Free Republic

Joy Reid deserves everyone’s support. The most destructive and insidious hacker in journalistic history is on the loose, ready to snatch another career. Reid, who hosts “AM Joy” on MSNBC, is somehow hanging onto hers. On Saturday morning she addressed the controversy relating to a stack of homophobic posts that piled up on her long-shuttered blog, the Reid Report. “I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things because they are completely alien to me. But I can definitely understand based on things I have tweeted and have written in the past why some people don’t believe me,” said...

Former FBI Director James Comey said America has weathered dark times in the past, which proves it can survive President Trump being acquitted by the Senate. “When I was a little kid, the United States seemed to be coming apart,” Comey, 59, wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post. Comey cited the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, as well as the protests against the Vietnam War and desegregation. “War and death and disorder dominated the news,” he wrote. “There is a natural human tendency to think we live...

Washington Post journalist has been suspended by the newspaper after she tweeted a link on Sunday to a years-old story about the Kobe Bryant rape case just hours after the basketball legend and his daughter were killed in a helicopter crash. Felicia Sonmez, who covers national politics for the Post, took to Twitter shortly after the world learned of Bryant’s death along with eight others aboard his private helicopter which crashed outside of Los Angeles. She posted a link to an April 2016 story from the news site The Daily Beast which carried the headline: ‘Kobe Bryant’s Disturbing Rape Case:...

Dr. Fiona Hill told the impeachment inquiry Thursday that she was concerned that a hold on aid might endanger Ukraine’s security. But in a 2015 Washington Post op-ed, Hill argued against giving Ukraine any lethal weapons. Hill was testifying in the seventh public hearing in the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry. As she had in her closed-door deposition last month, Hill said she was concerned about Ukraine’s security and stability as it defended itself against Russia. In that context, she — and others — were worried about a hold on security.But Hill also had to admit that she co-authored an op-ed in 2015, when...

The other matchup that jumps out at me is the possibility of Jennifer Rubin matching up with her Washington Post teammate Max Boot with the Final Four on the line.This is a parody. This is not meant to reflect any beliefs or statements of ESPN or the personalities named in this parody, nor any of the actual mannerisms of such people. Scott Van Pelt: So one of the most eagerly awaited moments of the 2020 election year has finally arrived. The selection committee revealed its brackets for the Comfortably Smug #LiberalHack tournament, sponsored as always by the private equity firm...

The Associated Press (AP) described the matter of Joe Biden’s leveraging of U.S. foreign aid to pressure Ukraine to fire a prosecutor investigating corruption at Burisma — a Ukrainian energy company upon whose board of directors Hunter Biden sat — in order to protect his second son as a “false narrative.” The AP echoed similar news media outlets’ mischaracterization of the above-mentioned event, including the New York Times, Snopes, NPR, USA Today, Vox, and the Washington Post. In a column identifying differing perceptions of political goings on being related to varying news media consumption patterns, the AP dismisses Joe Biden’s...

A federal judge on Monday pressed lawyers to prepare for an April trial in the prosecution of a Russian company charged with interfering in the 2016 presidential election, expressing frustration over delays in a case that was originally brought by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller III’s office. “We’re now on a trial track,” declared U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich of the District of Columbia, during a 90-minute court hearing in Washington’s federal trial court. She added: “If I left this up to you all, we wouldn’t be trying this case until 2021.” Friedrich, federal prosecutors and defense lawyers for the...

A federal judge Friday suggested that former national security advisor Michael Flynn may need to testify under oath in order to withdraw his guilty plea for lying to investigators in the Russia probe. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington wrote in a brief order that Flynn’s legal team should file paperwork on whether he should hold a hearing on to set aside his guilty plea. Such a hearing would include “testimony from Mr. Flynn and other witnesses under oath, subject to cross-examination, to show any ‘fair and just reason’ for this court to grant his motion to withdraw. The...

Towards the end of night two of the Senate impeachment trial, the Washington Post reported Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., left the trial over an hour before its conclusion. Washington Post Reporter Paul Kane said Feinstein exited the Senate chambers through the carriage entrance into an awaiting car at 8:45PM. On Wednesday, MSNBC Hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes criticized senators who left the impeachment trial early, questioning their devotion to their country. “We also live in a country in which we ask every citizen to serve on juries. Most of those people have other jobs they have to take leave...

President Donald Trump's top Russia expert on the National Security Counsel is reportedly on leave pending a security investigation. Andrew Peek, the NSC’s senior director for European and Russian affairs, was escorted from the White House grounds on Friday, two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Peek had been in the NSC role for just two months, after most recently working as a deputy assistant secretary of state with responsibility for Iran and Iraq. Peek had been expected to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland next week with Trump and other top aides. However, he is currently...

Calling it “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion” and contrary to law, 14 states, New York City and Washington, D.C., asked a federal court in a lawsuit Thursday to vacate a final rule that if implemented will cut off nearly 700,000 people from food stamp benefits due to the imposition of stricter requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents.“Plaintiffs respectfully request that this Court vacate the Rule and enjoin its implementation because it is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not in accordance with law under the Administrative Procedure…because the Rule was promulgated without observance of procedure required by...

“Harry Villegas, Right-Hand Man and Bodyguard to Che Guevara, Dies at 81.--Harry Villegas, best-known by his nom de guerre Pombo, was one of the last people to see Guevara alive in Bolivia in 1967…Surrounded by the U.S.-backed Bolivian army, Guevara, already wounded in a firefight, told Mr. Villegas and two other Cuban guerrillas to try to save themselves by slipping through the Bolivian cordon.” (The Washington Post Jan. 6, 2020) 'WOW!' probably gushes the typical WaPo reader. 'Che Guevara sure was brave, selfless and heroic!' “In his memoir, Mr. Villegas wrote that Guevara could have escaped the army encirclement but was...

There is no more sacred room for military officers than 2E924 of the Pentagon, a windowless and secure vault where the Joint Chiefs of Staff meet regularly to wrestle with classified matters. Its more common name is “the Tank.” The Tank resembles a small corporate boardroom, with a gleaming golden oak table, leather swivel armchairs and other mid-century stylings. Inside its walls, flag officers observe a reverence and decorum for the wrenching decisions that have been made there. Hanging prominently on one of the walls is The Peacemakers, a painting that depicts an 1865 Civil War strategy session with President...

Not only has the “Phase One” trade deal now been signed by the United States and China, but official texts have now been released. And my initial read indicates that the Trump administration just might have come up with an effective enforcement regime – though success here will depend on U.S. governments (including this one) displaying nerves of steel. At the same time, the enforcement terms raise the question of why the President felt the need to reach this point via a treaty, rather than simply punish China unilaterally for economic transgressions – as his tariffs on hundreds of...

Pete Buttigieg earns 3 'Pinocchios' over claim he slashed black poverty rate 'by more than half' in South Bend, Ind. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg was awarded “Three Pinocchios” – the highest bluff rating on The Washington Post’s Fact Checker scale – after claiming last week that he had “cut the black poverty rate by more than half” in South Bend, Ind., since he became mayor there in 2012. Buttigieg made the assertion at a Dec. 2 meet-and-greet in Allendale, S.C. – where the majority of the population is black. According to the Post, the 2020 hopeful used estimates from...

A former President George W. Bush administration official blasted Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg over his lack of experience in national politics, which she argues makes him underqualified for the Oval Office. Sheila Bair, the former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), said Democrats are “almost maniacal in their eagerness to oust” President Trump and in doing so are less focussed on the qualifications of their candidates. “Enter Pete Buttigieg, whose primary asset seems to be a thin résumé,”Bair wrote in an op-ed published Wednesday in The Washington Post.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard rules. So says Jeff Bezos. The Blue Origin founder apparently sides firmly with Sir Patrick Stewart's portrayal of Picard from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" when picking the best starship captain from the "Star Trek" franchise. Of course, that may be because Bezos hung out with Stewart at a recent event "Kirk or Picard? Picard!" Bezos wrote on Twitter Saturday (March 10)...

Overblown alarm over reasonable gun-control laws proposed in statehouses across the country has led to a movement by various local governments declaring themselves Second Amendment “sanctuaries” — vowing to establish local jurisdictions where state gun laws that they view as unconstitutional will not be enforced. These resolutions, to the extent they conflict with state law, lack legal effect: In Tazewell County, Va., for example, the “Sanctuary Resolution” approved by the board of supervisors purports to prohibit any county employee from enforcing, and any county funds from being used for the enforcement of, new state gun laws the county deems unconstitutional....

A Thursday Washington Post story attacked Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) for "manipulating" an image of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), even though such modifications are standard in political advertising on both sides of the aisle, including from Pelosi herself. "Rep. Stefanik tweets altered photo of Pelosi in GOP fundraising appeal," read the headline of a Post piece. Reporter Felicia Sonmez wrote that the photo "appears to have been manipulated" and shows "a close-up, red-tinted photo of Pelosi, with the lines in the House speaker’s face exaggerated due to the image's unnaturally high contrast."

An investigation launched into Hillary Clinton in November of 2017 by the DOJ and US Attorney John Huber has ended.Failed Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Huber to investigate Clinton Foundation.The investigation ended without charges.Huber never interviewed any key figures in the two-plus years of his investigation.And key whistleblowers were never interviewed and their evidence was lost during the sham investigation.The House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations held a hearing on Capitol Hill on the Clinton Foundation in December 2018. Mark Meadows (R-NC), the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, led the hearing. Two Clinton Foundation whistleblowers spoke at the...