Free Republic

A small but vocal group of Republican senators is furious with GOP leadership over the agreement with Democrats to approve a massive year-end spending bill that will fund the federal government through next September. The bipartisan deal has created a schism between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican colleagues in both chambers — including House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy — who accuse Mr. McConnell and his leadership of rolling over to help Democrats pass a major budget on the brink of a government shutdown and the holidays without knowing what’s in it. “I don’t see any reason why Republicans...

Mitt Romney, the junior senator from Utah, was the only Republican senator who refused to endorse Mike Lee. Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee captured a third term Tuesday night after his same-state GOP colleague in the upper chamber de facto backed Lee’s challenger, a Democrat masquerading as an independent. Mitt Romney, the junior senator from Utah, was the only Republican senator who refused Lee an endorsement against failed 2016 third-party presidential candidate Evan McMullin. In April, Romney told Politico his refusal to endorse in the contest was due to having “two friends” in the race. “I don’t get involved in...

Salt Lake City, UT – Independent Senate candidate Evan McMullin called his liberal counterpart in Texas, Beto O’Rourke, to brag that he just finished his concession speech and now has his entire Saturday free. McMullin informed O’Rourke that he might even take his sweet drone out and “just check out the neighborhood” this afternoon, now that he’s put the finishing touches on his “it was a moral victory” comments he plans to give after being thoroughly beaten by opponent Mike Lee in the upcoming Utah Senate election.

Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii implored Utah voters to reelect Republican Sen. Mike Lee to prevent "warmonger" Democrats' escalations towards nuclear war. Speaking at a packed gymnasium in Draper, Utah, Thursday, Gabbard, according to Deseret News, called Democrats "warmongers" who are "subservient to the military industrial complex" and are escalating the United States closer to nuclear war with Russia.Gabbard encouraged voters to send politicians like Lee to the Senate to "push the brakes on this and stop them [Democrats] from destroying life as we know it." But Lee's opponent, former CIA agent and independent Utah Senate candidate Evan...

While voters are hoping for clear skies and good weather next week on Election Day, these candidates are hoping for one thing: victory. OH Predictive Insights’ (OHPI) latest Utah Public Opinion Pulse (UTPOP) of likely voters revealed that the odds are in Mike Lee’s favor as he broke the 50% threshold of support in his race. Meanwhile, the Treasurer’s race shows the incumbent State Treasurer, Republican Marlo Oaks, well-positioned with his closest opponent at just 9%.

Fending off attacks from his independent challenger, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah worked to distinguish himself from former President Donald Trump in a contentious debate Monday evening. “I stood against my party time and time again to oppose reckless spending. I will do it again and again and again. We need people who say no,” the second-term Republican said. Lee repeatedly pointed to his voting record and twice told the audience at Utah Valley University that he voted less in line with Trump than all but two Republican senators — Rand Paul and Susan Collins. “To suggest that I’m...

Independent Utah Senate candidate Evan McMullin said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he will not caucus with either party if he beats incumbent Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) on November 8. McMullin said, “I am running as an independent. I’m building a coalition of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and members of third parties to better represent Utah and to help lead our country forward. And I’m not going to Washington to join a party or to caucus or to play the party power game. I’m going to represent our coalition, and that’s a commitment that I’ve made to our coalition...

Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) aides are “so annoyed” that Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) comments exposed how Romney’s lack of endorsement for Lee will help Never Trumper Evan McMullin. On Fox News, Lee urged Romney to back his reelection, noting that the rest of the Senate Republican Conference has endorsed his bid.

Former President Donald Trump blasted Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) on Wednesday, even going so far as to predict he won't win reelection. Trump took to Truth Social to renew his endorsement of Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and call out Romney for not doing the same. "Mitt Romney is the junior senator from the Great State of Utah, which I won twice in a landslide, once by beating the candidate Evan 'McMuffin' McMullin who is currently running against Senator Lee," Trump wrote. "McMuffin does not represent the values of Utah, but neither, as you will see in two years, does Mitt...

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)’s political action committee, Country First, on Tuesday announced its endorsements for the 2022 mid-terms, which were essentially a slate of people running against Trump-endorsed candidates, including six Democrats, according to a press release. Kinzinger, who opted not to run for re-election after voting to impeach former President Donald Trump, said in a statement: “Now more than ever, it’s critical we elect leaders up and down the ballot who are loyal to the Constitution and willing to be a bulwark for democracy – regardless of their political party affiliation.” “We must set partisan politics and ideology aside...

Incumbent Sen. Mike Lee (R) is leading Independent challenger Evan McMullin by 4 points in the Utah Senate race, according to a new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll. The poll, conducted last week, found that 41 percent of the Utah voters surveyed say they will vote for Lee, while 37 percent say that they will vote for McMullin. Two percent of those surveyed expressed support for Independent American candidate Tommy Williams and 1 percent for Libertarian James Arthur Hansen, while an additional 5 percent said they will write in another name. Meanwhile, 12 percent were undecided on who they...

Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) decision not to endorse Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) reelection bid has infuriated Senate Republicans and conservative activists. Romney, Utah’s junior senator, has declined — and even refused — to endorse Lee’s reelection bid. Lee is the senior senator from Utah. Senate Republicans are becoming increasingly alarmed by the decision, noting that even though Senate Republicans may have their differences on policy, they typically stand united against Republican opponents. “I respect [Romney], and I understand that each state has its own dynamics, but I do not understand why he is remaining neutral,” one Republican senator said anonymously....

Republican senators are growing concerned by colleague Mitt Romney’s refusal to help fellow Utah Republican Mike Lee decisively win his re-election campaign — a posture that could potentially keep their party from gaining a majority in the November elections. Unlike every other Republican senator, the 2012 failed Republican presidential candidate is declining to express a preference in Republican Lee’s re-election effort against Democrat-endorsed Evan McMullin. “I respect [Romney], and I understand that each state has its own dynamics, but I do not understand why he is remaining neutral,” said one Republican senator who asked not to be identified. “Whatever our...

.. so many that he lost count. I'll copy them all, and don't think I skipped one (he jumped from "Third" to "Fifth" [ADDED: and from "Tenth" to "Twelfth"]): As a lawyer, former federal prosecutor, and current member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have a few questions about the FBI’s raid of Mar a Lago. First, did Attorney General Garland personally sign off on this action? Second, why break into the safe rather than seize it, take it into custody, and then seek a warrant to open it? Third, why obtain and execute a search warrant rather than first...

As we reported previously, the Democrats are making some interesting arguments during a hearing on abortion in the Senate. That is to say, they’re wandering into trainwreck territory with one of the witnesses they put on — Khiara Bridges, who is a law professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. Bridges accused Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) of being transphobic because he asked if she meant “women” when she used the term “people with a capacity for pregnancy.” The professor then said he was opening up trans people to violence by the nature of his question. But she didn’t leave it...

All four members of the U.S. House from Utah are facing Republican primary challengers Tuesday while the Democratic challengers they’ll face in November are running uncontested. It is the first primary election since the GOP-controlled state Legislature bypassed an independent redistricting commission and approved political maps that critics decried as gerrymandered because they split up Democratic-leaning Salt Lake City, effectively shoring up Republican advantages in each of the state’s four districts. The night’s headline race is for the U.S. Senate with Republican Mike Lee trying to fend off two challengers in his bid for a third term. In the U.S....

The Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case is both smaller and larger than it might first appear. Smaller Than It Seems It’s smaller in the sense that in and of itself the decision bans precisely zero abortions. To be sure, you might not know that to hear President Biden, who said on June 24: Today, the Supreme Court of the United States expressly took away a constitutional right from the American people that it already recognized. They didn’t limit it. They simply took it away. That’s never been done . . . but they did it. Yet despite all...

Independent U.S. Senate candidate Evan McMullin called on Sen. Mike Lee to “break from partisan extremes” and get behind the bipartisan gun safety proposal unveiled in the Senate this week. McMullin said in a brief news conference via Zoom on Monday that he supports the proposal as a common-sense plan to protect children, families and gun rights.

After Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump, Brian Fallon needed a job. Fallon had served as Clinton’s national press secretary during the campaign, and before that he had done the same job for my colleague Chuck Schumer in the Senate. For a while, his reputation around Washington, DC, was stellar. He was, according to a lengthy profile in the Daily Beast, “one of the most sought-after operatives in Democratic politics: a brass-knuckle brawler with experience at the highest levels of government, a cellphone filled with the top journalists in town, and a reputation for being preternaturally on...

My new book tells the story of what happened the last time an American president attempted to pack the Supreme Court. It had lasting consequences even though it didn't pass in the Senate. It ended up bullying, intimidating and threatening the Supreme Court to the point that the Supreme Court changed its interpretation of the Constitution I cover this history and more in "Saving Nine", which will help you understand why packing the Supreme Court is such a terrible idea.