Free Republic

@RandPaul I'm not afraid to make the tough decisions, even if it means I'm standing alone.

Transcripts. Meet the Press – May 18, 2025 Fmr. Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Andrea Mitchell, Amna Nawaz, Stephen Hayes and Ashley Etienne. May 18, 2025, 11:49 AM EDT. KRISTEN WELKER: This Sunday: out of office. My exclusive interview with former Vice President Mike Pence. FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE: I've never been a fan of American presidents criticizing America on foreign soil. KRISTEN WELKER: His thoughts on the second Trump administration and the direction of the Republican Party. FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE: There's no question in this administration that he is...

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis excoriated Trump administration lawyers Friday in a remarkable status hearing centered on Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian migrant and alleged MS-13 member who was deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March in what administration officials have acknowledged was an administrative error. The heated back-and-forth was full of eye-popping exchanges between the judge and the Justice Department, as she took umbrage with their attempts to invoke the state secrets privilege to shield details concerning Abrego Garcia from the court. "What world are we living in," Xinis asked in disbelief after more than two hours...

A U.S. judge in New Mexico on Thursday dismissed trespassing charges against dozens of migrants caught in a new military zone on the U.S.-Mexico border, marking a setback for Trump administration efforts to raise penalties for illegal crossings. Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth began filing the dismissals late on Wednesday, ruling migrants did not know they were entering the New Mexico military zone and therefore could not be charged, according to court documents. Assistant Federal Public Defender Amanda Skinner said Wormuth dismissed the charges against all migrants who made initial court appearances on Thursday. The migrants still face charges...

The Polaris Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that administers the National Human Trafficking Hotline, regularly fails to refer tips to law enforcement for investigation, whistleblowers told the Senate Judiciary Committee, confirming an earlier complaint from a bipartisan group of state attorneys general. The Polaris Project in 2023 received $4,831,020 in government grants, according to the charity's IRS filings. In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, whose agency oversees Polaris' use of ACF funding, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley presented the evidence turned over to Congress by an anonymous employee of Polaris and detailed the allegations. The...

judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to admit some 12,000 refugees into the United States under a court order partially blocking the president's efforts to suspend the nation's refugee admissions program. The order from U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead followed arguments from the Justice Department and refugee resettlement agencies over how to interpret a federal appeals court ruling that

One of the radical-left judges involved in sabotaging President Trump’s immigration agenda has been Loomered in brutal fashion. As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston, a Biden nominee, issued an injunction on Tuesday barring Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in the Eastern District of California from stopping illegal aliens without a warrant or proving that the person is a threat to flee before they can get a warrant. Thurston’s decision came after several individuals were arrested in January during Border Patrol’s “Operation Return to Sender.” This was just part of President Trump’s smashing success...

The ruling is a blow to Trump’s deportation efforts and permanently bars removals under the Alien Enemies Act in South Texas.A Trump-appointed federal judge ruled Thursday that the president exceeded his authority by invoking the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport Venezuelan migrants, dealing a blow to the administration’s deportation efforts and permanently barring such removals in South Texas. In a 36-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. in Brownsville, Texas, rejected Trump’s declarations that the United States was being invaded by a Venezuelan gang to justify using the act to deport migrants without a hearing. He said the...

@RandPaul Tune in now - I’ll be live on the Senate floor soon talking trade and tax policy.

Welfare fraud under $25,000 in California could be decriminalized due to Senate Bill 560, which was introduced by State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D) in February. The bill would decriminalize welfare fraud under that amount in the state for administrative errors, Fox News reported on Monday. According the outlet’s Bill Melugin, “Smallwood-Cuevas represents a large chunk of Los Angeles County, including Mar Vista, West LA, Baldwin Hills, Ladera Heights, Century City, Playa Vista, and part of downtown LA.,” he wrote in a social media post on Monday:

As Big Abortion offloads its medical responsibility onto women who purchase the abortion pill, those women are expected to function as their own doctor, nurse, and pathologist in so-called “self-managed” mail-order abortions. Additionally, in an apparent deceptive scheme to hide adverse abortion pill outcomes, abortion profiteers also advise women experiencing serious complications to present to the emergency room (ER) and lie about the cause of those complications. This, of course, helps no one but the industry itself. When things go wrong, women do not end up at the door of the prescriber, who is clear of any responsibility for the...

"GOP Sen. Rand Paul says he expects to have enough votes in Senate to pass resolution to effectively block Trump’s tariffs. But Paul, who expects the vote Wednesday, attacked Speaker Johnson’s move to block such resolutions as “dishonesty.”" *** The background to this, via Politico: The White House warned that Trump will veto a bipartisan Senate resolution that would terminate his sweeping global “Liberation Day” tariffs. The statement of administration policy from the Office of Management and Budget, sent to congressional offices Monday, comes ahead of an expected vote this week forced by several Democrats led by Sen. Ron Wyden...

The illegal immigrant at the center of the controversial arrest of a Wisconsin judge is accused of smashing a person's face 30 times in a dispute about loud music. The violent incident is just one in a 'laundry list' of charges against Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican citizen, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. Flores-Ruiz, 29, appeared in front of Wisconsin County Judge Hannah Dugan on April 18 to face claims he left his roommate and his girlfriend in the hospital after the alleged assault. During that court appearance, ICE agents who were there to arrest the illegal immigrant...

As Russia continues its warfare against Ukraine, one outspoken Republican senator is encouraging President Donald Trump to put Russian President Vladimir Putin in his place. "Putin has reneged on every promise that he has made to President Trump. His latest proposal is, well, nothing. He wants to keep all the territory that he's taken," Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said on the latest installment of "Fox News Sunday." "He wants to prohibit Ukraine from joining NATO, and he wants America and Europe to stop helping Ukraine," he added. "I think that Putin thinks that America has taken the bullet train to...

Democrats on Thursday were bracing for a sustained attack on their fundraising operation by Republicans, as President Donald Trump targets ActBlue. Trump plans to direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the major online donation platform for what the administration cast as “unlawful ‘straw donor’ and foreign contributions to American elections” in a presidential memorandum on Thursday. “President Trump is taking action to address malign actors and foreign nationals who seek to illegally influence American elections, undermining the integrity of our electoral process,” a fact sheet detailing the memo obtained by POLITICO states. “ActBlue has become notorious for its lax...

A federal judge in West Texas halted the deportation of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act. US District Judge David Briones, a Clinton appointee, on Friday ordered the release of two suspected TdA members. The judge admonished DOJ lawyers and said they “have not demonstrated they have any lawful basis” to keep the couple detained. The couple, Julio Cesar Sanchez Puentes and Luddis Norelia Sanchez Garcia, arrived in the US from Mexico in 2022 and were granted temporary protected status (TPS) by the Biden Regime. President Trump terminated the TPS program, and the couple was...

Gov. Gavin Newsom praised a California congressman for trying to intervene on behalf of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a week after he was criticized by his fellow Democrats for calling the fervor over Garcia’s wrongful deportation to El Salvador a “distraction.” Newsom asked supporters Thursday to donate on behalf of Rep. Robert Garcia’s reelection campaign, saying he “made California proud” and “deserves our thanks” for flying to try and meet with Abrego Garcia, whom immigration officials initially deported on accident from Maryland to a Salvadoran prison known for human rights abuses. The U.S. Supreme Court and a federal judge found that...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is continuing his push against President Donald Trump's tariffs, with legislation he is co-sponsoring against them to come before the Senate next week. Paul says lawmakers should be in control of tariffs, rather than Trump, through the use of a national-emergency law. The discussion will come less than a month after Paul was one of the only two chamber Republicans to vote against his party's budget, which is seen as a key part of the president's tax cuts, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. "I don't have any bad feelings towards the president, but this is...

WASHINGTON — Many Republican lawmakers lie low when they have differences with President Trump. Sen. Rand Paul has taken the opposite approach. “Congress needs to grow a spine, and Congress needs to stand up for its prerogatives,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters, complaining that Trump relied on a national-emergency law to impose tariffs that Paul believes should be controlled by lawmakers. His comments came just days after he was one of only two GOP senators to vote against the party’s budget framework that is key to Trump’s tax cuts, saying it didn’t do enough to reduce the deficit. The libertarian...

[H/T HoneysuckleTN]https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1914674910049296868 8:37 AM · Apr 22, 2025 · 355K Views