Free Republic

Within days of the Hamas slaughter of Israeli innocents, President Biden issued a veiled warning to Iran and any others who smelled a chance to pile on. As the president put it in a White House appearance Oct. 10, “To anyone thinking of taking advantage of the situation, I have one word: Don’t.” It wasn’t exactly a Clint Eastwood “Make my day” moment, but the point was clear enough. The United States has Israel’s back, so the axis of evil forces better stay on the sidelines. The point was underscored when Biden ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the...

With Barack Obama publicly warning Israel about the deaths of civilians in Gaza, the Biden White House leaking its doubts about Israel’s ability to carry out a ground invasion and the head of the United Nations suggesting Israel provoked the Hamas terror attack, the question arises: Whose side are they on? Less than three weeks after Israel suffered the deadliest day in its history, the Jewish state is being treated like the problem rather than the victim by some of its supposed friends. Instead of getting support for its justified aim of eradicating Hamas, demands are mounting for Israel to...

It’s not news that Donald Trump is the worst of his own enemies, but he outdid himself with his latest bizarre behavior. His social media warning early Friday that “death and destruction” could follow if he’s criminally charged in the Stormy Daniels case came as he posted an image of himself holding a baseball bat next to a photo of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s head… … The rant was perfectly timed — if Trump’s goal was to stomp out growing public unease over how Bragg is stretching a novel legal theory to indict him…

For Donald Trump, politics and entertainment are intertwined and often synonymous. His remarkable success at both makes his latest missteps especially puzzling because Trump is committing the cardinal sin of both: He’s become boring. The ultimate shock jock is now predictable. Wind him up and watch him throw a garbage can full of insults at anyone who won’t kiss the ring. Ho-hum. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are getting the Trump treatment now. Both are rising Republican stars, so naturally the former president trashes and demeans them. Can’t be competition for top dog. Long gone is...

You don’t have to agree with Washington Democrats to acknowledge they are putting on a clinic in how to use power to reward their friends and punish their enemies. From canceling student debt to freeing federal pot prisoners to restricting oil and gas production to getting arch-nemesis Steve Bannon locked up, they are ending their two-year run with a bang. Their conclusion came last week when the partisan Jan. 6 committee issued a subpoena to former President Donald Trump. The timing was impeccable. After managing to stretch out the panel’s work for nearly two years, Nancy Pelosi’s worker bees saw...

With “The Godfather” serving as a leadership manual for many politicians, Joe Biden might have been thinking of a particular scene during his 9/11 speech at the Pentagon. The president solemnly declared that “national unity” is “the greatest lesson” of that awful day even as his Department of Justice issues subpoenas to scores of Donald Trump supporters. The contrast between the president’s call for unity and the FBI’s partisan putsch is a bloodless version of the baptism murders scene in “The Godfather,” where Michael Corleone participates in his nephew’s christening while his goons assassinate the heads of the rival families....

President Biden is going to deliver a prime-time speech Thursday on what the White House calls the “battle for the soul of the nation.” It’s a timely topic with rich possibilities, but none richer than the notion that the Big Guy is qualified to address America’s soul. Unless he’s going to confess how his family made millions by selling access to foreign governments and Communist oligarchs, Biden will be stuck spinning a web of fiction. No problem there because fiction is what he’s good at. He has a gift for playing make-believe. All politicians lie, but Biden doesn’t stop there....

When you cross the Rubicon, there is no going back. Democrats are getting very close to that fateful moment. Their dream to indict Donald Trump has turned into determination, putting them on a collision course with history. No president has ever been prosecuted after leaving office ... it would tear America apart. Yet day by day, the evidence shows Dems have liberated themselves from such concerns and are resolved that this time will be different. The number and fervor of their army of prosecutors reveal a contagious fever, and it often appears they are competing to be the first to...

However this era of angry polarization, crime and violence ends, it will be left to historians to decipher how America got so far off track. Instead of building on our unprecedented prosperity and role as the world’s ultimate superpower, we declared war — cultural, political and social — on each other. Even our nation’s Founders are not spared. The reasons will be better understood in hindsight, but it’s hard to believe the 2016 presidential campaign won’t be seen as an inflection point. Our move toward disunion didn’t begin then, but it certainly gained steam and vitriol during and after the...

He came, he saw, he confused. Joe Biden’s call-to-arms speech in Poland was long on soaring rhetoric about the virtues of democracy but woefully short on what more the West will do to help Ukraine defeat the Russian invasion. But by the time he got to the finish, most of that was forgotten. What mattered most and what will be remembered for a long time was a single line the president of the United States said about the president of Russia: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” In the context of the speech and the slaughter of...

Believers: Steve Bannon, David Horowitz, Peter Navarro, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Mark Levin, MTG, Matt Gaetz, Elise Stefanik Alex Jones Deniers: Pat Buchanan,Fox News, Breitbart, Joel Pollack, National Review, Wall Street Journal, NY Post, Michael Goodwin, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Chip Roy, Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, Bill Barr, Ben Shapiro, Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge, Guy Benson, Jedediah Bila, Karl Rove, Rick Santorum, Chris Christie, Dan Quayle, Alyssa Farah I'm not sure about these people: Sean Hannity,Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson, Dick Morris, Newt Gingrich, Greg Kelly, Michael Savage

On a corner of my desk, there is a small pile of newspaper clips, notes and documents. They date back to last October and are part of the scandalous information contained on a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden. Normally I would have thrown the papers away or stored them by now. But I kept them handy because I knew the day would come when they would be needed again. Friday was that day. In a TV interview, Hunter effectively conceded for the first time the laptop was his, opening the door to a new round of scrutiny about his foreign...

Three big things stood out in President Biden’s first press conference. 1. The leader of the free world is often lost at sea and says many things that are blatantly false. 2. The media is in the tank and cannot be trusted to hold him accountable. 3. Because of Nos. 1 and 2, America is headed for serious trouble. For this sickening spectacle we had to wait 64 days? Still, the event was meaningful in one distressing way. Now we know beyond all doubt there is no way to deny the terrifying truth. This was Biden’s coming out party, and...

If Mayor Putz had thrown in a “just kidding” line, his Tuesday press conference would have made more sense. Instead, he again looked like a mayor who doesn’t give a damn. “Except for that incident, overwhelmingly we had a peaceful weekend in central Brooklyn,” de Blasio told reporters. “That incident” was the shooting of a 6-year-old boy and his mother. And the “peaceful weekend” included the shootings of 26 other people around the five boroughs. If this is peace, what would war look like? Called on his disconnect, de Blasio fired back by saying he was only talking about central Brooklyn. So...

You can almost smell the sweat. The Democrats and their media handmaidens are starting to panic about Joe Biden’s prospects. The proof comes in their efforts to wish away the wave of crime and violence engulfing many American cities. Their argument can be boiled down to two false claims. First, it’s President Trump’s fault. Second, it’s not that big of a wave. The first is patently absurd on its face. Democratic mayors running nearly all those cities are pulling back cops and rejecting federal help. The blood is on their hands.

You can almost smell the sweat. The Democrats and their media handmaidens are starting to panic about Joe Biden’s prospects. The proof comes in their efforts to wish away the wave of crime and violence engulfing many American cities. Their argument can be boiled down to two false claims. First, it’s President Trump’s fault. Second, it’s not that big of a wave. The first is patently absurd on its face. Democratic mayors running nearly all those cities are pulling back cops and rejecting federal help. The blood is on their hands. The second claim is outrageously cold-hearted. It means the...

For the first time in three days, the biggest political news of the day didn’t come out of the Republican convention. It came out of a basement in Delaware. Joe Biden finally raised an objection to the riots, arson, murder and looting tearing apart American cities. To be sure, his wasn’t a strong voice, but at least he finally broke his silence. “The needless violence won’t heal us,” the Democrat’s nominee said in a statement focused mostly on the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. It’s very little, and very late, maybe even too late to save his...

The effort showcased an impressive list of black speakers in prominent roles vouching for President Trump and slamming Joe Biden and the Dems. Kim Klacik, a dynamic young Republican woman running for the late Elijah Cummings’ seat in Baltimore, set the tone by declaring: “The Democrats have controlled my city, Charm City, for over 50 years and they have run this beautiful place into the ground. “Abandoned buildings, liquor stores on every corner, drug addicts and guns on the street — that is now the norm in many neighborhoods.” Herschel Walker, the football great, added his personal experience after what...

Who needs conventions, who needs crowded arenas? Democrats used the magic of technology and clever casting to give their party a passable first night. Forced by the coronavirus to create a make-believe gathering, planners employed all of Silicon Valley’s bells and whistles to present a simulated intimacy involving both ordinary people and party stars. Minus a few glitches, the flow was seamless, sometimes too smooth to be credible. We saw more of Joe Biden via taped videos than we have in the last four months of the campaign. In the real world, he’s been hiding in his basement. Monday night,...

It’s far worse than I thought. In addition to the many links between the family that owns The New York Times and the Civil War Confederacy, new evidence shows that members of the extended family were slaveholders. Last Sunday, I recounted that Bertha Levy Ochs, the mother of Times patriarch Adolph S. Ochs, supported the South and slavery. She was caught smuggling medicine to Confederates in a baby carriage and her brother Oscar joined the rebel army. I have since learned that, according to a family history, Oscar Levy fought alongside two Mississippi cousins, meaning at least three members of...