Free Republic

Pope Francis said his brief encounter Saturday with U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was a sign of good manners, “nothing more,” and hardly evidence of interfering in American politics. […] “This morning when I left, Sen. Sanders was there. … He knew I was leaving at that time and I had the kindness to greet him and his wife and another couple who were with them,” the pope told reporters traveling back with him to the Vatican. “When I came down, I greeted them, shook their hands and nothing more. This is good manners. It’s called good manners and not...

The White House will be holding a conference to encourage toy companies and the media to “break down gender stereotypes” because not enough girls are choosing to pursue careers in STEM fields. The one-day conference, sponsored by the White House Council on Women and Girls, the Department of Education, and the Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California will try to address the “gender gaps in our workforce.” According to the White House, it is a tremendous problem that only 29 percent of those in some of the “highest-paying, most in-demand” STEM fields are women....

DONALD J. TRUMP’S VISION for the future of our nation is as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American. It is easy to find historical antecedents. The rise of demagogic strongmen is an all too common phenomenon on our small planet. And what marks each of those dark episodes is a failure to fathom where a leader’s vision leads, to carry rhetoric to its logical conclusion. The satirical front page of this section attempts to do just that, to envision what America looks like with Trump in the White House. It is an exercise in taking a man at his...

For years the Obama administration has been accused of micromanaging the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from inside the White House. Now in an astonishing report from Fox News anchor Bret Baier, three former Obama Defense Secretaries are openly slamming him for his distrust of the military, his failure to lead and they're exposing his inexperienced and closest advisors for second guessing senior field commanders with phone calls to the battlefield. "President Obama, he's one of the youngest presidents we've ever had. One of the most inexperienced presidents we've ever had. He has a staff around him that is very...

(CNSNews.com) - White House Science Advisor John Holdren says because of the impacts of climate change, agricultural and construction workers “will basically be unable to control their body temperature and will die.” “In some parts of the world, when you look more broadly at this question, you see the likelihood that in the hottest times of the year it will be simply physiologically impossible to work outdoors,” Holdren said at a White House event on climate change Monday. “That means agriculture, that means construction, people who try to work outdoors will basically be unable to control their body temperature and...

Zilch. Every. Dang. Year. We’ve entered the White House Easter Egg Roll lottery for years now, hoping each time that we would be one of 35,000 families lucky enough to get tickets to play on the South Lawn, to post those glorious Facebook pictures in front of the South Portico.

Color me shocked. (Sarcasm intended.) The long awaited plans for U.S. offshore oil leases are coming out shortly and you’ll never guess what happened. After years of working toward expanded development in the Atlantic shelf, the White House has reportedly yanked the plans entirely and will cancel all plans for such leases. (New York Times) The Obama administration is expected to withdraw its plan to permit oil and gas drilling off the southeast Atlantic coast, yielding to an outpouring of opposition from coastal communities from Virginia to Georgia but dashing the hopes and expectations of many of those states’...

President Obama's top spokesman on Friday condemned a recent string of violent incidents at Donald Trump rallies that have captured national attention. "There is no excuse or justification for acts of violence against reporters who are covering a political event," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One. "The White House like many other people, including other Republicans, has been concerned about the invective and taunting that has been directed at journalists covering political events," he added. “It’s totally inappropriate. It’s not consistent with the standards of political discourse that should be observed by anybody who...

WASHINGTON — President Clinton and his wife started shipping White House furniture to the Clintons' newly purchased home in New York more than a year ago, despite questions at the time by the White House chief usher about whether they were entitled to remove the items. The day before the items were shipped out, chief usher Gary Walters said he questioned whether the Clintons should be taking the furnishings because he believed they were government property donated as part of a White House redecoration project in 1993, during Clinton's first year in office. This week, they agreed to return another...

Kyle Odom is an honorably discharged Marine, a Dean's List graduate from the University of Idaho and a man driven to kill a Coeur d'Alene pastor based on his belief that his life had been ruined “by an intelligent species of amphibian-humanoid from Mars.” In multiple documents in a thumb drive mailed to KXLY Monday and received Tuesday, Odom laid out his manifesto that a race of ancient Martians, with subterranean bases on Earth and under the surface of the Moon, had subverted all levels of the US and Israeli governments, ranging from top ranking members of the US Senate...

Justin Trudeau, the new, young prime minister of Canada with movie-star looks, is bringing his star power to the White House. The tall, dark-haired, 44-year-old scion of one of Canada's most famous politicians was sworn into office in November. Within weeks, President Barack Obama granted Trudeau one of the highest honors the U.S. reserves for close allies: a pomp-filled visit with plenty of time in private talks and in front of cameras with Obama, who remains popular in Canada. [...] "Obama was delighted that Trudeau got elected," said Nelson Wiseman, a University of Toronto political science professor, offering perspective on...

The Obama administration says Islamic State’s persecution of Christian minorities in Iraq and Syria is not genocide. The point where it is accurate to term it as such “has not been reached,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a press briefing. TrendsIslamic State Asked whether Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) is practicing genocide in its extermination of Christians in Syria and Iraq, Earnest said: “My understanding is the use of that word involves a very specific legal determination that has at this point not been reached. “We have long expressed our concerns with the tendency of – well, not...

Asked on Monday if Islamic State terrorists are carrying out a campaign of genocide against Syria's Christians, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said the word genocide "involves a very specific legal determination that has, at this point, not been reached." He condemned the terrorists' "willingness to target religious minorities, including Christians." Earnest noted that the Obama administration has long expressed its concerns over ISIS/ISIL's "slaughter" of religious minorities in Iraq and Syria. ...

To me, Trump’s victory in the Republican primaries seems inevitable. To the clueless Republican political establishment – not so much The results are in from the most recent Republican primary in South Carolina. As predicted, Donald Trump won his second consecutive primary contest. Trump- 32% and the runners up- being Senator Cruz and Rubio, both at about at 22%. I hate to the bearer of bad news to the Republican political establishment, the “Anyone But Trump” cabal of fat cat fossilized old fogies; those die-hard denizens of the National Review and the Weekly Standard- the sanctimonious keepers of the conservative...

When President Bill Clinton's affair with intern Monica Lewinsky was exposed, it was a new low for the office of president. It wasn't the first affair by a president (or Clinton), not by a long shot. But the fact it was with an intern and he committed perjury behind it demeaned the office in a way that hadn't been done before. It turned the 2000 election partially into a referendum on restoring the dignity, or at least the veneer of it, to the office. Thanks to the words and deeds of Barack Obama, that dignity needs to be restored yet...

A Chicago activist turned down an invitation to meet with President Barack Obama on Thursday prior to the annual White House Black History Month reception. Aislinn Pulley, who co-founded Black Lives Matter: Chicago, was among about 20 people invited to what the White House billed as an intergenerational meeting of black leaders to discuss criminal justice reform throughout the U.S., according to a White House official. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch also was expected to attend the event Thursday afternoon. Other invitees included the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Cornell Brooks, University of Missouri student organizer DeShaunya Ware and DeRay...

In his final speech before Iowa caucus day, Donald Trump renewed his old promise to build a lavish White House ballroom and pay for it himself. "Every time the top people come over from China ... they put up a tent at the White House," he said, during his final event Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa. "We'll have a ballroom at the White House."

According to Fox News' chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge, her contacts in the FBI and DOJ are "super pissed off" at what White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said about Hillary Clinton's email problems Friday. "That's not something I'm worried about," he told reporters at the daily briefing. Earnest threw cold water on predictions that Hillary Clinton will face a Justice Department indictment for mishandling classified information on her private and unsecure email server while secretary of State.. "That will be a decision that will be made by the Department of Justice," he said. "Some officials have said she is...

Audit details huge gap in missing White House documents Published: 05/18/2000 With Congress planning more hearings into the White House's cover-up of a huge gap in subpoenaed e-mail, it's no wonder that the nation's chief executive says he avoids using e-mail. At least that's what he told a 9-year-old boy when the lad asked him how he uses the Internet last month during a "digital divide" photo-op. "If you work for the government," President Clinton explained, "you don't use e-mail very much unless you want it all in the newspapers." Of course, Clinton was making a joke at his own...

A former White House switchboard supervisor was charged Wednesday with embezzling thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds by manipulating an employee's time sheets. Prosecutors accuse Andrea Turk of Upper Marlboro of stealing nearly $11,000 by funneling money through an employee she supervised. Turk, 46, was director of switchboard operations at the White House, supervising 15 operators, from 2009 until she was fired in August 2013. Her duties included overseeing employee work schedules and approving overtime hours, according to federal court records filed Wednesday in Washington. The alleged thefts began in early 2012, according to an FBI affidavit, when Turk called...