Free Republic

The New York judge overseeing former President Trump’s hush money trial said Monday that Trump cannot attend arguments on presidential immunity at the Supreme Court next week. ... The decision to not allow Trump to be in Washington, D.C., on April 25, when the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on a presidential immunity claim Trump is making in his federal criminal case, came just before the New York trial adjourned Monday. “Arguing before the Supreme Court is a big deal, and I can certainly appreciate why your client would want to be there, but a trial in...

President Biden is facing deepening political trouble as criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza grows more widespread and a possible invasion of Rafah looms. Discontent with Biden’s substantive support for Israel has spread across the Democratic Party, even as the president has toughened his rhetoric criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the same time, Republicans are upping their attacks on Biden as insufficiently supportive of Israel in its war with Hamas and amid rising tensions with Iran.

Unless you are deeply immersed in politics, you likely missed a major development over the last three weeks: Since his State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden has seen a marked reversal of his fortunes. Indeed, since Biden addressed the nation in early March, polling shows that Biden is gaining ground, as former President Donald Trump now leads Biden by only one percentage point according to the RealClearPolitics polling average — Trump’s smallest lead since January. In the Quinnipiac poll released last week, Biden led by three points, 48 percent to 45 percent, bringing the total to 12 national...

Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) had choice words for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Saturday comments, calling him a “maniac” who “needs” to be removed from office. The progressive Democrat initially discussed the Biden administration transferring 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs, 500 MK82 500-pound bombs and 25 F-35A fighter jets to Israel without notifying lawmakers, an arms package reported exclusively by the Washington Post on Friday.

There is nothing remotely normal or conventional about this presidential election. Alice in Wonderland would feel right at home bouncing about between the fantastical issues plaguing the Biden and Trump campaigns. For the current president, voters worry about Biden’s age, perceived cognitive issues, his son Hunter’s legal and perception problems, growing policy failures, and a country and world going more sideways by the day. For the previous president, it’s hard for some voters to unsee the FBI raid on Trump’s home in Florida, his mug shot, multiple indictments by Democratic prosecutors and district attorneys, trial dates and the greater “lawfare”...

When I received my acceptance letter almost a decade ago to the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington D.C., my imagination raced with the intense, life-or-death scenarios I would be confronted with on a regular basis in order to protect and serve the citizens of our nation’s capital. But even while contemplating such scenarios, I never imagined what I experienced on Jan. 6, 2021, or that I would be one of a few dozen officers standing in between former President Donald Trump’s fascist dreams and American democracy. The attack on the Capitol, perpetuated by a mob commanded by Trump, was and...

Adult film star Stormy Daniels, in a new documentary, said she accepted hush money from former President Trump because she was “terrified” for her life. Daniels, in the film streaming on Peacock, said she was “very relieved” when her former manager Gina Rodriguez reached out and offered her “the chance to keep it quiet.” “I was f—ing terrified!” Daniels said, highlighted by Mediaite. “I mean, people have been suspiciously killed for political reasons.” The actress said her friend told her that she may be in trouble because she was “the whole Republican Party’s problem” amid Trump’s first bid for the...

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) threatened possible contempt proceedings against Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) over a subpoena requesting information about her use of federal funds. Willis’s office has already sent information in response to the February subpoena, but the GOP leader complains she failed to turn over documents related to allegations from a now-terminated employee who flagged another former employee’s desire to misuse federal grant money. “We appreciate that you have produced a narrow set of documents in response to the subpoena, but your compliance with the subpoena to date is deficient,” Jordan wrote...

Former President Trump signaled his opposition Thursday to legislation that could ban TikTok in the U.S. despite his previous support for banning the social media app. In a post on Truth Social, the former president claimed a TikTok ban would benefit Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who serves as CEO of its parent company, Meta. “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump said. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” Facebook banned Trump in January 2021 in the wake...

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.) suggested Sunday that President Biden “do something bold” and call for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza as support from his base appears to be wavering. CBS News “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan presented polling showing nearly twice as many Democrats rate Biden’s presidency as fair or poor compared with Republicans who say the same about former President Trump and claimed the president is “having a problem with his base.” “And that’s why I think he needs to do something bold … this is a problem,” Khanna said Sunday. “But if he can turn it...

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Sunday brushed off low favorability numbers for President Biden and his policies, arguing Democrats often “overperform” polls when it actually comes down to the elections. Anchor Shannon Bream pointed to recent Fox News polling that shows the majority of voters disapprove of Biden’s job, with his worst ratings over border security. She said Biden is “underwater” on a variety of issues, including the economy, China, inflation and the Israel-Hamas war.

The city of Chicago on Tuesday sued six major oil companies and the primary fossil fuel lobbying group, alleging they funded and planned a campaign of climate change denial that directly affects the city’s residents. In the lawsuit, the city accused BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute (API) of misleading the public about the impact of their products and of contributing to the effects of climate change on Chicago. These impacts include unsafe summer temperatures, an increase in extreme weather, shoreline erosion and susceptibility to disasters such as flash flooding in basements on...

A proposed Capital One-Discover merger drew swift backlash from some Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocacy groups who say the deal could reduce competition and increase fees and costs for consumers. “With a merger this size, the regulators need to ensure our financial system remains strong and competitive, so that consumers continue to have access to safe, affordable financial products and services,” said Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “A rubber-stamped merger that makes powerful financial companies even bigger and more powerful will do nothing for families,” he added. Capital One announced Monday that it would acquire Discover Financial Services...

President Biden on Tuesday slammed Republicans who voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, arguing that history will not look kindly on those lawmakers. After a failed first effort to impeach Mayorkas, House Republicans eked out a narrow 214-213 vote to impeach the first Cabinet official since the 1870s. “History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games,” Biden said in a statement after the vote.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said his hot-mic remark last month predicting GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley would get “smoked” in the race against former President Trump was a “complete mistake,” but he did not apologize for making the comment. In a preview of a “Good Morning America” interview set to air on Tuesday, Christie recounted the hot-mic moment that took place just minutes before he suspended his presidential campaign, when Christie was heard saying about Haley, “She’s gonna get smoked. And you and I both know it, she’s not up to this.”

Nearly three-quarters of Americans, 74 percent, believe former President Trump will refuse to concede if he loses the 2024 election, a significant increase from similar surveys in 2020. The CNN poll released Monday signals that many voters expect election denial rhetoric to continue if Trump loses again in November. Just over half of respondents correctly expected Trump not to concede if he lost the 2020 election, about 55 percent in August 2020 and 58 percent in October of that year. He did indeed refuse to accept the results of the election, with his supporters later assaulting the Capitol on Jan....

President Biden has opened up a 6 point lead in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up with former President Trump, new polling shows, amid signs of a growing gender gap in support for the two party front-runners. A new Quinnipiac University national poll found Biden with 50 percent support among registered voters, ahead of Trump’s 44 percent. That’s a shift in the incumbent’s favor from December, when Quinnipiac found the same Biden-Trump hypothetical “too close to call,” with Biden at 47 percent support and Trump at 46 percent. Biden also scored majority support among independents in the latest findings, with 52 percent...

Tax cuts and pandemic relief measures enacted during the Trump administration added $8.4 trillion to the national debt over the 10-year budget window, according to a study released Wednesday by a top budget watchdog group. Discretionary spending increases from 2018 and 2019 added $2.1 trillion, Trump’s signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act added $1.9 trillion and the 2020 bipartisan CARES Act for pandemic relief added another $1.9 trillion, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a Washington think tank, found in a study released earlier this month. “Of the $8.4 trillion President Trump added to the debt, $3.6 trillion...

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon slammed Democratic messaging about MAGA, or “Make America Great Again,” Republicans on Wednesday, telling Democrats to “grow up” and “listen” to supporters of former President Trump. “When people say MAGA, they’re actually looking at people voting for Trump and … they’re basically scapegoating them,” Dimon told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I don’t like how [Trump] said things about Mexico … but he wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues, and that’s why they’re voting for him,” Dimon continued. “And I think people should be a little more respectful of our fellow citizens.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) on Monday blasted comments from presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in which he defended the government’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. “The racist campaign to spy on Martin Luther King, Jr in an effort to discredit the civil rights movement and stifle America’s march toward racial equality is indefensible,” Thompson, the former chair of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, said in a statement first given to The Hill.