Free Republic

Six Democratic governors — five of whom are up for re-election in November — have urged Congress to adopt legislation suspending the federal gas tax until next year as prices at the pump hit record highs after President Biden ordered a ban on importing Russian oil. The six governors — Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Jared Polis of Colorado, Tim Waltz of Minnesota, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, and Tony Evers of Wisconsin — noted in a letter to House and Senate leadership Tuesday that the average price of a gallon of gas had hit $4.173...

The White House wants Americans to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic, despite a flood of Democrat governors announcing plans to lift mandates in their states. “Our guidance has consistently been this: When you are in a high-transmission area, which is everywhere in the country, you should wear a mask in indoor settings, including schools,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday during the daily briefing.

The governors of four states announced plans Monday to lift statewide mask requirements in schools a month or two from now, citing the rapid easing of COVID-19′s omicron surge. The decisions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon were announced as state and local governments grapple with which COVID-19 restrictions to jettison and which ones to keep in place. The changes also come amid a growing sense that the virus is never going to go away and Americans need to find a way to coexist with it.

White House officials are going the extra mile to ensure President Biden does not test positive for COVID-19, potentially undermining the administration’s own message about vaccine efficacy. During Monday’s National Governors Association winter meeting at the White House, Biden was seated at least 10 feet away from all other attendees and was the only person given a glass of water — thereby ensuring no one else needed to remove their face coverings. ... All this took place despite Biden being fully vaccinated and getting a booster shot in late September. ... During Monday’s event, Biden admitted that the US has...

Closing schools worked. Closing restaurants worked. Wearing masks worked. We know they worked because the governors that ordered them said so. The CDC said so. The NIH said so. We were granted the greatest scientific experiment COVID-19 could offer (except for the cruise ships, which provided the original scientific experiment and was ignored). Many states had (and have) wildly different policies during the pandemic. The question we need to ask and data we need to study is, if the tight restrictions worked, did they result in fewer COVID-19 and moreover total excess deaths? Comparing one state to another, cherry-picking low-impacted...

The gubernatorial election landscape in 2022 is shaping up to be competitive as Republicans look to flip a number of governors' mansions across the country. Republicans are feeling momentum after Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin's victory in November, when he became the first Republican to win a statewide race in the blue-leaning state since 2009. The party says the political environment is prime for Republicans to oust a number of vulnerable Democratic governors this year, including Gov. Laura Kelly in Kansas and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan. However, Democrats say they see opportunities in states with contentious GOP primaries, particularly in...

Former Biden transition team COVID-19 adviser Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel on Monday voiced his opposition to unemployment benefits for unvaccinated workers who lose their jobs over vaccine mandates. GOP-led states like Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee have extended unemployment benefits to people who have lost their jobs over mandates. Reportedly, three other states are considering following suit.

What’s Happening: For months, we’ve seen the Southern border grow out of control. Reports indicate over one million migrants have flooded the country. More are on their way. Clearly, this is a situation that needs to end. But, as you can imagine, Joe Biden is blatantly ignoring the situation. Governors from border states have called on Joe to do something. His administration has ignored them. So, a team of Republican governors is taking matters into their own hands. And they are storming the border themselves. From IJR: Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced he will join 10 additional GOP governors...

Fifteen Republican governors, led by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, have launched “Operation Open Road,” an initiative that seeks to ease the U.S. supply chain crunch through a range of state and federal measures, including calling on the Biden administration to remove “burdensome” regulations on the trucking industry and to suspend President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for private employers. Lee announced the start of the operation in a statement on Nov. 22, the same day that he signed an executive order (pdf) deregulating critical trucking functions in Tennessee. “Republican governors across the country have committed to doing everything we can to...

A recent poll shows that nine out of ten most popular governors in the United States are Republicans while President Biden’s approval rating is lower than the country’s least popular governor. Vermont Republican Phil Scott is the most popular governor in America and holds a 71% approval rating, according to a recent Morning Consult poll that shows Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont as the only Democrat to register in the top 10.

Democratic governors hailed passage of a bipartisan infrastructure package that will send billions of dollars to state coffers to launch new projects and rebuild crumbling roads and bridges. But only a handful of their Republican colleagues heralded the bill, which won votes from 19 Republican senators and 13 Republicans in the House. “This bipartisan bill will put America’s infrastructure on the right track to grow jobs and make our economy competitive for the twenty-first century without raising taxes or adding to the debt,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said in a statement. “After decades of gridlock, I’m proud to have...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — U.S. governors want a seat at the table as international leaders prepare to gather in Scotland at a critical moment for global efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions and slow the planet’s temperature rise. At least a half dozen state governors — all Democrats — plan to attend parts of the two-week United Nation’s climate change conference in Glasgow, known as COP26. Though states aren’t official parties to talks, governors hold significant sway over the United States’ approach to tackling climate change by setting targets for reducing carbon emissions and transitioning to renewable energy. Governors slated...

Some governors have noted President Joe Biden’s lack of engagement with states regarding the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. His administration continues the practice of weekly conference calls with governors, which started under President Donald Trump, but Biden himself has yet to attend. His vice president, Kamala Harris, has only briefly attended one call and took no questions, according to several governors. The lack of engagement has disappointed some governors, who said they can’t even tell if their feedback, questions, and requests are reaching the president or not. Some have stopped attending the calls, considering them no longer useful....

Chris Christie scolded Republican governors who are blocking municipalities and school boards from implementing mask and vaccine mandates, saying their heavy-handed control of local coronavirus mitigation efforts violates the tenets of conservatism. “I don't think governors should be telling the locals they can't do it. A real conservative, I think, says, 'Government is best that works at the level closest to the people,' the former two-term New Jersey governor and Republican 2024 contender said during a virtual appearance at the annual Texas Tribune Festival.

More Republican governors across the United States are publicly supporting President Joe Biden’s massive refugee resettlement operation out of Afghanistan which is set to bring at least 95,000 Afghans to the U.S. over the next year. Last week, the Biden administration announced that the first group of roughly 36,000 Afghans brought to the U.S. at rapid speed will be resettled across 46 states — including Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

Twenty-seven Republican governors or attorneys general have vowed to fight the latest executive order issued by President Joe Biden mandating that over 80 million private employees receive COVID vaccinations or undergo weekly testing, or their employer will be fined.The executive order directs the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to require private businesses with more than 100 employees mandate that their workers receive both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine or undergo weekly testing. Noncompliance would result in fines of $14,000 per violation.The governors who’ve expressed opposition include those from Arizona, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,...

President Joe Biden’s aggressive push to require millions of U.S. workers to vaccinate against the coronavirus is running into a wall of resistance from Republicans threatening everything from lawsuits to civil disobedience, plunging the country deeper into culture wars that have festered since the onset of the pandemic. There are even some Democrats that are speaking against Biden’s mandates.The mandate, which requires employers with more than 100 employees to mandate either vaccination or weekly testing, will be covered under a forthcoming rule from the Labor Department and its Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Biden believes OSHA has the authority to...

President Biden on Friday dismissed arguments from Republicans that his administration’s new vaccine requirements amount to federal overreach and said some GOP governors are being “cavalier” with the health of their constituents. Asked about opponents vowing to challenge the new vaccination measures, Biden replied: “Have at it.” “I am so disappointed that particularly some Republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier with the health of their communities,” Biden said during an appearance at a Washington, D.C., school. “We’re playing for real here, and this isn’t a game, and I don’t know of any...

Joe Biden threatened Republican governors on Thursday to follow his rules or, “I will use my power to get them out of the way.”Joe Biden went after anyone who stood in his way on Thursday.You either agree with him and follow his unconstitutional orders or you will be destroyed.Joe Biden, “let me be blunt. My plan also takes on elected officials in states that are undermining you… Talk about bullying the schools. If these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I will use my power as president to get them out of the way.”Healthy school children have literally zero...

Accord­ing to Human Events Senior Edi­tor Jack Poso­biec, Cal­i­for­nia Gov­er­nor Gavin New­som, who is fac­ing recall, has been call­ing the White House in a panic.New­som has been call­ing the White House in a pan­ic. Sounds scared.— Jack Poso­biec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2021It appears that Kamala Har­ris has answered his des­per­ate call for help and is on her way to Cal­i­for­nia to try to save him, accord­ing the the NYPost:Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris will hit the cam­paign trail next week along­side embat­tled Cal­i­for­nia Gov. Gavin New­som — only days before the Sept. 14 dead­line of the all-mail recall elec­tion that...