Free Republic

The Trump administration and its allies moved to tighten control of the U.S. Agency for International Development over the weekend, signaling an intent to act forcefully to bring the U.S. foreign policy apparatus in line with the president’s “America First” approach to engaging with the world.SNIPVoorhees was put on leave after he did not allow officials from the “Department of Government Efficiency” to access a sensitive compartmented information facility — commonly known as a SCIF — an ultra-secure room where officials and government contractors take extraordinary precautions to review highly classified information, according to three current and former USAID officials.SNIPWhen...

President-elect Donald Trump, in his first post-election TV interview, promised a confrontational return to the White House, saying he would like to see many of those who investigated him jailed, including lawmakers who led an inquiry into his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. **SNIP** In a 45-minute interview with NBC News’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday and was recorded on Friday, Trump said members of the now-defunct House select committee tasked with investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol should be in jail. “Everybody on that committee … for what they...

Today, Alaska is set to release the results of its special election to fill a vacant House seat, with Democrat Mary Peltola locked in a close race with former governor Sarah Palin (R). The election was Aug. 16, the state’s first ranked-choice contest, and after a 15-day waiting period required by state law, the results will be announced. If she wins, Peltola would be the first Alaska native elected to Congress. If Palin wins, it would revive the political career of a candidate who lost the vice presidency in 2008. The winner would serve the last four months of the...

Conservative figures have launched an online furor this week, claiming that the government planned to spend $30 million on pipes for smoking crack cocaine. The heightened concern came months after the Department of Health and Human Services announced a federal grant for local programs that provide myriad "harm reduction" tools, or services that minimize the risks associated with drug use. Republicans seized on "crack pipes," causing the phrase to trend on Twitter on Tuesday, the latest in continued resistance from the GOP against harm-reduction techniques at a time when people are dying of drug overdoses at record rates in the...

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said Tuesday that an officer conducted a security check of a Capitol Hill office that was left open, rejecting a GOP congressman’s claim that police were involved in an illegal probe last November. In a Twitter thread Tuesday, Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-Tex.) claimed without evidence that “The @CapitolPolice Intelligence Division investigated my office illegally and one of my staffers caught them in the act.” Nehls accused Capitol Police leadership after one of the officers entered his office in the Longworth House Office Building with no prior notice Nov. 20, 2021, ahead of the...