Free Republic

Should Russia succeed in its war on Ukraine, the United States will likely have to intervene with more than just money - but also with troops, said U.S. Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries. "We cannot allow Ukraine to fall, because if it does, there is a significant possibility that America will have to intervene in the conflict — not just with our money, but with our troops," he told CBS News.

@justinamash The Antisemitism Awareness Act is flagrantly unconstitutional under the First Amendment, and the members of Congress who vote for it are shamelessly violating their oath to support and defend the Constitution. @justinamash The First Amendment exists to prohibit the government from abridging speech that others disagree with or find disagreeable, as well as speech that others hate or find hateful. @justinamash “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech…”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that military aid to Ukraine was not charity, adding that it created jobs in the United States. Host Kristen Welker said, “I want to ask you about your legacy. You said just this week that you often feel like the only Reagan Republican left. As you prepare to step down from your leadership position this year, what are your greatest concerns about the future of the Republican Party?”

@RepThomasMassie There’s a bipartisan effort in Congress to equate criticism of the secular state of Israel to violence toward Jewish people in America. The latter is illegal and the former is protected speech, but if a false equivalency is established, it will be forbidden to criticize Israel.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell distanced himself from other Republican lawmakers who have called for the National Guard to be sent in to break up the antisemitic riots and demonstrations that have taken over multiple university campuses throughout the US over the last week and a half. “What needs to happen, at least at the beginning, is these university presidents need to get control of the situation, allow free speech, and push back against antisemitism,” McConnell told Margaret Brennan on the CBS 'Face the Nation' program. “I thought that was largely gone in this country, but we’ve seen a number...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) turned off Instagram mentions on his official government account after a social media uproar over his passage of Ukraine aid. Instagram users can no longer mention the leader of the so-called “People’s House” in posts on the popular app, a change that limits users’ ability to engage with Johnson’s official account. The setting is unusual for politicians, particularly on Capitol Hill, who generally maximize their engagement with the people they serve. Notably, Johnson joins Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in turning off his mentions.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blamed Tucker Carlson for turning some Republicans against the idea of providing military aid for Ukraine by demonizing the war-torn country. The top Republican in the Senate argued that Carlson’s outspoken stance against US support for Ukraine was one of the primary reasons why approving more than $60 billion in emergency spending for the former Soviet state took so long to achieve. “I think the demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who in my opinion ended up where he should have been all along, which was interviewing Vladimir Putin,” McConnell said during...

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) raged at Republicans lawmakers on the House floor for opposing an aid package to Ukraine before Saturday’s vote. The House passed a $61 billion aid bill for Ukraine amid the country’s current war with Russia. Lawmakers also passed other bills providing assistance to Taiwan and other U.S. allies. Hardline conservative lawmakers opposed the bipartisan legislation by arguing the money should have gone towards security at the U.S. southern border. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) worked with Democratic lawmakers to bring the aid bills to the floor and ensured it’s passage. Connolly responded to those complaints by noting...

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton claimed Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former President Donald Trump did not have any idea what to do in the Middle East. Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Former President Trump last night at a rally in Pennsylvania, Shanksville, said that none of this would have happened if he had been president. Take a listen to what he said.”

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that former President Donald Trump had “simple-minded ideas about how the world works.” Bolton said, “I think it’s important to understand, and this is especially important for Trump critics to understand, he doesn’t have a philosophy. He doesn’t think in policy terms, as that’s conventionally understood in Washington. He thinks in anecdotal, ad hoc, transactional terms, seeing through the prism of how does this benefit Donald Trump.”

Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) will not vote for his own party’s nominee for president, he said Tuesday. The establishment politician’s statement that he will not vote for Donald Trump comes days after the former president locked up the party’s nomination. Young had indicated earlier he would not endorse Trump, but Tuesday is the first time he admitted publicly he will not even vote for his party’s standard bearer. “At some point, principled conservatives need to incentivize our party, the Republican Party, to nominate somebody that principled conservatives can actually believe in,” Young told a local Indiana outlet. “Stated differently, I’m...

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Thursday again pressed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to take up the Senate-passed national security spending package, which includes $60 billion for Ukraine, despite Johnson’s message to GOP senators this week that he’s moving in a different direction. McConnell didn’t express much interest in waiting weeks or maybe months for the House to come up with an alternative proposal to help Ukraine. “The chilling reality here is abundantly clear. Withholding critical weapons has not helped manage [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s escalation. It has only emboldened him,” McConnell warned on the Senate floor. That alternative...

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) blamed former President Trump and conservative media host Tucker Carlson for the rise in anti-Ukrainian sentiment in the House, dubbing the pair the leaders of a “pro-Putin faction” of the Republican Party. Ukraine aid has languished in the House for months as Republicans refuse to pass foreign spending without major border security reforms. Jeffries called on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to bring a Senate bill to the floor once again on Sunday.

Joe Biden on Saturday stopped to talk to reporters posted up on the South Lawn as he departed to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland for another weekend vacation. Reporters asked Joe Biden about escalations with Iran, the border crisis and Ukraine. Biden denied there is a crisis at the southern border even though an estimated 11 million illegal aliens – mainly military-age males from Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East – invaded on his watch. “Would you call the situation on the southern border a ‘crisis’?” a reporter asked Biden. He blamed Republicans....

Former U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross has a plan to rescue Hamas from destruction, and he unveiled it on MSNBC just as announcements were being made that Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary ceasefire.Appearing on “Watch the Beat with Ari Melber,” on November 21, Ross said that “the way to end the war in Gaza” would be for Israel to allow the Hamas leadership to leave the territory in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages. Ross said he hopes the Biden Administration will promote such a proposal.Ross cited a precedent: Israel’s decision in 1982, under U.S....

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., went into meltdown mode with Newsmax's Israel correspondent, Daniel Cohen, during a Sunday press conference in Tel Aviv. At the conference Cohen asked the senators why there was not a stronger condemnation, especially of those on the left like Democrat Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who have failed to condemn Hamas' attacks. Cohen told the senators that Tlaib's "tweet is still up condemning Israel for a hospital attack we know was a lie." At that point, Graham, who held the podium with nine U.S. senators standing behind him, blew his gasket....

On Forbes Newsroom, California Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman floated the idea of former President George W. Bush becoming the next Speaker of the House. “He could come back,” Sherman said. “Obviously, I’m not a real fan of how the Iraq War went, but I would think that any reasonable Republican would be somebody that Democrats could work with — if it was part of a system where you didn’t have five of the most extreme Republicans blocking important legislation and saying, ‘If you bring that to the floor for a vote, we’ll knock you out of your Speakership.’” Sherman said...

...."I think Ramaswamy reminds me an awful lot of Donald Trump," Bolton said in response to Ramaswamy expressing a need for facts in order to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal. "He has very firm opinions on subjects he knows absolutely nothing about and this was an example of it." "The main point is that Ramaswamy has made other points about this war and about what he's going to do to try and solve it," Bolton said. "Like Trump said, he would put Zelenskyy and Putin in a room and have it solved in 24 hours. Ramaswamy is...

Donald Trump’s pursuit of the 2024 Republican presidential nomination will damage both the party and America, particularly if he succeeds. Neutral observers might think the growing mountain of legal challenges – criminal and civil – including the one filed on Tuesday in Washington, would give Trump pause, notwithstanding his current opinion-poll lead in the Republican race. And everyone not named Trump recognises the enormous risks if he becomes the first convicted felon nominated for the presidency, or worse yet elected president. For Trump, however, staying in the race increases his chances to get the nomination and secure funding to pay...

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