Free Republic

CNN - When the Trump Justice Department took the extraordinary step of arresting a local judge seven weeks ago, plenty feared what it could portend. Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan’s case will play out in the weeks and months to come – she’s pleaded not guilty to obstructing the arrest of an undocumented immigrant – but arresting judges and public officials isn’t something to undertake lightly. Critics warned of the chilling effect it could lead to and the precedent it would set. Virtually nothing in the past seven weeks will have tempered those fears. The fervor to arrest public officials who...

A prominent critic of President Donald Trump sends what would appear to be a coded message: They subtly display four digits: an “86” followed by the two digits that denote Trump’s presidency.But the year is not 2025 with former FBI director James B. Comey; it’s 2020 with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D). While Comey on Thursday stoked controversy by posting a photo of seashells arranged in a formation of “86 47,” Whitmer engaged in a similar form of political protest five years ago. She appeared on television with a tiny “86 45” pin displayed on the table next to her.The...

The story of the first two weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term is one of a hostile takeover of government power with relatively little pushback. And those with the most power to change Trump’s course in the near term — congressional Republicans — have been especially meek, even as he’s trampled on their prerogatives and past ideals. The upshot: The party of limited government and federalism is tacitly green-lighting a more autocratic chief executive. And there’s little sign Republicans will feel compelled to change it up, given that their party’s base has increasingly embraced the idea that what Trump...

Donald Trump has been president before. But all indications are that we should expect an even bolder Trump — or more extreme, depending on your point of view — in a second term. Gone will be the many establishment-oriented administration officials who served as checks on him and have since criticized him. Republicans will most likely control both chambers of Congress, with GOP contingents more Trump-y than before. The Supreme Court recently gave presidents a substantial degree of criminal immunity, which will insulate a president who has been convicted of felonies and charged with others. And Trump as a term-limited...

For someone who has so strongly objected in recent weeks to the idea that he’s an authoritarian or a threat to democracy, Donald Trump has a funny way of showing it. At a rally Monday in Pennsylvania, the former president said for at least the fourth time that criticizing judges and justices either is or should be illegal. And for what may be the first time, he directly said people who do so should go to jail. This was not only a stunning comment about restricting free speech, but it suggests a standard that most likely would have landed Trump...

Welcome to The Campaign Moment, where the last major non-Trump and non-Biden candidate is now out. The big moment Today the key moment is Nikki Haley dropping out of the presidential race the morning after Super Tuesday and effectively bringing the Republican primary contest to an end. Haley announced her exit Wednesday after winning the Washington, D.C., primary on Sunday and Vermont on Super Tuesday, but losing more than 20 other contests to Donald Trump. “I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard,” Haley said. “I have done that. I have no regrets.” Haley declined to endorse Trump...

A fascinating element to the controversy over teaching sex topics to very young children in public schools is the knee-jerk reaction by leftists in the media, not to dispute that kids are being taught sex stuff, but to defend that they are!In an “analysis” piece both hilarious and infuriating, the Washington Post’s Senior Political Reporter Aaron Blake this week attempted to explain away official guidelines in New Jersey for the state’s school teachers in educating children on sexual and gender identity and expression.“Conservative media oversell New Jersey’s guidelines for teaching gender,” read the headline.True, in recent days Republicans and conservatives...

John Eastman, it seems, is the victim of one big misunderstanding. The conservative Claremont Institute, which employs the lawyer who provided a road map for President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election, decided to issue a statement Monday defending Eastman. "Contrary to almost universally false news accounts, which have done great damage, John did not ask the Vice President, who was presiding over the Joint Session of Congress where electoral votes were to be counted on January 6, to ‘overturn’ the election or to decide the validity of electoral votes,” its statement says. It...

Republican lawmakers across the country are moving to restrict teaching about systemic racism in our education system, targeting critical race theory. But in the course of doing so, some are attempting to rewrite a very pertinent part of that history.Twice in recent weeks, Republican state lawmakers have defended the infamous “Three-Fifths Compromise” — the constitutional agreement by which enslaved people would count as three-fifths of a person for representation purposes — by arguing that it was actually somehow anti-slavery.

Joe Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, after Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign Wednesday morning. The next big question in the race - beyond when and how Biden will be formally nominated amid a pandemic, of course - is who is going to fill out the ticket as Biden’s vice presidential running mate. The pick carries unusual importance, especially given Biden, who will turn 78 shortly after Election Day, would be the oldest president ever elected by far. We already know one thing about that pick: It will be a woman, as Biden pledged in a recent...

Another potential scandal has cast a pall over Trump’s presidency, and as has become a learned behavior in the Republican Party, the vast majority of GOP officials are declining to speak out against him. But their non-responses also speak volumes. After a whistleblower complaint released Thursday alleged President Trump’s misdeeds with regard to Ukraine, reporters set about getting reaction from Republican elected officials. They ran into a stone wall. As CNN’s Ted Barrett summarizes, many Republican senators claimed they hadn’t even read the relatively brief document, despite it having consumed the political world. But even those who said they had...

Former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, at long last, testified before Congress about his investigation into Russian interference and President Trump’s conduct related to it. Mueller appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in the morning and the House Intelligence Committee in the afternoon. Here’s what we learned from both sessions. 1. Mueller struggled If Democrats hoped this would be a seminal moment, they will apparently leave sorely disappointed — in large part because their star witness was no star. Mueller spoke haltingly, seemed not to remember key details and tripped over himself even when members weren’t trying to trip...

On Friday, the former general counsel of the FBI, Jim Baker, decided to speak out. Frustrated by the burgeoning Republican narrative about how the Russia investigation might have been launched under false pretenses and with nefarious motives, the previously quiet top FBI aide stepped onto the public stage. “There was no attempted ‘coup,’” Baker said at the Brookings Institution. “There was no way in hell that I was going to allow some coup or coup attempt to take place on my watch.” He added that he stepped forward because he “just became sick of all the B.S. that is said...

President Trump's fixation on “no collusion” has long belied this reality of the Russia investigation: The obstruction of justice half of the probe appears significantly more troublesome for him personally. It's also likely to be much bigger than we realized. That's the big, reinforcing takeaway from the New York Times's scoop Tuesday night that Trump asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to un-recuse himself in the Russia probe. It's merely the latest clear example of Trump trying to control or otherwise sway the people who could be in charge of his own fate. And it underlines the fact that he had...

President Trump has stepped up his attacks on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation in recent days, and his lawyer even suggested that the inquiry should be shut down. And just in case the direction in which this whole thing is headed wasn't clear, Trump has now hired a lawyer who argues the president is being framed. Trump's legal team on Monday announced the hiring of Joseph E. diGenova, a former U.S. attorney who served as an independent counsel and a special counsel in the 1990s and was later hired by the New York Senate to investigate Gov. Eliot...

Before departing for his Thanksgiving vacation last week, President Trump teased a possible campaign visit for Roy Moore in Alabama. “I'll be letting you know next week,” he said. Trump's comments were noncommittal, but they were a marked shift from previous White House assurances that Trump wasn't going. And Trump seemed to be hinting he'd actually have something newsworthy to say. Alas, it wasn't to be. Trump is extremely self-conscious about being perceived as a loser. He talks and tweets regularly about how well Republicans have done in special congressional elections this year. He tempered his support for Strange even...

Sen. Lindsey Graham will soon raise money for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, as CNN's Dana Bash just reported. Which is an amazing turn of events, given the things Graham previously said about Cruz. He has said on multiple occasions that Cruz is would be the death of the Republican Party and is no better than Donald Trump. He has even joked about killing Cruz. To wit (in reverse chronological order): Feb. 26: “I was asked the hardest question in my political life: Do you agree with Donald Trump that Ted Cruz is the biggest liar in politics?” he said. “Too...

Larry David was back on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend to reprise his all-too-perfect Bernie Sanders character. And despite Sanders's win in Michigan last week, the big joke was how limited his base of support remains -- and its propensity for shenanigans on social media. "I want to thank everyone who voted for me, and apologize to everyone else for making your Facebook feeds so, so annoying," he said. "I mean, I love my supporters, but they're too much, right? I'm great, but I'm not five-posts-a-day great. With all due respect to my supporters, get a life." David-as-Sanders then poked...

Questions about Cruz's eligibility have everything to do with interpretation of the law; the questions about Obama's eligibility had everything to do with a dispute over the underlying facts - more specifically, conspiracy theories about whether the president was born in the United States, as he claimed, and whether he somehow forged a birth certificate that said he was born in Hawaii. In Cruz's case, nobody is disputing the underlying facts of the case - that Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban father and a mother who was a U.S. citizen. As we wrote in March 2013, that...

The Iowa Republican Party will announce the official winner of its Jan. 3 caucuses on Thursday morning, and Rick Santorum is holding out hope that he’s eight-vote loss will suddenly become a win. But does it even matter? In a word, yes. But there’s also little reason to believe it would recast the Republican presidential race in any major way. With the official announcement set for 9:15 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, news that Santorum actually won the first-in-the-nation contest would surely be seized upon by the former Pennsylvania senator’s campaign as proof of its momentum and to call into question...