Free Republic

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — U.S. Rep. David Cicilline and U.S. Sen. Jack Reed are among the Rhode Island politicians criticizing President Donald Trump's announcement that he would bar transgender people from serving in the military. Cicilline, who is gay, tweeted out shortly after Wednesday's announcement that transgender service members are heroes. The Republican president should "stop using them as political props," he wrote. Fellow Democrat Reed, the ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, pointed out that Wednesday was the anniversary of President Harry Truman's order desegregating the United States Armed Forces.....

On July 19, 2017 it was announced that Sen. John McCain (R), 80, was diagnosed with brain cancer. His specific diagnosis was a primary glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor with a median survival time of 15-16 months. While the tumor was removed during an operation, this type of cancer commonly returns. Delphi Analytica asked what the people of Arizona thought Senator McCain should do in light of his devastating diagnosis. Our poll was conducted via internet of 667 Arizona residents from July 21–23. 12% thought Senator McCain should not retire at this time. 19% thought that it was too...

Awkward! After someone forgot to switch off a microphone at the end of a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, July 25, two senators were caught dissing President Donald Trump on a hot mic. Chairman of Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee Susan Collins and Sen. Jack Reed were unknowingly recorded discussing the federal budget and calling 71-year-old Trump “crazy” in audio obtained by The Washington Post. “I swear, [the Office of Management and Budget] just went through and whenever there was ‘grant,’ they just X it out,” said Collins, a Republican senator from Maine. “With no measurement, no thinking...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ripped his former colleague, Hillary Clinton, over her election loss to President Donald Trump and her subsequent efforts to explain why she lost. “When you lose to somebody who has 40 percent popularity, you don’t blame other things—Comey, Russia—you blame yourself,” Schumer told The Washington Post. “So what did we do wrong? People didn’t know what we stood for, just that we were against Trump. And still believe that.” Schumer’s comments—referring to Clinton blaming Russian meddling and the former FBI director for her loss to Trump—come as Democrats are trying to re-brand ahead of the...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush criticised his former 2016 presidential primary foe President Donald Trump on Saturday over his first six months in office. Speaking at OZY Fest in New York, Bush slammed Trump’s chaotic style of governance and failure to focus on his policy goals. He singled out reports that Trump recently suggested that he may attempt to pre-pardon himself to preempt a federal investigation by independent counsel Robert Mueller. “You get disciplined when your team says, ‘No, Mr. President, let’s stay focused on these policy objectives,'” Bush said. “Don’t disparage people, don’t go after Mueller, don’t say you’re...

Six months into Donald Trump’s term, and Democratic politician’s ability to be an opposition party is, in a word, pathetic. When the poll came out saying that “Democrats stand for nothing more than opposing” Trump, I thought to myself, ‘If only that were true!’” But they can’t even do that well. When House Democratic Caucus chairman Joe Crowley was asked by the Associated Press just what his party’s core message was, he “hesitated” and then said, “That message is being worked on.” It was as tone deaf (but honest) an answer as when Mother Jones writer Kevin Drum – as...

White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci reaffirmed President Donald Trump’s commitment to stand for “the people that need the most help in the United States,” during an interview on SiriusXM’s “Breitbart News Saturday.” The new communications director told Breitbart’s Matt Boyle that the shake-up within the White House in the aftermath of Scaramucci’s hiring and White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s unexpected resignation will serve to “refine” the message the president wishes to deliver to the American people. He said Trump is focused on fulfilling his campaign promises and corralling Congress into passing his legislative agenda. “We’ve got to get...

One of the Senate's strongest voices will be quieter this week following Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) diagnosis with brain cancer. The six-term Arizona Republican was in his home state recently having surgery to remove a blood clot from above his eye when doctors found a brain tumor. McCain, 80, received an outpouring of support and well wishes from his colleagues in Washington on Thursday following news of his condition, with many saying they expected to see him back on Capitol Hill as soon as possible. (TWEETS-AT-LINK) McCain's absence could spell more trouble for the fate of the GOP's health care...

Democratic dreams of seizing Congress appear to be exactly that Some Democrats dream of recapturing control of Congress in 2018 and impeaching Donald Trump, but the odds are stacked against them despite the president’s early troubles and historically low approval ratings. Seizing the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a 46-seat advantage, would be tough nut to crack. Yet Democrats might run into a brick wall in their bid to win back the Senate even though Republicans only hold a slender 52-48 edge. How come? An extremely unfavorable Senate map. Of the 33 senators up for reelection in a year...

Totally useless, "Never Trumper:, Republican Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell should call for a Senate vote today to eliminate the "Sixty Vote" rule in the Senate. Simple, folks...Fifty One votes makes for a majority. End of story!!! Let's see if this weak sister of a back stabbing, lie telling, Republican leader has any spine or loyalty to his party, country and the American people. McConnell pass that law ...NOW, or resign this afternoon...you complete failure and Trump traitor to boot!!! You could lead your way out of a cardboard box.

Both Mitch McConnell & Paul Ryan are total failures at leadership and, are 100% "Never Trumpers". I ask you good folks this simple question. Should both Mitch McConnell & Paul Ryan be thrown out by their own caucuses or plainly be forced to resign immediately?

There was a break-in at Senator Dean Heller’s office in southwest Las Vegas over the weekend and the GOP’s health-care bill seems to have inspired it. Considered a key swing vote on the Senate bill, Heller initially expressed reservations about its Medicaid cuts but hasn’t said much about the latest revised version. According to one report, his vote is likely to be “bought,” giving Republicans enough “yeas” to push the bill through. One person in Nevada wants to make sure Heller remains opposed to the bill and went about it in about the worst possible way, breaking into his office...

The USA Senate should never have its urgent business held up by an aging & ailing Senator. Senator, John McCain, Arizona, who is now not sound of mind or body, should gracefully remove himself from the Senate by resigning immediately and retiring to an "Old Age" home, where he rightfully belongs. The Governor of Arizona, under law should immediately appoint a replacement to serve out the unexpired term of the failing Senator McCain. End of story.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) made headlines this week, promising more bombshells and shoe-drops in the interminable Russia scandal engulfing media coverage of the Trump presidency. The octogenarian lawmaker and Trump critic who actually agrees with Trump over 90 percent of the time mentioned shoes dropping on at least three occasions after Donald Trump Jr. released an email chain detailing how he came to be acquainted with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. As the belabored media and so-called “resistance” discourse nonsensically focuses on Trump Jr.’s alleged crimes viz. the Veselnitskaya meet-and-greet, let’s take a look back at when John McCain himself sought...

A new list of approval polls for all 50 U.S. senators released this week seems to indicate that the Republican senators with the lowest popularity among voters at home are those who have been the most vocally critical of President Donald Trump — and who have historically supported amnesty for illegal immigrants. The least popular GOP senators, according to the series of polls from Morning Consult, were — in this order — Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). McConnell, McCain, and Flake were the three least popular senators overall,...

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is sounding the alarm with her Democratic base, warning a Senate run by Detroit bad boy Kid Rock could be the second coming of Donald Trump. The “Wasting Time” and “All Summer Long” rap rocker-turned-country singer tweeted on Wednesday that he’s running for U.S. Senate in Michigan. Although it’s been largely dismissed so far as a publicity stunt, Warren isn’t taking any chances with the longshot Republican. “I know a lot of people are thinking: this is some sort of joke, right?” Warren wrote in an email blast with the subject line “Senator Kid Rock (R-MI).”...

Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Beto O’Rourke received $2.1 million in donations in the second quarter for his campaign against incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who raised $1.6 million from April to June. Although O'Rourke raised more money in the second quarter, Cruz's campaign said in an email Thursday that the former Republican presidential candidate has $5.7 million cash on hand. O'Rourke's bid is considered a long shot because reliably GOP Texas hasn't had a Democratic senator since 1994, and although he has raised funds quickly since announcing his candidacy, O'Rourke had only $535,000 in campaign funds at the end of...

As official Washington grapples with the prospect of living through Watergate 2.0, some of the city's most post powerful Republicans gathered on Wednesday night to hear the words of a man who came away famously unscathed from Watergate 1.0: Henry Kissinger. The former secretary of state to Richard Nixon and honorary chairman of the Center for the National Interest spoke before an enraptured audience at the glamorous Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown in a speech that touched on the “extraordinary division” of the Vietnam era to the hyperpolarization of the Donald J. Trump era. The purpose of the event was...

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona will face questions as part of a defamation lawsuit regarding his role in the leaking of the opposition research dossier former British spy Chris Steele compiled on President Donald Trump. The dossier, Steele and his London firm Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd. produced, made numerous unsubstantiated claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The dossier also included salacious details related to Trump’s alleged sexual perversion, which the dossier indicates left him vulnerable to Russian blackmailing. Two defamation lawsuits, one in the U.K. and one in...

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said this afternoon that he now sees Robert Mueller's Russia investigation as a probe into possible "treason." Kaine and others on Capitol Hill reacted this afternoon to the latest revelations about a meeting last June between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. Earlier today, Trump Jr. released what he said was the “entire email chain” of conversations setting up the meeting with attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. In the email chain, Trump Jr. expresses interest in obtaining damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Kaine, who was Clinton's running mate last year, said the new reports take the probe...