Free Republic

Former President Joe Biden’s massive expansion of the federal workforce and flurry of administrative moves on his way out the door have already created roadblocks for President Donald Trump as he seeks to deliver on the sweeping reforms he promised. From greenlighting new union protections for federal workers to approving last-minute energy rules, Biden administration officials spent the weeks after Trump’s election making moves to complicate the incoming president’s agenda. Some of those efforts began months before the votes were cast, and others took place in the 76 days between Biden’s defeat and Trump’s inauguration. And while most outgoing administrations...

CNN host Fareed Zakaria tried to claim (a) Bidenomics was mind-boggling genius, and also (b) white working-class voters hated it and rejected it in November. So forget those unwashed, uneducated white voters. Democrats should stop trying for those voters and stick to college-educated women and minorities. The host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS bellowed in a January 17 op-ed for The Washington Post that Biden’s spendthrift economic catastrophe was actually “a resounding success.” But, alas, as Zakaria lectured in his ridiculous headline, “Biden failed to win the working class. Democrats might want to stop trying.” Of course, Zakaria’s idea of...

President Joe Biden released a statement Friday declaring that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) “has become part of our Constitution.” Biden asserted that as of 2020, 38 states have ratified the amendment and stated it should now be recognized as “the law of the land,” according to a White House press release. The amendment is meant to ensure equal rights for men and women in the U.S., but some interpretations of the text have implied it would erase gender distinctions and grant abortion protections. “The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary...

On the menu today: Back on December 13, I noticed that the Biden administration released its “National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate” and announced the establishment of two China-focused initiatives and observed there was something a little absurd about the Biden team unveiling “short, medium, and long-term actions” with 38 days left in Biden’s presidency. These guys are the short term. Now, we are 17 days away from the start of Donald Trump’s second term, and Biden — or more accurately, the team around our mumbling, stumbling octogenarian president — is trying to push through a difficult-to-rescind ban...

Among the roughly 1,500 people granted clemency by the outgoing President Biden were several corrupt local officials, fraudsters, and a crooked judge. Biden also commuted the sentence of a Chinese spy convicted of possessing child pornography. President Joe Biden’s pardon and commutation spree this week included granting indulgences for convicted fraudsters and corrupt public officials, a move that will likely sharpen criticism of the outgoing executive’s use of the constitutional power. But the president, who is already facing public disapproval for his decision to grant an extensive pardon his own son for charged and potential crimes, may find it even...

The Biden administration is quietly rushing to implement new policies that will loosen restrictions on migrants who entered the US illegally — a parting attempt to thwart President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration crackdowns and mass deportations, sources tell The Post. And the Big Apple will be ground zero for these changes. The outgoing administration intends to launch an ICE Portal app starting in early December in New York City that will allow migrants to bypass in-person check-ins to their local ICE office. Homeland Security sources tell The Post the app will make it easier for migrants to flee authorities in part...

Lame duck Joe Biden's gamble on a global warDeparting US president Joe Biden… has taken one of the most provocative, uncalculated decisions of his administration, which risks catastrophic consequences... Joe Biden gave the greenlight to Ukraine to launch the American-made long-range ATACMS missile system deep within Russian territory. WWIII, anyone?Following Donald Trump’s electoral victory this month, the lame duck administration of Joe Biden gave the greenlight to Ukraine to launch the American-made long-range ATACMS missile system deep within Russian territory, according to various news outlets including Reuters and The New York Times.On November 19, Ukrainian news agency RBC-Ukraine reported that...

The lame-duck Biden-Harris administration is slapping new sanctions on Israelis, while sending nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in additional funding to the Palestinians, adding insult to injury in the closing weeks of its failed policy. The Washington Free Beacon noted Monday: The Biden-Harris administration on Monday unveiled sweeping new sanctions on Israeli Jews, just days after it awarded another $230 million in taxpayer funds to the Palestinians. The back-to-back announcements signal that diplomatic relations between Israel and the outgoing White House will continue to sour until President-elect Donald Trump retakes office next year. The new sanctions are the...

We have been having a rollicking good time since the night of Nov. 5, haven't we? It started to take on the feeling of a party that wasn't going to end for a very long time. Things have been going so swimmingly that I almost forgot that the Democrats still have control of the Executive Branch. Last week we discussed the fact that Joe Biden seemed to have been playing the fly in the ointment for Kamala Harris throughout her post-coup campaign. Despite the fact that Biden and Donald Trump seemed to enjoy their visit together last week, it's important...

Biden was a lame duck president even before Trump won – but that doesn’t make him powerless. Joe Biden became a lame duck the day he ended his 2024 re-election campaign. No matter who won between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, he had resigned himself to leaving the White House in January 2025. But he hasn’t left yet – he’s still president until his predecessor-turned-successor is sworn in, and there’s still plenty he can accomplish in that time. Indeed, with Trump packing for his triumphant return, Biden’s waning days have a new sense of urgency. War and Peace Regardless of...

LIMA — Lame-duck President Biden was relegated to the back corner of the APEC conference’s annual family photo — as Chinese President Xi Jinping was honored with a front-and-center position next to the host country’s President Dina Boluarte. The petty humiliation of America’s leader comes ahead of his Saturday afternoon meeting with Xi — who has been feted with relative pomp throughout the event as thanks for his country’s financing of a large new port on Peru’s coast. Biden, 81, whose increasing irrelevance domestically and on the world stage has earned him the moniker of “super lame duck,” arrived last...

Blinken raised the issue during his conversations in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted that he would in fact restrict military aid to Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as he spoke with reporters in Israel prior to his departure for Saudi Arabia. “I will follow the law,” he said when pressed if he would uphold Memorandum National Security Memorandum 20, which makes military assistance contingent on compliance with international law and international humanitarian law. The United States had warned Israel in April that it risked being...

“It's also been an imperative for us to try to make sure that this conflict doesn't spread." US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel not to escalate its conflict with Tehran and the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah as it continues to respond militarily to attacks from both entities. “It's also been an imperative for us to try to make sure that this conflict doesn't spread. We are resolute in our defense of Israel when it comes to attacks it's receiving from Iran, from Iran's proxies,” Blinken told reporters on Wednesday morning before departing Tel Aviv for Saudi Arabia. “We...

With the end of the Biden Administration in sight, liberal pundits seem to be striving to prove that the only difference between a lawbreaker and a law-abiding citizen is the ability to get away with the crime. Popular figures on the left from Michael Moore to Keith Olbermann are calling on President Joe Biden to commit overtly unlawful acts in his final 100 days in office, including targeting his political opponents. In one of the few statements of Moore with which I agree, he stated that this is “no joke.” It certainly is not. It is the same logic used...

The US claimed that it believed that Netanyahu would consent to the ceasefire soon after it was issued, while Israel said there was no such expectation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t flip-flop on his response to a joint US-French call or a 21-day ceasefire along the Israeli-Lebanese border, a senior diplomatic source told Israeli reporters during a briefing in New York. “We never agreed to it,” the source said. He was one of two senior sources who briefed reporters about what appeared to be a deep division between the Biden administration and Israel over the best path forward to push...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is promising that the House will not approve a single, massive bill to fund the entire government in December — a scenario feared by conservatives — despite a stopgap that’s expected to clear the House this week expiring on Dec. 20. “There won’t be a Christmas omnibus,” Johnson said in a press conference Tuesday, reiterating a message he relayed privately to members in a House GOP conference meeting that morning. It is a bold promise...And it would also defy historical precedent. Congress has regularly passed omnibus spending bills after a funding deadline butts up against end-of-year...

WASHINGTON — Who’s in charge here, again? First lady Jill Biden did most of the talking Friday at the public portion of what may be President Biden’s last Cabinet meeting — before showing the cast of “The West Wing” around the Oval Office and hosting a Rose Garden event without her husband. “The work is hard and the days are long. And yes, there are times when the weight of all we have before us can just feel too heavy to carry,” Jill, 73, said in the Rose Garden from a podium presidents usually occupy. “But that’s where the heart...

On Monday, Joe Biden allegedly plans to announce several dramatic new proposals to permanently change the nature of the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented assault on the Constitution. Politico reports that the reforms, first hinted at during Biden’s Oval Office address to the nation last week on his historic decision not to run for re-election, will include term limits for Supreme Court justices and a new code of ethics, among other radical proposals. “I’m going to call for Supreme Court reform, because this is critical to our democracy,” said Biden during his widely-panned address, when the 81-year-old president once again...

President Biden addresses the nation at 8 p.m. Eastern to either explain why he withdrew from re-election on Sunday, maybe he is now resigning today, or will try and explain why he is still competent to remain as president. White House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93T8biDlaBc

President Joe Biden is not yesterday’s man, or even the day-before-yesterday’s man. That will be the core message when he addresses the nation on Wednesday night barely three days after he exited the 2024 race for the White House and allowed Vice President Kamala Harris to be anointed as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee. It is only the fourth Oval Office address of his presidency overall – and could well be his last – as he seeks to retain any symbol of relevancy in his last months of office. Multiple reports say the octogenarian is desperate to defy a “lame...