Free Republic

Former CIA Director John Brennan briefed former President Obama on Hillary Clinton’s “plan” to tie the Trump campaign to Russia as a means of distracting the public from her private email server scandal before the 2016 election, according to newly declassified documents. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Tuesday declassified Brennan’s handwritten notes along with a CIA memo showing that officials referred the alleged scheme to the FBI for potential investigation. “Today, at the direction of President Trump, I declassified additional documents relevant to ongoing Congressional oversight and investigative activities,” Ratcliffe said in a statement. Brennan’s notes, which were...

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and minority leader Chuck Schumer have agreed to a deal that could end the partial government shutdown, which entered its 32nd day Tuesday. Under the deal, the Senate will vote Thursday on two bills intended to end the shutdown. One bill includes President Trump’s request for $5.7 billion to construct a wall at the southern border, and one would fund the government entities affected by the shutdown through February 8, kicking the fight down the road until then. “People are saying isn’t there a way out of this mess, isn’t there a way to relieve...

Republican lawmakers were left shaking their heads after President Trump’s Monday’s press conference with Russian president Vladimir Putin, in which Trump declined to endorse the American intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.) called it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory” and a “tragic mistake” in a statement. “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant,” McCain said. “The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate.” House speaker Paul Ryan also...

Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) says that although he is a gun owner himself and strongly believes in the Second Amendment, he also believes people on the no-fly list should be barred from purchasing guns. "I’m a gun owner. I strongly believe in the Second Amendment," Thompson said during an emotional press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday held by House and Senate Democrats to commemorate the third anniversary of the Newtown, Conn. shootings.