Free Republic

WHO WILL BE FIRST TO ASK JOE BIDEN THE TARA READE QUESTION? It's more than a little amazing that it hasn't happened yet. There is growing corroboration behind Reade's accusation that then-Sen. Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993, when Reade worked in Biden's office. We now have accounts that by the mid-1990s, Reade told her brother, her mother, a friend, a next-door neighbor, and another friend about the incident. We also have the tape of the 1993 Larry King program in which a woman, whom Reade says was her mother, called to talk about her daughter's issues with a...

Joe Biden was sworn into the United States Senate on Jan. 3, 1973. He remained in the Senate until Jan. 15, 2009 -- a span of 36 years. If history is any guide, that alone is a disqualifier in Biden's quest for the White House. What does 36 years in the Senate say about a politician? It says he is a senator -- not a president. So the first reason Biden will not become president is that no one who served 36 years in the Senate has ever become president. No one who served 30 years in the Senate has...

Members of the Trump defense team saw their two-hour presentation Saturday as a preview of coming attractions — a way to give senators a sense of the president's defense while also suggesting there is much more to come when the impeachment trial resumes Monday. They were also acutely aware that, after 23 hours of the Democratic case against the president made over the course of three days, many senators were just tired. Even if the first day of presentation had not come on a low-rating Saturday, Republicans would have stayed away from forcing senators into another late night. Lawmakers were...

According to Byron York below, Devin Nunes has sent an official congressional letter to Adam Schiff pointing out several serious errors Schiff made in characterizing the Steele dossier, FISA warrant, and Carter Page. ‘It is clear you are in need of rehabilitation…’ ‘It’s crucial that you admit you have a problem…’

The new report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is an absolutely damning indictment of the Steele dossier. The dossier, compiled by the former British spy Christopher Steele during the 2016 campaign, was a collection of damaging and unfounded rumors about candidate Donald Trump. It was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign, and overseen by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. It was never verified, and some of it was laughably far-fetched from the very beginning. Still, the dossier's tales were taken seriously by officials in the highest ranks of the FBI --...

The great debate about whether the FBI spied on the Trump campaign continues. The question is why there is still any argument. The newly-released report from Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz shows that by any definition the FBI did indeed spy. The proof is in the details of the report. In addition to the much-discussed wiretap of Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page, Horowitz discussed the bureau's use of what is called a CHS -- a confidential human source, or, in more common terms, an informant, and a UCE -- an undercover employee, or a secret agent, to...

The new report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is an absolutely damning indictment of the Steele dossier. The dossier, compiled by the former British spy Christopher Steele during the 2016 campaign, was a collection of damaging and unfounded rumors about candidate Donald Trump. It was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign and overseen by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. It was never verified, and some of it was laughably far-fetched from the very beginning. Still, the dossier's tales were taken seriously by officials in the highest ranks of the FBI —...

House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is giving members of his committee just 24 hours to read and sign off on his report recommending articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. As Breitbart News reported Friday, House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler has previewed the report, and suggested it will include claims of “collusion” with Russia — as well as Ukraine, Russia’s enemy.And as reported Saturday, Schiff will provide the full report to committee members on Monday, who must sign off on Tuesday in time for the first hearing in Nadler’s committee on Wednesday, which will discuss the...

There's no doubt Democrats in Washington are hell-bent on impeaching President Trump over the Ukraine matter. But after weeks of polling, it is still unclear precisely what Americans outside the Beltway think. Much depends on how pollsters ask their questions. Some are straightforward, while others are a bit more complicated. But in the last few weeks, many have asked a variation of: "Do you support or oppose impeaching President Trump?" A new poll, however, done by Suffolk University for USA Today, gets at some of the nuance behind public opinion on the president and Ukraine. The Suffolk pollsters gave 1,000...

A week ago, House Republicans complained that Democrats imposed excessive secrecy on interviews conducted as part of the drive to impeach President Trump. Now, the situation appears to have gotten worse. Friday's interview of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, marked a new point — a low point, as Republicans see it — in Democratic efforts to keep impeachment information out of public view. In this way: The two previous impeachment interviews, with former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, were conducted in the format of what is known as a...

Byron York wrote in the Washington Examiner on Saturday that Democrats are using a secret impeachment process to create a narrative that leaves out contradictory facts and prevents Republicans from presenting any real defense. York noted that Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), are using the same tacit they used in 2017 to silence then-chair Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) with a phony ethics investigation. They are having witnesses testify in deposition, rather than in public or by transcription, which invokes ethics rules that prevent members from sharing any details publicly. Democrats then leak selective...

The Democrats' impeachment show just keeps getting less and less credible, and more and more disgusting.The latest is from Byron York at the Washington Examiner, who reports that the so-called 'whistleblower' had a "professional relationship" with an unnamed Democratic Party presidential candidate: Under questioning from Republicans during last Friday's impeachment inquiry interview with [Michael] Atkinson, the [intelligence community's] inspector general revealed that the whistleblower's possible bias was not that he was simply a registered Democrat. It was that he had a significant tie to one of the Democratic presidential candidates currently vying to challenge President Trump in next year's...

There have so far been two hearings in the House Democrats' effort to impeach President Donald Trump over the Ukraine matter. Both have been held in secret. One was last Thursday, the other Friday, and the public does not know what was said in either. Two more are scheduled for this week, and they will be held behind closed doors, too. The hearings are part of an effort to remove the president from office. There could not be a matter of more pressing public concern. There could not be a matter in which the American people have a greater stake....

https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1177207450719662080?s=20

Byron York warned Monday of the rising "toxicity" of the anti-Trump resistance movement, highlighting three troubling developments in recent days. In a Washington Examiner column, titled "Anti-Trump fever takes threatening turn," York points to two op-eds specifically in the New York Times and Washington Post that he characterized as "rationalizations for denying Trump supporters public accommodation and for doxxing career federal employees." Appearing on "America's Newsroom," York noted that the co-owner of a Virginia restaurant who refused to serve then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said she believes the "rules are changing" when it comes to businesses or their staffers...

Congress is debating emergency humanitarian aid to care for migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border. The need is obvious. With virtually no barrier to stop them, thousands of migrants are crossing illegally into the United States every day. More than a million will come this year. U.S. law prevents border officials from quickly returning them. While they are being processed, some of the migrants, including children, are being kept temporarily in terrible conditions. American officials have an obligation to take care of them before those with no valid claim to be in the United States are returned to their home countries....

One of the more unfortunate effects of the Trump-Russia investigation — and there have been many — is the weakening of traditional standards of argument and proof in the public debate over allegations that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to fix the 2016 election. (Just for the record: It didn't.) In particular, angry disputes about the president have done terrible harm to the principle that an investigator, be it a journalist or a prosecutor, should meet at least some standard of proof before leveling an accusation. Two examples. First is the so-called Steele dossier, the collection of wild allegations...

--SNIP-- The backdrop of conspiracy and coordination made every Trump-Russia episode, including routine political activities, look sinister. The Trump Tower meeting looked ominous in the context of conspiracy and coordination. Donald Trump's public statements about Russia and Vladimir Putin looked incriminating. Michael Flynn's conversations with the Russian ambassador looked suspicious. And more.

In February 2018, the House Intelligence Committee released the so-called Nunes memo. In four pages, the document, from the committee's then-chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, revealed much of what the public knows today about the FBI's reliance on the Steele dossier in pursuing since-discredited allegations that the Trump campaign and Russia conspired to fix the 2016 election. Specifically, it revealed that the FBI included unverified material from the dossier in applications to a secret spy court to win a warrant to wiretap Trump foreign policy volunteer adviser Carter Page. All that was classified. To release it, the committee appealed to President...

From now on, the Trump-Russia affair -- the investigation that dominated the first years of Donald Trump's presidency -- will be divided into two parts: before and after the release of Robert Mueller's report. Before the special counsel's findings were made public last month, the president's adversaries were on the offensive. Now, they are playing defense. The change is due to one simple fact: Mueller could not establish that there was a conspiracy or coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign to fix the 2016 election. The special counsel's office interviewed 500 witnesses, issued 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search-and-seizure...