Free Republic

In his first major decision after being elected governor of New Jersey, Jon S. Corzine announced the selection of a Hudson County congressman to replace him in the United States Senate. Robert Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants who became a lawyer then rose in the brass-tacks world of New Jersey politics, will fill Mr. Corzine's old post for at least a year, when he will face what may be a crowded run for re-election. Making the announcement inside a historic rail terminal in Jersey City's Liberty State Park, near the Statue of Liberty, this afternoon, Mr. Corzine described Mr....

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and other Democratic senators had a secret meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the Munich Security Conference last week, according to a source briefed by the French delegation to the conference. Murphy’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment by press time. Such a meeting would mean Murphy had done the type of secret coordination with foreign leaders to potentially undermine the U.S. government that he accused Trump officials of doing as they prepared for Trump’s administration. In February 2017, Murphy demanded investigations of National Security Advisor Mike Flynn because...

In early January the United States killed General Qassim Soleimani, a top commander of Iran’s al-Quds Force, in an airstrike at Baghdad’s International Airport. The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Seven people were reportedly killed in the airstrike. Following the death of Commander Soleimani Democrat Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) lashed out at President Trump for assassinating the Iranian al-Quds terrorist leader who was responsible for the deaths and maiming of HUNDREDS of US soldiers. It soon became apparent why Murphy was sooo upset with Soleimani’s death. Senator...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was right to so eloquently smack down cryin’ Chuck Schumer’s request for a “Schumer do-over” of the House impeachment process with unheard-from witnesses. If, as House Democrats insist, the “evidence” is “uncontested,” why does Schumer seek new evidence and want to hear new witnesses, providing a list of White House advisers but not a list that includes the alleged Ukraine whistleblower? Schumer whines that McConnell has said he will take his cues on a Senate trial from President Trump, whom the House denied due process and the right to confront his accuser. Too bad, cryin’...

Democrats and their operatives sought foreign help for anti-Trump dirt on a number of occasions during the 2016 election and afterward, including the infamous Kremlin-sourced dossier and Rep. Adam B. Schiff’s attempt to obtain from Russians supposed photos of a naked Donald Trump. Democrats also reached out to Ukraine to collect political smut on President Trump and his aides. Republicans believe the Ukrainian intervention, which is now under Justice Department investigation, included the creation of a bogus “black ledger” whose disclosure felled former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Three Democratic senators pressured the Ukrainian government last year to help special...

On Tuesday Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced impeachment investigations against President Donald Trump for allegedly putting pressure on Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate the Biden Crime Family for laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars from Ukraine. The bogus accusations were based on hearsay from an anti-Trump “whistleblower” who supports a rival political opponent. On Wednesday the transcript of the call between President Trump and President Zelensky was released. By late Wednesday morning we all know the allegations were false. President Trump did not put pressure on the Ukrainian leader and did not even bring up the subject with him during...

Democrats wrote to the Ukrainian government in May 2018 urging it to continue investigations into President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign — collusion later found not to exist. The demand, which came from U.S. Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), resurfaced Wednesday in an opinion piece written by conservative Marc Thiessen in the Washington Post. Ironically, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) declared Tuesday that the mere possibility that President Trump had asked Ukraine to continue an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden — even without a...

MANASQUAN, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey’s senior U.S. senator wants federal officials to take more aggressive action to protect beachgoers from wind-swept beach umbrellas. Bob Menendez held a news conference Monday in Manasquan to once again call on the Consumer Product Safety Commission to improve its regulations and develop an aggressive campaign to educate beachgoers on the dangers the umbrellas can pose if they’re not properly staked in the sand.

DHS Gives the ‘Red Carpet to Middle Eastern Airlines Obama’s Top Government Media Official Guilty of Stealing $40,000 DHS Gives the ‘Red Carpet to Middle Eastern Airlines Next time you’re waiting in your socks as your luggage is rifled through by security at the TSA checkpoint, you might reflect on how unchecked people and vehicles are getting through security in other parts of the airport. Our Corruption Chronicles blog exposes the disturbing facts. The massive agency created after 9/11 to protect the nation risks security at U.S. airports by letting airlines impose expedited measures to keep traffic flowing, according...

Senior Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. Congress told President Donald Trump on Friday they were concerned about Hungary’s “downward democratic trajectory,” ahead of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visit to Washington next week. “In recent years, democracy in Hungary has significantly eroded. … Under Orbán, the election process has become less competitive and the judiciary is increasingly controlled by the state,” Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch and Bob Menendez, the panel’s top Democrat, said in a letter to Trump. The letter was also signed by Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Several Democratic...

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on Thursday called on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the Trump administration's nuclear negotiations with Saudi Arabia amid reports that senior White House officials pushed for the sale of nuclear technology to Riyadh. "We request that GAO conduct an urgent review of [the Department of Energy's] interactions with Saudi Arabia regarding nuclear cooperation, how it has coordinated with or involved other relevant agencies, particularly the State Department, and the specific initiatives or proposals for nuclear cooperation that have been presented or discussed in those interactions," the senators wrote in a...

Eight reporters and editors at U.S. tax-funded TV and Radio Marti, which broadcasts in Spanish to communist Cuba, have been fired after a report aired portraying left-wing billionaire George Soros in an unflattering light. The Washington watchdog Judicial Watch explained the firings came at the request of scandal-plagued Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Menendez, who has been accused of hiring prostitutes and misusing funds for personal benefit, demanded an investigation that resulted in the dismissals, Judicial Watch said. Judicial Watch said that at Menendez’s request, Obama appointee John Lansing of the U.S. Agency for Global Media used “Stalinist...

MIAMI — The donations kept pouring in: hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to President Obama and more than a dozen members of Congress, carefully routed through the families of two wealthy brothers in Florida. They had good reason to be generous. The two men, Roberto and William Isaias, are fugitives from Ecuador, which has angrily pressed Washington to turn them over, to no avail. A year after their relatives gave $90,000 to help re-elect Mr. Obama, the administration rejected Ecuador’s extradition request for the men, fueling accusations that such donations were helping to keep the brothers and...

Two wealthy Ecuadorian brothers, Roberto and William Isaías, who were owners of companies fined and ordered to shut down for illegally trafficking world-wide in aborted baby parts purchased from Planned Parenthood, were arrested by ICE on February 13, 2019. [snip] Roberto and William Isaias, who fled Ecuador to avoid 8-year prison sentences, were principals in California companies DaVinci Biosciences and DV Biologics, and the two career criminals were allowed to stay in the United States by Hillary Clinton’s State Department under “suspicious circumstances” after they donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign fund.

New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez interceded on behalf of an Ecuadorian woman who was banned from traveling to the U.S. because of allegations she had engaged in visa fraud. The woman, Estafania Isaias, is the daughter of a fugitive from Ecuador convicted in absentia for bank fraud and whose relatives in Florida made significant campaign donations to the New Jersey Democrat's 2012 campaign and the Democratic Party. Current and former U.S. government officials tell NBC 4 New York that Estefania Isaias was barred from traveling to the U.S. in 2007 because she allegedly lied on visa applications to bring immigrant...

A reporter for the Daily Caller found Democratic Senator Robert Menendez at a Capitol Hill subway stop and asked him what he thought about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal. Democrats have been screaming for two years about Donald Trump's "war on the press." But Trump's got nothing on Menendez when it comes to going to war. Fox News: Menendez avoided the question and asked where Rodgers worked. Rodgers said that when he told Menendez he worked for the Daily Caller, the Democrat responded by saying he would not answer any questions. An intern who was with Rodgers asked a...

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., had a fiery exchange with a reporter on Capitol Hill on Wednesday when asked to comment on the Green New Deal. Henry Rodgers, the Daily Caller's Capitol Hill reporter, approached the senator at a subway station and asked him if he supported Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's legislative proposal. Menendez avoided the question and asked where Rodgers worked. Rodgers said that when he told Menendez he worked for the Daily Caller, the Democrat responded by saying he would not answer any questions. And intern who was with Rodgers asked a follow-up question, and tensions apparently rose.

President Trump is staying put in snowy Washington while his government shutdown duel with Democrats continues, canceling every fancy trip out (that doesn't include a non-touristy one to the Texas border), including even a Christmas trip to his home in Florida. That's fitting for the times, and it suggests a leader looking for a resolution. But then there are...the Democrats. A whole slew of them packed off to Puerto Rico for a junket, getting hold of those hard-to-get Hamilton tickets (no shutout there); bunking in with 109 K Street lobbyists in $429-a-night hotel rooms; and, sure enough, partying hearty.  WashEx's Paul Bedard has the opening story. Some 30 Democratic lawmakers left the government shutdown behind Friday on a...

Some 30 Democratic lawmakers left the government shutdown behind Friday on a chartered flight to Puerto Rico for a winter retreat with 109 lobbyists and corporate executives during which they planned to see the hit Broadway show “Hamilton” and attend three parties including one with the show’s cast. Those attending the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC winter retreat in San Juan planned to meet with key officials to discuss the cleanup after Hurricane Maria at a roundtable Saturday. But the weekend is packed with free time for the members and their families on the trip. “We are excited for you...

A clerk at an Edison gas station convenience store was shot to death during a robbery early Thursday, authorities said. Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey told NBC New York during an interview in front of the Speedway on Amboy Avenue that his office was investigating the incident as a robbery-homicide. The shooter fled after gunning down the worker around 4 a.m.