Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump recently told aides to hire Laura Loomer, a far-right, anti-Muslim activist with a history of expressing bigoted views, for a campaign role, according to four people familiar with the plans. Trump met with Loomer recently and directed advisers to give her a role in support of his candidacy, two of the people familiar with the move said. On Tuesday, after Trump’s arraignment in New York, Loomer attended the former president’s speech at Mar-a-Lago, his resort and residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Some of Trump’s aides were said to have concerns that such a hire would cause...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee has become a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy after Republicans expelled two Black lawmakers from the state Legislature for their part in a protest urging passage of gun-control measures. The removal of the lawmakers, who were only recently elected, reflects a trend in dozens of states where Republicans are trying to make it harder to cast ballots and challenging the integrity of the election process. At least 177 bills restricting voting or creating systems that can intimidate voters or permit partisan interference were filed or introduced in dozens of...

WASHINGTON — As Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, prepared to bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump, House Republicans rallied to Trump’s side, vowing to use their power in Congress to haul in Bragg and force him to turn over documents and answer questions. The reality, they have privately acknowledged, is much more complicated. For weeks, top House Republicans and their lawyers have been grappling with how to move forward in their investigation of Bragg amid legal and institutional concerns about overreach and how to enforce a subpoena in court. The situation is a reminder for the new...

WASHINGTON — Hours after pleading not guilty to 34 counts of filing false business records in a courtroom in Lower Manhattan, former President Donald Trump maintained his innocence Tuesday before a crowd of supporters at Mar-a-Lago. He repeated a host of familiar and inaccurate attacks on his opponents. Here’s a fact-check of his remarks. What Was Said: “From the beginning, the Democrats spied on my campaign, remember that? They attacked me with an onslaught of fraudulent investigations. Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine impeachment hoax No. 1, impeachment hoax No. 2, the illegal and unconstitutional raid on Mar-a-Lago right here.”...

WASHINGTON — The unsealed indictment against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday laid out an unexpected accusation that bolstered what many legal experts have described as an otherwise risky and novel case: Prosecutors claim he falsified business records in part for a plan to deceive state tax authorities. For weeks, observers have wondered about the exact charges Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg would bring. Accusing Trump of bookkeeping fraud to conceal campaign finance violations, many believed, could raise significant legal challenges. That accusation turned out to be a major part of Bragg’s theory — but not all of it. “Pundits...

NEW YORK (AP) — For the country and for Donald Trump, the indictment of a former president represented an unprecedented day. For TV news organizations, it felt like a throwback. Hour after hour on Tuesday, the story occupied the full attention of broadcast and cable news networks. They waited for glimpses of Trump’s face to interpret his expression, followed his motorcade’s movements from the air, speculated on how it must feel to be arrested. The coverage recalled better days for now-struggling cable news outlets, through two presidential campaigns and two impeachment trials, when Trump occupied hours of air time. Consumers...

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...

Anti-transgender rhetoric and disinformation in the days following the shooting at a Nashville Christian school that killed six people have heightened the fears of a community already on edge amid a historic push for more restrictions on trans people’s rights this year. Authorities haven’t shared any evidence linking Audrey Hale’s gender identity to the motive for the attack, which killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School last week. Yet right-wing commentators, politicians and other figures have cited the shooting as they’ve shared false claims of a rise in transgender mass shooters and suggested that the fight for...

In some ways, it was the turn of events that Democratic voters had dreamed of and some of the party’s lawmakers had long demanded: After years of telling lies, shattering norms, inciting a riot at the Capitol and being impeached twice, Donald Trump on Thursday became the first former president to face criminal charges. But as the gravity of the moment sank in, Democratic voters, party officials and activists across the country absorbed the news of Trump’s extraordinary indictment with a more complex set of reactions. Their feelings ranged from jubilation and vindication to anxieties about the substance of the...

Top executives at CBS News have banned staffers from using the word “transgender” when reporting on Nashville shooter — despite the fact police have said Audrey Hale was transgender and cited it as a key point in the case, The Post has learned. “The shooter’s gender identity has not been confirmed by CBS News,” the network’s executives insisted in a Tuesday memo obtained by The Post. “As such, we should avoid any mention of it as it has no known relevance to the crime. Should that change, we can and will revisit.” The CBS News directive was delivered on a...

Moments after the assailant who killed six people at a Nashville private school was identified as transgender, a baseless narrative emerged: that there has been an incredible rise in transgender or nonbinary mass shooters in recent years. Some pundits and political influencers on social media went further, suggesting that movements for trans rights are radicalizing activists into terrorists. The data tells a different story, according to gender and criminology experts. Mass casualty shootings perpetrated by someone identifying as trans or nonbinary are rare, and in fact, those groups are far more likely to be the victims of violence. Here’s a...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TND) — Several media outlets are facing pushback for pointing out that Nashville police "misidentified" the gender of the shooter who killed six people Monday at a private Christian school in Nashville. The clarification earned outlets like USA TODAY and The New York Times criticism from conservative commentators and others. "We do not care about 'misgendering' a school shooter that murdered children," a reporter from conservative outlet Townhall wrote on Twitter. "Only the mainstream media would worry about preferred pronouns at a time like this." On Monday evening, The New York Times reported on Twitter that there was...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — As Ohio’s primary approaches, a strict new photo ID requirement is stirring concerns for military veterans and out-of-state college students, in Amish communities and among older voters. Other Republican-led states are moving in the same direction as they respond to conservative voters unsettled by unfounded claims of widespread fraud and persistent conspiracy theories over the accuracy of U.S. elections. Critics characterize such requirements as an overreaction that could end up disenfranchising eligible voters. Ruth Kohake is among those caught up in the confusion over Ohio’s law, which is going into effect this year. The retired nurse...

A new congressional report delves into the catastrophe that would result should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling. On Thursday, the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) — a congressional group that reviews economic policy — released a report analyzing the consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling. Since Republicans took over a majority in the House, they have expressed their intent to use raising the debt ceiling, and keeping the US on top of paying its bills, as leverage to achieve their own priorities, largely in the form of major spending cuts. With the US expected to run out...

NEW YORK (AP) — As former President Donald Trump braces for a potential indictment related to hush money payments made on his behalf during his 2016 campaign, Republicans blasting the case as politically motivated are blaming a frequent target: George Soros. The 92-year-old billionaire investor and philanthropist — who has been falsely accused of everything from hiring violent rioters to committing election crimes — doesn’t know and didn’t donate directly to the New York prosecutor steering the probe. But that hasn’t stopped Trump and other high-profile Republicans from accusing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who convened the grand jury investigating...

WASHINGTON — As the Republican Party gears up for the 2024 presidential race, there’s a large image in the rearview mirror that refuses to go away: The 2020 presidential election. About a week ago, the Colorado GOP selected a 2020 election denier to lead the party for the next two years. That came weeks after the Michigan Republicans selected a 2020 denier to lead their party as well. When a party loses a presidential election, typically it sorts through the wreckage and figures out how to move forward. The GOP, however, has not done this following the aftermath of the...

... GOP lawmakers in other states also are scrambling to make it harder for defendants to get out of jail before trial after branding themselves as tough on crime in the 2022 midterm elections. Their efforts have led to a fierce fight with Democrats over public safety and the rights of criminal defendants. Recent Democratic overhaul measures in states such as Illinois and New York have sought to eliminate cash bail and lessen pretrial detention on the premise they do more harm than good, especially to marginalized groups. But Republican lawmakers in at least 14 states have introduced some 20...

In the hours after some of Silicon Valley Bank’s biggest customers started pulling out their money, a WhatsApp group of startup founders who are immigrants of color ballooned to more than 1,000 members. Questions flowed as the bank’s financial status worsened. Some desperately sought advice: Could they open an account at a larger bank without a Social Security Number? Others questioned whether they had to physically be at a bank to open an account, because they’re visiting parents overseas. One clear theme emerged: a deep concern about the broader impact on startups led by people of color. While Wall Street...

As former President Donald Trump faces likely criminal charges, his campaign is preparing to wage a political war. With an indictment looming from the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, Trump’s campaign is laying the groundwork for a broad attack on Bragg, a Democrat. According to two of Trump’s political allies, the campaign will aim to portray any charges as part of a coordinated offensive by the Democratic Party against Trump, who is trying to become only the second former president to win a new term after leaving office. It is unclear what data points, if any, the Trump team plans...

WASHINGTON — The White House is exploring additional ways to ensure accountability for those who were responsible for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, administration officials said Tuesday. Pointing to the bonuses some bank employees got last week and stock sales made by senior executives in recent years, a White House official said, “All of those are worthy of a deeper look.” Biden privately told his advisers in meetings over the weekend that he wants tougher regulations on banks to prevent future failures, the second official said. Biden wants Congress to reverse the deregulatory actions lawmakers took during the Trump...