becoming a billionaire battleground, even ever-so-slightly suggesting Elon Musk's tacit support could backfire. The embattled GOP congressman, who Trump has called 'the worst Republican Congressman', is walking a tightrope as he tries to downplay any suggestion that the world's richest man might come to his rescue against the president's personal revenge campaign. 'It's important that my race is not a proxy race between Donald Trump and Elon Musk,' Massie told the Daily Mail, in a bid to keep the race locally focused. 'Elon Musk has...

A Kentucky congressman and senator are touring northern Kentucky together as the election season begins. “Is it the Republicans fault or the Democrats fault? And I just say ‘yeah,’” Sen. Rand Paul said humorously as he began remarks to a packed room at the Robertson County Community Center. It was one of four community forums held on Wednesday, co-headlined by Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie. Later in the day, both appeared at a coffee meet & greet and a “Massie for Congress” rally that staff said were campaign events. Both Republicans have taken national heat for their own independence from...

@RandPaul Great turnout tonight in Northern Kentucky to support my friend @MassieforKY

Republicans are turning the heat back up on the Trump administration for its handling of the Epstein files. Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie torched FBI Director Kash Patel over the weekend after he caught the bureau chief off guard on information that Patel should have already been privy to. “I told Director Kash Patel that the FBI has names of 20 men to whom Jeffrey Epstein trafficked women and girls,” Massie wrote on X. “This basic fact seemed to surprise him. Why? “Is the FBI withholding those names to protect the President’s rich and powerful friends?” Massie continued, before demanding that...

The Senate and House are on a collision course over whether to repeal comprehensive sanctions on Syria, a rare area where there are bipartisan coalitions on both sides of the debate. Discussion centers on whether to completely repeal the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, a severe sanctions mechanism that blocked nearly all U.S. and international cooperation or engagement with the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Legislation to repeal Caesar is included in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2026. But an amendment to the House version of the NDAA to repeal Caesar...

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie says Trump should tone down his rhetoric in response to the Charlie Kirk assassination:

Who Was Colonel Harland Sanders? At the age of 40, Harland Sanders was running a popular Kentucky service station that also served food—so popular, in fact, that the governor of Kentucky designated him a Kentucky colonel. Eventually, Sanders focused on franchising his fried chicken business around the country, collecting a payment for each chicken sold. The company went on to become the world's largest fast-food chicken chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sanders died in Louisville, Kentucky, on December 16, 1980.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has once again raised eyebrows by publicly questioning President Trump’s latest show of military force, this time over a Venezuelan drug vessel blown to pieces in the Caribbean. The Gateway Pundit reported in August that Trump ‘secretly’ signed a directive ordering the Pentagon to start using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels. The order provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels. This means that US troops could find themselves in countries like Mexico battling the Sinaloa Cartel, for example. As TGP readers...

A Kentucky judge who was allegedly killed by a local sheriff didn’t have a relationship with the county’s top cop’s daughter, according to new grand jury testimony. Former Letcher County, Kentucky Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines allegedly shot and killed former Kentucky 47th Judicial District Judge Kevin Mullins on Sept. 19, 2024. The shooting happened following a lunch outing that included Mullins and Stines, officials said. Video earlier obtained by Fox News Digital shows Stines entering Mullins’ chambers, where he asked everyone else to leave the room so he could speak with the judge privately. The pair talked for around seven...

A former Kentucky sheriff charged with killing a county judge remained in an “active state of psychosis” days after the shooting and battled with jail staff, who had to use pepper spray on him, according to recently filed court documents. Former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines is charged with killing District Judge Kevin Mullins in his chambers nearly a year ago, shocking the small eastern Kentucky community that twice elected Stines as sheriff. Widely viewed security camera footage from Mullins’ chambers shows a man police identified as Stines pointing a gun and firing at Mullins. The ex-sheriff has pleaded...

A 21-year-old University of Kentucky student and self-styled beauty queen, Laken Snelling, faces serious charges after admitting to concealing her dead newborn’s body in a closet, raising concerns among pro-life advocates about the sanctity of life and the circumstances surrounding the infant’s death. Snelling, a senior studying interdisciplinary disability studies and a member of the university’s competitive cheerleading squad, was arrested on Aug. 27, following the discovery of her deceased newborn. Lexington police responded to a call on Park Avenue regarding an unresponsive infant, where they found the baby “wrapped in a towel inside of a trash bag” in a...

A beauty queen and cheerleader at the University of Kentucky was arrested after giving birth and hiding her newborn's body in a closet. Laken Snelling, 21, was taken into custody on Saturday and charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant. Officers with the Lexington Police Department were called to a home on the 400 block of Park Avenue for a report of an unresponsive infant on Wednesday morning, LEX 18 reported.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) will appear on the cover of Vogue as speculation about his political future and potential run for president heat up. Beshear “is the most popular Democratic governor in the country—and he’s achieved this in a state that has become a GOP stronghold,” the news and culture magazine said in an Instagram post promoting its September cover story focusing on the politician. “His elections have all been close, but in each the margin has widened and he continues to win without turning away from the values and priorities of the left,” it added. “Head to the...

Laura Loomer @LauraLoomer Kentucky US Senate candidate @NateMorris is lying in a new fundraising email, saying he is “Trump endorsed”. President Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the Kentucky US Senate race, and this is incredibly deceptive. The email says “your contribution will benefit Morris for Senate”. How can voters in Kentucky trust a candidate if they lie about being endorsed by President Trump? Bad look!

A pro-abortion “health education” group has launched an ad campaign this month in an attempt to reach women in rural West Virginia and Kentucky. Key Takeaways: * Mayday Health was formed in June 2022 in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Its founders are well-connected in the journalism and financial sectors. * Mayday places billboards and ads in areas where abortion is restricted, under the guise of providing “preventative reproductive health information.” * Its latest ad campaign targets rural women in Kentucky and West Virginia with a series of ads placed at gas stations. The Details: An article...

The rural Kentucky judge gunned down in his own chambers last year ran a twisted sex ring in which young women were coaxed into performing sexual favors just to get out of trouble, one of the alleged victims claims. Tya Adams alleges she was among those caught up in Judge Kevin Mullins’ apparent sex-for-favors scheme that saw him and others in the tiny town of Whitesburg demand sex in exchange for cash, or to get offenders off the hook. Adams told NewsNation’s “Banfield” that Mullins — who was shot execution-style in his Letcher County chambers, allegedly by his longtime sheriff...

Nate Morris is a textbook "McConnell protégé." And this is not an attack on him for that - if you were an aspiring Republican in Kentucky that's where you went...and the only place to go for awhile - McConnell got the reversal of the Dem stranglehold in motion. Being a Republican was to be lost in the wilderness. McConnell and Nate Morris have been on first name terms over two decades now. His ties to McConnell are why he became a political force in Kentucky and his connections and networking may have helped him in his private sector career as...

Kentucky’s recent passage of House Bill 4, which eliminates “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs at public universities and colleges, represents a crucial step toward restoring meritocracy, academic freedom, and intellectual diversity to higher education in the Bluegrass State. The bill was passed in the 2025 legislative session over the veto of Democratic governor Andy Beshear, who predictably claimed that its supporters were motivated by “hate.” In fact, HB 4 provides a necessary corrective to years of institutional overreach that has discriminated against students, stifled open inquiry, and punished dissenting voices on campus. The case of Dr. Allan Josephson exemplifies this...