Free Republic

Despite Israeli bombardment that has brought Gaza to the brink of a humanitarian meltdown, U.S. President Joe Biden is facing little pressure at home to rein in Israel's military retaliation for an unprecedented attack by Palestinian Hamas militants. Biden appears to have given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a free hand, for now, to press his war against Hamas, though a threatened ground offensive - with the likelihood of a higher civilian death toll - could force the president to rethink that approach. As Biden vows rock-solid support for Israel, he has only faced scattered protest from the left wing...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will discuss the "risks and opportunities" that artificial intelligence poses for people, society and national security during a meeting with science and technology advisers at the White House on Tuesday, an official said. Biden, a Democrat, is scheduled to meet with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on the same day that his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, surrenders in New York over charges stemming from a probe into hush money paid to a porn star. Biden has declined to comment on Trump's legal woes, and Democratic strategists say...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Flags are lowered, sorrowful statements are issued, pleas to lawmakers are made, again. In the wake of two mass shootings in California this week, President Joe Biden has followed a heartfelt and familiar script of outrage and grief over gun violence in America, coupled with a renewed call for Congress to pass legislation banning assault-style weapons. Such a ban has little chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives or the Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats, political experts say. But Biden's stubborn strategy continues: make a ban the focus of public discourse whenever a mass...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has lowered its earlier optimism about the midterm elections and is now worried that Democrats could lose control of both chambers of Congress, administration officials say. Recent polls have shown Democrats who once had comfortable leads in some Senate races on a knife's edge, and Senate elections that were considered toss-ups between the two parties now leaning Republican as high inflation persists. The House of Representatives, which Biden and some allies and advisers predicted Democrats could hold earlier this year, is decisively swinging for Republicans, polling analysts including FiveThirtyEight say. Losing control of one...

On Thursday afternoon, White House reporters rallied from the embarrassing effort many gave the day prior in lobbying softballs to inept Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and showed skepticism that President Biden’s Thursday night address on how the American right poses a threat to the country wouldn’t be political. Reuters’s Jeff Mason was one of those reporters who redeemed himself, starting with a short, Doocy-like question: “Is tonight a political speech?” Jean-Pierre sowed her fate when she immediately show back: “No. It’s not a political speech. This is an opportunity — again for the President to directly have a conversation with...

WASHINGTON — The White House on Thursday rejected criticism from Republicans that President Joe Biden is dividing Americans by attacking ardent followers of former President Donald Trump, saying the party’s far-right wing is trying to dodge accountability. At her daily briefing, Jean-Pierre referred to “ultra MAGA Republicans,” those who support Trump, whose signature slogan was Make America Great Again. “We understand that we hit a nerve, we get that. We understand that they’re trying to hide. And we understand that ultra MAGA office holders want to play games here and dodge accountability,” she said. She said these Republicans are pushing...

VALDOSTA, Georgia - U.S. President Donald Trump campaigned in Georgia on Saturday for two Republican senators at a rally that some in his party feared could end up hurting, not helping, their chances by focusing on his efforts to reverse his own election defeat. In his first rally appearance since he lost to Democrat Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 presidential contest, Trump urged the crowd to vote for Republican candidates in the Georgia runoff election on Jan. 5 despite his unsubstantiated claims of significant electoral fraud in the state. But he gave considerable time in his remarks to allegations,...

President Trump snapped at a reporter who tried interjecting on his comments about the election, referring to him as a “lightweight” and demanding he shows some respect. The reporter has been identified in multiple outlets as Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason. The media is portraying it as a meltdown when, in reality, it was a proper reminder to reporters who have shown zero respect for the President of the United States over the past four years exactly where they sit on the food chain. ... Mason tried interrupting the President which didn’t work out too well for him. Trump...

Instant karma for CNN's John Berman this morning. The New Day co-host was strangely obsessed with the size of the desk that President Trump sat at yesterday as he took some questions from the press. The CNN host repeatedly mentioned the desk size in each of New Day's three hours. At one point, Berman somehow imagined a "metaphor" in the image of a "large man at a small desk." [snip] Then, karma struck. In the final New Day hour, Berman had the aforementioned Mason on as a guest. After yet again raising the desk size, Berman asked Mason "what's going...

U.S. President Donald Trump picked U.S. hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien on Wednesday as his fourth White House national security adviser, turning to a low-key choice for the position after the boisterous tenure of John Bolton.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Some 129 countries at the United Nations signed on to a U.S.-drafted pledge to fight the global drug problem on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump warned presented a public health and national security threat. In order to attend the brief U.N. event with Trump, countries had to sign the one-page “call to action on the world drug problem.” Trump held a similar event at the annual gathering of world leaders in New York last year, focused on U.N. reform....

While many Christians were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Sunday, Barack Obama, his family, and everyone else attending St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. received a message that included an attack on conservatives, the Weekly Standard reported. "It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back ... for blacks to be back in the back of the bus ... for women to be back in the kitchen ... for immigrants to be back on their side of the border," said Dr. Luis Leon. According to a tweet sent by Reuters'...