Free Republic

House Speaker Paul Ryan called Tuesday to “cleanse” the FBI as he openly backed the release of a controversial memo that purportedly details alleged surveillance abuses by the U.S. government. “Let it all out, get it all out there. Cleanse the organization,” Ryan, R-Wis., said. He added, “I think we should disclose all this stuff. It’s the best disinfectant. Accountability, transparency -- for the sake of the reputation of our institutions.” The striking remarks came at a breakfast with anchors and reporters ahead of President Trump’s State of the Union address; much of the session was off the record.

West Virginia's Sen. Joe Manchin (D.) criticized House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) after being shown a clip of her characterizing President Donald Trump's immigration plan as a way to "Make America White Again." CNN's "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper used the Pelosi clip to start a discussion on immigration. "Let me just say what I said last night: that plan is a campaign to make America white again," Pelosi said. "You know what, we don't need that type of rhetoric on either side, from Nancy, Paul Ryan or anybody else," Manchin said. Manchin proceeded to say...

Calling proposed immigration reform legislation “devastating” to Western Growers members, association president and CEO Tom Nassif alerted members that the group will work to stop it from becoming law. The immigration reform package, the Secure America’s Future Act, was authored by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. House leaders passed a continuing resolution on Jan. 18 that will fund the government for another four weeks. Facing a midnight deadline Jan. 19, the Senate had still not passed any bill to keep the government operating. According to Nassif, the House passage of the continuing resolution included a commitment to vote on...

RUSH: Here’s another great piece, another Limbaugh echo. There’s so many Limbaugh echoes out there today that I’m reveling in it here, folks. By the way, from TheHill.com, headline: “Left Says Democrats Caved on Shutdown — Progressives are hammering [Chuck You] Schumer for his agreement … to end the government shutdown on Monday. Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has spoken out against the deal, saying there was no reason to support it. ‘I don’t see that there’s any reason — I’m speaking personally and hearing from my members — to support what was put forth,’ Pelosi said…” Pelosi is...

A Harvard Law School professor and Newsweek magazine were recently mocked after uncritically suggesting a scenario in which Hillary Clinton could still become the president. Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman professor of law and leadership at Harvard Law School, outlined a scenario in which the former senator could take the reins of power in the event of a series of impeachments of the Trump administration. If President Trump resigns or gets impeached, Vice President Mike Pence resigns or is impeached and House Speaker Paul Ryan – who would legally become the heir to the top job – appoints Clinton...

The House’s immigration-and-amnesty bill is going to get a formal debate and vote in the House, according to the House Freedom Caucus. Caucus chief Rep. Mark Meadows announced the decision to reporters following closed-door negotiations with House Speaker Paul Ryan. The talks with Ryan were held when Ryan had to trade favors to collect enough GOP votes to push through another short-term budget that will last until February 16. Democrats voted against the GOP’s short-term budget because it does not offer an amnesty to millions of illegals. The House budget plan next goes to the Senate, where Democrats will be...

The possibility of a government shutdown grew dramatically Thursday as House and Senate GOP leaders struggled to round up the votes to keep the government open past midnight Friday. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) predicted that the House would pass a short-term funding measure on Thursday night. GOP leaders are gambling that rank-and-file Republicans won't want to risk being blamed for a shutdown and will end up supporting the short-term spending bill, which would keep the government open until Feb. 16.

Florida GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis asked Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on Tuesday to declassify all of the Department of Justice and FBI’s Trump dossier files, The Caller News Foundation has learned. DeSantis, the chairman of the House Oversight subcommittee on National Security, formally asked Ryan in a letter to invoke Rule X in order to declassify all documents obtained by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Under House rules, the speaker of the House acts as an ex-officio member of any select committee, which includes the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Under Rule X, the speaker...

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Chris Wray made an unannounced visit to Speaker Paul Ryan's office Wednesday as the Justice Department grapples with an increasingly hostile faction of House Republicans demanding documents related to the bureau's Russia probe. Rosenstein was spotted entering Ryan's office, and a spokesman for the speaker confirmed that Rosenstein and Wray had requested the meeting. A second person familiar with the meeting said it was related to a document request issued over the summer by House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes. Nunes (R-Calif) has mounted an aggressive push — with the threat of...

Establishment advocates are insisting that January 19 is the drop-dead deadline for a DACA or Dreamer amnesty, just two weeks after the advocates insisted that December 22 was the drop-dead deadline. The January deadline claim is based on the advocates’ claim that agency officials need a few weeks planning time to prepare and launch the amnesty by March 5 when the two-year work-permits invented by President Barack Obama will start expiring at a more rapid pace. GOP leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have described March as a deadline, even though hundreds of thousand of work-permits will remain valid after...

Against today being the deadline from House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to turn over responsive documents to the committee, Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray head to Speaker Paul Ryan’s office for an unscheduled meeting. It’s important to remember, though it might not be pertinent to this meeting, that Nunes and Ryan are both Go8 members. As such they are both allowed to receive and discuss the most confidential intelligence information from any intelligence agency. They, along with six others are at the top of the intelligence oversight pyramid.

The FBI director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein met with House Speaker Paul Ryan late Wednesday afternoon, the same day lawmakers were demanding that they turn over documents to the House Intelligence panel about the Trump-Russia collusion probe. A Ryan spokeswoman declined to discuss the purpose for the meeting other than that it came at the request of Wray and Rosenstein. The meeting comes as the House Intelligence Committee weighs possible contempt of Congress charges against the two officials. Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has accused the men of withholding information about the handling of the...

Remember when Rosie O'Donnell was the charming, friendly and fun host of a daily talk show? Sigh, those were the days. In her latest political rant on Twitter, the actress/comedian got straight to the point with House Speaker Paul Ryan on what she thinks of his tax reform bill. It had something to do with his being a fake Christian."paul ryan - don't talk about Jesus after what u just did to our nation - u will go straight to hell u screwed up fake altar boy," she told him.Evangelist Franklin Graham, son of the beloved pastor Billy Graham, posted...

Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon has cut ties with Paul Nehlen, the far-right activist who is challenging Paul Ryan for his congressional seat and who has received extremely favorable coverage from Breitbart in the past. "Nehlen is dead to us," said Arthur Schwartz, an adviser of Bannon's who is familiar with the former White House chief strategist's thinking. Nehlen, who became a lightning rod for his anti-immigrant views, has escalated his rhetoric in recent days with a number of incendiary tweets. In one tweet, Nehlen proudly revealed that he is reading "The Culture of Critique," a book about Jewish culture...

Media need to pay better attention to reality instead of getting routinely duped by multiple sources peddling false information.This week Politico’s Kyle Cheney and John Bresnahan wrote what they presented as significant. “House Republicans quietly investigate perceived corruption at DOJ, FBI,” the report said.It is a weird claim at the outset, since House Republicans up to and including Paul Ryan have been screaming bloody murder about the FBI and DOJ’s refusal to cooperate with House investigators probing the use of a shady piece of Democratic-funded opposition research alleging that Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. True, the...

For the last time in 2017, Seth Meyers used a monologue on the Thursday, December 21, edition of his NBC Late Night program to slam President Donald Trump regarding the tax-cut bill that Republicans in Congress passed earlier this week. Not surprisingly, the liberal comedian began his “A Closer Look” segment by claiming: “Republicans spent yesterday gleefully celebrating their tax plan and lavishing praise on President Trump, with Trump even going so far as to claim that he also repealed ObamaCare.” The Late Night host first mocked Trump’s assertion that he might have coined the term “tax cuts” instead of...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says entitlement reform is not on the agenda in 2018, despite what Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and senior Trump administration officials say. McConnell, speaking at an event sponsored by Axios on Thursday, said the lack of Democratic support for entitlement reform makes it highly unlikely that it will move through the Senate in an election year. “I think the Democrats are not going to be interested in entitlement reform so I would not expect to see that on the agenda,” McConnell said. He said that bipartisan immigration and banking-reform legislation are much more likely...

Former Obama deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes mused about the deaths of top Republicans on Twitter Thursday before being scolded by GOP Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who was severely injured in the June Congressional baseball practice shooting.

This week, Republicans in the House and Senate passed the most comprehensive tax bill in the past three decades. This marks the biggest change since Reagan signed the 1986 tax reform. Tax rates will drop for corporations and for individuals, allowable deductions will be changed and Americans will no longer be required to choose between buying health insurance or paying a fine. "Under the final tax bill, the corporate tax rate would fall to 21 percent, from the current 35 percent, a move that Republicans are betting will increase economic growth, create jobs and raise wages," wrote Thomas Kaplan...

Congressional Republicans may not celebrate the passage of the tax bill at the inside-the-Beltway equivalent of the Bada Bing, but Talking Points Memo editor and publisher Josh Marshall nonetheless likens them to some notable patrons of that fictional North Jersey strip club. "The absolute need to pass something and to pass it fast led to a legislative process which was akin to driving the truck up to the loading bay and just taking everything. Looting. Or perhaps a mob bust-out," wrote Marshall on Tuesday. "One episode of The Sopranos…was based on the 'bust out' idea. A guy got into debt...