Free Republic

Donald Trump suffered a blow in a number of primary votes on Tuesday, after thousands of Republicans refused to vote for him.

A Russian senator attempted to justify what he described as the Russian military's "difficulty" in Ukraine by saying that his country is fighting against one of the "strongest and best-trained armies." Frants Klintsevich, who made the remarks recently during an appearance on Russian state TV, said Ukraine has an elite military made up of "Russian soldiers and officers with exactly the same mentality as ours," according to a translation provided by a journalist with the BBC. Recent reports from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and remarks from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have indicated that Russia is losing...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has canceled plans for his forces to storm the Azovstal plant in the besieged city of Mariupol, saying he instead wants them to continue blockading it. Putin told his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, it was "inadvisable" to storm the sprawling industrial plant, where more than 2,000 Ukrainian servicemen are said to remain. "We must always think...about preserving the life and health of our soldiers and officers," Putin said, according to a transcript on the Kremlin's website.

My first experience of combat as a Marine was in Mogadishu, Somalia in the '90s and then subsequently I was in the first Marine division during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. I have completed tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, been involved in the evacuation of civilians from Libya in 2011 and commanded a special operations task force against the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2016...I have a greater respect for the ethical behavior of the Islamic State than I do for the Russians. That is no exaggeration.

Video has emerged of Donald Trump again praising Vladimir Putin—just as the Russian president was launching his invasion of Ukraine. The clip, obtained by the Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, shows Trump calling Putin "very smart" for the steps he had taken in the days before the large-scale military attack on Russia's neighbor. The footage was filmed during a fundraiser at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, which took place on Wednesday evening. At the event, Trump defended his previous praise of Putin for recognizing two self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine and sending Russian troops to the...

This past November, Missouri's conservative Defense of Liberty PAC scheduled a high-profile event featuring a speech by Donald Trump, Jr. On November 9, however, WePay—a JPMorgan Chase subsidiary that provided the payment services for the event—announced the termination of those services. WePay accused the organization of violating its policy against promotion of "hate, violence, racial intolerance, terrorism, the financial exploitation of a crime, or items or activities that encourage, promote facilitate or instruct others regarding the same." Although WePay eventually reversed its decision, the organization had to cancel the speech. WePay's actions followed a series of similar incidents in recent...

AKansas family is planning on filing a lawsuit after a relative died of an allergic reaction to a COVID-19 vaccination last year. Jeanie Evans, 68, died on March 24, one day after she received the Moderna vaccine, prompting an investigation by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). While vaccine-related deaths are rare, serious adverse reactions to the inoculation have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An autopsy report acquired by the Topeka Capital-Journal confirmed Evans died of "anaphylaxis due to COVID-19 vaccination." The 68-year-old reportedly had a history of hypertension, allergic disorder, environmental...

President Joe Biden's approval rating has dipped heading into the second month of 2022, after making some modest gains in the new year. The president enjoyed a bump in popularity in January, with his approval rating rising to 43.5 percent, but the figure now stands at around 41.8 percent, according to poll tracker FiveThirtyEight. The Biden administration has just entered its second year and in November the Democrats will face crucial midterm elections that will put the spotlight firmly on the president's agenda.

Those of us worried about the corrosive effects of cancel culture and critical race theory are often accused of obsessing over the culture wars at the expense of "real" issues. But new data suggests that. the culture war is only going to rise in importance in future elections—to the benefit of Republicans. This is the gist of survey results contained in my new Manhattan Institute report, The Politics of the Culture Wars in Contemporary America. Already, cancel culture and applied critical race theory (CRT) are leading priorities for Republican voters and a mid-ranking issue overall—in large part because they unite...

Former Trump admin aide Alyssa Farah Griffin predicted on Sunday the GOP would use the ex-president to help win the midterms before dropping him for the 2024 presidential elections. Griffin, who served in various White House rolls including the director of strategic communications during former President Donald Trump's time in office, said she believes Republicans will keep him around for fundraising during the midterms. "Republicans are going to keep him around through 2022 because he will be helpful in winning back House seats, getting back the House majority," she said on CNN's State of the Union. "He is monster fundraiser....

If Republicans take over Congress next year, they must demand a full investigation under a new select committee. A bombshell report just published in Newsweek details an in-depth, secret operation conducted by the Justice Department before and during January 6. Contrary to the lamentations of FBI Director Christopher Wray that he wished his agency had had better resources to prevent the Capitol breach, hundreds of elite forces under Wray’s authority were on stand-by days just before the protest, and even on the ground as it happened. The “shadowy commandos” stationed at Quantico, home of the FBI Academy, on January 2,...

Both Donald Trump and Bill O'Reilly touted huge crowds ahead of their "History Tour." But it kicked off at the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, with many empty seats, according to local media. "Massive crowd headed into FLA Live! The Trump/O'Reilly History show starts soon...," O'Reilly, the former Fox host, wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Donald Trump raised several eyebrows with a double negative in a recent statement—which read as him taking aim at those supporting his ongoing election fraud claims. The statement from the former president, shared via email on Saturday, read: "Anybody that doesn't think there wasn't massive election fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election is either very stupid or very corrupt." Trump's comments were met with sarcastic tweets from several of his detractors, who were keen to point out the double negative read as him taking aim at those who supported his repeated fraud claims. NEW! President Donald J. Trump: "Anybody that...

Mike Lindell ended a 96-hour online marathon entitled, Thanks-a-thon, after failing to gain strong support for his Supreme Court case. Despite providing no evidence for widespread election fraud, Lindell claimed he would have the support of multiple states' attorneys in general as he hoped to take this issue to the Supreme Court. The 60-year-old claimed he would have this support by Thanksgiving, a deadline he set himself, but he did not receive it and the lawsuit was not filed. By the end of the marathon, Mike Lindell appeared defeated, according to viewers, and in his final words asked the people...

Former President Donald Trump on Friday called on Mitch McConnell to resign as Senate Minority Leader for supporting President Joe Biden's $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which passed Congress earlier this month. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who voted for the bill and drew Trump's ire, trumpeted the sweeping plan as "good for the country" and even attempted to give the Senate credit for its passage. "It's not infrastructure and we had 19 Republicans voting for it. What a shame. But Mitch McConnell gave this. That guy should resign as the leader," Trump said in a Black Friday interview on Fox...

A new poll found that most white women without a college degree think that President Joe Biden didn't "legitimately" win the 2020 election over Donald Trump. The Economist/YouGov poll, which was conducted between November 14 and November 16, asked respondents whether Biden "legitimately won the election, or not?" Of the 1,500 Americans surveyed for that study, 51 percent of white women who don't have college degrees said that Biden didn't legitimately defeat Trump in 2020, while 29 percent of white women with college degrees shared the same response.

Former Vice President Mike Pence will reportedly back incumbent GOP governors over challengers endorsed by Donald Trump, potentially furthering the rift between himself and the ex-commander-in-chief. Pence told a handful of these governors of his support during a private meeting, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on Saturday. "I want to be clear," Pence reportedly said. "I'm going to be supporting incumbent Republican governors."

...On 10/20, the White House, in anticipation of FDA approval, released details of its plans to have kids vaccinated through pediatricians' offices, hospitals and other locations. Previously, the White House had told governors to start preparing to vaccinate children as young as 5 by early November. Administration officials said they had purchased 65 million pediatric doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, enough to vaccinate all 28 million children who would become eligible if the FDA approves the shots for children between the ages of 5 and 11 when it meets to consider the issue. An FDA advisory committee endorsed giving kids...

Shipments containing Ivermectin tablets and Hydroxychloroquine pills were recently seized by customs officials in Chicago. According to a press release from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the seizure happened at the international mail facility within Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on October 4. The press release said that while officers were conducting an x-ray inspection of a package from China, "officers noticed some discrepancies." The package stated that it contained "decorative beads," CBP said. After officers noticed the discrepancies within this package, they conducted a further investigation and discovered that instead of "decorative beads," the package actually contained 100 tablets of...

According to a thread on his Twitter account Saturday, West is experiencing "a low grade fever and light body aches." He has canceled in-person events out of concern for public safety "until receiving an all-clear indication." In addition to Ivermectin, which has been widely dismissed by health experts as a COVID-19 treatment, West is also taking hydroxychloroquine. Although his wife, Angela West, has been vaccinated against the virus, he has not, according to the tweets. "Dr. Angela West received the vaccine. LTC West did not. LTC West has publicly stated he supports individual choice and this is reflected in his...