Free Republic

President Donald Trump’s legal team is crafting a “counter-report” that will seek to delegitimize Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling and present countervailing arguments. Trump’s personal attorney, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, told The Daily Beast in an interview on Thursday that part of his report would examine whether the “initiation of the investigation was…legitimate or not.”

A new Harris Poll released this morning of more than 1,000 blue-collar Americans undermines the conventional wisdom that such workers are unsatisfied with their job and their future in their fields. A majority of the workers said they would recommend their jobs to friends and family members as something that has value and virtue in their lives and in their communities. The survey also shows 70 percent of blue-collar workers maintain a deep distrust of elected officials. The pattern: positivity for their lives and livelihoods and negativity toward national politics. The poll was commissioned by Express Employment, an Oklahoma City...

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) condemned President Trump’s warning of possible violence if the Democrats take back the House in the fall, calling it “fascism in the flesh.” “This is fascism in the flesh. This is the language of a fanatic that could be lifted from a tyrant’s playbook,” Pascrell tweeted Wednesday. “This is not a warning but an incitement. Unless we stand united against it." (TWEET-AT-LINK) The president told evangelical leaders Monday that Democrats will “violently” overturn Republican gains if they win back the lower chamber. “They will overturn everything that we've done and they'll do it quickly and violently,...

During an appearance on MSNBC Monday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) urged fellow Democrat lawmakers to make efforts to impeach President Donald Trump a central issue. A partial transcript follows: DAVID GURA: You’ve had a couple of days to consider what happened on Tuesday of this week, just to pivot to another subject here. That being what happened in a federal courtroom outside of Washington, D.C. in Alexandria, what happened in New York, as well. Michael Cohen plead guilty to some campaign finance violations, among other things. I want to read a little bit from your statement you issued after those...

This president is not going to be forced out of office because of infidelity. Congress has been down that road before — and it led nowhere. Last week was widely held to be the darkest of President Donald Trump’s presidency. His longtime former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation — paying off Trump mistresses in what amounted to an illegal campaign contribution — and indicated Trump put him up to it. It was, some said, the beginning of the end. Well, the end may come. But this is not the beginning of it. Trump is not...

Carter also said an additional statement Trump issued under fire is “still not as enthusiastic as it should be.” Jimmy Carter remains unimpressed with President Donald Trump’s belated effort to take note of and honor the late Sen. John McCain’s service to the U.S. In fact, the 93-year-old former president characterized it as “at best adequate.” Carter spoke with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday about Trump’s responses after McCain ― who endured torture as a POW during the Vietnam war, served more than 45 years in Congress and was the 2008 GOP presidential nominee ― died at his home in...

If you’re confused by President Trump’s reluctance to celebrate the life of Sen. John McCain, it’s because Trump knows something you don’t: his base. The Red Hats And Talk Radio wing of American politics has long had a problematic relationship with the Arizona senator. And by “problematic,” I mean, they hated his guts. For years, McCain was the poster child of the kind of Republicanism they loathed, the kind of Republicanism that eventually led many of these voters to turn to Trump in the first place. And if he were still with us, McCain would say “You’re damn right.” New...

Pastor Robert Jeffress said on Monday night that evangelical supporters of President Trump don’t support his alleged “extramarital affairs” but do support his “excellent policies.” “I know a lot of people are still perplexed- why are Christians so supportive of Donald Trump?” Jeffress said during an appearance on Fox News. “Well, it’s really not that hard to figure out when you realize he is the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty, pro-conservative judiciary in history and that includes either Bush or Ronald Reagan.” The pro-Trump pastor went on to say that is why he believes so many evangelicals remain committed to the...

Viola Davis has one person in mind when it comes to improving race relations in the country -- and she's a new, young face in politics who could soon be in congress. We got the 'How to Get Away with Murder' star Sunday at LAX and asked who she thought might be the next champion of our time, especially when it comes to easing racial tensions ... which seem to be at a bit of a boiling point lately. She nominates Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who just won the Democratic primary in New York and earned a spot on the midterm election...

During Sunday’s “The Cats Roundtable” on New York AM 970 radio, pollster and political analyst Pat Caddell weighed in on the 2018 midterm elections and said it was pretty obvious Democrats would “make an effort to impeach” President Donald Trump if they took the House. “I’m not sure this is an ordinary midterm, any more than 2016 was an ordinary presidential election. I believe we have yet to see this election engaged,” Caddell told host John Catsimatidis. “And it should be a national election. It will be nationalized. One of the issues is going to be impeachment. I don’t think...

After a week that saw President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman convicted on eight counts of fraud and his former lawyer plead guilty to felony campaign finance charges, the president's job approval rating remains virtually unchanged, new polling from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal shows. But the stability in Trump's approval rating also comes as more than half of voters say he has not been honest and truthful regarding the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. And fewer than three-in-ten voters are convinced that Trump himself is not implicated in the wrongdoing of the six of his...

In the rush and fervor to impeach President Donald Trump, Democrats should look over their collective shoulder. One might reconcile with the devil they know instead of the devil they do not. What happens if Trump is impeached and removed from office? An even more aggressive conservative is waiting the wings who will make President Trump seem like a panty-waisted beginner. Vice-President Pence will assume office for the remaining term and then elected for a subsequent term. Untold conservatives voted for Trump hoping Mike Pence would eventually take the reins. America knew Donald Trump. Was there any doubt of his...

<p>Many voters express frustration that Congress is paralyzed, but what action are people demanding? History has taught us that going after sitting presidents for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” has not brought about conviction in the Senate. Most recently, the attempts to remove Presidents Nixon and Clinton from office directly contributed to today’s divisiveness. What might a Trump indictment or impeachment do to the country?</p>

My variation on Selena Zito: Right now the value of Trump to the Trump voter is he is all that stands between them and the people who hate them every bit as much as they hate Trump. The Manhattan (NY County) District Attorney’s office is investigating the Trump Organization for possible criminal violations. The current NY Attorney General Barbara Underwood, holding the spot temporarily after her anti-Trump predecessor Eric Schneiderman resigned in disgrace, is going after the Trump Foundation. Democrat candidates for Attorney General are trying to outdo each other with promises that they will be the most aggressive in...

President Donald Trump's actions during the campaign -- possible conspiracy to accept help from a foreign national and to violate campaign-finance laws in order to hide two alleged extramarital affairs -- as well as his actions once he became president (e.g. possible obstruction of justice, witness-tampering) are at issue for special counsel Robert Mueller and for Congress in the context of impeachment. For now, let's assume that Trump did nothing wrong during his presidency, that only his pre-election conduct is at issue. Most commentators have taken the view that Mueller cannot indict for criminal activity during Trump's presidency, although this...

News that two former Trump advisers are facing prison time may have provoked a media firestorm in the nation's capital. But to the president's core supporters it's just a distraction from the good work he's doing. "This is the sort of stuff that should be in People magazine," says James Montfort III, when I call him to ask what he makes of the legal turmoil surrounding Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. "It's more important to get North Korea to give up their nuclear arms, it's more important to make sure Mexico is playing fair on trade - than it is...

The retired peanut farmer, 93, has been less vocal than other former commanders in chief about the goings-on in the White House, but in a recent interview with The Washington Post, Carter seared Trump’s policies and character. “I think he’s a disaster … In human rights and in treating people equal,” the 39th president said before his wife, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, 91, jumped in. “The worst is that he is not telling the truth, and that just hurts everything,” she added. Cohen implicated Trump in a federal crime when the lawyer admitted to a federal judge that, at...

As the swirl of legal drama around Donald Trump grows, it will be increasingly difficult for Democrats to avoid direct questions about the "I word" - impeachment - even if the topic makes many on the left squirm with discomfort. On Tuesday Donald Trump's former personal lawyer stood in a New York courtroom and said then-candidate Trump directed him to commit campaign finance crimes. If Mr Cohen is to be believed - and his lawyer has produced an audio recording that appears to be at least partial corroboration - it draws the president closer to what is now-documented illegal activity....

(snip) Trump is now at 50 percent approval at Rasmussen, the most accurate poll of the 2016 election. That is far higher than Trump was on Election Day. But there’s another key indicator. I can see and feel a “sea change” in American politics. Rasmussen has Trump at 36 percent approval among black Americans. That’s 19 points higher than a year ago. How big is this development? In the past 10 presidential elections, the high-water mark for GOP candidates was 1996, when Bob Dole won 12 percent of the black vote. If Trump wins 20 percent of the black vote...

In a searing speech from the pulpit of a black church, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told a Brooklyn congregation on Sunday that Donald Trump is a “slick salesman” who fooled many people in this country, but the Democrat said the Republican president hasn’t fooled New Yorkers. Cuomo spoke at Brooklyn’s First Baptist Church of Crown Heights after a week of criticism for saying America “was never that great” during a bill signing. New York Republicans have demanded he apologize, and Trump tweeted that Cuomo was having a “total meltdown.” The governor seemed to counter what many observers considered a...