Free Republic

There she goes again. Kamala Harris gave another interview that reveals why she hides from questions. She has nothing to say! In an 11-minute sit-down with a Pennsylvania ABC affiliate that has drawn over 5 million views on X, the vice president lapsed into recycled sound bites and snippets from past speeches. Reporter Brian Taff asked direct questions about policies, but never got direct answers. She filibustered with tales about her childhood, with the inane kicker being that “folks were very proud of their lawn.” Wow, so deep — if she’s mind-melding with Chauncey Gardiner from “Being There.” As for...

A year into Barack Obama’s presidency, Sarah Palin, a former Alaska governor and John McCain’s 2008 running mate, mockingly asked a Tea Party gathering a question: “How’s that hopey, changey stuff working out?” The roomful of conservatives howled with laughter because by then, Obama’s dreamy campaign motto of “Hope and Change” had been replaced by hard policy lurches to the far left. The Palin question is a piece of history 2024 voters should keep in mind as they assess Kamala Harris. The parallels between then and now are striking. Like Obama, the Democrats’ current nominee has been maddeningly elusive about...

They called him an illegitimate president. They said he was a threat to democracy and had to be stopped. They unleashed a legion of agents to investigate him, searched his home and broke historic barriers by indicting him. Then they rigged a trial in a bid to put him in prison. They called him un-American and worse. Their lawyers and activists fought to keep him off the fall ballots in a dozen blue states as a way — get this — to defend democracy. They are still trying to bankrupt him and confiscate his businesses. And now they have shot...

Get your popcorn and grab a seat. The hottest political show of the moment is one Americans haven’t seen for decades: Democrats behaving like Republicans. Suddenly, members of the party with a recent habit of sticking together are engaged in a circular firing squad. The insults, name-calling and nasty exchanges echo the way the GOP has squandered its House majority. The Dem civil war involves even bigger stakes, of course, because it was sparked by President Biden’s debate debacle. It was so bad that lawmakers and donors are growing increasingly bold in publicly demanding that Biden withdraw from the race....

The Manhattan court docket says it’s the “People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump.” Legally, yes, but in a larger truth, no. As the case nears the finish line, it increasingly feels as if New York itself is on trial. Only a top-quality case, beyond reproach and political taint, should have been used to bring the first-ever indictment of a former president. Instead, the city and state put on a show trial long on theatrics–porn star testifies about sex! — and short on evidence that any crime was actually committed. And so the script has flipped,...

Within days of the Hamas slaughter of Israeli innocents, President Biden issued a veiled warning to Iran and any others who smelled a chance to pile on. As the president put it in a White House appearance Oct. 10, “To anyone thinking of taking advantage of the situation, I have one word: Don’t.” It wasn’t exactly a Clint Eastwood “Make my day” moment, but the point was clear enough. The United States has Israel’s back, so the axis of evil forces better stay on the sidelines. The point was underscored when Biden ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the...

With Barack Obama publicly warning Israel about the deaths of civilians in Gaza, the Biden White House leaking its doubts about Israel’s ability to carry out a ground invasion and the head of the United Nations suggesting Israel provoked the Hamas terror attack, the question arises: Whose side are they on? Less than three weeks after Israel suffered the deadliest day in its history, the Jewish state is being treated like the problem rather than the victim by some of its supposed friends. Instead of getting support for its justified aim of eradicating Hamas, demands are mounting for Israel to...

It’s not news that Donald Trump is the worst of his own enemies, but he outdid himself with his latest bizarre behavior. His social media warning early Friday that “death and destruction” could follow if he’s criminally charged in the Stormy Daniels case came as he posted an image of himself holding a baseball bat next to a photo of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s head… … The rant was perfectly timed — if Trump’s goal was to stomp out growing public unease over how Bragg is stretching a novel legal theory to indict him…

For Donald Trump, politics and entertainment are intertwined and often synonymous. His remarkable success at both makes his latest missteps especially puzzling because Trump is committing the cardinal sin of both: He’s become boring. The ultimate shock jock is now predictable. Wind him up and watch him throw a garbage can full of insults at anyone who won’t kiss the ring. Ho-hum. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are getting the Trump treatment now. Both are rising Republican stars, so naturally the former president trashes and demeans them. Can’t be competition for top dog. Long gone is...

You don’t have to agree with Washington Democrats to acknowledge they are putting on a clinic in how to use power to reward their friends and punish their enemies. From canceling student debt to freeing federal pot prisoners to restricting oil and gas production to getting arch-nemesis Steve Bannon locked up, they are ending their two-year run with a bang. Their conclusion came last week when the partisan Jan. 6 committee issued a subpoena to former President Donald Trump. The timing was impeccable. After managing to stretch out the panel’s work for nearly two years, Nancy Pelosi’s worker bees saw...

With “The Godfather” serving as a leadership manual for many politicians, Joe Biden might have been thinking of a particular scene during his 9/11 speech at the Pentagon. The president solemnly declared that “national unity” is “the greatest lesson” of that awful day even as his Department of Justice issues subpoenas to scores of Donald Trump supporters. The contrast between the president’s call for unity and the FBI’s partisan putsch is a bloodless version of the baptism murders scene in “The Godfather,” where Michael Corleone participates in his nephew’s christening while his goons assassinate the heads of the rival families....

President Biden is going to deliver a prime-time speech Thursday on what the White House calls the “battle for the soul of the nation.” It’s a timely topic with rich possibilities, but none richer than the notion that the Big Guy is qualified to address America’s soul. Unless he’s going to confess how his family made millions by selling access to foreign governments and Communist oligarchs, Biden will be stuck spinning a web of fiction. No problem there because fiction is what he’s good at. He has a gift for playing make-believe. All politicians lie, but Biden doesn’t stop there....

When you cross the Rubicon, there is no going back. Democrats are getting very close to that fateful moment. Their dream to indict Donald Trump has turned into determination, putting them on a collision course with history. No president has ever been prosecuted after leaving office ... it would tear America apart. Yet day by day, the evidence shows Dems have liberated themselves from such concerns and are resolved that this time will be different. The number and fervor of their army of prosecutors reveal a contagious fever, and it often appears they are competing to be the first to...

However this era of angry polarization, crime and violence ends, it will be left to historians to decipher how America got so far off track. Instead of building on our unprecedented prosperity and role as the world’s ultimate superpower, we declared war — cultural, political and social — on each other. Even our nation’s Founders are not spared. The reasons will be better understood in hindsight, but it’s hard to believe the 2016 presidential campaign won’t be seen as an inflection point. Our move toward disunion didn’t begin then, but it certainly gained steam and vitriol during and after the...

He came, he saw, he confused. Joe Biden’s call-to-arms speech in Poland was long on soaring rhetoric about the virtues of democracy but woefully short on what more the West will do to help Ukraine defeat the Russian invasion. But by the time he got to the finish, most of that was forgotten. What mattered most and what will be remembered for a long time was a single line the president of the United States said about the president of Russia: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” In the context of the speech and the slaughter of...

Believers: Steve Bannon, David Horowitz, Peter Navarro, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Mark Levin, MTG, Matt Gaetz, Elise Stefanik Alex Jones Deniers: Pat Buchanan,Fox News, Breitbart, Joel Pollack, National Review, Wall Street Journal, NY Post, Michael Goodwin, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Chip Roy, Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, Bill Barr, Ben Shapiro, Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge, Guy Benson, Jedediah Bila, Karl Rove, Rick Santorum, Chris Christie, Dan Quayle, Alyssa Farah I'm not sure about these people: Sean Hannity,Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson, Dick Morris, Newt Gingrich, Greg Kelly, Michael Savage

On a corner of my desk, there is a small pile of newspaper clips, notes and documents. They date back to last October and are part of the scandalous information contained on a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden. Normally I would have thrown the papers away or stored them by now. But I kept them handy because I knew the day would come when they would be needed again. Friday was that day. In a TV interview, Hunter effectively conceded for the first time the laptop was his, opening the door to a new round of scrutiny about his foreign...

Three big things stood out in President Biden’s first press conference. 1. The leader of the free world is often lost at sea and says many things that are blatantly false. 2. The media is in the tank and cannot be trusted to hold him accountable. 3. Because of Nos. 1 and 2, America is headed for serious trouble. For this sickening spectacle we had to wait 64 days? Still, the event was meaningful in one distressing way. Now we know beyond all doubt there is no way to deny the terrifying truth. This was Biden’s coming out party, and...

If Mayor Putz had thrown in a “just kidding” line, his Tuesday press conference would have made more sense. Instead, he again looked like a mayor who doesn’t give a damn. “Except for that incident, overwhelmingly we had a peaceful weekend in central Brooklyn,” de Blasio told reporters. “That incident” was the shooting of a 6-year-old boy and his mother. And the “peaceful weekend” included the shootings of 26 other people around the five boroughs. If this is peace, what would war look like? Called on his disconnect, de Blasio fired back by saying he was only talking about central Brooklyn. So...

You can almost smell the sweat. The Democrats and their media handmaidens are starting to panic about Joe Biden’s prospects. The proof comes in their efforts to wish away the wave of crime and violence engulfing many American cities. Their argument can be boiled down to two false claims. First, it’s President Trump’s fault. Second, it’s not that big of a wave. The first is patently absurd on its face. Democratic mayors running nearly all those cities are pulling back cops and rejecting federal help. The blood is on their hands.