Free Republic

As President Donald Trump attempts to muscle his GOP agenda through a narrow House majority, Rep. Chip Roy is perhaps the most important holdout to win over. He may also be the toughest. Speaker Mike Johnson and his team have been confident they can pass Trump’s massive reconciliation bill, because they don’t believe any Republican will want to stand in the way and face Trump’s wrath. But Roy, the unapologetic fiscal hawk, is the rare GOP lawmaker willing to publicly challenge the president. He has already survived multiple calls by his own party to oust him — including from Trump...

In private discussions hours before China announced new retaliatory tariffs, the Trump administration warned Chinese officials against such a move, according to a source familiar with the discussions. The Chinese were also told – once again – that Chinese President Xi Jinping should request a call with US President Donald Trump. Instead, US officials woke up to news of increased Chinese tariffs and no request for a leader level call. Xi also made comments that only dug him in further. “For over 70 years, China’s development has relied on self-reliance and hard work — never on handouts from others, and...

President Donald Trump is using the power of the federal government to intimidate or neuter potential sources of opposition to him: The legal establishment, academia and prominent cultural institutions, the media, the judiciary, the Democratic Party, Congress and independent government oversight. The unprecedented breadth of the actions Trump and his allies inside the government have taken against his perceived political and ideological opponents in his first two months back in office is stunning – both in the president’s willingness to test the limits of his powers and the extent to which his foes have struggled to respond or even bent...

Federal agencies across Washington are finding ways to keep funding frozen even after judges last month temporarily blocked the White House’s effort to pause trillions of dollars in federal assistance. FEMA has clawed back $80 million intended to help New York City house migrants. The EPA has paused more than 30 grant programs, including some providing money for schools to buy electric buses. And USAID contractors say hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts have not been paid. Trump officials say the suspensions are lawful and comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, arguing he has broad powers over federal...

Retired Staff Sgt. Ryan Marti enlisted in the Army National Guard before he even graduated high school, just like his football coach and teacher, future Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Another of Walz’s former students, Lt. Col. Jonathon Jaqua, also joined the Guard after graduating from Mankato West High School in southern Minnesota. Both told CNN that the example Walz set in the classroom and on the football field was influential in their decision to join him as a soldier in the National Guard. “As a teacher, I would say he definitely inspired me,” said Marti, who retired from the Guard...

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware CNN — In the end, President Joe Biden exited the political stage in isolation. After weeks of fighting for his political life – insisting he wasn’t going anywhere following a disastrous debate performance – the president’s about-face did not come in an Oval Office address or a speech on the campaign trail. Instead, it came in letter posted to social media as he recovered from Covid-19 at his beach house in Delaware. It was a low-key way to reveal one of the most historic decisions in modern American politics, but time was not on Biden’s side to...

President Joe Biden’s dismal showing at the CNN presidential debate against former President Donald Trump resonated around the world, with foreign diplomats expressing shock and concern while raising questions about the implications for a consequential US election that could upend the foreign policy status-quo should Trump be elected again. “Hard to watch” is how multiple foreign diplomats described Thursday night’s debate between Biden and Trump to CNN. The overwhelming sentiment among more than half a dozen diplomats from Europe, the Middle East and Asia whom CNN spoke to was that it was “a bad night for Biden,” as one European...

CNN - GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa on Thursday released an internal FBI document containing unverified allegations President Joe Biden was involved in an illegal foreign bribery scheme. The FBI had previously allowed members of the House Oversight Committee to privately view – but not obtain – the unclassified FBI document, known as an FD-1023. The 1023 form memorializes claims from an FBI informant, but it doesn’t provide proof that the allegations are true. Republicans, though, have seized on the unverified material as part of their broader investigation into the Bidens. The FBI document says an informant described a...

(CNN)As former President Donald Trump prepares for a potential comeback bid in 2024, his allies are flocking to election jobs all the way down to the local level in key battleground states, raising new concerns that the election officials who blocked Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election won't be there the next time around. Trump himself has endorsed candidates for secretary of state and attorney general -- statewide races that play a crucial role in administering elections -- who have spread his lies about 2020. But in addition to statewide roles, Trump's acolytes are pursuing local election posts, even...

A Senate committee voted along party lines Wednesday to issue a subpoena as part of the Republican-led investigation into the Ukrainian energy firm that hired former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. The subpoena is one of several steps Senate Republicans are taking to ramp up probes related to the Obama administration and Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who will likely challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 8-6 to authorize the subpoena Chairman Ron Johnson requested for Blue Star Strategies, a US public affairs firm that worked...

(CNN)To President Donald Trump, the whole flap with Ukraine is over a "perfect" phone call. "It's based on a single phone call of congratulations to the President of Ukraine, which they fraudulently mischaracterized to sound absolutely horrible," Trump said a few weeks ago of his July 25 call with the Ukrainian President cited by a whistleblower complaint. But a review of more than 2,600 pages of transcripts released this week from eight witnesses who have testified in the House impeachment inquiry over the past six weeks shows how controversy over Trump's Ukraine policy had been brewing inside the US government...

A recent committee job posting reviewed by CNN asked for legislative counsels with a variety of expertise: "criminal law, immigration law, constitutional law, intellectual property law, commercial and administrative law (including antitrust and bankruptcy), or oversight work." The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee needs lawyers, too, posting jobs for "executive branch investigative counsel." The advertisements give a window into the Democratic recruiting that's ramped up ahead of the party gaining subpoena power for the first time in eight years when it takes over the House in January. While Democrats publicly talk up their interest in focusing on legislative priorities...

They discussed a range of options, including the idea of Rosenstein wearing a wire while speaking with Trump, which Rosenstein later denied. Ultimately, then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe took the extraordinary step of opening an obstruction of justice investigation even before special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed...

President Donald Trump showed no signs of backing off his highly unprecedented order to declassify various documents and text messages related to the Russia investigation Tuesday, saying he wants it done for "transparency." The move, which has prompted renewed unease about the increasing politicization of intelligence materials, is likely to further inflame tensions between the President and intelligence and law enforcement officials, who have been the target of presidential Twitter tirades and who have voiced concerns in the past about potentially jeopardizing sources and methods.

The internal FBI report that served as grounds for the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe includes key testimony from his former boss that shows a discrepancy with McCabe's public statements, according to multiple sources familiar with the report. Former FBI Director James Comey told internal investigators at the Justice Department that he could not recall McCabe telling him about having authorized FBI officials to talk to a reporter about an ongoing investigation, the sources said. Comey's comments to the Justice Department's inspector general's office, which were later included as part of the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility report...