Free Republic

The adult son of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) launched a vile antisemitic and homophobic tirade at Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) at a DC bar Tuesday night, saying at one point that the Iran war was “about the gays and the Jews, and I hate them both, and I don’t care if they die.” In a phone conversation recounting the evening, Lawler told The Post that he was sitting at a popular DC bar with a friend and a reporter for NOTUS, which first revealed the incident involving William Paul. “So Rand Paul’s f—ing son is sitting next to us at...

The Agriculture Department is embarking on a multi-part plan to relocate employees across its component agencies outside of the Washington, D.C. area. USDA is moving many more jobs across the country than it did under the first Trump administration, but expects fewer employees will turn down relocation offers this time around. However, two unions representing impacted USDA employees say the relocations will cause more disruption than department leaders anticipate. For the second time in seven years, USDA is looking to move D.C.-based employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to Kansas City.

Dashcam video obtained by News4 shows the National Mall shooting Monday involving Secret Service officers. The Secret Service said a Texas man fired toward officers, who returned fire and hit him multiple times. A teen bystander was hit by the suspect’s gunfire and suffered a graze wound, authorities said. Gunshots can be heard in the video as drivers sit in traffic near Independence Avenue and 15th Street SW, just southeast of the Washington Monument. A man can be seen falling to the ground. “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” someone shouts. Police identified the man shot and wounded by the Secret Service as...

At least some of the proposed terminations are related to an investigation the department conducted into the manipulation of crime data, officials said. Multiple high-ranking D.C. police officials have been served papers saying the department intends to fire them, according to three officials familiar with the situation. At least some of the proposed terminations are related to an investigation the department conducted into the manipulation of crime data following Republican-led probes into the matter, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive internal process. The terminations portend a potentially sweeping shake-up among top...

Not a single Democrat in the Senate is willing to support the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, and a new op-ed from The Washington Post might just explain why. The SAVE America Act would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and voter ID to cast a ballot in federal elections. The current “safeguard” preventing noncitizens from registering to vote and voting is a tiny square box on the federal registration form asking applicants to attest they are telling the truth about their citizenship status. In other...

A federal magistrate judge raised concerns on Monday that the man accused of trying to kill President Trump and top cabinet members at an annual press gala had been placed in unusually punitive detention for days while awaiting next steps in court. During a hastily scheduled hearing in Washington, Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui demanded answers about how the man had been placed on suicide watch, denied a number of basic services and held in what the judge called “effectively solitary confinement” for nearly a week, all while the government has been slow to establish key facts in the federal...

WASHINGTON (7News) — A man is injured after a shooting involving a U.S. Secret Service agent in Southwest DC, not far from the Washington Monument, according to the U.S. Secret Service and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). According to the Secret Service, plainclothes agents spotted a man near the White House carrying a firearm. Agents then went to make contact with the man, but he took off running. During the chase, investigators said the man opened fire on the Secret Service officers who then returned fire. The man was taken to the hospital, but officials did not provide details on his...

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant prayed for President Trump’s assassination on social media after a gunman breached security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Michele Carpino made the perverse plea on her Facebook page just minutes after news broke that would-be assassin Cole Allen stormed the annual black-tie Washington press bash last Saturday. “Oh please sweet baby Jesus,” Carpino wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post, Libs of TikTok reported. “WE NEED BETTER ASSASSIN’S! [sic],” she commented after Allen was thwarted by Secret Service agents. Carpino has a history of posting disturbing anti-Trump screeds on social media. “One day we will...

Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, chimed in on the Saturday shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He released a statement through his attorneys condemning political violence in the wake of the shooting, according to The Hill. Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, issued a statement this week decrying political violence in the wake of an assassination attempt on President Trump. Cole Tomas Allen, 31, is accused of trying to assassinate Trump and members of his Cabinet at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner Saturday. The plot...

Chaos erupted in the heart of the nation's capital last night as the White House Correspondents' Dinner - Washington's most glitzy annual tradition - was shattered by gunfire. What began as a night of high-society networking and political ribbing at the Washington Hilton turned into a harrowing survival scene. A-list celebrities, government officials and media power players were calmly seated in the ballroom when the festive atmosphere was punctured by the sound of a violent security breach.

A chorus of bipartisan criticism is mounting over the security loopholes at the venue for the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner — while President Trump and his allies insisted Saturday’s shooting proves the need for his planned über-secure White House ballroom. Critics slammed the security loopholes that allowed guests to check into the historic Washington Hilton hotel without undergoing weapons screenings from the outside. Authorities say that’s how Cole Tomas Allen was able to sneak a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives into the building where President Trump, most of his cabinet, and many top members of Congress were mingling...

"Meow ... meow!" The animal sounds heard over an air traffic control frequency were not from a cat loose on the plane, but human pilots making animal noises. The meowing occurred over an air traffic control frequency at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on April 12. The audio was recorded and obtained from ATC.com. The pilots were quickly scolded, with someone else on the frequency saying, "You guys need to be professional pilots." The scolding was met with more meows and barks. In this March 31, 2024, file photo, Washington's Reagan National Airport (DCA) is shown in Arlington, Virginia. Daniel...

George Washington University has hired U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan teach a law school course on judicial ethics and decision-making, even as she presides over a federal lawsuit against the university. AliKhan, a Biden appointee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is overseeing Soffer v. George Washington University, a case filed in May 2025 by Jewish students and recent graduates. The suit alleges that GWU, in Washington, D.C., violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by allowing a hostile environment for Jewish students. Plaintiffs cite incidents of harassment, vandalism and other conduct, along with what...

A D.C. police officer was ordered held without bond until his next appearance in court on child sex abuse charges. Lt. Matthew Mahl was arrested in Harford County, Maryland, Tuesday on charges of solicitation of sex from a minor and solicitation of child pornography. He has been with the Metropolitan Police Department for 23 years, most recently assigned to special operations, and 10 years ago became the first openly gay chairman of the police union. According to charging documents, Mahl met who he thought was a 15-year-old boy on reddit and began a sexually explicit series of text exchanges that...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI and Justice Department are scrambling to rebuild a depleted workforce after a wave of departures over the past year, with leaders easing hiring requirements and accelerating recruitment in ways that some current and former officials see as a lowering of long-accepted standards.The FBI has used social media campaigns to attract applicants, offered abbreviated training for candidates from other federal agencies and relaxed requirements for support staff seeking to become agents, according to people familiar with the changes and internal communications seen by The Associated Press. At the same time, the Justice Department has opened the...

As stocks soared this week and oil prices dropped amid an apparent cooling of tensions between the United States and Iran, it may have left the impression that the energy shock that rattled the world would quickly fade, along with the risk of sending the global economy into recession.The optimism may have been short-lived. On Saturday, Iran’s military announced it would reimpose restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, throwing the critical waterway’s status into doubt.The uncertainty highlights that beneath that surface, a starkly different reality is unfolding. It is defined by disrupted supply lines and damaged infrastructure, sparking increased concern...

LONDON — Nigel Farage, who led the charge on Brexit, Britain’s push to quit the European Union, and more recently founded the anti-immigration Reform UK party, was euphoric when Donald Trump swept back into the White House. Farage had campaigned for Trump, visited him at his Mar-a-Lago estate and compared him, favorably, to Winston Churchill. ... Farage was an early supporter of Trump’s strikes on Iran, but as anger at the war — and at the president — grows among Britons, who will vote in local elections May 7, he is backtracking. Reform UK’s standing has dipped in recent weeks,...

Donald Trump has officially submitted plans for his 250-foot Triumphal Arch with new renderings showing the fixture towering over the nation's capital. Proposals filed Friday suggested that the so-called 'Arc de Trump' will be built near the Arlington National Cemetery across the river from the Lincoln Memorial. The monument was designed by the architectural firm Harrison Design and will be made almost entirely of white stone with intricate golden detailing. According to ABC News, an inscription across the top will read 'One Nation Under God' underneath a golden statue of a winged Lady Liberty. Two golden eagles sit at either...

National Association for Gun Rights warns the move could derail momentum toward a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to “Assault Weapons” Bans and magazine bans nationwide. A growing controversy is unfolding after the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, signed onto a Department of Justice brief seeking to revisit a major pro-Second Amendment ruling from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The case, Benson v. United States, recently resulted in a three-judge panel striking down Washington, D.C.’s magazine ban, marking a significant legal victory for gun owners and a potential stepping stone toward broader challenges to “Assault...

The assassinations of Iran’s senior leaders by Israel and the United States have triggered unprecedented churn within Tehran’s political and military establishment, eliminating the supreme leader and some of the most powerful men in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but have left in place a hard-line government and little hope of a diplomatic breakthrough, according to regional and Western officials. Rather than usher in what President Donald Trump has called “more reasonable” leadership, the surviving Iranian regime is newly emboldened to inflict economic pain, pushing Tehran and Washington further apart in negotiations, according to the officials who spoke on the...