Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) said on Wednesday that he believes President Trump has settled into the conventional Republicanism touted by rank-and-file party members, like Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). "What the administration is doing, not only am I comfortable with it, but I think the vast majority of Republicans in Congress feel that this is a right-of-center presidency, which is what we had hoped," McConnell told Reuters in an interview. "If you look at what the president is actually for, it strikes me as indistinguishable from what a President Jeb Bush or a President Marco Rubio...

Washington can hardly keep up with the unprecedented pace at which Donald Trump’s presidency is cascading out of control. Ironically, the appointment last week of Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election may slow White House hemorrhaging, taking pressure off GOP congressional leaders and their weak investigations and temporarily shoring up support for Trump on Capitol Hill. For Democrats and independents concerned about the safety and well-being of the country, however, the priority must be getting Trump out of the White House as quickly as possible. He is simply too great a threat...

The most expensive congressional race in U.S. history has again dispelled the myth that conservatives are the aggressors in the moral wars that plague our politics. As Kyle Wingfield of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution recently pointed out, in the race to replace Tom Price in Georgia’s 6th congressional district, it was only a matter of time before Jon Ossoff went after Karen Handel for her brief experience at the Susan G. Komen organization. And like almost every other liberal when it comes to matters involving abortion, Ossoff lied. The ad uses an OB-GYN corrupted by liberalism—Mindy Fine from Cobb County, Georgia...

With President Donald Trump’s approval rating sinking and congressional Republicans pushing a deeply unpopular agenda, Democrats have a real chance to take back the House. But that opportunity is being complicated by one word that is coming up with increasing regularity on the midterm campaign trail: “impeachment.” That’s the conclusion House Democratic leaders have reached through internal polling, and it’s one that top Republicans, including allies of the Trump administration, shared in conversations with HuffPost. “In focus groups in swing districts and in Georgia-06 (where a special election is being held this June) ― where we do think Trump is...

ROBESON COUNTY, N.C. — Looking back, the sign-stealers were a portent of sorts, an early indication that 2016 would be like no election in recent memory. While it is not uncommon for people to steal campaign signs from other people's lawns in the heat of an election campaign, normally people confiscate the signs of candidates they oppose. But something quite different happened in Robeson County, N.C., as Donald Trump started to gain traction in the presidential campaign. As Bo Biggs, treasurer of the county's Republican Party, tells it, "People were stealing [Trump] signs to put them in their own yard."...

The Center for American Progress, the Democratic establishment’s premier think tank, gathered luminaries and potential 2020 candidates this week for what it billed as an “ideas conference.” Their goal was to focus “not what could have been,” as CAP Vice President Winnie Stachelberg said, but on “new, fresh, bold, provocative ideas that can move us forward.” ADVERTISING In the basement of Georgetown’s Four Seasons Hotel, the posh watering hole for Washington lobbyists, lawyers, and visiting wealth, the conference was at turns a debate about the future, and a demonstration of the difficulty in talking about a positive agenda when Trump...

President Donald Trump has made himself "very vulnerable personally" amid investigations of his campaign ties with Russia, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday. She pointed to Trump's reported request to now-fired FBI Director James Comey to lay off an investigation of Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser. "I think the Flynn thing is where the president is very vulnerable personally," Pelosi told The Associated Press in an interview in her office. "If the president in fact asked Comey to let up on ... Flynn -- you don't do that."(continued)

As scandals continue to mount against Donald Trump, the veteran congressional leader tells Roland Martin that party leaders will have to eventually break ties with the president. Congresswoman Maxine Waters has been one of the leading lawmakers to criticize President Donald Trump‘s actions since he took office in late-January. In a simulcast conversation with Roland Martin and NewsOne Now and the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Waters predicted that the Republican Party won’t be able to support the former business mogul for much longer. Rep. Waters continued her usual stance in pointing out the fallacies of the Trump administration, but it...

Last week, the Washington Post created a 90-minute wonder with a scoop: leaked audio from a meeting of House Republicans supposedly contained an admission from Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy that Vladimir Putin had paid off Donald Trump. It became painfully obvious that McCarthy and several Republicans were joking during this exchange, but at least for a brief period of time, it was hot news. It did leave another question, though — who was the leaker? Hugh Hewitt asked Paul Ryan about the whodunit this morning, and whether he believed the rumor that former Capitol Hill staffer-turned-presidential candidate Evan McMullin engineered...

THE DIMMS ARE LOSIN’ IT The efforts of the Democratic Party and their willing accomplices, the Lame Stream Media, to delegitimize and ultimately destroy the presidency of Donald Trump has reached a fever pitch. The front pages of Main Stream Print Media, e.g., The New York Times and Washington Post, have become fictionalized articles of yellow journalism, not worthy of the respect afforded The National Enquirer or True Confessions. Fake news attacks on almost every aspect of The Donald’s Administration that are starting to occur daily, are causing a distraction to the general public and preventing the president from moving...

After a tumultuous week for President Donald Trump, a lot of people are talking impeachment. First, he fired former FBI director James Comey, then admitted he did so while considering the Trump-Russia investigation in a nationally televised interview. Days later, he tweeted the suggestion that he may have secretly recorded a conversation with Comey. With impeachment foremost in many people's minds, you might be wondering what Trump's removal from office would mean for the executive branch. Namely, would Mike Pence become president if Trump were impeached? If you're a Democrat or a progressive dreaming of impeachment, it's worth pumping the...

The first TV ad of Bill Peduto’s campaign was a 30-second address made directly to President Donald Trump, criticizing the Republican leader’s rhetoric and proposed budget cuts. But Peduto isn’t running for a seat in the House of Representatives or the Senate. In fact, he’s not seeking federal office of any kind. He’s a mayor, running for re-election in Pittsburgh, and his office has very little to do with the White House. No matter. “Mr. President, if you keep trying to cut health care and after-school programs, even a Patriots fan like you should know that won’t play in Pittsburgh,”...

NBC's Peter Alexander grills Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Cali.) for her displeasure at President Trump firing FBI Director James Comey after she had announced in January that he has lost all credibility after attending a classified briefing conducted by the now-former director. In March, Waters issued a press release that read Comey "advanced Russia's misinformation campaign." "I do not necessarily support the president's decision," Waters said. " I think that if the president would have fired him when he first came in, he would not have to be in a position now where he is trying to make up a story...

The National Republican Congressional Committee sent out a fundraising email Wednesday using the potential impeachment of President Donald Trump as motivation to encourage people to donate to the party. According to Politico, the NRCC email read as follows: "BREAKING. House Democrats call for President Trump's impeachment. We MUST protect our president. DEFEND THE PRESIDENT. "Fellow Conservative — Democrats want President Trump impeached — including the DNC Deputy Chair! If Democrats win the House their #1 priority would be to impeach our president. We must protect the House at ALL costs, Fellow Conservative." The email then asked for donations before saying...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) hit President Trump for his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday, calling on Congress to "get their heads out of the sand" and use a special prosecutor to investigate Trump. Trump made the bombshell announcement on Tuesday afternoon, saying it was based on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, according to White House press secretary Sean Spicer. Trump argued in a letter to Comey that the FBI needs a new leader so it can restore "pubic trust and confidence." Warren responded to the news, saying, "we need...

Fox News’ Charles Krauthammer ripped Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Monday for "his tremendously elaborate theory" around Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election, asking "Who gave him the tinfoil hat?" Krauthammer's comments came after Franken presented a lengthy hypothetical to former acting Attorney General Sally Yates around Russian connections to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the 18-day delay between when she made the White House aware of Flynn's apparent lie and when he was tendered his resignation....

In White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s West Wing office, there hangs a whiteboard on which he’s listed several key promises the administration has made. We’ve now gotten a glimpse of that whiteboard — and it’s a doozy. A tweet from Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a Brietbart contributor, revealed part of the whiteboard in the background of a Boteach/Bannon buddy pic. Over Bannon’s left shoulder hangs a jaw-droppingly ambitious immigration agenda — one that could severely curb legal immigration to the US and shovel unauthorized immigrants into deportation proceedings....

Gamblers are likely betting on Democrats to do quite well in the 2018 midterm elections. Historically, the party of the president gets a shellacking, as President Obama called it in 2010, in the first midterm that they face. There have been only two cases when the president's party gained in both houses of Congress since the Civil War: in 1934 and in 2002. Besides the normal historical cycle of backlash against the White House, Democrats this time around are whetting their lips because House Republicans have just voted for a health care bill that rescinds benefits for millions of hard-working...

Unsuccessful in the first round of voting, France's socialist presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon (pictured), stopped short of endorsing the centrist Emmanuel Macron, though he warned his followers not to turn to the right-winger, Marine Le Pen. A vote for her party, the National Front, would be a "terrible mistake," he told French broadcaster TF1. The political situation in France is not unique. In many countries, the right wing is on the rise while the entire left side of the political spectrum - from socialists to social democrats - languishes in existential crisis. The US election is but one example, with...

On May 2, the Congressional Black Caucus hosted their Twitter Town Hall and Tweetstorm, with a focus on the first 100 days of the Donald Trump administration. The Tweetstorm invited questions, answers, opinions, suggestions and observations about the White House and other issues of note, which had to be accompanied by the hashtag: #Stay Woke Some of the topics were education, police, Pell grants, scholarships, money, immigration, jobs, and the government. U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted the question: “Trump keeps talking about job creation-but I haven’t seen much effort on his part. What’s he been up to instead?”...