Free Republic

Councilman Mark Whitaker says he wants city leaders to consider banning racist groups from protesting in Portsmouth. Whitaker sent an email Tuesday to City Council members, City Manager Lydia Pettis Patton and City Attorney Solomon Ashby requesting that the group discuss the issue at the Aug. 21 public work session. The councilman said he made the request in light of “the tragic events in Charlottesville and other issues across the country involving White-Supremacist, White-Nationalist, Neo-Nazi, and other hate groups with a history and pattern of perpetrating violence on citizens.” On Saturday, a white-supremacist gathering in Charlottesville turned deadly when a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Green Party of the United States is calling for vigorous prosecution of white supremacist groups responsible for the violence, injuries, and deaths that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, August 12. Greens said that the violence inflicted on anti-racist counter-protesters, including a car driven into a crowd that killed one person and injured more than two dozen others, was a deliberate act of domestic terrorism. The Green Party strongly condemns the white supremacists and their rally and violent actions and expressed solidarity with all those who participated in the counter-demonstrations. White supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations thrive...

More than 30 Democratic House members are moving to pressure the Trump administration to fire employees whom they deem supportive of white supremacy. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) introduced a resolution Tuesday condemning the breakout of violence in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend during demonstrations by white nationalists, as well as a series of equivocal statements made by President Trump in the immediate aftermath of the violent protest. “When the president fails to swiftly condemn white supremacist terrorism, it’s imperative that Congress steps up and says clearly: Hate is not welcome, hate is un-American and we will strongly resist hate wherever...

Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Florida, criticized White House aides Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller by name on Monday evening, arguing that it's "pretty clear" the two staffers think alt-right groups "should be accommodated." The GOP congressman's comments follow a weekend of unrest and violence in the United States as demonstrators took to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, where a white supremacist rally was scheduled to take place. One person died and several more were injured when a car drove through a crowd of counterprotesters. "I think that the President would go a long way toward improving his approval rating...

One of the things we've learned over the past year is that events like the violence in Charlottesville, Va., are often viewed very differently in different places. Places like rural white communities that make up President Trump's most loyal base. One such place is Mineville, N.Y., a tiny Rust Belt town in the Adirondack Mountains north of Albany, where on Sunday afternoon we found Christopher LaMothe sitting on a bench. In these small towns, events like what happened in Charlottesville are also portrayed differently in the conservative media. When Trump first responded to the deadly violence in Charlottesville, he blamed...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) on Sunday said President Trump would still be criticized for his response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., if he personally executed the driver who on Saturday allegedly drove into protesters, killing one. "If Donald Trump has suddenly jumped on Marine One ... down to Charlottesville, walked into the jail where the young man was being held, shot him between the eyes, I guarantee you people said he didn't use the right caliber bullet," Huckabee said, The Washington Examiner reported. Trump has taken some heat for his response to the violence that broke out...

Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci had harsh words for President Donald Trump's reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend. Scaramucci spoke to ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on ABC News' "This Week" today in his first television interview since his whirlwind 11-day stint in the White House. "I wouldn't have recommended that statement," Scaramucci said of Trump's words on Saturday from Bedminster, New Jersey. "I think he would have needed to have been much harsher." "With the moral authority of the presidency, you have to call that stuff out," Scaramucci said, referring to Trump's seeming...

‘I mean, this is not hard’ The Democratic mayor of Charlottesville, Va., Michael Signer, is pinning blame directly on President Trump for the white nationalist protest and related violence that occurred in his city this weekend. The blame for these events, he said, falls "right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president." On Sunday he appeared on CNN's State of the Union and accused Trump of intentionally courting white nationalists. Here's a transcript: TAPPER: You said you place blame for these terrifying events -- quote -- "right at the doorstep of the White House...

In what should be Democrats' strongest moment since November, a series of emotional and racially charged clashes are forcing the party to once again confront the problem that has plagued it for a year: How to incorporate the supporters of Bernie Sanders. The Vermont independent senator himself is winning battles over the direction of the Democratic Party. He has emerged as a messaging leader on health care, appeared on a "unity tour" with the party's new chairman and helped craft a populist economic agenda for the midterm elections. Many Democrats even concede the possibility that Sanders could enter the 2020...

A top Democratic National Committee leader called the Republican Party "the party of racism" at a conference for liberal activists Friday, pointing to President Donald Trump's positions on immigrants and refugees. "You hear Republicans say, 'We're the party of Lincoln.' He wouldn't recognize these people," said Rep. Keith Ellison, a congressman from Minnesota and Democratic National Committee deputy chairman. "The fact is that the Republican Party today is the party of racism. Now I'm not saying every Republican is a racist, but I'm saying their party does hold that up. ... It is the Republican Party in 2017 that says,...

As tensions rise and explosive language flies between Trump and North Korea, the president has regained standing in his national approval rating. According to the latest Rasmussen survey, 45 percent of Americans approve of President Trump -- the highest his rating has been in the same poll since July 12. His approval rating exactly one week ago stood at a staggeringly low 39 percent. Where 62 percent of Americans say North Korea poses a "very serious threat" to the U.S., President Trump's blunt rhetoric -- including phrases like "locked and loaded" and "fire and fury" -- the commander in chief's...

Hillary Clinton's pastor compared her defeat to Christ's crucifixion and a Trump presidency to Hell in a devotional he sent her hours after she lost, it was revealed Friday. The Democratic loser had received a daily prayer from the Rev Bill Shillady, a longtime Clinton family friend, throughout her campaign. But on the Friday morning after her defeat, he sent her a very different text - this time a full-on lamentation, he reveals in a new book and in a CNN interview. It compared her defeat to the crucifixion, and said: 'You, our nation, our world is experiencing a black...

Dozens of members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday, urging “utmost caution and restraint” in further dealings with North Korea and condemning President Donald Trump for promising “fire and fury” in response to reports that the Asian nation is escalating its nuclear program. “These statements are irresponsible and dangerous, and also senselessly provide a boon to domestic North Korean propaganda which has long sought to portray the United States as a threat to their people,” reads the letter from 64 House Democrats, led by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). “We respectfully but firmly urge...

California Rep. Maxine Waters accused President Trump of "bluffing" when he vowed "fire and fury" against North Korea if the country didn't stop threatening the U.S. with nuclear weapons. "This is something we should be very concerned about, but this is not the time to go bluffing and threatening. This is the time for diplomacy," Waters told TMZ. She called on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to staff up his department so that the U.S. can "engage" with North Korea. "The United States State Department must be stacked up to deal in diplomacy. We cannot afford to be in a...

In her keynote address to the opening plenary of Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of progressives, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said the first seven months of the Trump administration represented an "all-out assault on our fundamental civil and human rights." President Trump, she told the audience, has "wasted no time in implementing the hateful agenda that he ran on." Lee pointed to the so-called Muslim ban, transgender military ban, healthcare reform efforts, and Commission on Election Integrity among other recent Republican actions to illustrate her argument. Like Jason Kander, who addressed the crowd only moments earlier, Lee encouraged activists to...

Autoplay: On | Off "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough is ripping Republicans who said in a new poll that they would support delaying the 2020 presidential election if President Trump called for it to ensure only eligible American citizens can vote. "If you believe this, hide your face in shame. Your values are objectively un-American. Read the US Constitution and repent," Scarborough tweeted on Thursday. (TWEET-AT-LINK) In an earlier tweet, the MSNBC host said the "party of Reagan is sick and beyond repair." (TWEET-AT-LINK) The former congressman, who recently announced his departure from the GOP, was referring to a new...

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Thursday for the federal government to reverse the deportation of an Oakland nurse and her husband, saying their removal after more than two decades in the country revealed the “cruel and arbitrary nature” of President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Responding to a front-page Chronicle story about the couple — who plan to leave for Mexico on Tuesday with their 12-year-old son, while leaving behind three older daughters who have legal status — Feinstein’s office set up a meeting Thursday between the California Democrat and the family to discuss their plight. “These are the kind...

Ted Cruz’s Democratic challenger is working overtime to drive a wedge between the senator and his base on one of his central issues — criminal justice reform. Over the past six months, Rep. Beto O’Rourke has reached out to members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus to collaborate on the issue, hosted a Facebook Live event with them to talk marijuana policy, and sought support from the conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks for a criminal justice bill he introduced in the House. While O’Rourke is no stranger to working with Republicans on issues relevant to his El Paso district, the lawmaker’s...

If she finds success, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., won't be content with only impeaching President Trump. The California Democrat revealed on The Breakfast Club Monday morning that in the unlikely scenario Democrats managed to impeach Trump, she would go after Vice President Mike Pence next. Waters, perhaps the most visible proponent of impeachment in Congress, told the hosts of the popular radio program, "Bit by bit, drip by drip, it's coming home to roost." Citing the infamous Trump dossier that reputable liberal journalists declined to publish because at least some of its information was inaccurate, Waters predicted Trump would be...

Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein tweeted out the White House phone number on Tuesday calling on her following to "prevent WWIII" by flooding the White House with phone calls and urging them to negotiate with North Korea. "Urgent. Prevent WWIII. Flood the White House switchboard now: Negotiate don't escalate with North Korea! 202-456-1414," Stein tweeted. North Korea said on Tuesday that it is examining plans for a missile strike on Guam, just after Trump said that any threat to the United States from North Korea would be met with "fire and fury." Stein also urged the president to...