Free Republic

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) on Wednesday criticized the House impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as a partisan detour from Congress’s important work. Asked about the merits of trying Mayorkas on impeachment charges in the Senate, Murkowski said lawmakers need to focus on funding the government instead. “Oh my goodness. We’re busy, right? To have to take a detour from the important work that’s going on,” she said. The Alaska senator, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, cited an upcoming meeting on legislation to fund the government through 2024 and the need to fund national security needs...

<p>If Donald Trump is right that presidents have immunity, then why did Richard Nixon need a pardon?</p><p>Trump was in a Washington, D.C. federal courtroom Tuesday, Jan. 9 where his attorneys argued before an appeals court that the four-count indictment against him for 2020 election interference should be dismissed. Their position is that Trump, as president at the time, is immune from prosecution because he was carrying out official duties.</p>

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) got the better of CBS moderator Margaret Brennan — and perhaps CBS editorial “standards” — in an interview that aired Sunday. “Back in 2021, you were the lawmaker who circulated the legal brief known as the Texas amicus brief, challenging the 2020 election outcome in a number of states, which by CBS editorial standards makes you an election denier,” Brennan said to Johnson on Face the Nation. “That’s nonsense,” Johnson calmly replied. Brennan persisted, “Can I get you on the record on that?”

conflict with Russia if the Kremlin succeeds in its war against Ukraine. Biden's statement follows Russia's massive aerial attack across Ukraine on Friday. Kyiv air force officials said that about 110 missiles struck Ukraine, hitting hospitals, residential buildings and a shopping center. At least 31 citizens were killed in the attack and another 120 wounded, according to Ukraine officials cited by Reuters.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) warned Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) it will sue Texas if he enforces a new state law that allows for the prosecution and deportation of migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico, according to a letter obtained by The Hill. Abbott signed the legislation earlier this month, citing the increased number of migrant encounters at the U.S. southern border. The law, set to take effect March 5, allows any Texas law enforcement officer to arrest those suspected of illegal entry into the country. Once arrested, migrants must either agree to a judge’s order to leave the...

President Joe Biden reportedly took his 418th vacation day on Wednesday to travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands for New Year’s. Biden had already spent 417 days (39 percent of his presidency) on vacation, according to the Republican National Committee’s Vacation Tracker. Biden’s “vacation” days include 100 of the 135 weekends in one of his two Delaware homes, at Camp David, or in Democrat billionaires’ mansions. Biden flew to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands with several family members, though the White House refused to say how many members would join Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.

Governor Chris Sununu (R-NH) said Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that former President Donald Trump was using “extreme” language on immigration because he was “nervous his base is going to leave him.” Sununu said, “Everyone knows Donald Trump’s record. You know, as Republicans, we want that border secure. You know, we want the right fiscal policies in place. We wanted to drain the swamp. He didn’t do any of it. And there’s no, you don’t even have to run ads on that. He just didn’t get it done. ”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday said he believes the “narrative” at the center of the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden is “falling apart,” arguing if there was a “smoking gun” in the inquiry, there would be more clear discussions. “If there were a smoking gun, I think we’d be talking about it,” Graham said on NBC News’s “Meet The Press.” “But… the narrative that Hunter Biden presented is falling part. The idea that Joe Biden knew nothing about the business dealings is falling apart. I’m not worried about impeaching the president right now,” Graham continued, adding he is...

California coffee shop workers were filmed denying a Jewish customer access to the restroom after she complained it was filled with antisemitic graffiti — telling her “Free Palestine” and accusing her of wanting to use the facilities because “Israel loves taking private property and saying it’s their own.” Three employees at Farley’s East in Oakland stood in front of the bathroom and told a distressed-sounding woman filming them that she had to leave. “I want to go in the restroom,” the woman repeatedly implores the staffers, who tell her it’s private property even while confirming she was a customer who’d...

The Democratic governor of Wisconsin has vetoed a bill that sought to outlaw gender transition treatments for minors. The veto from Gov. Tony Evers was expected, according to The Associated Press, as he previously vowed to strike down any proposals from the Republican-controlled Wisconsin legislature that he deems harmful to LGBTQ+ youth. The bill was passed by the state legislature in October. It would have banned gender transition surgeries, as well as all forms of transition treatment for minors in the Badger State, which includes puberty blockers and hormone treatment using estrogen and testosterone.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is pushing a ban on AR-15s by focusing on their gas operation system approximately 64 years after the gun’s design included such a system. Breitbart News reported that Sen. Angus King (I-ME) and a group of Senate Democrats, including Kelly, introduced an AR-15 ban early Thursday. In so doing, they used new catchphrases such as “lethal capacity weapons” and “gas-operated semiautomatic. Later Thursday, Kelly posted a video on X in which he continued to emphasize the new catchphrases by explaining that this latest attempt to ban AR-15s and similar rifles “focuses on the lethality of their...

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that he believed there were hundreds of “cowards” in the Republicans Party who enable former President Donald Trump to tear down of our institutions.

The Oakland City Council adopted a resolution Monday night demanding a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — while rejecting amendments condemning Hamas for terrorism against civilians. The resolution acknowledges that “over one thousand people in Israel” have been killed (the number is closer to 1,200), and claims that “more than eleven thousand Palestinians in Gaza” were killed, apparently citing Hamas statistics that do not distinguish between terrorist combatants and civilians.

Former President Donald Trump urged New York City Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Wednesday to “fight” a state law that spurred thousands of sexual abuse cases to be filed in the last year — including lawsuits filed against both Democrats last week. “I hope that Mayor Eric Adam’s [sic], Andrew Cuomo, and all of the others that got sued based on this ridiculous law where someone can be sued decades later, and with no proof, will fight it on being totally unfair and UNCONSTITUTIONAL,” Trump posted on Truth Social early Wednesday morning. “I got sued,...

Thanksgiving “could soon become another victim of climate change,” a recent report by ABC News warned. The report said rising temperatures “threaten the abundance and quality” of ingredients that make up a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. “As a result, these essential food items could become increasingly scarce and more expensive, potentially forcing families to omit or make substitutions in key recipes on their Thanksgiving menus,” the report said.

The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered an impassioned eulogy Monday for Dexter Wade, a 37-year-old Black man who was run over by an off-duty police officer in Jackson, Miss., and buried in a potter’s field without his family’s knowledge. “What happened to Dexter is a disgrace, a national outrage, and should be treated as such,” Sharpton said at the New Horizon Church International. “It is time for the mayor and the city council to stand up for Dexter. How do you explain how a young man ends up buried? The autopsy said that he had a state ID in his front...

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel reportedly lost her cool at Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy during Wednesday night’s debate in Miami, Florida, but the RNC denies the claim. While McDaniel was sitting in the audience as the debate was ongoing, she referenced Ramaswamy, stating, “He’s an ***&^%^. Total ###*()#,” a source sitting in her vicinity told Timcast. “He’s desperate because he’s doing bad in the polls. He won’t be getting a cent from us,” she reportedly added. CNN Washington, DC, Bureau Assignment Editor Aaron Pellish noted the RNC has denied the claim.

An explicit recruitment advert targeting women for the Ukrainian Army is Russian propaganda and not an official video, Kyiv have said in a statement. A short video linking to the recruitment website for the Armed Forces of Ukraine showing by turns a woman in lingerie, a woman caring for a small child, and a woman preparing for battle has been flagged by an official statement from the Ukrainian government as a fake. Kyiv’s government news outlet Ukrinform picks apart the video, noting it is stitched together from generic stock clips found elsewhere on the internet, and that the video has...

Wisconsin State Rep. Dave Considine (D) told his colleagues on the state house floor Thursday that he thinks girls who lose to male-born transgender athletes just need to “work harder” if they don’t like losing in sports. Considine made the outrageous claim by insisting that his college-age “granddaughter” voiced this quip to him during a recent conversation the two had. “And my granddaughter who is playing college sports, I asked her about this when we had this two years ago, and she said you know what, if a trans woman was competing against me in the sport then that just...

Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered a grave assessment of what Democrats stand for, saying that they want to ruin every city in America during his upcoming appearance on Rob Lowe’s Literally podcast. In the segment reported by Mediaite, Lowe mentions former California Republican Congressman David Dreier, who left office in 2013, who, Lowe says, once described Republican principles. Lowe told Schwarzenegger that Drier said Republicans stand for “in no particular order, strong military, low taxes, less government, more personal freedoms,” and then noted that he was forgetting one.