Free Republic

Two House Democrats are launching a long shot bid to impeach President Donald Trump, a step that illustrates the deep political divide engulfing Washington and much of the country. The effort by Reps. Al Green of Texas and Brad Sherman of California has little chance of success in the Republican-led House. They don’t even have the backing of many fellow Democrats. Nevertheless, the lawmakers said Wednesday they are drafting articles of impeachment. They say Trump obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey, who was investigating possible Russian ties to the Trump campaign. Federal authorities say they have definitive...

“The five white guys, I call them. Are they going to open a hamburger stand next or what?” Pelosi said at a press conference on Thursday. “That could’ve been done four months ago.” She criticized the “very idea that this week they’re saying, ‘Oh why don’t we get four white guys and General Kelly to come and do this.'” Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House behind Pelosi, took issue with the “white guys” comment, calling it “offensive.”

Three of President Trump's female accusers spoke with NBC's Megyn Kelly Monday about their experiences, all claiming he took advantage of them sexually. Former beauty pageant contestant Samntha Holvey alleged that Trump made her feel like "a piece of meat," Rachel Crooks, a former receptionist, claimed he forcibly kissed her, and Jessica Leeds, a traveling saleswoman, says he groped and kissed her on an airplane. The White House has dismissed them as "false claims," as Kelly reiterated on her show.These women's stories, however, were enough to convince Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) that the president needs to step down "immediately." Should...

There are really two ways to look at this effort. One is that this attempt to impeach President Trump got slapped down hard today. The other is that there are now 58 Democrats willing to attach their names to this desperate action which their own leadership is officially against, at least for the moment. In either case, Rep. Al Green promised yesterday he would bring this to a vote and today he made good on that promise. The result was a bust. From the Texas Tribune: U.S. Rep. Al Green’s effort to push the U.S. House to vote to impeach...

The number-two Democrat in the House, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, has published several statements which are strongly critical of the Obama administration’s betrayal of Israel at the United Nations. Before the vote was cast at the UN, Hoyer urged the President to exercise America’s veto power against the anti-Israel resolution: The resolution, as proposed, seeks to place responsibility for continued conflict fully on Israel and ignores violence and incitement by Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaderships. Any workable and long-lasting solution to this conflict must come about through direct, bilateral negotiations, and this resolution undermines that...

New York City's former top cop said Sunday that the Obama administration cut funding to fight terrorism in the city to retaliate against Sen. Chuck Schumer for opposing a nuclear deal with Iran. "There's a certain amount vindictiveness on the part of Washington aimed at Sen. Chuck Schumer," Ray Kelly, New York City's police commissioner under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said in an interview with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York. "Apparently they remember very well that Sen. Schumer did not support their Iran deal," Kelly said, arguing the proposed cut "was aimed at getting a reaction from...

Beltway-insider publications Politico and The Hill are hiding House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan's 2016’s disastrous report card, even days after the Dec. 18 passage of his $1.1-plus trillion 2016 spending-and-tax plan. Ryan and his top aides “really gave away the store,” Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) declared Dec. 18. Her report-card phrase — “they really gave away the store” — doesn’t appear in Politico or TheHill, even by Dec. 22. Instead, Politico suggested that Ryan came out roughly even. “The four leaders — Ryan, Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry...

On the day after Pope Francis spoke to Congress about the dangers of violent extremism in the name of religious fundamentalism, presidential candidate Ted Cruz, appearing at a Values Voter summit, threatened to murder Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Texas senator vowed that, if elected, he would “rip to shreds” the Iranian agreement deal recently passed through Congress, and kill the country’s leader if it didn’t give up its nuclear ambitions. “If the Ayatollah doesn’t understand that, we may have to help introduce him to the 72 virgins,” Cruz said to wild cheers from the audience of conservative Christians. The...

Turkey's geo-political maneuvers may urge reconsideration of its NATO membership. While the threat from Daesh grows, Ankara is more focused on the continuing fight with the Kurds. The Erdoğan government is undermining the core values of what NATO stands for, and its anti-Kurdish policy spells problems for its role in the region. NATO has to make a statement and also work behind the scenes to engage Erdoğan to prioritize the war against Daesh. Under the pretext of an anti-Daesh (ISIS) campaign, Turkey's government since late July 2015 is harshly repressing the Kurds, playing the ‘anti-terrorism' card towards NATO. But the...

When a U.S. citizen going by the name “Abu Abdullah al-Amriki” blew himself up in a suicide attack in Baiji, Iraq, this month, he was the most recent example of a troubling trend: the roughly 200 Americans who have traveled or attempted to travel to Iraq and Syria to fight for the Islamic State.Not all of the foreigners have left for the region looking to fight for the Islamic State, however. Instead, growing numbers of Americans are heading there to fight against the extremists. The American fighters — mostly military veterans, with a strangely disproportionate share of Texans — are...

President Obama’s July 31 phone call organized by the anti-Israel group J Street and other progressive Jewish groups could be summed up in one sentence: Please help because, those rich people are helping those warmongering Jews to fight this wonderful Iran deal because they don’t like me and they want war just like they did in Iraq. In the 20 minute call Obama said that opponents of the Iran deal come from the same “array of forces that got us into the Iraq war” and that a “bunch of billionaires who happily finance super PACs” are “putting the squeeze on...

House Democrats said Thursday they’ll soon launch an official petition drive to try to force Republicans to vote on Democrats’ immigration bill — but said even before that, they’ll try to force a vote on a minimum wage increase. Emerging from a day of meetings at their policy retreat in Maryland, Democratic leaders said the minimum wage will come first because it’s the most central to their efforts to try to paint Republicans into a corner on income inequality. But, under fire from immigrant-rights advocates, Democrats said immigration will come soon after that. The petition drives, known as “discharge petitions,”...

The unaccompanied children from Central American crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally should be deported except in extreme circumstances, according to House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer. “We have an immediate humanitarian crisis that confronts this country, we also have a crisis in terms of this country cannot continue to absorb, nor should it, a limitless number of people who — particularly children who want to cross our border,” Hoyer told reporters Tuesday. According to the Democratic whip the influx is unsustainable in the U.S. “We cannot give these children sanctuary except in extraordinary circumstances. Obviously we have refugee status and protective...

House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) spoke at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's annual public policy conference on Sept. 30, 2014 in Washington, D.C. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr(CNSNews.com) -- At a press briefing on Tuesday, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said that President Obama had "broad authority" to take unilateral action on immigration but failed to directly answer a question asking him where specifically the Constitution authorized President Obama to unilaterally decided not to enforce immigration laws. CNSNews.com asked Hoyer: “The Constitution requires that the president ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ Where specifically in the Constitution does...

**SNIP** Asked by Kenneth G. Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot, whether there are any extremists in the Democratic ranks, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said no. “I don’t think there are any extremists in my party,” the Maryland Democrat said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” Mr. Langone expressed disbelief at the comment. “What more can I say,” he said. “The other guys are the bad guys, you are the good guys.”

Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, said the tone was counterproductive. ‘Not Comfortable’ “Characterizing people who may be in opposition to the agreement as wanting to go to war as an alternative, I’m not comfortable with that, and I wish the White House wouldn’t do that,” Hoyer, who is leading a visit of 22 Democratic House members to Israel this week, said in an interview in Jerusalem on Thursday. “I don’t think the alternatives are going to war, and I’ve indicated that” to the White House. White House press secretary Josh Earnest dismissed complaints about...

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer says that the over 200 sanctuary cities like Baltimore and San Francisco should be informing federal authorities when local law enforcement arrest felons like the illegal immigrant who allegedly shot and killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle in San Francisco last week. When asked by The Daily Caller if federal funds should be withheld to such cities who refuse to comply with federal law and do not report felons to federal authorities that are arrested by local police departments, Hoyer replied, “Without getting into specifics as to the action we ought to take, my feeling is that...

“It’s declassified and made public once it’s agreed to,” Ryan said of Obamatrade in Rules Committee testimony on Wednesday during questioning from Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) .

FULL TITLE: PAUL RYAN UNCHAINED: LASHES OUT AT BREITBART, DRUDGE, ‘DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET’ You know you’re losing when you’re reduced to attacking the Internet. House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan is now attacking the Web, proving he shouldn’t be trusted by Republican members of Congress to tell the truth about controversial trade legislation. In an appearance Thursday on Fox and Friends, Ryan criticized Breitbart News and other conservative media including the highly influential Drudge Report, which have revealed the immigration and climate change provisions within President Obama’s trade agenda. “Let’s talk about...

The one thing most Americans can agree on is that members of Congress do not need a pay raise. But that didn’t stop one Democrat lawmaker from stating his case. At a hearing regarding the 2016 Legislative Branch appropriations bill yesterday, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) said that his salary of $174,000 a year simply isn’t enough to live on in Washington, D.C. […] Congress’ current approval rating is 19 percent. …