Free Republic

On Saturday on MSNBC’s “Velshi,” one of President Donald Trump’s former lawyers, Michael Cohen, said Tesla CEO Elon Musk will lose in his feud with the president. Cohen said, “Elon said that he’s the one that delivered the election. I’m not so sure we can say that, but he certainly didn’t hurt.” He continued, “You know where Elon Musk is making a mistake? The feud should not have gone on the way that it did. And I say that because while Elon Musk may be the richest man in the world, Donald Trump is the most powerful man in the...

Friday on FNC’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) dismissed the possibility of the so-called “big, beautiful” spending bill stalling out on Capitol Hill because of Tesla CEO and former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk’s critique. “All right, Speaker,” host Jesse Watters said. “Is Elon going to derail the big, beautiful bill?” “Absolutely not,” Johnson replied. “Look, we are feeling the same energy that the President is. He’s leading. He’s delivering on his promises, and we all are. The big, beautiful bill is basically all those campaign speeches reduced to legislation. That’s what it is,...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that President Donald Trump’s budget bill will not pass because it has a “grotesque” level of spending. Johnson said, “The president and Senate leadership has to understand that we’re serious. They all say, ‘Oh, we can pressure these guys.’ No, you can’t. Again we’re we’re being very respectful. You know, I ran 2010 as part of the Tea Party Movement. We were mortgaging children’s future. We were $14 trillion in debt then now we’re over $37 trillion. We’re serious about this. They need to take us seriously. Don’t insult us....

British Army sergeant majors are being urged to stop shouting at junior recruits lest they upset their delicate sensibilities. The use of calm, soothing words more in the style of avuncular footballer David Beckham and less like Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in the film Full Metal Jacket has been offered up as an alternative model. In the 1987 film Hartman has responsibility for a bunch of Vietnam recruits who quickly learn just who is in charge at boot camp: Regimental Sergeant Majors (RSMs) have typically always used shouted orders in the same style to enforce discipline and focus attention on the...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) reacted to new reporting about then-President Joe Biden’s fitness by saying, “I don’t think it’s a new story that Joe Biden is a seasoned senior leader of our country, it was probably the most covered story of 2024, questions about his age.” Coons said, “I was surprised by what I saw the night of the debate. I hadn’t had a previous experience like that with President Biden. Ultimately, several weeks later, he decided to drop out. And, frankly, rather than looking back and re-litigating the timing...

State Farm is evidently not satisfied with an emergency 17% rate hike for homeowners in California, and intends to ask for 11% more, adding up to a total of nearly 30% — despite failing its obligations to consumers. As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara granted State Farm’s requested rate hike, despite protests from residents affected by the recent California wildfires. Victims of both the Eaton and Palisades Fires have complained that State Farm engages in “lowballing” estimates of compensation for damages — a practice that, Sen Josh Hawley (R-MO) reported last week, the company...

MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill said Monday on “Deadline” that American voters were “not smart enough” to keep President Donald Trump away from the presidency. McCaskill said, “There’s a huge swath of Americans that don’t know about that because their algorithms are purposely not feeding them politics because they don’t want to hear about it. But you know what they’re all going to know about? They’re all going to know about higher prices. They’re all going to know that they’re spending more at Walmart than they spent this time last year. They’re all going to know that their 401Ks are down....

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has refused to bail out Los Angeles, which is facing a $1 billion deficit, in his latest budget proposal, as the state itself faces a massive $12 billion deficit. The Los Angeles Times reports: Deeper in the budget proposal, no salvation was found for L.A. And at a news conference Wednesday, Newsom said flatly that he did not plan to provide cash to help dig the city out of its budget hole. The city is facing a $1-billion shortfall due to inflated personnel costs, higher than ever liability lawsuit payouts and below-expected revenues. “The state’s...

WASHINGTON — President Trump again said Tuesday he wanted Canada to be America’s 51st state — but was rebuffed by newly-elected Prime Minister Mark Carney in a tense exchange in the Oval Office. “I still believe that, but, you know, it takes two to tango,” Trump told reporters — saying too that Carney could offer nothing to change his mind about new tariffs on America’s northern neighbor. Trump later gave more extensive commentary on a possible North American political union, calling the US-Canada border an “artificial line” and saying it would lead to a “massive tax cut” for them. “When...

Former first lady Michelle Obama is frightened by President Donald Trump’s deportation policy, she discussed during an episode of the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast. Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, discussed fears they had growing up dealing with race issues, when she was asked to identify the “hardest recent test of that fear.” “In this current climate, for me it’s, you know, what’s happening to immigrants,” the former first lady replied, explaining that she is no longer fearful for herself — due to her celebrity status — but is instead fearful for illegal immigrants.

Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the Trump administration was showing it did “not care about the rule of law.” Partial transcript as follows: FORMER RNC CHAIR REINCE PRIEBUS: They’ve got no — well, he said they’ve got no message. They’ve got no movement. They’ve got no leader. I mean, it doesn’t get any worse than that. I mean, you’re defending Harvard. You’re traveling to El Salvador for MS-13 gang members. But here’s the point. KARL: Alleged. PRIEBUS: You’re taking $20 million, if I’m looking at someone, my vice chair, the RNC...

While President Donald Trump met with Angel Mom Patty Morin, whose 37-year-old daughter Rachel Morin was murdered by an illegal alien MS-13 gang member in Maryland, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) met in El Salvador with a deported illegal alien accused of being an MS-13 gang member, domestic abuser, and human trafficker. Trump met with Patty Morin this week in the Oval Office as she also took to the White House press secretary podium to tell the establishment media of the brutal rape and murder her daughter, a mother of five, suffered at the hands of an illegal alien MS-13...

Governor Janet Mills (D-ME) said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that President Donald Trump is not the law and his administration’s actions were “not rational” while discussing their transgender athletes dispute. Mills said, “Very unexpectedly the president called on me to answer a question that was unrelated to the topic at hand. I’ve been to the White House and talked to President Trump before, President Biden, President Obama, several presidents, always been a good conversation, exchange of ideas. This was different, very different, and when he said, ‘I am the law,’ basically, ‘we are the law,’ my jaw dropped, and...

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) announced on Friday morning that she will not seek reelection in 2026. In a video posted on social media, Gov. Reynolds told voters, “Serving as your governor has been the greatest honor of my life — an opportunity that, not so long ago, I never could have imagined.” The politician expressed gratitude for the trust fellow Iowans placed in her before saying that she wanted to share a “personal decision” with her constituents.

Former Vice President Harris made a surprise appearance at a leadership summit for Black women in California on Thursday, previewing her political future after losing the 2024 election to President Trump. “I’m not going anywhere,” Harris said during her nearly 8-minute speech at the Leading Women Defined gathering. Harris, who represented the Golden State in the Senate from 2017 until becoming vice president in 2021 under former President Biden, is widely thought to be mulling a run for California governor in 2026. She’s expected to make a formal decision by the end of the summer. Former Health and Human Services...

A defiant Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed that he will not step down from his leadership role any time soon while strenuously defending his decision to vote against blocking a GOP bill to avert a partial government shutdown. Schumer (D-NY), 74, who has been facing a progressive revolt over his shutdown vote earlier this month, reiterated that he “did this out of conviction” and fired back at detractors such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “Look, I’m not stepping down,” Schumer told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in a pre-taped interview that aired Sunday. “I did it out of...

Pete Buttigieg is expected to announce Thursday that he will not run for Michigan’s open Senate seat — leaving the door open for a widely expected presidential run in 2028, according to a report. The former Transportation Secretary, who earlier said he was “looking” at a Senate campaign to replace retiring Democrat Gary Peters in one of the most competitive seats in the 2026 cycle, plans to announce that he’s now not running at some point on Thursday, a person briefed on his decision told Politico. His decision was framed by allies as a move to put him in the...

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) claimed Tuesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that it is “disgusting” that President Donald Trump is not standing with democracies like Ukraine. Co-host Pamela Brown asked, “Is the United States on team Russia now?” Warner said, “This has been a, you know, a two week streak. Remember a week ago last Monday, for the first time ever, America in the United Nations voted with with Russia, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua denying who started the war in Ukraine. The whole world knows Russia started it. Now you’ve got these this effort after the breakout in the White...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back against President Donald Trump’s criticism that he isn’t ready for peace, insisting that only Russia is standing in the way of the ceasefire. President Zelensky appears to be undertaking a concerted effort to reset rhetoric around the Ukraine war, after he emerged from Friday’s failed attempt to create a new future relationship between Ukraine and the United States being accused of not truly being ready for peace at all. Attempting to turn that narrative on its head, Zelensky published several statements and made comments on Monday insisting that Ukraine is in fact absolutely ready...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) wondered what the federal government is “doing as they find a new COVID virus in China and we’re not part of the World Health Organization?” Co-host Boris Sanchez asked, “The argument from supporters of DOGE is that the federal government, as the president put it, is bloated and overgrown, that spending levels are unsustainable, that the country would go, de facto, bankrupt, as Elon Musk put it, without drastic changes to spending. Where do you think DOGE should focus then? Where should we see cuts?” Dingell answered, “