Free Republic

President Trump vowed Monday to catch the “leaker” who revealed that US forces were not immediately able to rescue the second F-15 pilot shot down over Iran — as he retold of the wounded airman’s dramatic weekend rescue. “We’re looking very hard to find that leaker,” Trump said in the White House briefing room. “They basically said that we have one and there’s somebody missing. Well, [Iran] didn’t know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information.” “We think we’ll be able to find it out, because we’re going to go to the media company that released it,...

Although ICE has celebrated going after “the worst of the worst criminals” in Ohio, the vast majority of people taken into custody had no criminal conviction – less than 7% of arrestees during the heightened enforcement surge in mid-December had a criminal record, according to the Deportation Data Project (DDP) data analyzed by The Dispatch. The DDP collects immigration data from lawsuits and publishes the datasets publicly.

Adult dancers say they have "absolutely" seen an increase in their military and defense clients. Here's what that might mean. Sex workers have long been bellwethers for major shifts in the economy — and they’re also more in touch with military action than your average civilian. Even if you’ve managed to avoid the news and aren’t aware of the Trump administration’s war with Iran and the skyrocketing gas prices accompanying it, erotic dancers and sex workers are paying attention and noticing a shift. HuffPost spoke with members of the sex worker community about what they’re seeing right now and what...

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) accused US media of engaging in “selective coverage” that has downplayed the successes of Operation Epic Fury — and instead benefited Iran during the first 30 days of the war. “I read the entire political spectrum on Epic Fury. Iran now loves and learns from the media,” Fetterman told The Post Tuesday. “The media’s selective coverage rewards and reinforces Iran’s strategy,” he said. “Media amplifies the 1% chaos Iran creates, while ignoring the 99% of Iran’s beatdown.” Much of that coverage has been focused on the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint through which around one-fifth...

The line Joe Biden used to put into nearly every big speech — “I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future” — is a long way from what he says in private now. These days, multiple people who’ve spoken to him over the last year say, Biden often punctuates conversations with: “You think we can actually come back from this?” The 83-year-old Biden continues to feel out a post-presidency that may prove to be one of the shortest in history and is already one of the most complicated. There are days when Biden is heartbroken, indignant or in disbelief about...

Gavin Newsom is reflecting on the long-term grief he dealt with after witnessing his mother end her life through assisted death, also referred to as death with dignity. Newsom was a 34-year-old rising politician at the time and told the outlet that he felt guilty that his busy schedule kept him distant as his mom suffered from the disease. But when the day arrived, he and his sister Hilary were by Tessa’s side. “I hated her for it — to be there for the last breath — for years,” he said. “I want to say it was a beautiful experience....

Once upon a time in California, I went to the Orange County fairgrounds to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger give the signal for a wrecking ball to drop onto a vehicle. The audience went wild, and Schwarzenegger went on to become governor and deliver on his promise to roll back a car tax increase, thereby blowing a $4-billion hole in the state budget. SNIP “There’s no historical precedent in modern California history for a governor’s race with such a large field or such an amorphous field of candidates,” said longtime political observer Dan Schnur. “Unless you’re paying very close attention, it feels...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said that overthrowing Iran’s regime will require a “ground component” along with a revolution, as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with the Middle Eastern country nears the start of its fourth week. “It is often said that you can’t win –– you can’t do revolutions from the air, that is true,” Netanyahu said in a press conference in Jerusalem. “You can’t do it only from there, you can do a lot of things from the air and we’re doing –– but there has to be a ground component, as well. “There are many possibilities for...

During Operation Epic Fury (U.S.) / Roaring Lion (Israel), BBC America—anchored by Caitriona Perry—has systematically avoided showing any meaningful images of damage, injuries, or deaths inside Israel from Iranian missile and rocket barrages. Instead, it has aired daily, graphic footage from Lebanon of the aftermath of Israeli strikes, even though Hezbollah’s attacks on Israeli civilians escalated from early March onward. Only today (3.19.26), for literally a split second, did the network flash any Israeli impact at all: amid weeks of massive Iranian barrages raining down on residential areas across the country—including the killing of four Arab Palestinian women yesterday by...

Vice President JD Vance is projecting loyalty to Donald Trump as the president leads the United States into the type of war the Iraq veteran didn’t want — and as the new conflict complicates Vance’s political future. Vance allies have played down the impact the operation in Iran could have on his presidential ambitions, insisting that a mission involving the U.S. military only for a matter of weeks won’t stay in voters’ memories. People close to the vice president have also conceded to The Washington Post, however, that a months-long conflict will pose a problem for whoever is the next...

Enten on Tuesday morning reported the polling shows MAGA overwhelmingly backs Operation Epic Fury. “Look at this! Nearly 9 in 10, 89% approve of the U.S. military action in Iran. That is the MAGA GOP base,” Enten said during a segment on CNN News Central. “Just 9% disapprove of it. This is tremendously popular among the Republican base.”

President Donald Trump’s complaints about how the media has covered the war in Iran are “entirely justified,” according to an op-ed published by Mark Penn — a former pollster for President Bill Clinton — and former New York City Council president Andrew Stein in the Wall Street Journal. Penn and Stein argued the mainstream press appears hellbent on painting Operation Epic Fury negatively, no matter how the war is actually going. Their Monday article — titled “On Iran, Is Only Bad News Fit to Print?” — said coverage of the war has gone far beyond merely being critical and instead...

A year ago, the stage seemed set for Vice President JD Vance to succeed President Donald Trump as the MAGA heir apparent in 2028. Vance, just 40 years old at the time of the 2024 election, came into office with wave of support from Republicans and the backing of the president's family. And while the vice president remains well-positioned ahead of a likely 2028 campaign, questions are quietly emerging over Vance's inevitability, especially as Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s profile and responsibilities have grown throughout the first year of Trump’s second term, most recently around the war with Iran. The...

Democratic senators say Republicans controlling both houses and presidency voted down multiple resolutions to fund TSA, Coast Guard and FEMA Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., deflected blame when pressed whether their party should vote to end the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown on Sunday, which has left workers without paychecks for weeks. "We saw terror attacks in West Bloomfield, Michigan, in Norfolk, Virginia. This morning, the CEOs of the nation's major airlines and cargo carriers have written a letter to Congress calling for them to end the shutdown, talking about the importance of American security in...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — In the two weeks since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump increasingly has been knocked on his political heels. He’s grown more agitated with news coverage and has failed to find a way to explain why he started the war — or how he will end it — that resonates with a public concerned by American deaths in the conflict, surging oil prices and dropping financial markets. Even some of his supporters are questioning his plan and his overall poll numbers are declining. Meanwhile, Moscow is getting a boost...

America should not play global judge, jury, and executioner. This role is bad for us. It harms our economy and rots our national character. Moreover, foreign wars distract from much more important goals here at home. Trump’s decision to pursue the Iran war, for instance, distracts from his much more important domestic policy goals on immigration, inflation, and dismantling leftist-controlled institutions. The political capital required to wage this war of choice is simply too high. The downside risks of being sucked into a months- or even years-long war are too great. The threat to the global economy from a sustained...

President Donald Trump and some of his closest advisers were caught off guard by the scope of Iran’s military response to U.S. strikes, while key Gulf allies have privately expressed anger at the White House’s decision to escalate the conflict, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The publication reported Friday that “the president and some aides were surprised at the breadth and scope of Iran’s retaliation,” which included missile and drone launches targeting regional countries from Azerbaijan to Oman, according to people familiar with the matter.” Gulf allies have reacted sharply behind closed doors. “Allies in the Gulf are...

For around 15 years, many American leaders — including all three presidents in that period — believed that the country was too deeply entangled in trying to reorder the societies of the Middle East. They felt the more pressing challenges included rebuilding America’s industrial base and confronting the rise of China. Yet here America is, once again, fighting a war to reorder a society in the greater Middle East. And like in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, this war seems unlikely to turn out quite as its proponents may hope. Why does this keep happening? To understand the present, look at...

The scenario long-dreaded by Republican strategists looks increasingly plausible following Tuesday’s primary election in Texas: Democrat James Talarico may face Republican Ken Paxton for the state’s U.S. Senate seat in November. Paxton is heading for a runoff against Sen. John Cornyn where he is likely to be at least a slight favorite, though the final results from the first round of voting could shift expectations. Talarico defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary, according to Associated Press projections. Republicans fear the matchup could, at the very least, cost the party tens of millions of dollars to protect Paxton, the...

"When Obama came in, it was nice," Behar said. "There was nothing to make fun of. It was... things were going well for eight years. We didn't have to... we could talk about our husbands again. We could talk about our mothers-in-law. And now it's serious again, but it's too serious now."