Free Republic

Nothing will ever be easy with congressional Republicans. The reconciliation package aged all of us 35 years, as Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had to whip votes, hold the line, and make some phone calls. President Trump was also working the phones heavily when final passage was at stake in the House. Republican leadership held the line, but with Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) retiring after the reconciliation vote, delivering what’s left of the Trump agenda before the 2026 midterms is about to get even tougher. The House did its job and passed the rescission package, but...

0:01 The 49 star variation of our country's 0:03 flag is more rare than most. And this 0:05 year it's celebrating 66 years since its 0:08 creation. This flag was flown over the 0:10 US capital on July 4th, 1959. Here it is 0:14 on that Independence Day 66 years ago. 0:17 The flag signifying Alaska's induction 0:19 into the union with a field of seven by 0:21 seven stars. You know, the raising over 0:23 it during Independence Day would be a 0:25 significant moment in recognizing 0:27 Alaska's inclusion into the union. 0:29 Hawaii, however, wasn't added until...

Alaskan authorities say they've found the body of a 62-year-old woman who disembarked from a cruise ship to take a hike and didn't return. Marites Buenafe — who's listed on the University of Kentucky Healthcare system's website as a doctor — was traveling aboard the Norwegian Bliss, according to a missing persons bulletin issued by the Alaska State Troopers. The ship was on a weeklong round-trip tour of Alaska that departed from Seattle, according to ship tracking site CruiseMapper. Around 7:30 a.m. local time on July 1, Buenafe texted family members that she was heading up Mount Roberts Tramway in...

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski criticized President Donald Trump’s megabill just moments after delivering the key vote to pass the legislation in the Senate. The president’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in the Senate 51 to 50 on Tuesday, with Vice President J.D. Vance breaking the tie. Murkowski was one of the Republican holdouts who voted “yes” on the legislation after GOP Senate leaders scrambled to make a series of changes to the bill to ease her concerns over its impact on health care and food assistance cuts in her state. The Alaska lawmaker called the vote “agonizing” but...

ational average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.20 on Friday.. Gas prices are sitting at a four-year low ... The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.20 on Friday .... Phil Flynn, energy market analyst and FOX Business contributor, credited the neutralization of Iran’s nuclear program for removing a significant amount of geopolitical risk from oil prices, noting that this "has shown up in the gas prices." Flynn also stated that the administration has created a more production-friendly environment, with Trump signaling to the market a shift toward more favorable regulations. He pointed...

Within weeks of the embarrassment of the 2022 red trickle midterm elections, Tillis thought it would be a good idea to get into bed with the Democrats on a hideous amnesty bill that was an homage to Barack. The timing was almost as bad as the bill itself. ... Now Tillis is throwing his second hissy fit of the year — opposing Pete Hegseth's confirmation as Secretary of Defense — and has become a fly in the ointment regarding Ed Martin’s nomination as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Tillis takes umbrage with Martin's support of J6 defendants, especially...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is again speaking out against the Trump administration — this time blasting efforts led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by slashing jobs and foreign contracts. Murkowski, a crucial swing vote in the Republican-controlled Senate, said Thursday in a post on social platform X that she recently met with USAID employees from her state. “They not only informed me of the confusing and callous handling of personnel matters by [the Office of Personnel Management] and DOGE, but they also painted an incredibly troubling picture of what...

President Trump on Friday said he wasn’t expecting Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) to vote against his controversial nominee for secretary of Defense, Army veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth. “I was very surprised that Collins and Murkowski would do that,” Trump said. The president also nodded to the yes vote from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to advance Hegseth’s nomination, saying he is “always a no vote. Was Mitch a no vote? How about Mitch?” McConnell voted to advance Hegseth’s confirmation. “Let’s see what happens,” the president said. The Senate voted largely along party...

WASHINGTON—Two centrist Republican senators said they opposed the nomination of President Trump’s defense-secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, injecting new drama into what was expected to be a nail-biter of a vote Friday. In a statement Thursday, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said Hegseth’s “nomination to the role poses significant concerns that I cannot overlook,” pointing to worries about his character and his lack of experience running large organizations, as well as his past opposition to women serving in combat roles in the military. “I cannot in good conscience support his nomination,” she said. Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) followed with...

Crews are putting up large anti-scale barricades around the White House and the Treasury tonight.. Big news coming this weekend? ... Any guesses? ... Lisa Murkowski, who had a high chance of voting NO, just voted YES to advance the Big Beautiful Bill after she spoke with Vance 3 to go! ... JD Vance is on the Senate floor lobbying Republican holdouts to vote YES on the Big Beautiful Deal

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told Senate Republicans to expect to see the legislative text of the budget reconciliation package on Friday evening and then to vote at noon Saturday to begin debate on President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Several GOP senators, however, refused to say whether they would vote to proceed to the bill, including Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he’s a hard “no” on the legislation because it includes a provision to raise the debt limit by $5 trillion.

The New York City mayor's race is this way by design. The polls showing that Zohran Mamdani, a socialist and Muslim terror supporter who only became a citizenship in 2018, could become the mayor of New York City, where his compatriots murdered thousands of Americans, may or may not be true, but there’s no reason why they wouldn’t be. Mamdani is up against Cuomo, a repulsive and widely hated figure that opponents of the Muslim socialist are only getting behind because the alternative is even worse, and then Mayor Eric Adams, whom much of the city probably right believes is...

Breitbart News @BreitbartNews Lisa Murkowski says that if the balance in the Senate goes from 53-47 back to 50-50, she's open to joining with the Democrats to give them the majority From Galen Druke 3:14 PM · Jun 23, 2025

Aseismic shift has occurred in the Trump administration’s new defense spending plan that is just emerging when it comes to the USAF’s airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) predicament. The service’s E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft are dwindling in number and rapidly aging into unsupportability. The proven and in-production E-7 Wedgetail, based on the Boeing 737 and serving with multiple allies, was supposed to bridge the gap between the E-3’s retirement and pushing the sending part of the mission to space-based distributed satellite constellations. You can read all about this here. Now, if the administration gets...

"No Kings" rallies will be held in cities across the country to protest President Donald Trump and his policies on his birthday, June 14. Why It Matters The 50501 Movement (50 protests, 50 states, one movement) and other groups are protesting a military parade scheduled to take place in the nation's capital on June 14, coinciding with Trump's 79th birthday, the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary, and Flag Day. 'No Kings' Anti-Trump Protest Locations on June 14 Multiple protests are being held in various cities in each state, but no events are being planned for Washington, D.C. Organizers say that a...

Deadhorse, Alaska It’s unusual to find a cabinet-level official—much less three—standing on a makeshift platform amid barren permafrost, enduring “balmy” 20-degree weather, 4,650 miles by road from the White House. It’s a show of commitment to an overlooked yet central theme of this Trump administration—setting free the private economy. That plank of the Trump agenda has been eclipsed by drama over tariffs and the Republican tax bill, though it is economically as important and moving far faster. Leading it are Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. Joe Biden instituted a “whole...

Fr. Alphonsus Afina, who served as a priest for many years in the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks, has been captured by the militant Islamist terrorist group – Boko Haram – in his home Diocese of Maiduguri, Nigeria. A social media alert sent on June 2 by Fairbanks Bishop Steven Maekawa called on parishioners to join him for a special Mass on June 3 to pray for Fr. Afina. “I ask for your urgent prayers for Fr. Alphonsus Afina,” Bishop Maekawa stated. “As many of you know, Fr. Alphonsus served in our diocese for six and half years and returned to...

If fire departments on land have problems unleashing the torrent of water needed to extinguish a single burning EV, the crew of a ship doesn't stand a chance against hundreds of flaming lithium-ion batteries. A cargo ship carrying around 3,000 vehicles across the Pacific Ocean caught fire on Tuesday. The Morning Midas, a 600-foot cargo ship, was in the middle of a voyage from Yantai, China to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico when the fire broke out. Zodiac Maritime, the ship's London-based operator, noted that smoke was first spotted on a deck carrying 800 electric vehicles. Once the blaze got out of...

With the Trump administration back in the White House, America has an opportunity to restore commonsense energy and manufacturing policies after years of radical environmental overreach. One of the most glaring examples of this overreach is the electric vehicle (EV) push -- a movement championed by progressive elites that, under the guise of sustainability, threatens to undermine national security, weaken domestic industry, and entangle our economy further with the Chinese Communist Party.The EV revolution is not a grassroots innovation born out of market demand. It is a politically engineered shift, heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars and driven by mandates from...

A cargo ship carrying 3,000 cars, including 800 electric vehicles, caught fire off the coast of Alaska and continues to burn. The Coast Guard says that all 22 crew members escaped the ship and were picked up by two nearby freighters. The ship, a Liberian-registered car-carrier named "Morning Midas," was on its way to Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico, from Yantai, China.. ... the Coast Guard is going to let the ship burn, since trying to put out a lithium-ion fire is nearly futile. ... In 2022, the Felicity Ace, a car carrier slightly larger than Morning Midas, sank in the Atlantic...