Free Republic

John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, is struggling with a crucial decision: Whether to ask South Dakota voters for six more years in office. Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Senate Republican, says Iowa voters are increasingly urging him to run again, and he's now considering moving up his much-anticipated announcement about whether to extend his 40 years of service in the chamber. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont -- a Senate veteran of 46 years who is third in line of presidential succession -- says he'll make a decision "after I go snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing." GOP Sen. Ron Johnson,...

The White House has so far dismissed a Senate inquiry into President Joe Biden’s use of private email while he was vice president. In July, Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin penned a letter to White House Counsel Dana Ann Remus, demanding information on what steps Biden and the administration took to ensure the then-vice president’s records satisfied archival requirements under federal law. According to the New York Post, Vice President Biden had been using private email addresses to correspond with his son Hunter, and on at least one occasion spoke of a meeting with...

Sometimes people forget that politics is not like math or science – at least this is something that I am often guilty of. In Math a number, theorem, or proof mean something specific and reproducible. However, in politics the meaning of things is both malleable and blurry. For instance, Sen. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, is currently participating in policy negotiations around legislation that Sen. Bernie Sanders D-VT (Someone who is left of most Democrats) is excited about. The negotiations are over antitrust bills, and while it sounds like Grassley is only in talks surrounding one of the bills –...

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the second oldest member of the Senate, may be your next fitness inspiration. “So he and I are going to do 22 pushups,” Grassley said, pointing to Cotton, a 44-year-old retired Army captain. A Politico profile on Grassley published in May, which focused on his political future and his indecision on seeking another term 2022, revealed that the Iowa senator wakes at 4 a.m. each day, often going for a two-mile run.

A new poll published over the weekend indicates that 64% of those surveyed believe it's "time for someone else" to occupy Sen. Chuck Grassley's (R-Iowa) Senate seat, the Des Moines Register reports. Why it matters: Grassley hasn't said yet whether he plans to seek re-election in 2022, but with an evenly divided Senate, "Iowa's race is one of the most closely watched" in the country, according to Politico.

The Washington Post gave its readers a clear-eyed view this weekend of how American intel agencies work with sympathetic reporters to smear and discredit political opponents, ignoring a specific explanation from one of the article’s targets of how reporters were being used, and leading to embarrassing corrections in multiple articles (as well as in The New York Times and at NBC News).The story targeted Rudy Giuliani and Wisconsin’s Sen. Ron Johnson, excitedly reporting that they were the targets of Russian disinformation campaigns and had been warned of this by the FBI. Sound familiar? Unsurprisingly, there were a number of problems.First,...

Jesse Naranjo Sun, March 14, 2021, 8:11 AM More than half of Iowans hope that Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, their state’s senior senator, decides against running for reelection next year, according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley is pressing Vanita Gupta, the nominee for the number three position at the Justice Department, over millions of dollars in stock holdings she has in a chemical company that makes a key ingredient that Mexican drug cartels use to make heroin. Gupta holds between $11 million and $55 million in shares of Avantor, a Pennsylvania-based chemical company, according to financial disclosures she has filed with the Office of Government Ethics. Gupta’s father, Raj Gupta, serves as chairman of the board of Avantor. Gupta is the wealthiest political nominee that President Joe Biden has picked while in...

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday refused to tell senators the cause of death for Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, whose death heavily influenced coverage of the Capitol riot. Reports after Jan. 6 originally said Sicknick died after being bludgeoned by a fire extinguisher while fighting off then-President Donald Trump’s supporters, which authorities didn’t deny at the time. The claim became part of the impeachment trial case against Trump for allegedly inciting the riot — though his family now says it’s untrue. Wray cited an “ongoing” investigation into Sicknick’s death. “I certainly understand and respect and appreciate the keen interest...

The Senate failed to advance the nomination of Judy Shelton to the Federal Reserve Board — further complicating what was an already rocky confirmation process. Shelton, a longtime Fed critic who favors a return to the gold standard, was blocked in a 50-47 vote that was shaken up by some GOP senators being absent and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris making a return to the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) needed just 50 Republicans to vote in favor of Shelton to move her nomination forward. The upper house of Congress currently has a 53-47 GOP majority, meaning that...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Republican senator and third in the line of presidential succession, said Tuesday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus.</p><p>Grassley announced earlier Tuesday that he was quarantining after being exposed to the virus and was waiting for the results of a test. On Tuesday evening, he tweeted that he had tested positive.</p>

Secret Service records appear to provide verification of documents regarding conflicts of interest regarding former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and other member of the Biden family. That's according to leading Senate Republicans investigating the matter. The senators, Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), are also questioning representations made to them by the Secret Service regarding its protective detail to Hunter. In a new letter to Secret Service Director James Murray, Johnson and Grassley outline how records they previously obtained from the Secret Service line up with, and seem to provide verification of, newly-public emails about Hunter...

Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) have sent new letters to FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel demanding outstanding material relating to government abuses in the Trump-Russia probe. Two key Senate committee chairmen are still having trouble prying information about the government's improper actions in the Trump-Russia probe from the FBI and the CIA. The head of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), and the head of the Senate Finance Committee, Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), have sent new letters to FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel demanding the outstanding material. "We...

Republicans are preparing to release a report in a matter of days on their investigation focused on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, a move they hope will put fresh scrutiny on the Democratic nominee just weeks from the election. The controversial probe, spearheaded by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), is focused broadly on Obama-era policy and Hunter Biden's work for Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings. The GOP report, which is set to be released this week, is expected to argue that Hunter Biden’s work impacted Obama-era Ukraine policy and created a conflict...

NOTE: The Obama administration approved the Biden-connected sale; Hunter partnered w/ co-buyer, AVIC,..... identified as a front for Communist China's military....... The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) is a Chinese state-owned aerospace and defense conglomerate. It is ranked 151st in the Fortune Global 500 list as of 2019, and has over 100 subsidiaries, 27 listed companies and 500,000 employees across the globe. ============================================== As he was sewing up the Democrat nomination this spring, Joe Biden surprised many in foreign policy circles by publishing an essay arguing it was time to "get tough with China" and to stop its "robbing...

But for U.S. security experts, it was remarkable for another reason: An investment fund named Bohai Harvest RST (BHR) partly owned and directed by Biden's son, Hunter, and Secretary of State John Kerry's stepson, Chris Heinz, had just a few years earlier played a vital role in facilitating the sale of the Michigan-based auto parts maker Henniges Automotive to one of China's main military aircraft makers, Aviation Industry Corporation of China or AVIC. That 2015 transaction approved by the Obama administration and its Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) came just 15 months after the United States...

Then-Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley first sought the FBI’s release to interview agent Joe Pientka way back in 2018, but worthless Director Christopher Wray had stonewalled that request for more than two years. This week, likely thanks to the intervention of Attorney General William Barr, the stone wall finally came down: Pientka, of course, was one of two FBI agents – the other was Peter Strzok – who conducted the agency’s entrapment interview of General Mike Flynn on the orders of then-Director James Comey. Comey in turn was working on direct orders from Barack Hussein Obama His...

Two top Republican senators spearheading an investigation into the Biden family’s conflicts of interest while serving at the upper echelons of government blasted Democrats Tuesday for attempting to derail the Senate probe with fewer than 100 days until a presidential election. Congressional Democrats, desperate to shut the three-year investigation down over fears that it might damage their presidential nominee’s chance to capture the White House this fall, have launched a disinformation campaign by accusing Senate Republicans of accepting help from the Russian government, a favorite tactic. Earlier this month, Democrat leadership demanded an FBI briefing over claims of Russian intelligence...

He first said this in 2016, then reiterated it in 2018, then reiterated it yet again for reporters yesterday. The McConnell standard for election-year vacancies is, of course, that they shouldn’t be filled if the presidency and the Senate majority are held by different parties. That’s not the case this year so it’s full speed ahead for Cocaine Mitch if any seats on the Court open up before November. The Grassley standard is different. The Judiciary Committee shouldn’t hold hearings on a SCOTUS vacancy in an election year, period, he’s said. Those are strong words coming from a man who...

he senators skipping out include Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mitt Romney of Utah, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The lawmakers gave varying reasons for why they won't be at President Donald Trump's renominating convention. Some of those senators are not among Trump's favorites.