Free Republic

WASHINGTON — For generations, official American documents have been meticulously preserved and protected — from the era of quills and parchment to boxes of paper to the cloud, safeguarding snapshots of the government and the nation for posterity. Now, the Trump administration has sought to expand the executive branch’s power to shield from public view key administration initiatives. Officials have used apps like Signal that can auto-delete messages containing sensitive information rather than retaining them for record-keeping. And they have shaken up the National Archives leadership. To historians and archivists, it points to the possibility that President Trump will leave...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” ABC News Contributor and former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile said that Democrats didn’t hold an open primary to determine their nominee in 2024 after then-President Joe Biden dropped out of the race because there was an assumption that then-candidate Trump’s convictions would tarnish him enough to ensure he lost “And they thought that it was going to be an easier task and that it wouldn’t matter.” While discussing Biden’s recent interviews and the 2024 presidential race, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) stated, “I think, for the Democrats, if they had an open...

The Brooklyn woman accused of leaving a brick scrawled with a swastika and the word “Nazi” on a parked Tesla is a super-woke family therapist who was involved in criminal justice diversion programs — and blamed Elon Musk for her heinous actions as she was taken into custody. Natasha Cohen was released on her own recognizance following her arraignment on hate-crime charges Saturday night, according to prosecutors. Cohen,46, has a private practice, working with children, adolescents and their families for more than two decades. *** Several of Cohen’s social media posts are critical of President Trump. Recently, she posted a...

People seem to always have beef with vegans — and scientists say they’ve figured out why. A new study published in the journal Food Quality and Preference found that your typical carnivore’s hatred of vegans might simply be due to envy. Researchers from University of Vaasa in Finland wanted to understand why a plant-based diet and the use of meat substitutes are still so frowned upon in Europe. “The consumption of meat and meat substitutes is a highly charged social phenomenon,” Roosa-Maaria Malila, an author of the study, said in a statement. “According to our research, consumers who prefer plant-based...

On Jan. 20, Donald Trump was sworn in, for a second time, as the president of the United States. As the country begins to see the early effects of a second Trump term (including the signing of dozens of executive orders), SFGATE set out to decipher what his new administration and its proposed policies could mean for the food, agriculture and restaurant industries in California. Trump has made no secret of his disdain for the Golden State, consistently referring to Gov. Gavin Newsom as “Newscum” in Los Angeles wildfire-related posts on Truth Social. The president has also touted plans for...

Insurance industry calls Harris' claim that insurers are canceling policies 'false, wrong and dangerous' The insurance industry is pushing back after Vice President Kamala Harris suggested insurance companies have canceled the policies of victims of California's wildfires, calling her claim "false, wrong and dangerous." During a press conference regarding the ongoing wildfires on Thursday, Harris said, "Many insurance companies have canceled insurance for a lot of the families who have been affected and will be affected, which is only going to delay or place an added burden on their ability to recover." "I think that is an important point that...

Democratic strategist James Carville criticized his party on Thursday for suppressing dissent on issues like sex changes and border policy. Carville’s remarks follow Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts calling out his party on Nov. 10 for attempting to “cancel people rather than having debates about issues that Americans care about” following backlash to his comments regarding transgender athletes competing in female sports. Carville, on “Politics War Room,” accused Democrats of enforcing a tyrannical adherence to their “philosophy” that undermines the party’s electability. “Anybody that questions the absolute, unquestionable benefits of transition surgery is going to be called this equivalent...

ABC News host George Stephanopoulos ignored the news about his network’s massive settlement with President-elect Donald Trump on his Sunday show. Fox News Digital first reported on Saturday that ABC News and Stephanopoulos agreed to a settlement to avoid a costly trial over Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the network and anchor. News of the settlement, however, failed to appear on ABC’s "This Week." Instead, Stephanopoulos focused on stories about unidentified drones over New Jersey, ongoing conflicts in Syria and Trump’s cabinet picks. He also deleted his X account over the weekend. Stephanopoulos was the focus of the lawsuit after he...

Israel disputed allegations Monday by Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and the director of the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP), claiming only two of its aid trucks entered Gaza in November. McCain made that claim on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday, and also accused Israel of deliberately “targeting” humanitarian aid workers. She also implied that Israel, not Hamas, was to blame for the looting of aid trucks in Gaza.

America has voted for a lunatic, boundary-breaking authoritarian–nastier, more ruthless and better organized than before.

Throughout Election Day and night, CBS News' Confirmed team will be fact checking reports of threats around voting today, voter fraud, election hacking, and more as the nation votes and waits to see whether Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States. False: Social media posts claim Harris voters bused from New York to Pennsylvania False: Elon Musk claimed Google intentionally manipulating search results in favor of Harris False: Social media posts claim Milwaukee mayor, a Democrat, said the city's votes would not be counted on election night False: Non-citizens...

As the presidential campaign begins its final sprint, Donald Trump has made crystal clear how he will respond if he loses. He will refuse to accept the results; he will make baseless claims of voter fraud; and he will turn, with even more ferocity than he did in 2020, to the courts to save him.Mr. Trump has made clear that he views any election he loses — no matter how close or fair — as by definition illegitimate. The question then is whether there will be lawyers willing to cloak this insistence in the language of legal reasoning and therefore...

New York Times writer Mara Gay said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that podcaster Joe Rogan was converting angry men to fascism. Gay said, “My thoughts are I hope that women seeing this who are over half the population and vote more consistently than men. I hope that they see this and that they coalesce around the obvious choice. White women, I’m talking to you as well.” She continued, “I just think we really also might want to take a moment to, as Barack Obama did yesterday, speaking specifically to black men, but I think this is actually for all...

The former president is holding a rally in a Colorado city he falsely claims was overtaken by violent immigrants from Venezuela. The city’s leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, tried to pre-emptively fact-check him. Mike Coffman, the conservative Republican mayor of Aurora, Colo., had a message for former President Donald J. Trump before the Republican nominee for the White House came on Friday to a city he has repeatedly painted as having been taken over by vicious migrant street thugs.The visit, Mr. Coffman said in a statement to The Times, “is an opportunity to show him and the nation that Aurora...

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that former President Donald Trump does not want to debate Vice President Kamala Harris again because “he got his ass kicked.” Co-host Joe Scarborough said, “You talked about the debate. Why do you think Donald Trump won’t debate her again?” Emhoff said, “Well, you saw the first debate, didn’t you?” Scarborough said, “Yeah, yeah.” Emhoff said, “Yeah. That’s why. He got his ass kicked. And so he’s afraid that that’s going to happen again. Rather he’s spreading this fog, this fog of misinformation and disinformation and gaslighting rather than face...

A smiling former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied reports that she spearheaded the Democratic mutiny that culminated with President Biden dropping out of the race last month. “No, I wasn’t the leader of any pressure [campaign],” Pelosi (D-Calif.), 84, told CBS News. “Let me say things that I didn’t do: I didn’t call one person. I did not call one person. I could always say to him, ‘I never called anybody.’” Pelosi’s behind-the-scenes machinations during the outpour of Democrats calling on Biden, 81, have been widely reported. She has long had a reputation for being a savvy and ruthless political...

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams challenged CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday, accusing the host of spreading “disinformation” after she challenged the Democrat on her refusal to concede the 2018 election. I’ve never claimed to be the governor of Georgia,” Abrams said. “What I have said is that voters were denied their full rights.

I’m a major donor to the Democratic Party. Only one strategy can rescue the Dems: an open convention. Being a large donor to the Democratic Party is like having elective surgery. You know it’s the right thing to do, but you also know it will be painful. You are often going to be thrown under the bus by the very candidates you support. I would know. I maxed out my giving in the last four presidential elections to the Democratic candidate: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Biden again, this cycle. Perhaps that makes me sound partisan, but I...

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Donald Trump v. United States — in which a majority of the justices found that presidents are immune from prosecution for many actions taken during their presidency — is a legal earthquake. One way to see what a huge difference this new ruling will have is to look back at Watergate to see what behavior the Supreme Court excused for all presidents. I wrote about ex-President Trump’s ongoing criminal exposure in my new book “Corporatocracy.” I worried in that book that Trump would not be held accountable by the courts. As it turns out,...

One of America’s political parties has a presidential candidate who is really old and showing it. The other has a presidential candidate who is a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, business fraudster and self-described aspiring dictator for a day. And also really old.One of the parties is up in arms about its nominee and trying to figure out how to replace him at the last minute. The other is not.The spectacle of the week since the nationally televised debate between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump has thrown into sharp relief two political parties that agreed to be...