Free Republic

Democrats are looking on nervously as their last-ditch goal of recapturing the House in an otherwise brutal election shows signs of fizzling. Why it matters: The House emerged early Wednesday morning as Democrats' last hope of denying President-elect Trump full control of Congress. Republican and Democratic operatives alike concede that while Democrats still have a technical shot at picking up the House, the GOP has the inside track and could even ultimately grow their five-seat majority. Asked to describe the mood of the caucus, one House Democrat told Axios, "Shock, sadness, anger, frustration, disappointment."

Axios’ Alex Thompson framed Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday as the “no comment” candidate she “doesn’t want voters to know.” Harris has refused to detail her policy positions on many important issues. This lack of answers appears to be a strategy to avoid irritating the radical left while trying to remain ambiguous in order to attract moderates. The latest example of Harris refusing to answer questions came Sunday when a reporter asked her about a California ballot measure on crime. “How did you vote on Prop 36?” a reporter in Detroit asked Harris. “So, I have — my ballot...

Half of Gen Z voters — and 1 in 4 U.S. voters overall — have lied to people close to them about who they're voting for, according to the latest Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll. Why it matters: Voters 18-27 who came of age during the hyper-polarized Trump era appear to be among the most sensitive to perceived pressure and judgment from friends or loved ones. "There's a new privacy emerging here, where it's far more convenient to either lie or not talk about it," said John Gerzema, CEO of The Harris Poll, which is not affiliated with...

The establishment media’s control over framing the election narrative is “shattered,” Axios’s Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen acknowledged Monday. The report confirms Gallup polling that shows Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low. For years, the media has pushed false narratives that involved Hunter Biden’s laptop story, Russian collusion, the source of the 2020 pandemic, the January 6 investigation, and numerous other hoaxes. Breitbart News’s John Nolte catalogued this list of media hoaxes:

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) warned donors last week that internal polling for her Senate campaign shows Vice President Kamala Harris is "underwater" in Michigan, according to a video clip obtained by Axios. Why it matters: Winning Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania is Harris' simplest path to victory. If former President Trump sweeps the Sun Belt, he'd only need to pick off one of those Blue Wall states to win the election. FiveThirtyEight's average of polls has Harris up by about 2.4 points in Michigan. The latest New York Times/Siena College poll has her up by just one. Michigan is also a...

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, North Carolina's Republican nominee for governor, announced a major staffing shakeup Sunday, days after CNN reported that he had called himself a "black NAZI" on an online porn forum. The big picture: Robinson, who denies making comments outlined in the CNN investigation, announced in a statement that his top adviser Conrad Pogorzelski; Chris Rodriguez, campaign manager; Heather Whillier, finance director; and Jason Rizk, deputy campaign manager "have stepped down from their roles with the campaign." "I appreciate the efforts of these team members who have made the difficult choice to step away from the...

The wife of the chairman of the powerful House Homeland Security Committee said he filed for divorce last month after having an affair with a younger woman, The Post has learned. Camie Green accused her husband, Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), of “having an affair with a 32 year old woman” in a group text sent Wednesday to other lawmakers that was reviewed by The Post. “I have offered reconciliation, and he wants nothing of it and has insisted on a divorce,” she said in the message, which a congressional aide told The Post was also forwarded via email to offices...

CBS News already reported on those "imaginary" Venezuelan gangs taking over apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado. A Denver law firm hired by a property manager in Aurora reported that "gang members are engaging in flagrant trespass violations, assaults and battery, human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, unlawful firearms possession, extortion, and other criminal activities, often targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations." Plus there were the videos that went viral and took the story national. A police officer in Aurora anonymously testified that it was all true. Documents showed that city officials, the FBI, and DHS were all aware...

Axois is claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris supports former President Donald Trump’s border wall because she backs the Senate’s border bill that requires agency officials to spend border wall funds appropriated under Trump. An Axios headline makes the claim, “Harris flip-flops on building the border wall” even though the article includes no quotes or statements from Harris or her campaign. Her campaign pushed back, telling Axios: Harris advisers note that the bipartisan border proposal didn’t include any new money to continue building the wall. It just extended the timeline to spend funds that had been appropriated during Trump’s last...

If she's elected president, Kamala Harris pledges to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the wall along the southern border — a project she once opposed and called "un-American" during the Trump administration.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's revenge tour is sputtering to an end this week, with just one primary win to show for it. Why it matters: McCarthy's former colleagues complain he's effectively lit millions of dollars on fire and made it harder for new leaders to do their jobs. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is expected to win easily on Tuesday despite a McCarthy-linked PAC spending more than $3 million against him. "McCarthy thinks about me a lot more than I think about him," Gaetz told us. Between the lines: Multiple House Republicans and senior staff took issue with McCarthy's public...

The United Auto Workers union said Tuesday that it filed federal labor charges against former President Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk after the duo's conversation on X veered into talk about workers striking. Why it matters: The UAW recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 bid, while the union is also aiming to organize Tesla workers. Driving the news: The UAW said it filed the charges against Trump and Musk "for their illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity, such as strikes."

On Tuesday, Axios announced that it would be laying off around 50 employees. This equates to roughly 10 percent of the news company’s staff. In a memo sent to employees, obtained by The Washington Post’s Katie Robertson, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei said the company was making "some difficult changes to adapt fast to a rapidly changing media landscape." We’re eliminating around 50 positions to get ahead of tectonic shifts in the media, technology and reader needs/habits. This is a painful but necessary move to tighten our strategic focus and shift investment to our core growth areas," he wrote. He said...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Saturday that revenge will be “severe and at an appropriate time, place, and manner,” blaming the “terrorist Zionist regime” for Haniyeh’s death. The Iranian attack on Israel in response to the assassination of Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran last week is expected to come as early as Monday, three US and Israeli officials told Axios reporter Barak Ravid on Sunday. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of US Central Command, arrived in the Middle East early Sunday morning amid Hezbollah and Iran's threats against Israel, Walla reported on Sunday, citing two senior...

Former President Trump's comments about Vice President Harris to the National Association of Black Journalists are being treated as radioactive by many Republicans. Why it matters: The tense interview is being met with GOP reactions ranging from qualified concern to outright shock, with some Republicans questioning Trump's ability to adapt to the new Democratic ticket. ...

President Biden hesitated to drop his re-election campaign in part because he and his senior advisers worried that Vice President Kamala Harris wasn't up to taking on Donald Trump, according to three Biden aides familiar with recent talks about his plans. Why it matters: Biden, 81, ultimately decided to withdraw under pressure from the party and endorsed Harris, but his private anxieties reflect broader questions among some Democratic leaders about Harris as their nominee this November. Driving the news: This next week will be critical for Harris, 59, to prove doubters wrong as she moves quickly to try to clear...

President Biden's campaign chair convened an all-staff call Friday and urged staffers to tune out news coverage that has focused on whether Biden will be pushed aside as the Democratic nominee, according to a recording of the call obtained by Axios. "Don't watch cable news all the time," chair Jen O'Malley Dillon told staff at the campaign and the Democratic National Committee. "That is not the real world. The real world is the voters that are standing with us, the delegates that are with us, and we're going to weather this because of this organization." "I talked to him...

The far-left Axios was even more grotesque than usual on Monday, perversely suggesting that after getting shot in the face, President Trump should go before the world and apologize for getting shot. He could unify America. Imagine he gave a speech featuring something he rarely shows: humility. Imagine him telling the nation that he has been too rough, too loose, too combative with his language — and now realizes words can have consequences, and promises to tone it down and bring new voices into the White House if he wins (emphasis original). Shorter Axios: He had it coming! Don’t you...

A senior House Democrat reportedly told Axios that many in Congress have resigned themselves to a second Trump term following an assassination attempt on the former president’s life this weekend. While most lawmakers who spoke to Axios said that they could not make any proper predictions until after the Democratic National Convention, at least one senior leader believed that former President Donald Trump will win the election. “We’ve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency,” the lawmaker was quoted as saying. This anonymous quote sparked numerous reactions on social media. “If you’re a ‘senior Democrat’ that feels this way,...

At what point is enough enough for Democrats? They've clearly shown they have no conscience, and they'll do anything to win, even putting up and keeping a man in office who has the problems that Joe Biden has. They shouldn't even be talking about him stepping aside — that should be a given. They should be talking about the 25th Amendment. But they don't want to do that and they only are considering him stepping aside because they're afraid they're going to lose and then they'll be out of control. It has nothing to do with doing what's right here....