Free Republic

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) issued a warning to states moving to keep former President Trump off the presidential ballot, saying the House of Representatives has the final say over whether electors from those states are certified on Jan. 6, 2025. “Maine, Colorado, and other states that might try to bureaucratically deny ballot access to any Republican nominee should remember the U.S. House of Representatives is the ultimate arbiter of whether to certify electors from those states,” Massie posted Friday on X, formerly Twitter. Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, replied to Massie’s tweet about certification: “Interesting.” Trump was declared ineligible...

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday said he plans to talk to Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) about his expletive-laced confrontation with teenage Senate pages early Thursday morning. “I haven’t been able to speak to him yet. I’ll call him today. I don’t know the situation, I saw what was reported,” McCarthy told reporters Friday. “That’s not the norm of Derrick Van Orden,” McCarthy said. McCarthy said that he had spoken to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) about the incident with the pages, who assist Senate operations. The two congressional leaders had a pre-planned meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson promised never-before-seen footage of the Jan. 6 riot that would reveal new details and alter public perceptions of the Capitol breach. But in his first shows dedicated to the topic, he largely came up short in delivering smoking guns. Carlson gained access to some 44,000 hours of the attack by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a move that was opposed by former members of the Jan. 6 committee and alarmed Capitol Police who said it had remained unaired due to security concerns.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson released the first portion of never-before-seen angles of footage from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters on Monday, describing the scene at one point as “mostly peaceful chaos.” “‘Deadly insurrection.’ Everything about that phrase is a lie,” Carlson said on his widely watched weeknight program. “Very little about Jan. 6 was organized or violent. Surveillance video from inside the Capitol shows mostly peaceful chaos.”There have been multiple deaths tied to the attack, and roughly 1,000 arrests have been made in connection with it, while some 500 have pleaded guilty over...

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said he is undecided on whether he will vote to block Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from sitting on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressing concern about censorship of opposing views. “The reason I think a lot of Republicans want to kick Ilhan Omar off of the Foreign Affairs Committee is because they don’t like what she has to say,” Gaetz said on Newsmax Monday night. “I am undecided as of tonight as to whether or not I would vote to remove Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee, because it’s one thing to do dangerous things...

House Republicans elected Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the chief of their campaign team,to be House majority whip in a closed-door conference vote on Tuesday, ending a closely-fought race with Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.). The conference separately voted to elect Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) as majority leader by voice vote. Scalise had been serving as minority whip. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was elected Speaker-designate. A vote on the House floor will eventually determine the Speakership.

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), the Democratic nominee for governor of Florida, is resigning from the House and leaving his term early as the heads into the height of campaign season. Crist’s resignation will be effective at the end of the day on Wednesday, according to the Tampa Bay Times. n a statement to the Tampa Bay Times, Crist said it was “an honor and a privilege” to represent his constituents in Congress, adding that “these achievements start and end with you, the people — my bosses — who have guided my work in Congress since Day One.” His resignation comes...

Republican worries of a midterm flop are growing heading into the critical post-Labor Day campaign season, with analysts who had previously predicted massive GOP gains shifting their forecasts toward Democrats. Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist and analyst, said the environment looks “not even close” to a red wave election year. “The enthusiasm is just not there,” Tyler said. “Last time Republicans had a good year, they were six points ahead in the generic poll. Now we’re barely two points ahead. So it’s definitely not going to happen.”

Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos is working as an unpaid intern in the congressional office of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Yiannopoulos, 37, announced the job on his Telegram account Monday with a photo of his official intern congressional badge. “I’ve finally been persuaded out of retirement. But my skills are a bit rusty, so the best role I could land was an unpaid internship with a friend. Pray for me!” Yiannopoulos said.

House Republican leaders are rebutting accusations from Democrats, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and others that their rhetoric has contributed to white supremacy in light of Saturday’s Buffalo, N.Y., shooting, in which a white shooter targeted Black victims, killing 10 people. “Same thing Cheney always does, just trying to play a political game when she knows something’s not true,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Monday evening. Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) similarly said that those accusing Republicans of racism are “trying to promote their own political agenda.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack that removing former President Trump through the 25th Amendment “takes too long,” according to the latest leaked recording of a call with top House GOP colleagues. McCarthy, who is aiming to be Speaker if Republicans win the House majority in November, also said that what Trump did was “atrocious and totally wrong” but expressed opposition to impeachment on the call.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) aired frustration with members of his own party for making disparaging comments about GOP colleagues, saying lawmakers such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) were “putting people in jeopardy.” The comments, disclosed in newly released audio from The New York Times, show McCarthy frustrated by the tenor of some of those comments in the days after Jan. 6, 2021 — a feeling that appears to have faded as GOP lawmakers continue to disparage the two Republicans who sit on the committee investigating the riot.

Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is denying that the leader told GOP colleagues he would recommend former President Trump resign if he was impeached over the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, one of many Trump-bashing comments from top Republicans revealed in a forthcoming book.

A former district staff member for Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) is accusing him of improperly firing her after denying her family and medical leave, allegations the lawmaker and his office have vehemently denied. At one point during the call, Lisa Wiggins, who was a caseworker for the 26-year-old first-term representative in his district office for over a year, described that office as having “more liquor bottles than they do water bottles.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz possesses text message screenshots, an email, and a typed document that purportedly support his claims that a federal investigation into his relationship with a 17-year-old is related to an extortion scheme against him. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that the Justice Department is investing whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid her to travel with him. Gaetz has called the report "totally false." Gaetz told Axios that his lawyers told him that he "was not a target but a subject of an investigation regarding sexual conduct with women." The Florida Republican...

Mike Carey, former President Donald Trump’s preferred candidate, won the Republican nomination in the primary for Ohio’s 15th congressional district special election on Tuesday. The result is a win for the former president, who had the power of his endorsement questioned after backing a losing candidate in a Texas special election last week.