Free Republic

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tucker Carlson’s decision to interview white supremacist Nick Fuentes on his podcast last month was a “big mistake.” “He has a lot of listeners, and I think giving Nick Fuentes that platform is a big mistake,” the Louisiana Republican told The Hill in an interview published Tuesday. Johnson said that he had not listened to Fuentes before but that he “sort of knew” who the far-right provocateur is. After listening to a compilation of some of the “worst things” Fuentes has said, Johnson called it “vile, terrible stuff.” “I mean, it’s not just antisemitic, it’s...

After the Heritage Foundation defended Carlson’s interview, internal messages at the conservative think tank showed staffers were outraged by the decision. One employee wrote, “Talking with some of the interns I think there are a growing number of them who actually agree [with him].” Conservative writer Rod Dreher corroborated on his Substack, “I am told by someone in a position to know that something like 30 to 40 percent of DC GOP staffers under the age of 30 are Groypers.” While Republican politicians like JD Vance and Ted Cruz have distanced themselves from the podcaster, his influence with the next...

President Donald Trump’s call for House Republicans to support releasing Jeffrey Epstein-related documents was a stunning capitulation after a months-long campaign to block the vote. It was also a specific defeat for Trump at the hands of a despised GOP opponent: Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. “He got tired of me winning,” Massie said of Trump’s U-turn in an interview Monday morning. Insisting “I DON’T CARE!” in a late-night Truth Social post, Trump was bowing to the inevitable — a broad House Republican mutiny on a vote that was only scheduled because Massie forced it. It was the result of...

The internal conflict over the future of the MAGA movement is described as a generational divide: On one side are the boomers, the Republican Party’s old guard that attached itself to Donald Trump’s winning agenda, and on the other side are the Zoomers, the rising generation of conservatives angry that, in their view, the president has betrayed his own movement. The split is anything but organic. Rather, it’s the intended result of a campaign waged by a revisionist faction determined to seize control of MAGA, and the Republican Party, by erasing Trump. The fight has been simmering on social media...

@RepThomasMassie 🏆 In spite of a last ditch effort by the President to foil the motion, and @SpeakerJohnson’s propaganda, the discharge petition I have been leading just succeeded! In December, the entire House of Representatives will vote on releasing the Epstein files.

@RandPaul Tonight the process of opening the govt begins, less chaos is a good thing but hidden deep in the swamp speak of the Republican bill will be a waiver of PAYGO the long-standing law requiring new spending to be offset with cuts. And so it goes, a trillion here a trillion there. $38 trillion in debt and counting. A depressing outcome

Dinesh is relentlessly attacking Tucker Carlson for not being more critical of Nick Fuentes during their interview, but here’s a clip of @DineshDSouza heaping praise on @NickJFuentes after their debate on Infowars ~ a month ago. Why the sudden hypocrisy and double standard?D'Souza to Fuentes in the video: "I commend you. I don't think I've met too many 26-year olds with kind of confidence and background knowledge you have. So, it's been a pleasure for me to engage with you."

What Everyone Misses About Nick FuentesThe racialist influencer represents a spectacle that demands cool analysis rather than emotional reaction.The racialist influencer Nick Fuentes has caused an uproar with his appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast. Fuentes, a 27-year-old live-streamer, has built a reputation as the most controversial voice on the right. He’s embraced seemingly every taboo: praising Hitler, disputing the Holocaust’s death toll, calling himself a “white nationalist,” musing about domestic violence, and opposing interracial marriage.Carlson’s invitation has divided conservatives. Some suggest that Fuentes’s appearance on the podcast represented an unacceptable mainstreaming of his views. Others, most notably Heritage Foundation president...

A defense attorney in Michigan is pushing back on the FBI’s allegations that his client and a group of young men arrested Friday were planning to carry out a violent attack over the Halloween weekend. FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrests of multiple people Friday who he said were plotting a “potential terrorist attack.” He said more details would be forthcoming. Amir Makled, the lawyer for a Dearborn, Mich., man who was still detained Saturday, said he hasn’t gotten many details about the case, but he told The Associated Press that, after reviewing the matter, he doesn’t expect any...

Conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro blasted Tucker Carlson on Monday, calling him “the most virulent super-spreader of vile ideas in America.” In an episode of “The Ben Shapiro Show” released Monday, Shapiro criticized Carlson’s podcast episode with Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes, saying Carlson failed to push back on Fuentes’ bigotry. “The issue here isn’t that Tucker Carlson had Nick Fuentes on his show last week. He has every right to do that, of course,” Shapiro said. “The issue here is that Tucker Carlson decided to normalize and fluff Nick Fuentes and that the Heritage Foundation then decided to robustly defend that performance.”...

MAGA Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) had harsh words for former Fox News host Tucker Carlson while discussing anti-Semitism in the GOP before an audience with the American Jewish Coalition on Saturday. Carlson recently hosted white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his podcast, drawing rebukes from Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). “It is easy to talk about anti-Semitism on the left,” Fine said. “I want to talk about the dark force rising on our side. Multiple speakers have talked about the rise of anti-Semitism on the right, but it is not enough to speak in platitudes...

Remember Marjorie Taylor Greene going off the rails during one of Biden's State of the Union addresses? Well, maybe her appearance on Bill Maher's show Friday night was super appropriate for Halloween, because it looks like that version is the ghost of the past. MTG joined Bill on 'Real Time,' and she came off incredibly reasonable and not a party hack. She talked about splitting with Trump on a variety of issues, including releasing the Epstein files, healthcare, opening the government, and pouring money into foreign aid -- especially to Argentina -- while 42 million Americans don't know where they'll...

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts declined to distance the conservative organization from Tucker Carlson, in response to criticism that Tucker has become "anti-semitic." KEVIN ROBERTS: I'll have more to say on this in the coming days, but today I want to be clear about one thing. Christians can critique the state of Israel without being anti-Semitic. Of course, anti-Semitism should be condemned. My loyalty as a Christian is to Christ first and to America always. When it serves the interest of the United States to cooperate with other allies, we do so with partnerships on security, intelligence, technology. But when...

Weeks after Jeffrey Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 awaiting prosecution on sex-trafficking charges, JPMorgan Chase filed a report alerting the U.S. government to tens of millions of dollars of potentially suspicious transactions involving him and prominent Wall Street and business figures. The so-called suspicious activity report that JPMorgan filed identified transactions with Leon Black, the co-founder of private equity firm Apollo Global Management; Glenn Dubin, a well-known hedge fund manager; the lawyer Alan Dershowitz; and trusts controlled by Leslie Wexner, the retail tycoon. The nature of the transactions, as well as Mr. Epstein’s role in them, is unclear....

@Holden_Culotta Tucker Carlson: “What the hell is going on that Thomas Massie is a target, but Lindsey Graham has a Trump endorsement?” “Of all the members of Congress that I know, Massie is the most principled.” “If Lindsay Graham continues to get elected, then the whole MAGA thing is totally fake.” “I don’t think there are many people in the country who live out Donald Trump’s own stated principles more precisely than Thomas Massie does.” “His personal life … is like one of the most impressive things I’ve ever heard.” “He is self-reliant in the most American sense.” “This is...

@RepThomasMassie First the British Ambassador lost his job and now the Prince lost his title. Don’t tell us there’s nothing in the Epstein files. The truth is coming out and we will not give up. Repost this and tag @SpeakerJohnson if you want him to quit delaying the vote.

@RandPaul Washington’s spending addiction is out of control. I refused to support the $2T GOP deficit or the $3T Democrat deficit. I don’t want a shutdown, and I’ll support legislation to ensure our troops are paid, but I won’t rubber-stamp reckless budgets from either party.

@RonPaul In an hysterical rant over the weekend, President Trump has blasted Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) as a couple of "wackos" who refuse to vote with the Republican Party. Meanwhile, President Trump has just announced that his first in-person fundraiser of the election cycle will be for...Lindsey Graham! Also today, Israel breaks ceasefire and kills dozens more Palestinians in Gaza.

Amid a wave of U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean and plans for covert operations in Venezuela, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is leading a bipartisan effort to force a vote to stop President Trump from unilaterally declaring war on the South American nation. Kaine, a longtime proponent of Congress' powers to declare war, filed the resolution late Thursday, a move that will force the Senate to take up the legislation after a 10-day waiting period. Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., co-sponsored the plan. Kaine said concerns about war in the Latin American region are growing. "The pace...

Jeffrey Epstein regularly boasted he could blackmail a powerful network of men using videos showing them abusing young women, according to Virginia Giuffre. The bombshell claim is made in her posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl, A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice. The Telegraph has obtained a copy of the 367-page book which will be published next week by Alfred A. Knopf. It will reignite questions about whether the late paedophile maintained a “client list” after the federal authorities concluded in July that there was no blackmail operation. Giuffre finished writing the book six months before she took her...