Free Republic

Former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday said he is not voting for his old boss but left the door open to voting for President Biden. “I’m not there yet,” Esper said after being asked by comedian Bill Maher on his HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” if he would vote for the current president. “I’m definitely not voting for [former President Trump], but I’m not there yet.” Trump announced that he fired Esper from his position as Defense Secretary back in November 2020, following Biden being projected to win the 2020 presidential race. He has since become...

The advocacy group Republican Voters Against Trump announced a new six-figure campaign highlighting former Vice President Mike Pence‘s refusal to endorse former President Donald Trump in his 2024 campaign. The 15-second digital ad is set to run in five battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, while the billboard campaign will be featured in Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee. “This is someone who worked with Donald Trump all four years of his presidency. He saw Donald Trump up close and personal every single day,” said John Conway, the group’s director of strategy, in an...

The Uniparty is quietly scheming (again) to rig the system and prevent President Trump from ever becoming President. This scheme involves a two-part strategy: using a combination of strategically planned retirements of Republican House members, coupled with the passage of carefully tailored legislation to remove President Trump from the ballot on bogus Insurrection grounds that would likely pass muster with moderate justices on the Supreme Court, like John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, who prefer to avoid deciding on “controversial” legal questions and risk being seen in a bad light by their liberal peers.

....Democrats could easily save Johnson, and many have named a vote on Ukraine aid as their price.... ...Some Democrats, conscious of that threat, had suggested that they would be interested in protecting Johnson from an ouster...

Within moments of widespread media reports that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire when the current term ends this summer, the Washington parlor game of making a short list of judges President Joe Biden might consider to replace him began. ... There’s one major problem facing Biden’s prospects, though: he might not be able to win confirmation for the expected pick. [Snip] But the nuclear option can go into motion only if the Judiciary Committee reports the nomination to the floor, a procedural move that says whether a majority on the committee recommends the full Senate consider the pick....

The Chinese Communist Party has aggressively built up its military, expanding its arsenal of both conventional and nuclear capabilities. The growth was largely funded by its rival, the United States.That is one of the arguments made by James Fanell, a retired U.S. Navy captain, and Bradley Thayer, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, a Washington-based think tank, during a recent interview with EpochTV’s “American Though Leaders“ program.“The Chinese Navy now is over 150 naval combatants greater than the U.S. Navy. They are now the largest navy in terms of numbers of hulls and tonnage,” said Mr. Fanell,...

Republican Representative Mike Gallagher, who represents the 8th Congressional district of Wisconsin, announced earlier this year that he would be retiring from the House of Representatives after serving his current term in Office. On February 10th, 2024, Gallagher made the public announcement that he would not seek re-election to his position in 2024, further diminishing the slim majority Republicans currently hold in the House of Representatives. Gallagher joins the ranks of 14 other House Republicans who have also announced that they will not seek re-election heading into 2024. That list includes, Debbie Lesko (AZ-8) Kay Granger (TX-12) Brad Wenstrup (OH-2)...

"It's just insanity" that there could be another push to oust a House speaker over a budget disagreement, and there will be trouble for the Republican Party if such actions keep occurring, former Rep. Pete King said on Newsmax Sunday about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's motion to vacate filed Friday against House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has come out against former President Trump’s promise to free the January 6 prisoners. McDaniel voiced her opposition during a Sunday interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” — the network where she is now a paid contributor. “I want to be very clear. The violence that happened on January 6 is unacceptable. It doesn’t represent our country. It certainly does not represent my party,” McDaniel told interviewer and co-worker Kristen Welker. “If you attacked our Capitol and you have been abused and you’ve been convicted, then that should stay,” McDaniel continued. McDaniel said...

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has threatened to leave the Republican Party over the nomination of Donald Trump. Murkowski, who has long sought to undermine Trump and the wider conservative agenda, bemoaned the fact that he was once again the party’s nominee. “I wish that as Republicans, we had … a nominee that I could get behind,” Murkowski said in an interview with CNN. “I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump.”

As turmoil continues within the House Republican caucus, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime” and weighed in on that turmoil and the decisions his successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), is facing. According to the former California lawmaker, the beginning of the end for Republicans came when Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led his ouster last year.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who announced last month he would not run for re-election, will resign from Congress early, he confirmed in a statement Friday. Gallagher’s departure before the end of his term in January is another blow to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Republicans, who have been struggling to govern and demonstrate stability this Congress. Two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News of Gallagher's plan to resign early on Friday. The Wisconsin Republican then released a statement announcing that he will depart on April 19. The speaker's office confirmed that Gallagher informed Johnson of...

DEVELOPING STORY: The massive spending bill presented by House Republican leaders is filled with millions of dollars in funding for LGBT organizations — including $845,000 for gay garden parties.Envision: You in Colorado, an organization focused on LGBTQ individuals, will received $845,000 of your tax dollars to host gay-themed garden parties and art shows.

Outgoing Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) said Thursday on CNN’s “OutFront” that the Republican-led House impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s possible involvement with his son Hunter’s business deals was a “sideshow” that needed to end. Buck said, “I think the investigation is warranted in terms of looking at what Hunter Biden did. I think that we may want to look at laws that restrict the family members of the president and vice president in terms of outside of influences.”

Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) will not vote for his own party’s nominee for president, he said Tuesday. The establishment politician’s statement that he will not vote for Donald Trump comes days after the former president locked up the party’s nomination. Young had indicated earlier he would not endorse Trump, but Tuesday is the first time he admitted publicly he will not even vote for his party’s standard bearer. “At some point, principled conservatives need to incentivize our party, the Republican Party, to nominate somebody that principled conservatives can actually believe in,” Young told a local Indiana outlet. “Stated differently, I’m...

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination this year, says he won’t back former President Trump in 2024, but also won’t vote for President Biden. “I get asked a lot if I believe Trump is a threat to our democracy,” he writes in a USA Today op-ed. “I am not good at predicting the future, but we can learn from history and we should take heed when politicians tell us what they are going to do.” Hutchinson says in the piece that he voted for Trump twice, but that insight gleaned from former Rep. Liz...

The former chair of the Florida Republican Party compared the bloodbath of firings at the Republican National Committee under new chair Lara Trump is like 'a funeral' and leading the party the wrong way. Al Cardenas, who runs the GOP in the Sunshine State and is the husband of prominent anti-Trump 'The View' co-host Ana Navarro, told MSNBC Friday that this is being done in order to use the national party's funds to fight former President Trump's election grievances. 'This is nonsense, I mean, it's only spending millions to perpetuate the fallacy that there was election fraud in 2020,' he...

The establishment is going all in for Ohio U.S. Senate candidate Matt Dolan while the America First movement is overwhelmingly backing conservative candidate and businessman Bernie Moreno in the upcoming Senate primary race in the Buckeye State.The primary is less than a week away as Moreno — who is backed by former President Donald Trump and top conservatives in the movement — faces off against former globalist institute fellow State Sen. Matt Dolan. Dolan has a controversial history. He once served as a fellow for the Aspen Institute — a Soros-funded globalist institution — which the Economist described the as...

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said Tuesday he will resign from Congress later this month rather than serve out the remainder of his term through 2024. Why it matters: The surprise announcement will cause House Republicans' already razor thin majority to dwindle even further

Retiring Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) endorsed Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) for vice president Sunday, contending the “media overreaction” she received following her highly scrutinized and oddly delivered State of the Union rebuttal “tells us who liberals most fear as VP nominee.” The failed 2012 Republican presidential nominee took to X to defend Britt following a wave of criticism over her rebuttal, which was described by some as “cringe.”