Free Republic

On Thursday, the United States Senate voted to confirm former Rep. GOP representative and former Director of National Intelligence under Trump 1.0 John Ratcliffe (R-TX) as the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The final vote tally by voice vote was 74 in favor and 25 against. Mr. Ratcliffe has now been officially confirmed as Director of the CIA. The one Senator who did not vote, for reasons as yet unknown, was John Fetterman (D-PA). As of this writing, the formal roll call tally has not yet been released. On Tuesday, President Trump said about John Ratcliffe:Trump touted Ratcliffe’s...

High-ranking alumni of some of the most powerful congressional offices in the country have lobbied on behalf of companies controlled or greatly influenced by the Chinese military, disclosures show. Former congressional staffers with ties to powerful members of Congress, like Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican House Whip Steve Scalise, have worked to influence policy on behalf of Pentagon-designated “Chinese military companies” like DJI, BGI and Huawei. Chinese military companies are those the Department of Defense (DOD) has determined are “directly or indirectly owned, controlled or beneficially owned by” the Chinese military, as well as those that contribute...

Former President Trump endorsed Sen. John Barrasso to become the next Senate Republican whip, saying the Wyoming lawmaker “will never let you down.” “John Barrasso is a fantastic Senator for the incredible people of Wyoming,” Trump said in a Thursday evening post on Truth Social. “He is running to be the next Republican Whip for the Senate Republican Conference, a very important job, to ensure we pass and enact Strong Legislation that puts America First,” Trump added. “I know John very well — he will never let you down.” Barrasso, the Senate Republican Conference chair, is running unopposed for the...

A U.S. Senate committee approved legislation on Wednesday that would help set the stage for the United States to confiscate Russian assets and hand them over to Ukraine for rebuilding after the destruction of the nearly two-year-long war. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 20 to 1 in favor of the unprecedented "Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act." If it were to pass the full Senate and House of Representatives and be signed into law by President Joe Biden, as expected, the act would pave the way for Washington's first-ever seizure of central bank assets from a...

Sen. John Barrasso’s (R-WY) wife has passed away following a two-year battle with brain cancer. Barrasso, who is the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, announced Thursday that his wife, Bobbi, died after fighting glioblastoma, a type of cancer that causes brain tumors. “After a courageous battle with cancer, Bobbi is now at peace and at home with the Lord,” the senator said in a statement obtained by Fox News: In addition to being a devoted wife and mother, Bobbi was a leader, fierce advocate for Wyoming, and friend to everyone she met. We miss her dearly. On behalf of...

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) endorsed Donald Trump for president moments after the New Hampshire primary was called within minutes of polls closing. “I have seen enough,” Cornyn said on X. “To beat Biden, Republicans need to unite around a single candidate, and it’s clear that President Trump is Republican voters’ choice.” A majority of Senate Republicans have now endorsed Trump, but Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) had been the only senior member of Senate GOP leadership to endorse the former president’s reelection bid before Tuesday night.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) endorsed Donald Trump for president Tuesday, becoming the highest ranking member of Senate Republican leadership to endorse Trump in his quest to retake the White House. The third highest-ranking Senate Republican, Conference Chair Barrasso is the highest-ranking Senate Republican to back Trump. He joins Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee leads the candidate recruitment and campaign arm, as the only members of elected Senate leadership to endorse Trump.

Uranium enrichment and the nuclear fuel industry make up a globally integrated complex concentrated in the hands of a few key players. A geopolitically-driven divorce is on the horizon, however. At the outset of the invasion of Ukraine last year, US Senator John Barrasso, a Republican of Wyoming, led an effort to ban Russian-origin uranium and nuclear products following the West’s break with the fossil fuel industries that had been filling the Kremlin’s war chest. The bill stalled, but it highlighted America’s reliance on Russian nuclear imports and the need for a comprehensive supply chain rework. When countries are already...

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on Tuesday sent a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm demanding answers and a classified briefing regarding the Energy Department's assessment that the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from an accidental lab leak in China. "I write to request that the Department of Energy provides expedited answers to questions regarding the department's release of an intelligence report concluding a lab leak was the most likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic," Barrasso wrote in a letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital. The Energy Department, which had been undecided on the origin of the pandemic, has now joined...

@ChadPergram 1) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and 3 GOP senators just met Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Also there: John Barrasso (R-WY) Susan Collins (R-ME) John Cornyn (R-TX) 2) Note this comes as the Senate is trying to align with the House and approve $40 billion in Ukraine assistance. There is a procedural vote Monday night to break a filibuster. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) is singled-handedly holding this up. 3) If Paul sticks to his guns, it may take the Senate until the end of next week to approve the bill. Paul wants an inspector general to oversee the money...

The Wall Street Journal turned over some of its valuable editorial page real estate to John Kerry earlier this week. Today the Journal publishes three unadmiring letters in response:The comparison by John Kerry of this month’s international climate carnival with the Constitutional Convention was preposterous (“COP26 Prepared the World to Beat Climate Change,” op-ed, Nov. 22). ....The only thing historic about the Glasgow conference was its cost and carbon footprint. COP26 resulted in an estimated 102,500 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions. That’s more than the annual emissions of some of the nations that participated....Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.)Credit John Kerry for...

The federal government will pull oil from the country’s emergency stockpile in an effort to bring down stubbornly high fuel prices, the White House said Tuesday. Over the next several months, the U.S. Department of Energy will release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, where it’s currently storing just over 600 million barrels in four underground caverns. In total, the release would amount to about two-and-a-half days of U.S. oil consumption: Before the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed both demand and production, the U.S. consumed roughly 20.5 million barrels of oil per day. In recent months, Biden has...

Republican Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.) on Sunday repeatedly refused to condemn President Donald Trump for defending protesters’ calls to “hang Mike Pence” during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, with Barrasso instead praising the former president for bringing “a lot of energy to the party.” “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos asked Barrasso four times whether he, or his party, takes issue with Trump defending calls by his supporters to kill the former vice president. Each time, Barrasso deflected. “President Trump brings a lot of energy to the party. He’s an enduring force. Elections are about the future, not...

Don't be fooled by the party line vote. The filibuster required 60 and 10+ GOPers voted. They're listed below. Assistant Democrats! @ChadPergram 2) The GOP yeas were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Rob Portman (R-OH), Susan Collins (R-ME).. 3) ...John Barrasso (R-WY), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Roy Blunt (R-MO).

Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, testified in federal court in 1993 that she sent a threatening letter to the Forest Service warning that a local forest had been sabotaged with tree spikes. Stone-Manning told a local news outlet in 1993 that she could have faced conspiracy charges had she not struck an immunity deal with a federal prosecutor in return for her testimony. Court documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show that Stone-Manning testified that her friend and former roommate John Blount, who was found guilty and sentenced to 17 months...

President Biden ended infrastructure negotiations with a group of GOP lawmakers, led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the White House said Tuesday.The development came after Biden reportedly failed to get the Republicans on board with increasing their overall spending on the plan."He [Biden] informed Senator Capito today that the latest offer from her group did not, in his view, meet the essential needs of our country to restore our roads and bridges, prepare us for our clean energy future, and create jobs," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. "He offered his gratitude to her for her...

"I want to always make sure we nominate somebody who can win in November," Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) told NBC's Chuck Todd during "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "Lisa Murkowski knows Alaska better than anybody, and she's an incredible fighter for American energy. She hasn't made an announcement if she's even going to run again. If she does, I'm going to support her." Switching gears to Cheney, the senator argued that his fellow Wyomingite is a strong fighter when it comes to opposing the Biden administration. Cheney leads the House Republican Conference. Sen. Barrasso chairs the Senate Republican Conference. "So,...

Guess she’ll have to take the bus. Funding for a rail project near House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s California district that Republicans denounced as wasteful was removed Tuesday from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill. The Senate parliamentarian ruled the $140 million appropriation wasn’t allowed under the so-called Byrd rule that polices unrelated items in budget reconciliation bills. Republicans singled out the rail project as an example of unrelated “pork” in the bill, which is being rammed through Congress without Republican support using special rules that allow a simple majority vote in the Senate. On Tuesday, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)...

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy.) took a jab at Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday, saying he’s “not sure what he recalls” about his time as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. “I don’t know what Joe Biden remembers when you look back at the time when he played such a role in the hearings for Judge [Robert] Bork. He was the one who basically turned on what became a political circus,” Barrasso said at a Senate GOP press conference. His comments come as Senate GOP leaders move to fill a Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died...

Believe me, these ten minutes are worth your time. Here's Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) absolutely ripping House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the Democrats for sneaking in a laundry list of progressive, environmental provisions into the CARES Act, the third phase of Congress's coronavirus response intended to provide aid, relief, and economic security for individuals and businesses during this unpredictable era. Barrasso kicked off his remarks by condemning "the demands by the Democrats to muck up a bill that is designed as a rescue operation for the American people." He next identified the culprit. "Nancy Pelosi flew back from California...