Free Republic

"House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has reportedly rescinded his endorsement for a fellow California Republican who's running for a House seat, following the discovery of social media posts in which the candidate expressed racially insensitive and anti-Democratic Party sentiments."

House Republican leaders are expressing optimism about their chances to flip the House from Democrats to the GOP in November. Despite the challenges facing the party — challenges that almost all political pros from both parties agree are daunting — there may, indeed, be room for looking on the sunny side of the contest. Most political experts dismiss Republican chances of winning back the House. They point to the 41 seats that flipped in the 2018 midterms, a record number of Republican retirements, and a big cash advantage for Democratic incumbents.But a large number of those seats that flipped during...

In anticipation of the U.S. coronavirus death toll hitting 100,000, House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are asking President Donald Trump to order flags be lowered to half-staff “on that sad day of reckoning.” . . . the two Democrat leaders say that lowering flags on the day the death count hits 100,000 would provide “a national expression of grief”

The Department of Labor reported Thursday that another 2.4 million Americans filed for unemployment last week continuing a nine-week stretch of new jobless claims shattering the previous record for the most first-time filings in a single week. More than 38 million Americans have now filed for unemployment since pandemic lockdowns initiated an economic self-destruction wreaking havoc on American livelihoods and contributing to the great anxiety that the pandemic presents to a nation in distress. The April jobs report released from the Department of Labor this month shows the U.S. reached record levels of unemployment within the span of just two...

Congress is considering a $3 trillion stimulus package. HERE is an infographic of how the first $2.3 trillion was distributed. See Infographic...

On Monday, the House Democrats filed a brief that with the Supreme Court that the House was actively pursuing new articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump including “the possible exercise of improper political influence over recent decisions made in the Roger Stone and Michael Flynn prosecutions, both of which were initiated by the special counsel.” The argument is meant to justify the continued demand for redacted grand-jury material from the now closed Special Counsel investigation into the Russian collusion investigation. I have long supported the congressional demands for documents withheld by the Trump Administration as well as witnesses, including...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) delivered the virtual commencement address for Smith College on Sunday, telling the graduates the that House Democratic Caucus is “more than 60 percent women, people of color an LGBTQ members.” . . . “Smith remains strongly committed to the education of women at the undergraduate level, but admits both men and women as graduate students,” says its website.

Rep. Adam Schiff said the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which has been heavily critical of his work as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has "no credibility." The California Democrat told the Daily Beast in a podcast last week that the Wall Street Journal has become a "Trumpist" newspaper when asked to respond to an editorial that urged people to not trust him anymore because of how he "spread falsehoods shamelessly" for three years with his repeated claims of there being evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Americans hoping for the next round of coronavirus relief will probably be waiting for weeks - if not much longer Though House Democrats on Friday passed a sweeping, $3 trillion stimulus bill built around aid for local governments and a fresh batch of direct payments to the public, the Republican Senate majority has no immediate plans to produce an alternative. Instead, senators are expected to consider a handful of lifetime judicial appointments this week and then head home for the Memorial Day recess. There’s basically zero bipartisan talk among congressional leaders right now in Washington about what to do next....

Well, here you have it, folks. Nancy's pipe dream legislation: This Act may be cited as the "Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act" or the "HEROES Act" Has a nice ring to it. You may download your own personal copy of the 1,815-page monstrosity from NPR here (first place I found it). If you'd like it autographed, you'll have to check with Ms. Pelosi. To get a better idea of what this legislation is all about, spend some time perusing "Division P" of the legislation, starting on page 1452. This 75-page gem (This Act may be cited as...

Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford on Friday acknowledged that he’d carried on a longstanding affair with a former intern for Sen. Harry Reid who has detailed the relationship in a series of podcast episodes and on Twitter. The woman, Gabriela Linder, told the Review-Journal that she is “Love Jones,” the pseudonym of a person who first began sharing her story through a public podcast, “Mistress for Congress,” in April. The podcast and a related Twitter account have relayed what she claims are various details of the affair, including a purported screenshot of a message exchanged between Horsford, D-Nev., and Linder in...

Democrats announced that they are beginning an investigation into President Trump’s firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel of New York and Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey made the announcement on Saturday, a day after Linick’s removal. The lawmakers requested all records about Linick’s firing from the White House, the State Department, and the State Department Office of Inspector General by next Friday.

A married Nevada state representative admitted on Friday to having an extensive affair with a former intern for State Senator Harry Reid. Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford (D-4th District) acknowledged the affair after Gabriela Linder - using the name 'Love Jones' - came forward with details of the affair in her podcast 'Mistress for Congress' and Twitter account. . . . 'I'm deeply sorry to all of those who have been impacted by this very poor decision, most importantly my wife and family. Out of concern for my family during this challenging time, I ask that our privacy is respected.'

Republican-led efforts to hold China accountable for the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus are being watched closely by the communist regime. State-run media reported Thursday that Republican lawmakers will “face severe consequences” for speaking out against China, pursuing lawsuits, and pushing “anti-China” legislation. “Republicans who have been groundlessly accusing China and inflaming the 'holding China accountable' political farce will face severe consequences, sources said, noting that the aftermath will also impact the upcoming November elections, while business and trade between Missouri and China will be further soured,” the Global Times, a branch of the Communist Party of China's People's Daily,...

House Democrats are preparing to pass a resolution Friday that would set up a recess lasting until July 21. . . . "Even as the American people want to get back to work and for Congress to do its job in Washington, Speaker Pelosi is preparing the House for extended recess — even beyond the initial 45-day proxy voting period,” Mark Bednar, a spokesman for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, said.

Mr. McConnell took issue with the sheer number of times the new House bill mentions marijuana and criticized its requirement that the government study diversity within the nation’s cannabis industry, signaling the package is unlikely to fare well if considered in the Senate. “The word ‘cannabis’ appears in the bill 68 times. More times than the word ‘job’ and four times as many as the word ‘hire’,” Mr. McConnell complained. “Maybe it’s best if House Democrats focus on cannabis studies and leave economics to the rest of us,” he said on the Senate floor. “This is a totally unserious effort.”

The Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Jerome Powell says more stimulus spending is needed to prevent a slow and painful economic recovery...... In Washington state authorities are gearing up for testing, contact tracing and quarantine efforts that will include children's "camps" in the name of fighting Covid-19..... More clashes tonight in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem as Orthodox Jewish residents sought to meet publicly in spite of Israeli government restrictions.... "Gestapo" was the message shouted at police in Lakewood, New Jersey Monday..... Police in Ukraine asking for the addresses of all the Jews in one community.... The family...

The California Democrat has asserted since launching his investigation that there was behind-the-scenes evidence proving there was collusion and would tease the he could not 'go into particulars.' 'The Russians offered help, the campaign accepted help,' Schiff told CNN in December 2017. 'The Russians gave help and the President made full use of that help.' But the Journal asserts: 'None of this was true, and Mr. Schiff knew it.' In one instance of contradictory testimony, Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Schiff and the panel of lawmakers in December 2017 that he 'never saw any direct empirical evidence...

According to congress.gov, H.R.748 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or the CARES Act, was introduced in January of 2019 by Rep. Joe Courtney (D). If this COVID-19 is an unexpected outbreak, how is it that this bill was introduced nearly a year and a half ago? https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/748?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22Hr748%22%5D%7D&s=1&r=1

Even with all of the lockdown restrictions, voters somehow managed to make it to the polls yesterday for two special elections and the Republican candidates appear to have locked both of them down (if you’ll pardon the phrase). The first one was in Wisconsin and the result wasn’t much of a surprise. In the Seventh District, the race to replace the now-retired Sean Duffy is projected to go to Tom Tiffany. The 7th is a fairly solidly conservative district and Tiffany had garnered the endorsement of President Trump. (Associated Press) Tom Tiffany, a state senator endorsed by President Donald...