Free Republic

Moments after Donald Trump approached the lectern to open the daily taskforce briefing on the coronavirus pandemic, mild panic broke among viewers online. Where was Dr Anthony Fauci, the 79-year-old infectious disease expert who has become a regular fixture and a calming presence alongside the president?

Donald Trump declared a state of emergency on Friday at a White House press conference detailing the ongoing efforts to combat the Coronavirus. After speaking and sharing the stage with doctors and leaders in the economy, CBS News journalist Weijia Jiang wondered if the President was being “selfish” for not immediately taking a COVID-19 test.

With political machinations and intrigues in full swing following Tuesday’s election, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz have said they want a national unity government. Netanyahu,however, said that he wants such a government to include his ultra-Orthodox and religious-Zionist allies, which Gantz and his party oppose. Support for a national unity government without the ultra-Orthodox parties is actually widespread, with some two-thirds of the Jewish Israeli public backing such a coalition, including half of all Likud voters.

President Donald Trump plotted his takedown of accused child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s elite inner circle during the 2016 election, convening a meeting with then-National Enquirer owner David Pecker prior to Trump’s comment at CPAC 2015 about how Bill Clinton has a Jeffrey Epstein problem. Vanity Fair reports: “Trump had been following the story closely. In the week or so leading up to his CPAC speech, David Pecker, who owned the Enquirer until it was sold in ruin earlier this year, visited Trump on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, bringing along an issue with a Prince Andrew and Epstein-related cover,...

Trump welcomes Viktor Orbán to White House as Pompeo heads to meeting of EU nations in apparent attempt to soothe relations over Iran deal, 2019

Former White House political strategist Karl Rove warned Senate Republicans in a meeting this week not to become overly reliant on their conservative base as they head into what could be a tough 2020 presidential election. Rove, who served as former President George W. Bush’s top political strategist, was brought in by Senate GOP leaders to speak to the 22 Republican incumbents up for reelection at an all-day planning session Thursday hosted at Nationals Park in southeast Washington, D.C. GOP lawmakers are getting nervous about next year’s election as polls show President Trump’s approval rating dropping during the 28-day government...

Let’s call it progressive peer-group privilege. The older I get, the more firmly I’m convinced of a fundamental psychological fact. We never really leave high school. Of all the forms of pressure that one can apply to a person — political pressure, market pressure, moral pressure — the one that matters most of all is the one that mattered in the lunch room when you were wearing your class ring and letter jacket. It’s peer pressure, the unbreakable bond of the high-school clique. No reasonable person thinks Samantha Bee would still have a job at TBS if she used the...

I have to say something to Samantha Bee: thank you. Thank you for giving the Trump campaign a rather large in-kind contribution. I would say CNN and other news networks because they gave $2 billion in free media to Trump in 2015-2016, but they probably know better: they helped get the man elected whether they like it or not with their non-stop exposure, confident his antics would usher his defeat. That didn’t happen. Now, we’ve kicked it up a notch with Samantha Bee’s vulgar and disgusting attack on Ivanka Trump, who is more than just a member of the First...

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted to congressional investigators that he spoke with CNN about the Trump dossier close to the time the outlet published a scoop, according to a House Intelligence Committee report released Friday. The report revealed that Clapper, during an interview with House Intelligence Committee investigators on July 17, 2017, first “flatly denied” that he had discussed with journalists the dossier or any other intelligence related to the 2016 election. But during that same interview, he later admitted discussing the dossier with CNN’s Jake Tapper and possibly other journalists. “Clapper’s discussion with Tapper took place...

The Russian people and international observers may not see last Sunday’s presidential election in Russia as legitimate, but President Barack Obama has now officially endorsed the return of Russian past and future President Vladimir Putin. “President Obama called Russian President-elect and Prime Minister Putin to congratulate him on his recent victory in the Russian Presidential election,” the White House said in a late Friday afternoon statement (read: news dump) about the Friday morning phone call between the two leaders.

CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd is known for making provocative on-air remarks and generally being fired up during segments. A CNN appearance on Friday, however, may end up being his most notorious yet. Hours after the controversial Nunes memo dropped, Mudd indicated that the FBI was going to take matters into its own hands and make sure they eventually come out on top in a head-to-head battle with the president. With the FBI and its director already making their objections to the memo — which purports to show FISA abuses within the Russia probe — crystal clear before its release,...

An eastern German city has imposed a temporary ban on new refugees in an effort to stem a number of recent violent incidents. Cottbus, about 120 kilometres southeast of Berlin, has been rocked by violence from refugees and right-wing extremists since the start of this year. Earlier this week, Brandenburg state police reported that two male Syrian teenagers were arrested under the suspicion of injuring a German teenager in the face with a knife. The 16-year-old sustained non life-threatening injuries in what started as an altercation between Syrian and German school acquaintances near a tram station. The incident happened just...

Republicans say the big news on Capitol Hill last week was that they passed tax cuts. Wrong. The bigger news on Capitol Hill was that Americans now trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle taxes and the economy, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. For the last 40 years, Republicans have consistently outperformed Democrats when voters were asked which party is the better steward of taxes and the economy. Now, the Journal poll has voters favoring Democrats by 33 percent to 29 percent on taxes, and by 35 percent to 30 percent on the economy. This is a...

The two terrorist attacks six weeks apart in New York City carried out by two recent immigrants were swiftly contained and the suspects arrested. But the political consequences instantly started reverberating. Akayed Ullah, 27, a green card holder from Bangladesh who is accused of detonating a bomb in a subway tunnel on Monday, came to the United States on what is known as an F43 visa, available to the nieces and nephews of U.S. citizens. Sayfullo Saipov, 29, from Uzbekistan, won his visa in a diversity lottery intended to bring immigrants from underrepresented countries to the United States. The Trump...

“NIKKI HALEY STUCK A KNIFE IN HIS BACK”: ROGER STONE IS ALREADY WRITING THE STORY OF TRUMP’S DOWNFALL (Vanity Fair can only be linked to)

In a shocking political earthquake, the Republican Party has lost a Senate election in Alabama.  For perspective on how difficult that feat was, the closest previous Senate contest in that state over the last two decades was a...19-point GOP victory.  Just three years ago, Jeff Sessions ran unopposed.  Donald Trump carried 'Bama by 28 points last fall.  In my election preview post yesterday, I wrote that an upset by liberal Doug Jones was improbably plausible, due exclusively to the disastrously awful candidate Republicans had nominated.  Apologies for quoting myself, but here you go:

Roy Moore's campaign called The Washington Post a "worthless piece of crap" and refused to provide proof of claims it has made to cast doubt on one of his accusers. “The Washington Post is a worthless piece of crap that has gone out of its way to railroad Roy Moore,” Moore campaign strategist Brett Doster wrote to The Post in an email. “There is no need for anyone at the Washington Post to ever reach out to the Roy Moore campaign again because we will not respond to anyone from the Post now or in the future. Happy Thanksgiving.” {..snip..}

16h Emily Lindin ✔ @EmilyLindin Here's an unpopular opinion: I'm actually not at all concerned about innocent men losing their jobs over false sexual assault/harassment allegations. Emily Lindin ✔ @EmilyLindin First, false allegations VERY rarely happen, so even bringing it up borders on a derailment tactic. It's a microscopic risk in comparison to the issue at hand (worldwide, systemic oppression of half the population). 2:46 PM - Nov 21, 2017 1,196 1,196 Replies 165 165 Retweets 735 735 likes

Charlie Rose seemed the worse for wear as he walked home Monday after getting benched from all of his gigs, and he seemed to take issue with the characterization that he did something wrong. A photog got Rose entering his New York City apartment and asked if he had anything to say to the women who accused him of "wrongdoing." Rose shot back, "It's not wrongdoings" ... then entered his building with an assist from the doorman.

NEW YORK (AP) — PBS says it is immediately halting distribution of Charlie Rose's interview program and CBS News suspended him following The Washington Post's report of eight women who accused the veteran newsman of multiple unwanted sexual advances and inappropriate behavior. The women, three of whom spoke on the record in the deeply-reported story, accused Rose of groping them, walking naked in front of them and relating an erotic dream. Rose told the Post that he was "deeply embarrassed" and apologized for his behavior. Rose's PBS show features his in-depth interviews with newsmakers....