Free Republic

CROZET, Va. (AP) — In a story Jan. 31 about a fatal train crash carrying dozens of Republican members of Congress, The Associated Press, relying on information from a congressman at the scene, misidentified who was killed in the pickup truck. It was a passenger who died, not the driver. A corrected version of the story is below: Train carrying GOP lawmakers strikes trash truck; 1 killed A train carrying dozens of Republican members of Congress to a policy retreat has slammed into a garbage truck in rural Virginia By ALAN FRAM and HEIDI BROWN Associated Press CROZET, Va. (AP)...

There is nothing worse than a cornered Rat. Except perhaps two cornered Rats. On the eve of President Donald Trump releasing the FISA memo which promises to torch the FBI and Justice Department, Congressman Adam Schiif and Sen. Chuck Schumer cooked up a late night scheme Wednesday to block the memo’s heralded release. And right on cue. This after the White House told FBI Director Christopher Wray that despite his objections, the memo would be released. UPDATE: 11:20 PM EST Nunes Fires Back

UPDATE: Local news reports there has been at least one fatality and another in critical condition. NOW: Amtrak train collides with garbage truck in Crozet. Nurse on scene reports at least one fatality and at least one in critical condition. NBC29 is on scene and will bring you more details as we get them. pic.twitter.com/eU0uYL0JQx— NBC29 (@NBC29) January 31, 2018 ***Original Post***The annual Republican retreat is set to take place Wednesday in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. However, there appears to have been an accident as the lawmakers were en route. NEWS: Per a GOP aide (via a member on...

The White House is confirming one fatality and one serious injury after a chartered train carrying Republican lawmakers to a retreat in West Virginia hit a garbage truck. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says there are no serious injuries among members of Congress or congressional staff. Sanders says President Donald Trump has been fully briefed on the matter and is receiving regular updates. The train carrying the lawmakers hit a garbage truck south of Charlottesville, Virginia. Lawmakers are heading to their annual legislative retreat at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's speechwriter Patrick Kelly was on Twitter right after he arrived at the office Wednesday morning, blasting the governor-appointed Illinois Lottery Control Board Chairman Blair Garber for a derogatory comment he reportedly made about East St. Louis Mr. Garber's unfortunate comments aside, we all should be upset about how Illinoisans are suffering in East St. Louis," the IR editor said. "But Democrats should really explain who's responsible for how that once-proud city declined so far with Leftist policies controlling the state."

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes issued the following statement today: “Having stonewalled Congress’ demands for information for nearly a year, it’s no surprise to see the FBI and DOJ issue spurious objections to allowing the American people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies. The FBI is intimately familiar with ‘material omissions’ with respect to their presentations to both Congress and the courts, and they are welcome to make public, to the greatest extent possible, all the information they have on these abuses. Regardless, it’s clear that top officials used unverified information in...

....Gowdy announced Wednesday that he will retire from Congress at the end of the year, becoming the eighth Republican chairman of a congressional...

It’s an observation so strikingly true that you wonder why you didn’t think of it earlier. “Donald Trump,” a friend said the other day, “is teaching the Republican Party how to fight and how to win.” The evidence is everywhere every day, and it was on vivid display Tuesday night. The president remains in a fighting mood, determined to keep punching his way forward. The Trump way starts with the passage of the historic tax cuts despite tiny Republican majorities in Congress and scare tactics from the left. Before passage, polls showed the public was strongly opposed — but Trump...

Enny, Meany, Miney, Moe, whose the dumbest political buffoons you know? Answer, Pollsters, Pundits and Obamabot Media Fools, enmasse. Oops...looks like, the upcoming political "Blue Wave of The Democrat Party has gone "South" big time. Trump wins again, this time, done & accomplished, with great ease, style, and a hands down political whipping given and administered by POTUS, Donald J. Trump in his magnificent, SOTU speech. Actually, the Democrat Party, The absolute racist, Congressional Black Caucus, the Democrat "Frothing" Media Goons took a serious tongue lashing last evening dished out by DJT. The handwriting is now clearly on the wall,...

FULL TITLE: Vice President Mike Pence “Disappointed” 44 Democrats and 2 Republicans Voted for Late-Term Abortions The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which bans abortion after 20 weeks, failed to pass the Senate Monday. The legislation passed the House of Representatives last year, but Democrats derailed it today in the upper chamber, with a final vote of 51-46. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) could not understand how his colleagues on the other side of the aisle could be so heartless. “I am truly shocked by those who declare it ‘extreme’ to oppose late-term abortions that we know to cause fetal pain,”...

While Sen. Orrin Hatch expressed his ‘shock’ Monday that most of his Democratic colleagues could vote against the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, it wasn’t just Democrats who opposed the measure. Two Republican senators joined Democrats in voting against the 20-week abortion ban: Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Meanwhile, Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania—all Democrats—voted in favor of the ban on abortions at the point which unborn babies can feel pain, with certain exceptions such as rape, incest and to save the mother’s life. With...

The Storm Over The Capitol, Washington, DC

Republicans are floating the idea that FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials formed a “secret society” that held meetings in which they plotted to undermine President Trump and his administration. Two FBI agents accused by Republicans of harboring anti-Trump bias exchanged text messages, one of which mentioned a “secret society” — possibly as a private joke. The message, first described by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), lacks context and the lawmakers have admitted that they don't know for sure what it means. But the term has caught fire in...

1. For a couple weeks now, I've been saying that DACA is not a bargaining chip, it's a bait. In fact, you just saw who Trump used it to bait the Dems into a Banzai Charge on his most heavily fortified position. 2. Having been humiliated by Trump, the smarter Dems in congress, especially in the Senate are going to be hella wary of doing that again. 3. It's not just that Trump humiliated them, it's also that the thought DACA was a certain winner politically, because all of their slanted Big Media polls have been telling them that for...

No one is paying much attention, but Congress is preparing a two-year budget that would blow past bipartisan spending caps to the tune of $216 billion through 2019. That might be a best-case scenario. The budget watchers at FreedomWorks estimate that when hurricane disaster relief, funding for the border wall, added Obamacare money for the bankrupt insurance markets, and other last-minute spending "emergencies" are thrown in the mix, the two-year spending blitz could exceed $300 billion. President Donald Trump had better get his veto pen handy. All of this is happening because Republicans have fallen into the Democrats' fiscal trap....

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Jennifer . . . Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin has now joined with Joe Scarborough as a proud member of the Society of Ex-Republican Media Members. Appearing on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show this morning, Rubin declared: “It should be self-evident why I, and I think any reasonable person, can no longer identify with the Republican party.” Rubin was responding to a Republican commercial [see below] on immigration, highlighting the case of illegal immigrant Luis Bracamontes, accused of killing two police officers. Bracamontes bragged in court: “the only thing that I...

All those media-trust studies have a tendency toward the rote. Yes, we already knew that the public had little trust in the country’s journalistic organs. Yes, we knew that finding credible sources could be a harrowing pursuit for the public. Yes, we knew that an increasing portion of the U.S. public felt that the news was biased. Yet this nugget from a new Gallup-Knight Foundation survey just about knocked the Erik Wemple Blog out of a decade-long media-research torpor: "Four in 10 [or 42 percent of] Republicans consider accurate news stories that cast a politician or political group in a...

The Republican-backed federal tax bill flipped the tables on a never-ending question for California politicians: Will high taxes lead the state’s wealthiest residents to flee the Golden State for the comparable tax havens of Florida, Nevada and Texas? Republicans reliably raise that alarm when Democrats advocate for tax increases, like the 2012 and 2016 ballot initiatives that levied a new income tax on very high-earning residents. But now, with the federal tax bill cutting off deductions that benefited well-off Californians, the state’s Democrats suddenly are singing the GOP song about a potential millionaire exodus. “People with higher incomes pay a...

Democrat Patty Schachtner won a special election for a state Senate seat in Wisconsin on Tuesday, scoring a huge upset victory for her party in a district that President Donald Trump handily captured just over a year ago. It was the latest in a string of election victories for Democrats since Trump took office, and a sign of hope for the party that the energy from the base and frustration with the president could lead to more wins in November. With every precinct counted, The Washington Post reported that Schachtner, the chief medical examiner for St. Croix County, won by...

Trenton, NJ – On the day of the swearing in of New Jersey’s new Governor, Phil Murphy, NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt delivered an important message to the people of New Jersey: . “New Jersey is our home and I serve as Chairman of the Republican Party here, because this is where I chose to raise my family,” said Steinhardt. “I made that conscious choice twenty some years ago, because I wanted the same opportunities for my children that New Jersey offered my parents, grandparents, sister and me. I want the best for my family, my community and our state, but...