Free Republic

Defying President Trump, senators sent a strong signal Wednesday they want to punish Saudi Arabia for its role in the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Senate voted 63 to 37 to move forward with legislation calling for an end to U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The vote was a rebuke not only to Saudi Arabia but to the Trump administration, which has been clear it does not want to torpedo the long-standing U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia over the killing.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said Sunday she would rather not see the U.S.-Mexico border close despite threats by President Trump to prevent certain groups of migrants from crossing into the U.S. "We would prefer that we keep it open, so let's work really hard to make sure that we're addressing the asylum seekers before they actually come over the border," Ernst said on CNN's "State of the Union."The Iowa Republican was responding to Trump's suggestion that he may close the southern border if Mexico does not agree to hold migrants while the U.S. processes their asylum claims. "I think the...

Rep Paul Gosar has said that he plans to seek charges of treason against four FBI officials for treason in trying to topple a legally elected president. He claims that their actions were not only illegal but constituted an attempted coup of a sitting US president using false dossier information that they knew was really opposition research (lies) paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC. He is seeking charges against former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Gosar said:

In recent years, “Blue State/Red State” maps have become a ubiquitous, shorthand way to describe our political landscape. Unfortunately, and much like how a carnival hypnotist employs a soothing and repetitive motion to transfix his victims into behaving absurdly, many Republican pundits appear to have become so mesmerized by seeing “Red States” as “Republican,” that they have failed to recognize -- much less understand -- the significant demographic and political changes that have taken hold within those state; changes that have rendered traditional notions of political analysis largely ineffective. You do not have to be a high-paid political consultant to...

There’s a language fight brewing with the LGBT lobby over the new trilateral agreement, and — what a surprise — it looks like far-left Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is behind it. The Hill reports that a group of 38 GOP lawmakers has sent a letter to President Trump over proposed trade deal language meant to prevent sex discrimination. The problem is that the language equates “sexual orientation and gender identity” (SOGI) with sex. “A trade agreement is no place for the adoption of social policy,” congressmen explained in a the letter dated November 16. “It is especially inappropriate and...

The election is over. Let the infighting begin.  For me it began Wednesday morning just after I awoke. I had spent the prior evening covering Republican senatorial candidate Bob Hugin's loss to Democratic incumbent Bob Menendez and didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m.After fortifying myself with some strong coffee, I checked my phone. There was a voicemail from the most prominent conservative Republican in the state Senate, Mike Doherty of Warren County.  Doherty was upset at the comments in my election-night column from the most prominent moderate Republican in the Assembly, minority leader Jon Bramnick.Bramnick had pinned the blame...

House Republicans who have spent the last two years arguing that there was bias in President Barack Obama’s Justice Department are preparing to subpoena two key witnesses in the final weeks of their majority — former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., has notified colleagues that he will subpoena Comey for a closed-door deposition Nov. 29 and Lynch for Dec. 5, according to a person familiar with the subpoenas. The person declined to be identified because the person was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The subpoenas...

GOP senators are nudging President Donald Trump to give up hopes for a $5 billion down-payment on a border wall in 2019. “My goal is to get the [budget] bills passed” in December, said Sen. Richard Shelby, the GOP chairman of the Senate’s appropriations committee, said Nov. 15 after meeting Trump for a budget discussion. His committee has penciled in $1.6 billion for the wall in 2019, compared to the $5 billion in the draft House bill. “If it’s ‘Wall or nothing!’ they’re going to get nothing,” the top Democrat on the Senate’s appropriations bill, Sen. Patrick Leahy, said November...

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican fixture in California who represented Orange County for 15 terms, has lost his bid for re-election. His defeat underlines the party’s setbacks in a part of the state that was long a symbol of its political dominance. The Associated Press called the race on Saturday, with Harley Rouda receiving 52 percent of the vote to Mr. Rohrabacher’s 48 percent. Mr. Rouda, 56, is a former Republican turned Democrat who became a symbol of the Democratic efforts to win back Congress this year. Mr. Rohrabacher, 71, was viewed as particularly vulnerable because he defended Russia in...

Austin City Council has given the pro-abortion movement another gift paid for by taxpayer dollars. On Thursday, Austin City Council voted to renew an unethical arrangement with Planned Parenthood, in which the abortion business is only required to pay $1 a year to rent downtown property owned by Austin. The fair market value of the property is $111,000, indicating Austin is forfeiting large sums of money even though the city is bedeviled by financial problems. Fortunately, the Texas Legislature is planning to address this type of corruption and abuse of power through priority Pro-Life legislation. The dollar-a-year rental agreement between...

When peelosi and her scum issue subpoenas to all the supporters of President Trump in the House and the Senate, how should they react?

In March 2017, a little-known Democratic congressman named Beto O’Rourke proposed something unusual to Will Hurd, a Republican colleague from a neighboring district: that they rent a car and embark on a 24-hour, 1,600-mile road trip from San Antonio to Washington. Their live-streamed odyssey wound up attracting blushing news coverage and evoking the bipartisan companionship of a bygone era. For Hurd, a pragmatic, swing-district moderate with numerous Democrats employed on his staff, the cross-aisle kumbaya was routine; few lawmakers hug the middle so tightly. For O’Rourke, the demonstration was less likely; he had done little to distinguish himself in the...

For all the media fixation on the "lies" President Trump tells, sometimes he has an uncanny knack of telling the unvarnished truth. So it was on Friday night when Trump told those gathered at a West Virginia rally: "Sometimes it’s not as exciting to talk about the economy because we have a lot of other things to talk about." That unscripted line left some Republican strategists nodding in agreement and wondering about what might have been. Republicans are bracing for the loss of the House of Representatives with operatives citing the lack of a coherent economic message and unnecessary distractions...

Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele called President Donald Trump’s proposal to end birthright citizenship via executive order engaging “in stupid at a level that we have never seen before.” Steele said, “It is better from Trump’s perspective to have a base that is angry and mad at someone other than him. It is sort of the 1950s racism that has been reintroduced into the body politic, and he is thriving on that. So, you know, a great jobs number, and wages going up, and tax cuts, and Supreme Court appointment s appointments,...

Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border! -- Donald J. Trump, @realDonaldTrump, Twitter, 31 Oct 2018

Iowa Republican has come under renewed scrutiny for past remarks The campaign arm of House Republicans will not be sending any last-minute support to controversial Rep. Steve King, who faces a competitive race in a deep-red Iowa district. King has been the subject of renewed attention for racist remarks and social media posts backing white nationalists, following the shooting last week at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 people dead. Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, tweeted Thursday that King’s “recent comments, actions, and retweets are completely inappropriate. We must stand up against white supremacy...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) said President Donald Trump’s compliment of Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) for assaulting a reporter last May was “not OK.” Sasse said, “I believe the First Amendment is the beating heart of the American experiment. We need to have a president who celebrates the First Amendment and not pretends that beating up a reporter is OK. What you hear from Nebraskans who also tune out most of the rallies is that there’s a short-term, long-term thing going on and feel that the president’s rhetoric is short-term playful. I don’t think...

Whether or not Republicans ultimately confirm President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, some on the front lines of the GOP’s midterm battlefield fear the party may have already lost. In the days after a divided nation watched Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford deliver conflicting stories about what happened when they were teenagers, Republican campaign operatives acknowledged this is not the fight they wanted six weeks before Election Day. . . . In swing state New Hampshire, former Republican Party chair Jennifer Horn said Republicans are “grossly underestimating the damage that would be done” at the ballot box...

A panel discussion featuring Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., in Boston next week has been moved due to security concerns amid a contentious battle to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Flake was confronted by sexual assault survivors at the Capitol on Friday after he said he would vote to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination. Flake is appearing Monday at the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Boston to discuss the future of the Republican Party. The panel discussion, which will also feature fellow GOP member Ohio Gov. John Kasich, was originally scheduled to be held at Emerson Colonial Theatre. Emerson College President...

A communications adviser to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) during the Supreme Court confirmation fight has abruptly resigned after an accusation of sexual harassment — an allegation he denies. Garrett Ventry submitted his resignation Friday night, he said in a brief phone interview Saturday morning. He said he denies the allegation but stepped down “in order to not be a distraction” as Senate Republicans continue to work to get Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh confirmed.