Free Republic

White House officials have privately discussed their concerns about recent internal and public polling on the economy and President Trump and have been trying to drum up new strategies to prevent GOP losses in the midterm elections, sources briefed on the conversations told CBS News. Senior aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff James Blair, regularly brief the president on the latest polling on voter sentiment. A central focus is the dissatisfaction of independent voters, whose economic angst has risen since the president's tariffs triggered global economic uncertainty and gas prices began to spike as...

General or partial assessments of the number of victims in the war in Ukraine reveal the high human cost of an armed conflict unprecedented in Europe in the last eight decades. With estimates of nearly two million military casualties, it is reminiscent of the worst conflicts experienced in the 20th century on the Old Continent. The most conservative figures — around half a million deaths on the Ukrainian side — are five times higher than those of the Balkan War (1992-1995), which totaled 100,000, of whom 13,500 were civilians. The Ukrainian Commissioner for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances has just...

Everywhere you look in American politics, you’ll see two things. First are polls, predictions, and posturing around the concept that MAGA is finished, the Democrats are ascendant, and the midterm elections will be an absolute wipeout. And second are concrete examples showing that the Democrat Party is a collection of unmitigated angry, malignant clowns. I’m going to trust that I don’t have to take the reader through the endless litany of examples of the first contention. You’ve surely seen enough of that. Rather, I’ll focus on the second. And then take some time to relate it to the first. And...

When the seven P&I clubs belonging to the International Group issued 72-hour cancellation notices for war risk coverage in the Persian Gulf on March 5, they did not just raise costs. They made transit impossible. P&I clubs insure roughly 90 percent of the world’s ocean-going tonnage. Without their coverage, ships cannot sail. Port authorities will not let them dock. Banks will not finance the cargo. Charterers will not book the vessel. The entire system, from loading berth to discharge terminal, is underwritten by a chain of contracts that begins with a club in London, Oslo, or Tokyo. When the clubs...

Are congressional Republicans absolutely determined to forfeit this November’s midterm elections? It sure looks that way. The GOP would hardly be acting any differently if it were secretly run by its enemies. The election-security provisions of the SAVE Act enjoy overwhelming popular support. According to CBS/YouGov polling, requiring photo ID to vote is literally an 80-20 issue, commanding the support of four out of five voters. Yet the Republican Senate, with a 53-47 majority, is struggling to pass the law. Yes, the filibuster gives Chuck Schumer a powerful weapon to use against the GOP, but there are ways around that...

Homeless individuals were allegedly bribed with cash, cigarettes, and marijuana in exchange for signing voter registration forms and ballot petitions — often using fake addresses Independent investigative journalist James O’Keefe and his team at O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) have released explosive undercover footage documenting what appears to be widespread voter registration and petition fraud on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, where homeless individuals were allegedly bribed with cash, cigarettes, and marijuana in exchange for signing voter registration forms and ballot petitions — often using fake addresses. The investigation, titled “CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS FRAUD CASH FOR BALLOTS PART I,” captured at least 28...

Online sleuths think they have uncovered missing retired Air Force general William Neil McCasland’s anonymous social media account — which claimed another general was murdered for his dealings with nuclear material. McCasland, 68, went missing from his Albuquerque, NM, home on Feb. 27 — which is the same day that the person behind a conspicuously credentialed X account centered on spacecraft and advanced science made their last post. The account @tmbspaceships claims to be run by a “retired 38-year active duty” United States Air Force with a PhD in engineering — listing the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), the...

President Trump announces attacks on Iran. Says Revolutionary Guard will have immunity if they throw down their arms. Certain death if they do not.

CBS News fact checked President Trump's 2026 State of the Union address Tuesday night, in which he highlighted his record on the economy, immigration and tariffs, and also assessed a claim made by Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger during her Democratic response. Here are some of the claims and CBS News' ratings and context for those statements: True: Trump claims murder rate saw its largest decline in recorded history last year "Last year, the murder rate saw its single largest decline in recorded history. This is the biggest decline, think of it, in recorded history — the lowest number in over...

President Donald Trump hit it out of the park (again) with his 2026 State of the Union address, perhaps his most remarkable speech yet. The frame was an unabashed celebration of America in its 250th year, hailing heroes from the Olympic hockey champions to 100-year-old veterans — and with a close reiterating why the nation’s best days are yet to come. He was the happy warrior we’d asked him to be, with a strong clear message untainted by grievance — even as he expressed his disappointment with last week’s Supreme Court ruling on tariffs and drew clear distinctions between his...

Susan Rice offers a taste of what’s coming should the left retake power — promises Democrats will punish corporations and other institutions who have “taken a knee to Trump.” “It’s not going to end well for them." “If these corporations think that the Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to play by the old rules…they’ve got another thing coming." “There will be an accountability agenda." “This is not going to be an instance of forgive and forget."

While the United States isn't leading in the medal count, Team USA is looking golden at this year's Winter Olympic Games. Team USA has won seven medals so far and two of them are gold. The American team is tied for third place with Japan for total medals. Breezy Johnson won gold in women's downhill skiing on Sunday, becoming only the second American woman to accomplish the feat. It was the first Olympic medal of her career, and the first gold medal for Team USA at this year's Winter Games. She tearfully stood at the podium to accept her gold,...

Keir Starmer should step aside in favour of a caretaker prime minister who would run the country until a leadership contest is held in the summer, Labour MPs have argued. Despairing Government backbenchers argue that unless the Prime Minister quits over the Peter Mandelson crisis, the party is heading for disaster at the Gorton and Denton by-election later this month – followed by annihilation in May’s local elections. They hope the Cabinet will this week persuade Sir Keir to quit and allow a ‘non-contentious’ candidate such as Defence Secretary John Healey or Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn to be a...

Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass secretly altered the official Palisades Fire response report to downplay the failures made by the city and fire department when the deadly blaze erupted, a new report said. Bass, after seeing an early draft of the after-action report, wanted key findings of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s shortcomings scrubbed or watered down — and even warned then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva the unedited conclusions could expose the city to legal liability, sources close to the Democrat’s staff told the Los Angeles Times. Bass was cautioned that the self-serving tweaks in with the report was...

Democrats scored a stunning upset on Saturday in a special election runoff for Texas Senate, according to a projection from Decision HQ, giving the party a major boost ahead of the November midterms. Fort Worth Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a machinist and Air Force veteran, defeated Southlake Republican Leigh Wambsganss to fill the vacant state Senate District 9. The district favored President Trump--who endorsed Wambsganss earlier on Saturday--by 17 points in 2024...

Back in 2016, I, along with a lot of people, made the argument that that election was critical to the future of the country. It was and America made the right choice. I made the same argument in 2020 and while America made the right choice the Democrats ran a coup d'état and we suffered through four years of watching whoever was controlling Joe Biden basically run the country into the ground. Then, two years ago I made the same argument, that basically, if America made the wrong choice the Republic was going to soon find its end. Thankfully America...

Scenes of chaos unfolded in Minneapolis on Wednesday night as rioters flooded the streets to protest the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the city. The unrest quickly escalated into dangerous territory, forcing ICE agents to abandon multiple vehicles. In the chaos, sensitive personal information was stolen and left scattered across city streets. One independent reporter who was present during the unrest said he was able to intercept “most” of the personal information stolen by rioters; however, it remains unclear how much sensitive information may still be in their possession. In one alarming incident, rioters broke into...

January 14 , 2026 was the day Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed death warrants for Rene Good and Alex Pretti. Google AI: On January 14, 2026, Governor Tim Walz delivered a formal public address calling on Minnesota authorities to resist cooperation with federal immigration operations and urging the public to "peacefully resist" the presence of ICE agents. His statements and actions during this period include: Refusal to Cooperate: On January 14, 2026, Walz explicitly demanded that the Trump administration end its "occupation" of the state and stated that Minnesota would not facilitate federal immigration surges.Call for Public Resistance: During the...

For many social media users, the irony was inescapable. Former President Bill Clinton, whose first term started with the bloodbath in Waco, Texas, and whose second term included impeachment on charges of lying under oath, took to social media on Sunday to weigh in on the leftist violence erupting in Minnesota. And the responses it stirred were scathing.

Wow: The Democrats who won November’s three big US elections are going for the full Joe Biden playbook — a terrible signal to send for this year’s midterms. Even the “moderates” are making Trump-bashing the crux of their “platforms” as they pander to the hard left on energy, immigration enforcement and even the economy. Start with New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill. The supposed “moderate” she took office Tuesday by calling President Donald Trump a tyrant and a lawbreaker. “Our Declaration denounced tyranny,” she huffed, and Jerseyans “recognize the parallels”; Trump is “illegally usurping power.” She turned reality on its head...