Free Republic

Tonight I joined Jake Tapper on CNN.

Americans bought more guns in October 2026 than the year before. Checks for gun sales through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) rose 7.9 percent year over year, according to an industry report released Tuesday. A National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) analysis found there were more than 1.4 million sales-related checks through October. That’s up over 100,ooo.It also makes October 2026 the best post-pandemic October on record, trailing just 2020 and 2021. The nationwide sales-check spike follows localized incidents of souring NICS checks in the wake of new gun restrictions, such as in Virginia and Colorado. It...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ We Are The Champions! U.S. Marines with 1st Marine Logistics Group are presented the Holcomb Trophy for achieving the highest aggregate pistol scores during the Marine Corps Marksmanship Competition West on Camp Pendleton, California. The award was created in honor of General Thomas Holcomb, the seventeenth Commandant of the Marine Corps, who was a member of the first Marine Corps competitive rifle team. MCMC West is one of four marksmanship competitions in the Marine Corps and provides advanced marksmanship training and competition to regional units in order to...

AUSTIN, Texas - It was a historic election night in Texas, with many firsts and political shifts taking place, including in the statewide courts. Democrat Maggie Ellis became the first woman elected to lead the state’s highest civil court after defeating Republican incumbent Jimmy Blacklock in the race for Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice. She also is the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected statewide in Texas, according to her campaign.

[Clip of] Chuck Schumer: 'First and foremost, our coalition moved as one body, House and Senate, to define the issues that Americans cared most about. We talked to Americans. We said, what is on your minds? And of course, number one: costs. The high cost of living... And second, they talked about Trump's corruption.' [Screenshot of] JD Vance: 'The reason we lost is the war... If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree,...

Nithya Raman widened her lead over Karen Bass on Wednesday in the Los Angeles mayor’s race — but with only a tiny four percent of the vote counted. The Democrat Socialists of America-endorsed councilmember pulled a touch further ahead of Bass at 4pm Tuesday, as late-counted inched the ultra progressive challenger closer towards an upset over the incumbent. The latest Los Angeles County election returns showed Raman with 405,193 votes, or 51.67%, compared with Bass’s 379,069 votes, or 48.33%, a 26,124 vote advantage that further erased the incumbent’s narrow election-night lead. There is now 67% of the vote counted. At...

This is an earthquake,” Democratic Latino operative Sergio Gonzalez told POLITICO on the sidelines of Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa’s victory party in Austin. “Latinos were angry. They were angry this election.” While the entire country shifted toward Democrats, nowhere shifted as dramatically as predominantly Latino areas. Across the nation Latino voters of all backgrounds — Mexican Americans and Central Americans in the Southwest, heartland and on the West Coast, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in Pennsylvania, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans in Florida — unhappy with the economy and furious over Trump’s immigration enforcement fled the party in droves. In a...

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for Los Angeles, they elected a dues-paying Democratic Socialist (Communist) mayor. Socialist candidate Nithya Raman ousted Karen Bass and won the Los Angeles mayoral race. Los Angeles Councilwoman Nithya Raman increased her lead over Karen Bass earlier Wednesday. Raman opened up a two-point lead over incumbent Bass after a Wednesday morning drop. "Raman had 377,458 votes to Bass’ 360,864, the Associated Press reported, a margin of 16,594 votes. Bass had a narrow advantage in the early returns Tuesday evening, but that evaporated overnight," KTLA reported. The Decision Desk called it for...

The Iran war, gas prices and Trump’s miscalculations led to one of the most decisive repudiations of an American president In mid-February, one of President Trump’s economic advisers arrived at the Oval Office with charts showing how the administration’s policies might be making America great again. Household income was up, particularly among low-income Americans. Retirement accounts were soaring. And the nation’s economic growth was even better than projected. “This is great stuff,” said Trump. He had completed his first year back in office, and his power seemed limitless. The president had complete control of Congress, U.S. business leaders were following...

Race Results Too early to call Candidate Party Votes Pct. Nithya Raman I 405,193 51.7% Karen Bass Incumbent I 379,069 48.3% Total 784,262 66.6% expected votes in (Est. remaining 394,000)

there was a story sometime back that before trump bombed Iran, he consulted with Tucker Carlson as to the wisdom of the decision. Tucker said it was a terrible mistake to do so. Trump ignored him so Tucker turned on Trump. Is this story true? Thought for 22s Yes, the core of the story is true for the 2026 U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran (which began with strikes around February 28), though some details rest on Tucker Carlson’s accounts and journalistic reporting.⁠Aol Carlson (a longtime informal adviser and 2024 convention speaker for Trump) met with Trump multiple times in the...

Pete Hegseth is increasingly looking like he may take the fall for Republicans’ midterm losses, despite Donald Trump’s vocal support for his defense secretary, even calling him a champion of war. The war in Iran, which voters and Trump have named as a key reason for Republicans’ midterm losses, “has been primarily a Department of War-led effort because you chose to take military action to resolve a foreign policy matter”, a former senior Pentagon official told CNN. “If the president is serious about anyone taking responsibility for it, it’s Pete Hegseth,” one Republican close to the White House added in...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Republican incumbent Joe Wilson leads Democratic nominee Zyon Khalifa by about 3,000 votes in the race for South Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District, and election officials say the results are close enough that a recount could follow.

Post election here at Free Republic is my favorite time of the year.

Democrats won a massive victory on Tuesday, sweeping to power in both houses of Congress. Critics of President Donald Trump are blaming Republican losses on his failures — and that’s fair. But what really drove the “blue wave” was Trump’s success. That’s because Trump followed through on almost every promise he made to voters in 2024. He secured the border. You can argue that his Immigration and Border Enforcement (ICE) raids were overzealous. But enforcing laws is never a pleasant sight. He did it anyway. He confronted Iran. That meant higher gas prices. It also cost billions of dollars. But...

President Donald Trump told Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum Wednesday that he could work with Democrats on immigration following a midterm sweep that gave Democrats control of the House of Representatives and Senate.Republicans lost the House and Senate as Democrats swept multiple races in the South and Midwest, including flipping open seats in Iowa, North Carolina and Texas while ousting incumbents in Ohio, Kansas and South Carolina. Trump drew hard lines regarding an “open border,” biological men playing women’s sports and child sex changes, but expressed optimism on working with Democrats on other issues, such as immigration“We...

[Catholic Caucus] Considerations on the Traditional Pilgrimage to Rome -- by Roberto de Mattei Considerations Sine Ira et Studio on the Ad Petri Sedem Pilgrimage Roberto de MatteiNow that the polemics that arose in the heat of the moment have settled, let us attempt to offer some dispassionate considerations, sine ira et studio, as the Romans used to say, on the fifteenth Peregrinatio ad Petri Sedem, held in Rome from October 23 to 25, 2026.The Roman pilgrimage is organized by the Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum, chaired by Christian Marquant. It takes place each year at the end of October and...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in an interview on Wednesday, said he hoped gains by Democrats in the US midterm elections would generate more help for Ukraine in its 4-1/2-year-long war with Russia. Zelenskiy ​told Germany's ZDF television he hoped the changes caused by Democrats taking control of ‌both chambers of Congress next year would be to Kyiv's advantage. "I am also grateful to the Republicans, but the Democrats speak very clearly about supporting Ukraine and providing assistance to Ukraine," Zelenskiy said in comments provided in ​German by ZDF before the interview was broadcast. "They speak about renewing the connection between...

Progressive Democrats are preparing a renewed push for Medicare for All after Tuesday's midterm elections, setting up a battle over a government-run healthcare system that Republicans warn would eliminate most private insurance and require massive tax increases. The effort could become a major issue in the next Congress, particularly if Democrats gain control of one or both chambers, according to a report Tuesday in the Washington Examiner. Republicans argue the proposal would amount to a sweeping federal takeover of healthcare, replacing employer-sponsored insurance and forcing millions of Americans into a new government system. Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, who...

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is running for speaker, he announced in a letter to colleagues Wednesday. Democrats have long considered the New Yorker — who has served two terms as minority leader — the heir apparent to longtime leader Nancy Pelosi. If he wins the Jan. 3 floor vote, he would become the House’s first Black speaker.