Free Republic

Donald Trump published the most consequential tweet of his presidency on March 4, 2017. “How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process,” the chief executive pondered. “This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” The response from Trump’s opposition was outrage. The Washington Post fact checker gave it four Pinocchios. The director of the FBI, James Comey, rebuked Trump and said such a thing had never happened. James Clapper, Obama’s director of national intelligence, assured NBC’s Meet the Press that no warrants had been issued in 2016 to surveil members of the...

A case of the new coronavirus from China has been confirmed in a patient in Washington state, just north of Seattle, federal health officials said Tuesday. The mysterious pneumonia-like illness has killed at least six people and sickened hundreds in Asia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said....

On the holiday set aside in 2020 to honor Martin Luther King, the premier advocate of nonviolent Gandhian civil disobedience, thousands of gun owners gathered in Richmond to petition peacefully for their rights. King had preached that there was a higher law that justified breaking existing laws that mandated racial segregation. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of the bus in Montgomery, when Freedom Riders integrated bus terminals, when black students sat at segregated lunch counters in North Carolina, they challenged state law in the name of what they said was a higher law....

Two Mississauga, Ont., men have been indicted for allegedly helping to run an international procurement network over a five-year period to traffic materials such as aircraft parts and satellite communications equipment to support Pakistan’s nuclear program. Father and son Muhammad Ahsan Wali, 48, and Haji Wali Muhammad Sheikh, 82, are among five men accused of being associated with an alleged front company called Business World, based in Rawalpindi, a city in northern Pakistan, according to the United States Department of Justice. The other three charged include another one of Sheikh’s sons in Pakistan, as well as one man in Hong...

A Texas teen who had just been busted in a double murder case promoted his Instagram handle as he walked past throngs of reporters this week. Kiernan Christopher WIlliams, 19, is facing two capital murder charges in connection with the Sunday night slayings of Robert Martinez, 21, and Alejandro Robles, 25, during an argument at the Ventura bar in San Antonio, police said. Officials walked Williams in front of TV cameras a little after 4 p.m. Monday - and the teen used the opportunity to promote himself. “Y’all gotta follow me on instagram, _32baby.k9_,” Williams said, according to video obtained...

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Miami issued an alert for falling iguanas Tuesday as temperatures are expected to drop. As temperatures are predicted to reach in the 30s inland and 40s along the coast, iguanas could fall from trees as they slow down or become immobile. The reptiles react this way to falling temperatures because they are cold-blooded. “This isn't something we usually forecast, but don't be surprised if you see Iguanas falling from the trees tonight as lows drop into the 30s and 40s,” weather service tweeted. “They may fall from trees, but they are not dead,” the...

The Senate impeachment trial hearings are really hard to watch. It is at once very grave and important…and utterly frivolous. It’s the equivalent of having the Archbishop of Canterbury perform a wedding service…for Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. It’s enraging to watch elected chambers of the U.S. government engaged in a grudge trial. Manager Adam Schiff, who appeared on CNN almost daily for months, emptily promising Russian collusion evidence, is the face of the prosecution. Manager Zoe Lofgren, who a colleague recently described as “a ham sandwich with hair,” is supposed to bring some gravitas to the proceedings because...

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania -- Eugene DePasquale and Sean Parnell couldn't be more different politically. DePasquale is a seasoned statewide-elected official and Democrat from York County, Pennsylvania, while Parnell is a western Pennsylvania Republican newcomer who has never run for office. Yet they share one very important thing this year: They are both challenging incumbent members of Congress in Pennsylvania districts President Donald Trump won in 2016. Both of their races tell the story of not just how truly uncertain the Keystone State is politically but also how completely divided it is. They also show us how hard it is to predict...

MONT BELVIEU, Texas — On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a district that touts its excellence found itself embroiled in controversy about race, discrimination and dreadlocks. "The dress code is designed by white people for white people and is damaging to black bodies," said Black Lives Matter activist Ashton Woods.

SNIP A new study notes that squirrels have dominant sides to their bodies and are left or right-handed, just like humans. The research looked at 30 wild gray squirrels (12 of which were able to give sufficient data) and found that those who showed a preference for a certain paw while performing experiments were not as adept in learning new tasks as those who did not show a preference. "It has been suggested that being strongly lateralized makes brains more efficient, with each hemisphere focusing on different tasks," said the study's lead author, Lisa Leaver, in a statement. "This could...

An unruly squirrel is defying Disney stereotypes by terrorizing one Houston neighborhood, according to KPRC-TV. “We usually don’t go outside in the daytime because he comes out in the daytime,” Sharlene French-Amezquita told the TV station. The feral animal who’s anything but friendly has even attacked two people, leaving them bloodied, bruised and in need of stitches. “When I stepped outside the door he leaped on me and bit my arm, I pulled him off, threw him to the ground, and tried to get in the house,” said French-Amezquita. “I couldn’t get in the house because he came back, he...

President Trump on Tuesday confirmed he plans to expand his controversial travel ban that bars citizens of certain countries from entering the United States. Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he is looking to add more countries, though he would not say which ones. The president's comments confirm an Associated Press report from earlier this month. Multiple media outlets reported that seven countries are being considered to be covered by the travel ban, including Belarus, Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania. Any additions or...

After Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) proposed an amendment Tuesday to the rules for President Trump’s impeachment trial in order to subpoena witnesses and documents from the White House, it failed in a party-line vote. All 53 Republicans in the GOP-controlled Senate voted against Schumer’s amendment, which asked for any records created by former national-security adviser John Bolton, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Mulvaney aide Robert Blair regarding the White House’s dealings with Ukraine. **SNIP** “We’re very glad they moved to three days instead of two so we won’t be hearing arguments at two in the...

The Supreme Court will allow a lawsuit to move forward against Flint, Mich., officials over their role in the city's public health crisis following its decision to switch water sources in 2014. The court said on Tuesday it would not hear an appeal from city officials after lower courts denied their efforts to have the case dismissed. After the city's decision to change water sources from Lake Huron to the Flint River, which had been widely considered to be contaminated, Flint residents reported widespread cases of hair loss, skin rashes, Legionnaire's disease and lead poisoning. Twelve people died from Legionnaire's...

We asked black gun owners at the Richmond gun rally what they thought of being labeled "white nationalist" by the media. Here's what they had to say. ...

WASHINGTON — In his first formal response to impeachment charges, President Donald Trump misrepresented the testimony of a key witness who described an exchange of favors in the Ukraine matter. The claim marked a week of frequent exaggeration and distortion by the president heading into the opening statements of his impeachment trial. Just as his tax cuts are far from the biggest in history, the economy isn’t the best ever and his election victory in 2016 was no landslide of historic proportions, Trump’s two trade deals don’t stand atop the field of presidential endeavors. One is a partial settlement of...

A Florida construction worker is accused of killing his boss during an argument that may have been sparked by politics, authorities said. Mason Trever Toney, 28, was arrested by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office late Monday in the fatal stabbing of his friend and boss, William Steven Knight, 28, at a work site near Orlando along the Florida Turnpike, deputies announced on Twitter. Knight and Toney had been arguing earlier that morning as they rode into work together, possibly about their opposing political views – with Toney “anti-government” and Knight a supporter of President Donald Trump, according to Detective Fabian...

Hillary Clinton refused to say whether she would endorse Bernie Sanders, her 2016 rival, if he wins the Democratic nomination and offered a broad condemnation of the progressive candidate’s style of politics. “I’m not going to go there yet,” she said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Tuesday in response to whether she’d back Sanders. “We’re still in a very vigorous primary season. I will say, however, that it’s not only him, it’s the culture around him. It’s his leadership team. It’s his prominent supporters. It’s his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of...

An Australian television commercial for a popular fast food chain has been taking heat over a premise that has been accused of being blatantly sexist and enforcing “archaic stereotypes.” In the 15-second spot for KFC, a young woman — apparently on her way to some type of festival — checks herself in the reflection of a car window, adjusting her low-cut dress to showcase her cleavage.

Holding back tears, the former president tells a new four part documentary about his wife: 'I was so grateful that she thought we still had enough to stick it out. God knows the burden she's paid for that.' . . Hillary admits in a wide ranging interview with The Hollywood Reporter: 'Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's painful, but it's also revelatory because we've always loved each other . . Clinton - who also defended taking money from Harvey Weinstein in the interview - goes on to touch on the subject of hypocrisy in politics. She adds: 'It...