Free Republic

Oregon state Rep. Janelle Bynum won the high-profile Democratic primary to take on Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), setting the stage for what is considered to be one of the most competitive elections of the 2024 cycle. *** McLeod-Skinner’s primary defeat comes after she lost to Chavez-DeRemer in the 2022 midterm elections by just 2 percentage points. Bynum used that to her advantage throughout the primary cycle, positioning herself as a candidate who has previously defeated Chavez-DeRemer and could do so again. Bynum twice defeated Chavez-DeRemer in 2016 and 2018 for a state House seat, once by 2 points and then...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to speak before the United States Congress and Senate in a joint meeting. Johnson announced on Friday that he was “honored” to invite Netanyahu to “address a joint meeting of Congress.” In a letter addressed to Netanyahu, Johnson wrote that “last year” Congress had proudly hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog to visit Washington, D.C., and that Netanyahu was invited to speak before a “Joint Meeting of Congress.”

Colorado Democrats are once again running bogus ads to promote the Republican candidate they believe is least likely to win in a general election against their progressive candidate. This time it’s the 3rd Congressional District race and the GOP candidate that Democrat candidates are supporting is Ron Hanks. The TV ad and mailers deliver backhanded insults that really aims to suggest Hanks has been endorsed by Donald Trump (he has not), and claims Hanks is just too gosh darn Republican to represent the conservative district. One of the problems Hanks is already contending with, he doesn’t actually live in the...

The Department of Justice pushed back on the releasing of the audio tapes of special counsel Robert Hur's interview with President Joe Biden, citing "deep fake" concerns. The DOJ stated that if the audio tapes were released, they could potentially be altered by artificial intelligence and passed off as authentic. “The passage of time and advancements in audio, artificial intelligence, and ‘deep fake’ technologies only amplify concerns about malicious manipulation of audio files,” a Friday filing obtained by Politico states. “To be sure, other raw material to create a deepfake of President Biden’s voice is already available, but release of...

A New York jury on Thursday found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records after a weeks-long trial. Former President Donald Trump on Friday announced a sizeable fundraising haul in the wake of his guilty verdict in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's hush money case.A New York jury on Thursday found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records after a weeks-long trial. The verdict appears to have energized his supporters, however, as the campaign's donation page crashed, evidently due to the volume of traffic.The campaign on Friday initially announced it had brought in $34.8 million in...

Joe Biden couldn’t even wait 24 hours before publicly gloating about the history-making criminal conviction of former president Donald Trump. Under the guise of announcing a proposed ceasefire agreement in the Israel-Gaza war, Biden took to a podium in the White House state dining room at 1:30 p.m. on Friday. He began his statement not with details of the peace plan but rather with a lecture about how the “rule of law” prevailed in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump. “Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself,” Biden said of his 2024 Republican presidential rival. “And...

The military said on Wednesday that it now had full operational control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. This effectively clamps down on any possible weapons flow to Hamas from the outside. Troops located 20 tunnels crossing into Egypt near the Philadelphi Corridor and 82 tunnel shafts. This information was passed on to Egypt. Egypt’s Al Qahera News denied the reports. “It doesn’t mean that we have boots on the ground across all of the corridors, but it means we can control and we have the ability to cut off the...

A white teacher in Sacramento County is suing his union for reserving one seat on its governing board for a non-white member — an issue of diversity versus discrimination that is percolating in courts across California. Isaac Newman, a high school social science teacher, said he wanted to run for a newly created position on the Elk Grove Education Association last December, but was barred from applying because the union created it last year as a “BIPOC seat,” available only to members who are Black, Indigenous or other people of color. “Union officials apparently believe that the best solution to...

George Washington University class-action settlement for COVID shutdown approved with more money for students, less for lawyers. Mere "overlap between a religious and political view" doesn't negate Title VII’s religious protections, 8th Circuit says.. If COVID-19 litigation were like the virus itself, George Washington University cleared its infection with a pricey therapeutic, the Mayo Clinic's infection rebounded, and Rutgers University faces an unusually virulent strain that could spread far and wide. A federal judge gave final approval to the $5.4 million class-action settlement submitted by GWU students and the private university blocks from the White House, in a tuition-refund lawsuit...

Donald Trump is wasting no time fighting to get back to the White House. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, 77, is expected to attend a UFC fight Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ — two days after the shocking guilty verdict in his Manhattan “hush money” trial, according to the Wall Street Journal. It will be his first public appearance since he vowed that “we’re going to fight” during a fiery press conference in the atrium of Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan Friday. ... He’s expected to continue his fundraising blitz next week with a series of...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) joined an anti-Israel commentator this week in blaming the Abraham Accords peace deal and the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem for Hamas’s massive terror attack on Israel on October 7. “AOC” also agreed that Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights — which are not claimed by Palestinians, but were taken from Syria in a defensive war — was also “directly” responsible for October 7.

Ticketmaster owner Live Nation confirmed "unauthorised activity" on its database after a group of hackers said they had stolen the personal details of 560 million customers. ShinyHunters, the group claiming responsibility, says the stolen data includes names, addresses, phone numbers and partial credit card details from Ticketmaster users worldwide. The hacking group is reportedly demanding a $500,000 (£400,000) ransom payment to prevent the data from being sold to other parties.

The judge who presided over Donald Trump’s fraud case closed off many avenues of appeal, leaving him few ways to escape his felony conviction

A Democratic congressman has publicly called on Gov. Hochul to pardon former President Donald Trump after he was found guilty this week of falsifying business records — for the sake of the nation. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) said a Trump conviction only helps his campaign. “Donald Trump is a serial liar, cheater, and philanderer, a six-time declarer of corporate bankruptcy, an instigator of insurrection, and a convicted felon who thrives on portraying himself as a victim. @GovKathyHochul should pardon him for the good of the country,” Phillips declared in a X post Friday.

Elon Musk’s social media platform X will stage a town hall with former President Donald Trump — three years after he was suspended from the site in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. The presumptive Republican nominee for president, who was convicted Thursday in connection with a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, will answer submitted questions during the livestream event, which will also be broadcast in a partnership deal with cable channel NewsNation. The social media company is also planning a similar town hall with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who is running for president as an...

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police said Saturday that they had 34 people in custody following a pro-Palestinian protest at the Brooklyn Museum, which reported damage to some artwork and harassment to security staff by demonstrators. Hundreds of protesters marched to the museum on Friday afternoon, set up tents in the lobby and unfurled a “Free Palestine” banner from the building’s roof before police moved in to make arrests. New York City police officers tackled and punched some protesters during scuffles that broke out in the crowd outside the museum while some demonstrators hurled plastic bottles at officers...

Europe has only a fraction of the air defence capabilities needed to protect its eastern flank, according to Nato’s own internal calculations, laying bare the scale of the continent’s vulnerabilities. Russia’s war against Ukraine has underscored the importance of air defence, as Kyiv begs the west for additional systems and rockets to protect its cities, troops and energy grid against daily bombing raids. But according to people familiar with confidential defence plans drawn up last year, Nato states are able to provide less than 5 per cent of air defence capacities deemed necessary to protect its members in central and...

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is backed by Soros, is now under fire for allegedly leaking sensitive sentencing information about former President Donald Trump to the far-left media. She described them as ‘street fighters,’ who indicated that Bragg might push for a tough one-year imprisonment, primarily to ensure Trump faces the daunting conditions of Rikers Island. “I spent this morning speaking to someone from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. They’re called street fighters. He believes that they will recommend a one-year term in prison. And that is because when you spend a year in prison in...

Voters in New Jersey will see newly designed ballots in the upcoming June 4 primary elections with different layouts depending on a voter's party affiliation. The change comes after Democratic Rep. Andy Kim and others filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the state's so-called county line system of primary ballot design. A judge ruled in Kim's favor, saying the county line system favors Democrat party-backed candidates. Republican candidates -- as their ballots were not part of this lawsuit -- will still use the county line system. The county line system -- a one-of-a-kind ballot design unique to New Jersey --...

Dinesh D’Souza’s movie that sought to prove former President Donald Trump’s fantasy that the 2020 election was stolen from him by widespread fraud has been debunked time and time again. Now, years after its release, its executive producer is retracting the film entirely. Following the 2020 election, D’Souza released 2000 Mules as an attempt to justify Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden. Trump famously held a screening of the movie at his Mar-a-Lago estate and MAGA supporters promoted the film during it’s release in May 2022. The film was produced by Salem Media Group, a conservative radio juggernaut that airs...