Free Republic

Antony Blinken represents neither the beginning nor the end of the info ops run to convince voters the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. Revisiting the contemporaneous coverage of the laptop story in light of last week’s revelations about Blinken reveals the scandal extends far beyond the Biden campaign and involves government agents. Last week, news broke that a former top CIA official, Michael Morell, testified as part of a House Judiciary Committee investigation that Blinken, now-secretary of state and then-Biden campaign senior adviser, had contacted Morell to discuss the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story. Blinken and Morell...

Ex-Gov. Bill Richardson is one of several former top U.S. government officials pocketing large fees to speak in support of an Iranian group that is listed by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization. Richardson, a former energy secretary and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was in Washington, D.C., in January and in Paris in February to call on the State Department to remove the Mojahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, from the terror list. During the ’70s, the MEK killed U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of...

President Trump's personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, claimed Wednesday night that he "never said there was no collusion" between members of President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russian officials -- but he did say that Trump himself never colluded with Russian officials. The former New York City mayor also said on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time" that "if the collusion happened, it happened a long time ago. It's either provable or it's not. It is not provable because it never happened ... I'm telling you there's no chance it happened." Trump previously denied any member of his campaign conspired with Russian officials....

Presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has promised to keep America safe. Now, he appears to have made a deal with “America’s Mayor” to help do the job. The New York Daily News reported that a deal has been struck between Trump and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for Giuliani to head the Department of Homeland Security if Trump were to be elected. “A secret deal has been struck by Donald Trump, and Rudy Giuliani would be head of Homeland Security,” an unnamed GOP insider told the Daily News.

In an interview, Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who has been uncharacteristically quiet in the last week about the Republican primary, said that he was planning to vote for Mr. Trump in the state’s primary on April 19, over Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio. “He’s my friend, and I think of the candidates, of the choices that I have, he’s the best choice for president,” Mr. Giuliani said. “He’s a better choice than Cruz and a more realistic choice than Kasich.”

Dear Jim..OK, the GOP now has its candidate. McCain isn't the first choice of the majority of us on FR, and even now, there are spirited, yet for the most part, civil exchanges on the threads as to whether or not some will support the GOP nominee. One of the more unfortunate, and unpleasant events on FR was the mass banishment and/or leaving of a great many Freepers who were supporters of Rudy Guliani for the nomination. I'm posting this to see if you'd be open to the idea of inviting them to return, and see how others might feel...

We've got some real challenges facing us. FR was established to fight against government corruption, overstepping, and abuse and to fight for a return to the limited constitutional government as envisioned and set forth by our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and other founding documents. One of the biggest cases of government corruption, overstepping and abuse that I know of is its disgraceful headlong slide into a socialist hell. Our founders never intended for abortion to be the law of the land. And they never intended the Supreme Court to be a legislative body. They...

Christine Quinn, the Democratic Choice Ms. Quinn, the City Council speaker, offers the judgment and record of achievement anyone should want in a mayor. Two opponents—Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, and William Thompson Jr., former comptroller—offer powerful arguments on their own behalf. But Ms. Quinn inspires the most confidence that she would be the right mayor for the inevitable times when hope and idealism collide with the challenge of getting something done. … For Republicans, Joseph LhotaYou might find it odd to see this page endorsing the mayoral candidacy of Joseph Lhota, a Republican who made his mark in...

On Wednesday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC analyst Richard Wolffe -- formerly of Newsweek -- claimed that President Bush "ignored all the warnings about al-Qaeda wanting to attack the homeland" before 9/11 as he mocked Republicans for praising Bush's record of preventing terrorist attacks on U.S. soil after the 9/11 attacks. As he alluded to Republicans criticizing President Clinton for not handling al-Qaeda more aggressively during his presidency, Wolffe asserted: You couldn't just say that 9/11 came out of nothing. It wasn't a total surprise because, in their narrative, Bill Clinton and, by extension, all Democrats somehow lost...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York Republicans are completely out of power for the first time in four decades. Democrats rule the executive and legislative branches and hold 26 of the state's 29 congressional seats. On the fringes of this grim political tableau hovers a larger-than-life figure who won worldwide acclaim after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Rudy Giuliani, considered the GOP's best chance for redemption, has a new nickname: Rudy the Savior...

The overriding environmental issue of these times is the warming of the planet. The Democratic hopefuls in the 2008 campaign are fully engaged, calling for large — if still unquantified — national sacrifices and for a transformation in the way the country produces and uses energy. The Republicans do not go much further than conceding that climate change could be a problem and, with the notable exception of John McCain, offer no comprehensive solutions. In 2000, when Al Gore could have made warming a signature issue in his presidential campaign, his advisers persuaded him that it was too complicated and...

Summary: The next U.S. president will face three key foreign policy challenges: setting a course for victory in the terrorists' war on global order, strengthening the international system the terrorists seek to destroy, and extending the system's benefits. With a stronger defense, a determined diplomacy, and greater U.S. economic and cultural influence, the next president can start to build a lasting, realistic peace. This is pretty extensive, read it all at link.

The U.S. Senate's compromise immigration bill offers something for everyone to hate, including presidential candidates forced to confront the divisive issue. Unlike the war in Iraq, which separates lawmakers mainly along party lines, immigration fractures Republican and Democratic ranks from within: splitting business interests from social conservatives, dividing labor from Hispanic groups. "The issue is fraught with danger," said John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster. "It's one where it's tough to please everybody within your base or coalition." For that reason, perhaps, the only major candidate who embraced the bipartisan proposal announced Thursday was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., -- which was...

May 10, 2007 - Obama Runs Closest To Giuliani In Connecticut, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Clinton Losing Ground In Main Race, Dem Primary Word format Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani leads all Democratic contenders in the 2008 presidential race in Connecticut, squeaking by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama 44 - 42 percent; inching past former Vice President Al Gore 45 - 42 percent, and beating New York Sen. Hillary Clinton 48 - 42 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Sen. Clinton tops Arizona Sen. John McCain 47 - 40 percent. This compares to a 46 -...

Russian organized crime has become a significant problem for California law enforcement agencies. During the past several years, some Russian emigres have established a growing number of loosely structured criminal networks in this state that are involved in sophisticated criminal activities. The law enforcement intelligence community has also become aware of at least four structured Russian criminal organizations operating in California. Russian organized crime includes crime groups from all the republics which comprised the former Soviet Union. These crime groups are operating in many of the major cities in California including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and San...

WONDERLAND Scooter Libby and Reputation Prosecutions that wreak ruin on a lifetime. The trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is the closest version of a Red Queen trial this country has had in a long time. One says that knowing it might start a stampede from past defendants laying claim to the most upside-down prosecution. Lewis G. Carroll's account of the Knave' s trial before the Red Queen and White Rabbit is famous for the Queen's dictum, "Sentence first, verdict afterward." But read the full transcript of the mock trial and one will see that the real subject is not...

The normal rule in American politics is that if you run for president and your experience comes at the state level, most people will assume that foreign policy is your weak point. You can overcome that political vulnerability — as George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and other governors did while getting elected. One would presume that this applies even more to presidential candidates whose highest office reached is mayor. And yet we have the strange case of Rudolph Giuliani. Giuliani's presidential campaign is starting to win a cult following among conservatives. It's not his position on domestic policy that's doing...

Rudolph Giuliani for president?  Please.  There's more chance I'll simultaneously be made head of NOW and the NAACP and be invited to George Soros' next soiree.  I know a little something about Giuliani.  Although my politics, faith, appearance, gun case and, well, most everything about me say otherwise, I was raised in New York City.  And one of my last acts before departing the Den of Iniquity for suburbia was to cast a vote for America's Mayor.  Don't hold it against me; he was running against David Dinkins, a man who made Forrest Gump look smart.  Unlike the piece I...

Liberal Air America radio host Mike Malloy had his show abruptly “terminated” on Wednesday, allegedly for financial reasons. The network is failing but there could be another factor behind the Malloy debacle. There is still fallout from Malloy’s recent decision to turn over two-and-a-half hours of his three hour show to a former associate of ex-con Lyndon LaRouche, a perennial candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination who campaigns against what he views as British and Zionist control of the U.S. political system. The LaRouche organization is frequently labeled as a cult. The former high-level LaRouche associate, Webster Griffin Tarpley, was...

City JournalThe Illegal-Alien Crime WaveWhy can’t our immigration authorities deport the hordes of illegal felons in our cities?Heather Mac Donald Winter 2004 Some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet in cities where the crime these aliens commit is highest, the police cannot use the most obvious tool to apprehend them: their immigration status. In Los Angeles, for example, dozens of members of a ruthless Salvadoran prison gang have sneaked back into town after having been deported for such crimes as murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and drug trafficking. Police officers know who...