Free Republic

Russian forces could be just weeks away from seizing control of the key Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine — as Ukrainian officials continued to appeal for more heavy weapons and ammunition from the West. An unnamed senior US defense official told The Washington Post that the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which have seen some of the fiercest battles in recent weeks, could fall to Russia in the coming days. Russia has been making steady gains in the strategically important Donbas region — comprised of Luhanks and Donetsk — by pounding the area with heavy artillery day after day and...

No, Mitch McConnell, it isn’t “case closed.” No, Mr. Leader, it’s not “finally over.” No, we’re not going to “end this.” Neither will we “move on.”

Jeff Bezos’ personal security team has launched an investigation into how his text messages ended up in The National Enquirer, and the inquiry is increasingly convinced that political motives are behind the disclosure. The investigation is taking place independent of Amazon, and Bezos, the world’s richest man, is personally funding it. Investigators want to know who leaked the texts that publicly blew up Bezos’ marriage earlier this month by revealing, in lurid detail, his affair with Los Angeles news anchor Lauren Sanchez. The leaked text messages contained flowery missives from Bezos such as “I want to smell you, I want...

Trump says they bought "1,000 burgers" for Clemson. "It was piled up a mile high," he said. FACT CHECK: At two inches each, a thousand burgers would not reach one mile high.

When President Trump made a rare journey to the Capitol last week, he was expected to strategize about how to end the government shutdown he instigated. Instead, he spent the first 20-odd minutes delivering a monologue about “winning.” “We’re winning” on North Korea, the president told Republican senators Wednesday at a closed-door luncheon. “We’re winning” on Syria and “we’re winning” on the trade war with China, too. And, Trump concluded, they could win on immigration if Republicans stuck together through what is now the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, according to officials who attended the presidential pep talk....

Days before he officially becomes a U.S. senator, Mitt Romney took to the Washington Post to fire a shot across President Trump’s bow, saying Mr. Trump had made a “deep descent” in December and is hurting the national character. In an op-ed column published online Tuesday evening, Mr. Romney, now a Republican senator-elect for Utah, came down hardest on recent moves in foreign policy and Cabinet positions related to that. “After he became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the...

Since President Trump’s inauguration, The Post’s fact-checkers have tracked more than 7,600 lies from the president. He’s repeated some of them so frequently that they had to create a whole new Pinocchio category — the “Bottomless Pinocchio” — to do justice to his refusal to relinquish provable falsehoods. Trump’s ability to maintain his parallel universe in which he is responsible for nothing and yet has achieved everything now defines his presidency. Only in that universe is the Islamic State vanquished, climate change a hoax and a wall needed to stop a horde of immigrants. Trump is getting worse and more...

Months after President Trump took office, Russia’s disinformation teams trained their sights on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there.

Vote against all Republicans. Every single one. By Max Boot Columnist October 31 at 3:31 PM “I am sick and tired of this administration. I’m sick and tired of what’s going on. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I hope you are, too.” — Joe Biden I’m sick and tired, too. I’m sick and tired of a president who pretends that a caravan of impoverished refugees is an “invasion” by “unknown Middle Easterners” and “bad thugs” — and whose followers on Fox News pretend the refugees are bringing leprosy and smallpox to the United States. (Smallpox...

President Trump’s declaration that “I don’t have an attorney general” was not merely the cry of an executive feeling betrayed by a subordinate. It was also a raw expression of vulnerability and anger from a president who associates say increasingly believes he is unprotected — with the Russia investigation steamrolling ahead, anonymous administration officials seeking to undermine him and the specter of impeachment proceedings, should the Democrats retake the House on Nov. 6. In a freewheeling and friendly interview published Wednesday, Trump savaged Attorney General Jeff Sessions, mocking the nation’s top law enforcement official for coming off as “mixed up...

President Trump’s disapproval rating has hit a high point of 60 percent, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that also finds that clear majorities of Americans support the special counsel’s Russia investigation and say the president should not fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions. At the dawn of the fall campaign sprint to the midterm elections, which will determine whether Democrats retake control of Congress, the poll finds a majority of the public has turned against Trump and is on guard against his efforts to influence the Justice Department and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s wide-ranging probe. Nearly...