Free Republic

In the spring of 1968 I was a college senior about to graduate. It was a troubled but hopeful moment to be coming into adulthood. The civil rights movement and the peace movement were converging in the nonviolent fight for racial justice and to end the Vietnam War. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most charismatic leader on both fronts, the poetic prose of his speeches soaring with critical idealism, his pacifism increasingly militant as he made the connections between domestic deprivation and foreign intervention. On April 4 King was murdered in Memphis. It was a brutal blow to the...

Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett claimed on Sunday that it caused her anguish to see that only two white lawmakers voted against the resolution honoring Charlie Kirk on Friday. Every Republican voted in favor of the resolution, but 58 Democrats voted against it, including Crockett and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who both cited their disagreement with his political views. Crockett asserted on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Kirk “specifically targeted people of color” with his “rhetoric.” “One of the things I do want to point out that’s not been laid out, that honestly hurts my heart, is when...

President Trump's flurry of recent presidential pardons has cost crime victims and taxpayers approximately $1.3 billion in restitution and payments, according to a review by House Judiciary Democrats. The pardons absolved hundreds of convicted criminals from having to pay for damages and restitution caused by their crimes. Victims have not been made whole, the Democrats said — including U.S. taxpayers who must now foot the bill for the millions of dollars in repairs and cleanup from the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.The Judiciary Committee Democrats' investigation, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, also cited several multi-million...

Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was suspended by ABC on Wednesday following a brief pressure campaign from the Trump administration as well as conservatives in the media, who successfully twisted Kimmel’s words following last week’s assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. During Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, the comedian criticized conservatives for trying to “score political points” off Kirk’s death. “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel...

“That is, unfortunately, the cancer known as white supremacy,” said the Texas congresswoman after learning about Kirk’s comments about her and the Democratic Party. A month before his shooting death, conservative activist Charlie Kirk attacked U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, blaming her and Democrats for being part of a “sinister” plan to replace white people in America. While discussing the issue of redistricting congressional maps, which played out dramatically in Texas last month, Kirk said on his Aug. 4 podcast show, “The great replacement of white people is far more sinister than any redistricting project.” “That is at the core...

President Trump has begun a major escalation in his long-running efforts to stifle political opposition in the United States, using the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk to make the baseless argument that Democratic organizations and protesters are part of a violent conspiracy against conservative values and the American way of life.

In the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, Republicans on Sunday criticized some Democrats, suggesting language used by them contributed to Kirk's killing, claims that Democrats rejected. **SNIP** Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticized Trump's threats that his administration would go after the "radical left" that he blamed for political violence. "I want to be really clear about this. This is an example of something that is hurting," Buttigieg said. "We are not getting the leadership that we need to bring this country together from the White House." "The response to this cannot be for the government to crack down on...

The backlash against FBI Director Kash Patel over the bungled search for Charlie Kirk's assassin has intensified as it emerged he went on an expletive-laden rant against his staff over the failures. Patel came under fresh fire after it emerged that suspect Tyler Robinson had finally been arrested for the alleged murder of Kirk, 31, after being turned in by his own family. Robinson's arrest Thursday night came after a 33-hour manhunt in which two other men were wrongfully detained. The mix-up led Patel to incorrectly announce that investigators had someone in custody on Wednesday before he was forced to...

'This shouldn’t even be a debate': Colorado students march against gun violence Denver7 was there when Jefferson County students walked out of class to demand more be done to stop gun violence in the wake of the Evergreen High School shooting By: Richard ButlerSep 12, 2025 WESTMINSTER, Colo. — Hundreds of students at Standley Lake High School walked out of class Friday afternoon, lining Wadsworth Boulevard with signs and chants calling for an end to gun violence. The demonstration comes just two days after two students were wounded in a shooting at Evergreen High School before the shooter turned the...

Utah Governor Spencer Cox basked in praise for his 'unity' plea at Friday's FBI press conference — but the man whose alleged assassin he was discussing once wanted him expelled from the Republican Party. Cox dominated the podium detailing Charlie Kirk's murder just three years after the TPUSA founder branded him a 'weak moderate' who 'should be expelled from the Republican party.' The 2022 social media blast came after Cox vetoed a bill banning biological males from women's sports — a move that infuriated Kirk and conservative activists. Now friends of the slain activist find it 'ironic' that the same...

A bionic arm, a chicken coop and three botched arrests. As Kash Patel's reputation as FBI chief hung in the balance following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the alleged assassin's father turned him. Donald Trump on Friday announced that the suspect was finally in custody - 44 hours after the fatal shot that killed Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. A bionic arm, chicken coops and the wrong men: The wild 44-hour search that almost turned Kash Patel into a laughingstock The Assassination of Charlie Kirk: Listen to the latest on the Daily Mail podcast By JOE HUTCHISON, US...

Charlie Kirk’s accused killer, Tyler Robinson, doesn’t fit expected narratives—sparking fierce debate about race, bias, and political violence online It took less than 33 hours to identify and arrest the man suspected of shooting and killing conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at a Utah Valley University event on Wednesday (September 10). The news traveled quickly — not just through traditional media channels, but across the virtual corridors of Twitter, where an entirely different story was unfolding. The suspect’s name is Tyler Robinson. He’s 22 years old. A local. A gun owner. A practicing Christian. A self-identified conservative and registered Republican. And...

Rather than condemning violence and calling for unity, the president of the United States accused his political opposition of being accessories to murder. It is possible that, in the history of America’s radicalization spiral, the horrifying, cold-blooded assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk will be recorded as only the second-most-dangerous event of September 10, 2025. If so, the more significant development will instead have been the speech that evening by President Donald Trump. If you did not listen to Trump’s remarks, which have received only light attention from the media, you might have missed the chilling message they contained. Trump...

Kirk, like all victims of gun violence, was someone’s family member — a husband, a father, a son. He was a professed Christian and a provocateur who took his message to places that were often hostile; he welcomed a back-and-forth with those who disagreed with his views. He was a media savant who leveraged his views into the algorithms of young people, particularly men, who have been historically reluctant to engage in politics. Many people who couldn’t have picked Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens out of a police lineup knew Charlie Kirk. Turning Point USA, the political organization he co-founded...

Readers of The Sacramento Bee's coverage of a rally for legislation pitched as protecting girls, women and parental rights at the California statehouse Friday would have no idea someone shot at the house of the volleyball coach who helped inspire the bills and spoke at the rally, or even that San Jose State University fired her for exposing a male on her women's team. The Capitol newspaper's omission of the shot fired through Melissa Batie-Smoose's window Monday while she was at home in a virtual meeting with a lawyer, confirmed by local police Thursday, and her unwilling departure from SJSU...

Legal services groups that offer representation and guidance to thousands of migrant children facing deportation said on Tuesday that they were abruptly directed by the Trump administration to halt their government-funded work. Affected organizations across the U.S. said the move would prevent them from offering critical legal services, including "know your rights" sessions, to migrant children who crossed the U.S. southern border without their parents or legal guardians. Under U.S. law, the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for housing unaccompanied migrant minors who enter the U.S. without legal authorization, until they turn 18 or can be placed...

Just caught some local Miami media saying Trump "falsely" accused Ukraine for starting the conflict with Russia. Don't know what comments they're talking about, but there was no context given...just a Democrat party talking point. Is this what the national news is doing too? Just happened on Tuesday night.

“60 Minutes” is quickly earning the reputation of being the most fake of all the fake news outlets.“60 Minutes” is already in court defending their organization after they were caught cutting and pasting Kamala Harris’s interview together to make he look like a normal thinking person.Now, this past weekend, “60 Minutes” was caught again, this time trying to pass a former speechwriter for USAID chief Samantha Power as a sad and distraught former USAID employee who the Trump administration recently fired.60 Minutes aired a segment about a sad young mother Kristina Drye who was fired from USAID in Washington DC...

WASHINGTON (AP) — His group spent nearly $1 million on ads opposing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s health agencies. He’s delivering speeches urging the president to stand with longstanding foreign allies and lobbying members of Congress while aides write letters and opinion columns. This weekend, he posted an article he penned more than a decade ago on the limits of presidential power after Trump claimed that, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” Mike Pence is emerging as one of the last Republicans in Washington willing to publicly criticize the new...

Among the hundreds of people chanting "Elon Musk has got to go!" and "No one elected Elon!" in front of the U.S. Capitol on Monday were recently fired federal workers left devastated and uncertain by their terminations. "Elon Musk doesn't even know my job exists, right? But like, we do a lot. I mean, I'm a public servant, and I do this job because I love it. So, yeah, I'm devastated, and my whole community lost their jobs. And I don't know what I'm going to do now, but I'm going to keep fighting. And you know, this stuff really...