Free Republic

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that although President Joe Biden was “monitoring” states drastically affected by winter storms, he had not yet personally reached out to their governors. “The president has been kept abreast as I noted of the events and been provided regular updates on the storm and the progress,” Psaki said during the White House press briefing Tuesday afternoon.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) defended her decision to convict former President Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection during an appearance Tuesday on WLOB radio with host Ray Richardson, explaining that she voted to convict Trump not just based on his January 6 speech alone but his “culmination of actions which started even before the election occurred.”

A Yellowstone tourist group came within feet of a bison herd, video shows. SCREENGRAB FROM STORYFUL A group of Yellowstone tourists came nearly face-to-face with a herd of huge bison, video showed. Tourists were lined up to get a view of the national park during the winter. The tour group encountered a herd of bison surrounding them, video showed. The huge animals were on both sides of the group. They were running across the line of tourists to get to the other side, video showed. Some bison charged near the group and many were within feet of tourists, the video...

(CNSNews.com) - Coincidentally, but right on cue, the generator-supplied power went out in the home of former Texas Governor and former Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry Monday night, just as Perry began his interview with Fox News's Tucker Carlson. Carlson said the power outage was "proving the point that we're making" -- that it's the government's responsibility to provide reliable power during life-threatening cold snaps, and green energy is not up to the job. "So the point is, you need to have a diversity of energy sources, no matter where you are, and it couldn't be a greater example of...

People run away as Kurdish animal rights activists release a bear into the wild after rescuing bears from captivity in people's homes in Duhok, Iraq. Ari Jalal/Reuters Six Syrian brown bears ran amok in the mountains of Duhok, Iraq, after Kurdish animal rights activists released them from their cages, Reuters reported. The bears were released into the wild as part of a special ceremony organized by the Kurdish American Cooperation Organization, a local charity that has set rescued bears free on two other occasions, the news agency said. Moments after the activists unlocked the cages, the ceremony descended into chaos....

Total Doses Delivered: 71,657,975 Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses: 39,670,551 Number of People Receiving 2 Doses: 15,015,434

President Biden is unlikely to meet in-person with a foreign leader for "a couple of months," press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday. "I would anticipate for all of you that it will be a couple of months before the president invites a foreign leader to meet in person here at the White House," Psaki said at a news briefing. The comments are the first glimpse of a timeline the White House has given of when Biden might resume in-person meetings with foreign leaders as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. Biden has held calls with numerous foreign leaders since taking...

Fifty years ago today, one of the most significant occurrences in the modern presidency took place. No one was impeached, there was no scandal, and no one stormed the U.S. Capitol. No newspapers covered the event contemporaneously, and children do not learn about it in school today. February 16, 1971 is not one that would ever be worth remembering – except that it was the date the Nixon White House taping system began operating. With a simple flip of a switch, Richard Nixon unwittingly changed how we think about the U.S. presidency. As fellow stakeholders in our democratic system of...

A report that Los Angeles police officers circulated a photo of George Floyd with the words “you take my breath away” in a Valentine-like format has prompted an internal investigation and drawn blistering condemnation from Floyd’s family, the district attorney and the police union. Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said Saturday that investigators will try to determine how the image may have come into the workplace....

George Conway, who co-founded The Lincoln Project, is calling for an investigation into the anti-Trump group following a series of reports regarding allegations that another organization co-founder, John Weaver, sent unsolicited sexual messages to young men as well as a 14-year-old boy. Conway, a conservative attorney and husband of former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, tweeted Tuesday that "THE LYING HAS TO STOP" and demanded that the group waive nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) to allow for all current and former employees to reveal any knowledge they have about the claims. "An investigation is necessary. But it has to be thorough, and...

President Joe Biden put out a statement no Saturday in response to the conclusion the second Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, which resulted in a 57-to-43 vote to convict—or ten short of the 67 votes needed to confirm a guilty verdict. “While the final vote did not lead to a conviction, the substance of the charge is not in dispute,” said Biden. “Even those opposed to the conviction, like Senate Minority Leader McConnell, believe Donald Trump was guilty of a ‘disgraceful dereliction of duty’ and ‘practically and morally responsible for provoking’ the violence unleashed on the Capitol,”...

The daughter of Dubai's ruler who tried to flee the country in 2018 later sent secret video messages to friends accusing her father of holding her "hostage" as she feared for her life. In footage shared with BBC Panorama, Princess Latifa Al Maktoum says commandos drugged her as she fled by boat and flew her back to detention. The secret messages have stopped - and friends are urging the UN to step in. Dubai and the UAE have previously said she is safe in the care of family. Ex-UN rights envoy Mary Robinson, who had described Latifa as a "troubled...

Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse (R), who voted to convict former President Trump earlier this month in the Senate impeachment trial, warned that the Republican Party is in an internal battle between "conservatism and short-term-ism." Sasse noted in an interview with NPR released Tuesday that “obviously there are a lot of people frustrated with me in Nebraska,” but he added that “a lot of them also have the six-and-a-half year history with me where they know that though I'm a very conservative guy, I'm pretty independent-minded." "I don't think they're very surprised, but obviously there is a move at county and...

Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, they won widespread praise. But the political fortunes of governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California have sharply reversed. Cuomo, who literally wrote the book on his virus success, faces growing scrutiny of his handling of nursing-home deaths in his state. Newsom, elected with 62% of the vote two years ago, is under threat of a recall. Both have seen approval ratings retreat from mid-pandemic highs as many businesses and schools remain shut and the vaccine rollout keeps sputtering. the criticism of how the Democratic leaders handled it -- have hammered...

Here in the state of Texas, we’re currently experiencing a freak chill with temperatures that dropped well below the southern part of Alaska. Many residents have fled their homes due to not having any power to heat, thanks to the fact that Texas has made around a quarter of its power source “green energy,” mostly in the form of wind farms.As Tucker Carlson pointed out last night, Texas shouldn’t be having an energy problem at all. The state of Texas is the largest source of natural gas in the world. He likened running out of power in Texas to starving...

Nearly all of the Republican senators who voted in favor of convicting President Trump during his impeachment trial are facing censures.Reprimand came quickly for Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) who was censured by Louisiana’s Republican Party shortly after President Trump was acquitted. ... On Monday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) was censured by several state GOP committee leaders in Clarion, Centre, Lawrence, Washington and York Counties. ...Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) is also facing a pending censure motion by the state’s Republican Central Committee, ...

Where were the suits now pulling out of GOP donations when Democrats ignored due process in the 2018 Justice Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings?As The Federalist has continued to expose, corporate America has a double standard for its PAC donations based on arbitrary and partisan distinctions. Since virtue-signaling multinational corporations claim to be so intent on rescinding campaign contribution dollars to the GOP to retaliate against members of Congress who did not vote to certify the 2020 presidential election, this presents a reciprocal question. Where were the suits when Democrats ignored due process in the 2018 Justice Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings?...

In England and California, much is made of second homes that are not placed in the rental market. The primary reason that second homes are not rented out is because of highly justified owner fears of tenant problems. These fears keep millions of higher quality houses and spacious condos out of the rental market. If millions of houses and condos were added to the rental market, rents would fall somewhat. The government insists on small security deposits because of a desire to make it easy for tenants to rent a place to live and to move. Security deposit laws were...

Hard to believe, but I have a kid approaching driving age. He’s a wonderful boy, in every way. Devout, intelligent, and obsessed with basketball and video games, says his prayers every night before bed. Always reminds me to do penance on Fridays if I forget what day it is and eat meat (what day is this?). Anyway, the Catholic formation we attempted, albeit imperfectly, to impose on him took. It blossomed. Our son is always dressed for sports practice. He asked for a new weight bench and plates for Christmas. He spent all of lockdown working out, just to make...

A Democratic congressman accused Donald Trump in a federal lawsuit on Tuesday of inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and of conspiring with his lawyer and extremist groups to try to prevent the Senate from certifying the results of the presidential election he lost to Joe Biden. The lawsuit from Mississippi's Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is part of an expected wave of litigation over the Jan. 6 riot and is believed to be the first filed by a member of Congress. It seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.