Free Republic

At Revolution Hall, Franken is expected to reminisce about his time at SNL and offer insight into the workings of the Senate. “Whether discussing his career in comedy or in public service,” the event’s program promises, “Franken delivers a singular experience -- leaving audiences thoroughly entertained, more knowledgeable, and either optimistic or extremely depressed about our nation’s future -- depending on how he feels that day.”

Former secretary of defense James Mattis repeatedly refused MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell's invitations to criticize President Donald Trump in an interview Thursday. Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, resigned in December over policy differences with Trump, specifically the president's decision to withdraw American troops from Syria. Mattis, an advocate of cultivating alliances and American engagement, said he had "no choice" but to depart. Mitchell quoted a portion of Mattis's new book Call Sign Chaos that criticized the Obama administration—including former vice president and 2020 candidate Joe Biden—for leaving the Middle East in "disarray" and "our friends confused." "Aren't we at...

During former Defense Secretary James Mattis's MSNBC interview with Andrea Mitchell, he refused to criticize President Trump, even though she pressed him firmly to do so on various issues. Mitchell tried to get Mattis to say Thursday if he thinks he is "normalizing" decisions Trump makes by not saying how he truly feels about them, such as when former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired via Twitter. Each time, Mattis maintained that it is inappropriate for former military men and administration officials to undermine the current commander in chief. "Your personal library has thousands, thousands, 7,000 books in it....

An Iranian propaganda campaign created fake Bernie Sanders supporters online, Facebook disclosed Tuesday. In a press release, the social-media giant said it had removed 652 pages associated with political-influence campaigns traced to Iran, including coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Iran and targeted people across multiple internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, U.K., and U.S.” The cybersecurity company FireEye, which first alerted Facebook to the influence campaign months ago, wrote in a separate posting on its site that it had traced the campaign—including posts from supposed “American liberals supportive of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders”—to Iran through email addresses...

Former U.S Attorney Joyce Vance apologized after deleting a tweet falsely claiming that Fox News would not air former special counsel Robert Mueller's upcoming House hearing. Vance, who served under former President Obama, said the tweet was meant to be ironic, but deleted it to limit any confusion. "Y’all, a kind friend pointed out my goofy sense of humor doesn’t always translate onto Twitter. I know most of you get the irony by now. It will be interesting to see Fox’s coverage in light of Trump’s statement he won’t be watching the hearing. "I’ve deleted an earlier tweet I intended...

For the first time since the end of World War I, the president of the United States is not the leader of the free world. When the guns fell silent at the end of the Great War on Nov. 11, 1918, Europe was in ashes after more than four years of fighting. America was newly ascendant, a leader in manufacturing, science, military power and global influence – with a home front untouched by the destruction of war. Our leading role as the most powerful and influential nation on Earth was solidified with our victory in World War II. We never...

Stop talking so much about the America that he’s destroying. Save your breath for the America you want to create. Surprise, surprise: Donald Trump has no bottom. Just when you think he has sunk as low as he can, he stages a rally like that atrocity in North Carolina on Wednesday night and sinks lower. But the key takeaway isn’t that he’s a demagogue or a racist: These were facts put into evidence long ago. It’s that Democrats can’t afford to take unnecessary risks, dream deferrable dreams and engage in avoidable distractions as they set about the urgent work of...

Waiting patiently for all the celebrities to come out with hashtags and social-media videos, telling us little people how they believe the underage girls victimized by Epstein and his pals.

Just like millions of American women, Melania Trump pinned Christine Blasey Ford, the first accuser of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, for a liar in her fantastic tale of high school sexual assault. Here's the New York Post: First lady Melania Trump warned her husband that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was not being truthful when she accused Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school, according to a new book. "You know that woman is lying, right?" Melania told the president, in an episode recounted in Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme...

He is using the office he holds to advance his extraordinary lifetime project of assigning unchecked power to the president. Buried behind our president’s endless stream of lies and malicious self-serving remarks are actions that far transcend any reasonable understanding of his legal authority. Donald Trump disdains, more than anything else, the limitations of checks and balances on his power. Witness his assertion of a right to flout all congressional subpoenas; his continuing refusal to disclose his tax returns, notwithstanding Congress’s statutory right to secure them; his specific actions to bar congressional testimony by government officials; and his personal attacks...

Hugh Hewitt kicked off his radio show on Friday by thanking his guest, former Maryland Congressman John Delaney, for "saving his blue cross." His health care. Unlike some of his leftist opponents, Delaney does not endorse the Medicare for All plan, which would kick 250 million Americans off of their private insurance plans and give government the reins. "The American people want choices," Delaney protested. "And they ought to have them. It's also about economics, as you know." Other moderates agree. Delaney's fellow presidential contender Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) was able to tell Sanders face-to-face last night at the 2020...

When the rape allegations brought against President Trump by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll surfaced on Friday, you could instantly predict that we were going to see a standoff between supporters on both sides. That’s been playing out over the weekend already, but one interview that Carroll did on Friday night caught my attention. She appeared on MSNBC and one of the expected subjects came up. She’s made a very serious charge in her upcoming book, far beyond any sort of harassment or inappropriate touching, so is she going to bring charges?Apparently not. That’s her call to make, of course,...

Ex-'CBS Evening News' anchor Dan Rather blasted President Trump Thursday, calling him the "biggest purveyor of fake news" amid Trump's ongoing feud with the media. During his appearance on "The Dan Abrams Show" on Thursday, Rather admitted that journalists "make mistakes," but insisted that was different from "fake news." ....... Rather, 87, retired from CBS in 2005, months after airing unverified documents in a report about President George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard prior to the 2004 election. He now makes frequent appearances on CNN and MSNBC.

'Just sit this one out': Chicago mayor tells Trump not to get involved in Jussie Smollett probe and says he will give the Empire actor a bill for the police investigation into 'hoax' Rahm Emanuel told Trump to 'sit this one out' when discussing the Smollett caseHe also said he would give the actor a bill for the cost of the investigation Emanuel says the cost of the police probe into the January 29 attack is around $150,000 He said city lawyers were still totaling up the final cost and would send Smollett's team a letter with it Smollett agreed...

US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scrambled Sunday to explain why neighbors at her listed Bronx address never saw her there — and ended up claiming she recently relocated to a larger place nearby. The day after The Post reported that residents said they had never seen her around — and she ducked questions about it after an appearance — her spokesman said the Democratic freshman congresswoman now lives with her boyfriend in a two-bedroom apartment “a block and a half away.’’ The pair relocated there earlier this month, he said. “She lives in the same neighborhood she’s lived in for years,”...

Kathy Griffin frequently trolls Donald Trump Jr., and the comedian wasn’t impressed with a recent joke involving her and Jussie Smollett. On Sunday, the president’s eldest son tweeted about the Empire star’s alleged attack, saying Smollett is on track to ruin his career faster than Griffin. Kathy Griffin: No one can ruin a career faster than I can. Jussie Smollet: Hold my bleach!!! — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 17, 2019 Trump Jr. is referring to the fallout Griffin faced after that 2017 “beheading” photo shoot. Griffin caught wind of the remark and called him out for plagiarizing “a tweet...

Not sure the site's excerpt policy, but basically cuomo is pushing for "Red Flag" laws, Banning Teachers from having guns on school grounds, Expanding Background Check/Waiting Period laws, Ban Bump Stocks (which is already federally banned I believe)

Welp. BuzzFeed’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day just got worse as the New York Times is reporting that the prosecutors in the special counsel’s office are saying that Michale Cohen “never implied that the president had pressured him to lie to Congress”: “Toast”:

Friday on NBC’s “Today Show,” NBC and MSNBC host Chuck Todd boasted about the significance of a Buzzfeed story reporting President Donald Trump directed his then-legal counsel Michael Cohen to lie about a real estate project in Russia. Todd told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that one couldn’t “overstate” the significance of the report. “In the Trump era we have a hard time sometimes under-calibrating — and everybody is like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God — this is it, this is it,'” Todd said. “You can’t overstate how significant this development is, with the caveat of if true. I mean, a...

President Donald Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House Monday that suggestions he was some sort of Russian agent were totally ridiculous, and insisted that the entire special counsel investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election is a "whole big fat hoax." It's in keeping with his broader approach to the question of Russia's election meddling efforts and ties between those close to his campaign and actors for foreign powers: This is all a sham. Special counsel Robert Mueller is out to get him -- as is the entire FBI. They've got nothing. (The 192...