Free Republic

President Joe Biden’s “2024 chances are much stronger than people realize” for three “optimistic” reasons, Democrat strategist Simon Rosenberg wrote Wednesday in an MSNBC op-ed. Rosenberg’s positive opinions run contrary to the general impressions among many Democrats, the establishment media, and pollsters of Biden’s 2024 hopes against likely opponent former President Donald Trump. Rosenberg first argued Biden’s chances are strong because he kept his 2020 campaign promises of ending the pandemic and restoring the economy:

Both Democrat and Republican senators on Thursday hailed President Joe Biden’s decision to send 31 Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine in the face of decreasing American public backing for indefinite support for the embattled country. Biden characterized the decision as helping to “defend” Ukraine, amid concerns it is an escalatory move in the nearly one-year long war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine last February. “That’s what this is about: helping Ukraine defend and protect Ukrainian land. It is not an offensive threat to Russia. We are — there is no offensive threat to Russia,” Biden said.

During the 1980s, Ronald Reagan bestrode the political landscape like a colossus. After two Reagan landslides, the Democratic Party was on its heels, having lost one-in-four of their supporters to the popular Republican. Democrats took pains to study the so-called “Reagan Democrats” and learn what made them tick. Leading the charge was the Democratic Leadership Council, which advocated that the party abandon its Big Government, New Deal-like approach to problems and support a strong national defense and middle-class tax cuts. Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Joe Biden were among its prominent members who liked to call themselves “New Democrats.” Reagan...

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, set a record in 2022 with 224 homicides for the year, more than double the number of homicides witnessed in 2019. FOX 6 reported that Milwaukee was at 214 homicides as of December 28, 2022, a figure which already doubled the 97 homicides of 2019. Milwaukee ended 2022 with 224 homicides, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel noted, exceeding the homicides in 2020 or 2021.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney’s (D-NY) race has been labeled a “toss-up” in what could be a historic loss, as a sitting House campaign chair has not lost reelection since 1992. Dave Wasserman, the House editor for Cook Political Report, moved New York’s 17th Congressional District from “Lean Democrat” to “Toss Up.” Wasserman noted that Democrats are now admitting the DCCC chair is in “serious danger” in his home district.

The race for Vermont’s “solid Democrat” U.S. Senate seat is heating up as the Republican nominee, Gerald Malloy, is attempting to close the gap before Election Day in two months. The most recent Trafalgar Group poll of Vermont’s open U.S. Senate found that the Republican nominee is only 6.5 percent down from the Democrat nominee, Rep. Peter Welch, who also sits just below the 50 percent mark.

The White House wants Americans to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic, despite a flood of Democrat governors announcing plans to lift mandates in their states. “Our guidance has consistently been this: When you are in a high-transmission area, which is everywhere in the country, you should wear a mask in indoor settings, including schools,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday during the daily briefing.

An Illinois Democrat who claims the unvaccinated are "clogging up the health care system" has proposed a bill that would force them to pay all of their medical expenses out of pocket if they become hospitalized with the coronavirus. The measure, set forth by State Rep. Jonathan Carroll, comes alongside news that the average coronavirus hospitalization cost is now $24,033, according to data from the government-run Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. "The vaccine is proven to be the one thing that is stopping the severity of COVID-19, and we are seeing more variants popping up," Carroll told WCIA. "The...

President Joe Biden blamed “confusion” in the American electorate on Wednesday for his party taking a beating politically in elections across the country. “I just think that people are at a point, and it’s understandable, where there’s a whole lot of confusion,” Biden said, referring to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, potential tax breaks, and schools remaining open.

Los Angeles City Council member Mark Ridley-Thomas, a prominent Democrat, was indicted by federal prosecutors on Wednesday in a complex bribery scheme that allegedly involved Marilyn Louise Flynn, the former dean of the USC School of Social Work.

The Texas Speaker of the House of Representatives issued a warrant for the arrest of a Democrat member who fled to Washington, D.C. to avoid a special session. The San Antonio-area Democrat traveled to the nation’s capital with fellow legislators to break quorum and prevent the House from voting on legislation involving election reforms. Speaker of the House Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) signed a civil arrest warrant on Monday for State Representative Philip Cortez (D-San Antonio) for his failure to return to the House of Representatives, the Texas Tribune reported. Cortez abandoned his fellow Democrats late last week when he unexpectedly...

Monday, FNC host Tucker Carlson decried the media effort to promote vaccinations by blaming the continued spread of COVID-19 on those that have not yet gotten vaccinations. Carlson also responded to comments from former FNC correspondent Carl Cameron criticizing Fox News for its primetime personalities’ willingness to question the vaccinations.

Tuesday on FNC’s “Your World,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (R-SC) downplayed Democrat opposition to voter identification requirement at the polling precincts. According to Clyburn, Democrats were not against voter identification. “So, Congressman, when you said you were absolutely open to Joe Manchin’s proposed voter ID requirement, which did seem to represent a significant pivot on your part, is that your way of saying let’s get past the ID thing, and on to other matters to get this law done?” Cavuto asked.

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) on Friday began asking Democratic colleagues to sign onto a resolution to censure three House Republicans who tried to minimize the severity of the Jan. 6 insurrection this week. In a letter to fellow House Democrats, Cicilline said that a resolution will be forthcoming to specifically censure Republican Reps. Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Jody Hice (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) for their remarks at a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on Wednesday downplaying and making false claims about the violent attack on the Capitol.

Wednesday, during an appearance on FBN’s “Morning with Maria,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) offered a contrast of Republicans and Democrats and what each would push for if one or the other were in control of the U.S. Senate after the two Georgia runoff elections. “The president was in Georgia Saturday night,” he said. “He sent a very strong, important message to the people of Georgia, that it’s important that they vote and, of course, vote for David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. I talked to Kelly yesterday. The sorts of things that you laid out, she is making sure all of...

Jaime Harrison, the South Carolina Democrat who is working to boot Republican Lindsey Graham from his Senate seat is on a great fundraising streak, according to an announcement from his campaign. The Hill reports that Harrison has raised more than $3.5 million in the last three months of 2019, an achievement that his campaign is claiming is the most that any South Carolina Democratic challenger has ever raised. The campaign said that Harrison raked in donations from voters in all 46 of South Carlina’s counties, and also comes from more than 112,000 contributions. And, according to the Post and Courier,...

Despite what Google describes as a “shift towards censorship” from big tech companies over the past three years, Democrat presidential candidates have said that they will use the power of the law to force even more censorship from Silicon Valley. Responding to a query from the far-left website Vox, Democrat candidates including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg all pledged to force big tech companies to crack down on “hate” even further.

Billionaire Meg Whitman, who was the Republican nominee for California governor in 2010 and lost to Jerry Brown, is backing Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa for governor in 2018. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “Whitman, the billionaire former eBay CEO who spent $144 million of her own money on her failed run in 2010, is co-hosting a fundraiser Thursday night for Villaraigosa in Silicon Valley.” A source close to Whitman told the Chronicle, “Meg has endorsed Antonio because, although she is a Republican, she believes he’s the best candidate for the job. Meg believes that Antonio is stronger than (Lt. Gov.)...

The nation’s top conservative donors and fundraisers are increasingly alarmed by the prospect of a midterm election wave that could cost Republicans control of the House. But the party’s deep-pocketed donors aren’t ready to abandon their efforts to keep the House in GOP hands — not yet at least. More than a half-dozen senior Republican donors and fundraisers interviewed by The Hill acknowledged that protecting the Senate majority might at some point become the only sensible investment for Republican donors. There is growing frustration among donors with the GOP-controlled House — most recently over the passage of a massive budget...

WASHINGTON — The House on Friday overwhelmingly rejected calls for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq, a vote engineered by Republicans that was intended to fail. Democrats derided the vote as a political stunt. "Our troops have become the enemy. We need to change direction in Iraq," said Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a Democratic hawk whose call a day earlier for pulling out troops sparked a nasty, personal debate over the war. The House voted 403-3 to reject a nonbinding resolution offered by the GOP calling for the military to pull out of Iraq. "We want to make sure...