Free Republic

Most in the GOP are silent or backing the Trump administration, but a conspicuous few are speaking out. A small but growing number of Republicans are raising public concerns about the killing Saturday of a 37-year-old Minnesota man by federal agents.Hours after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street, one House GOP chair called for the top ICE leader and other Trump administration officials to publicly answer lawmakers’ questions. GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina called for independent probes into the shooting, with Cassidy arguing the integrity...

A second high-profile killing by a federal agent in Minneapolis has jeopardized the chances of Congress averting a partial government shutdown as Democrats come out en masse against the funding measure for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Lawmakers had been on the verge of completing their funding work for fiscal 2026 this week after the House last week passed its final four appropriations bills. However, the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, a nurse at the city’s Veterans Affairs hospital, by a Border Patrol agent has seemingly torpedoed the chances of those bills passing the Senate, with one key...

President Donald Trump marked his first year back in office by presiding over a meandering, nearly two-hour-long press briefing to recount his accomplishments, repeating many false claims he made throughout 2025. Among the topics about which he continued to spread falsehoods were the 2020 election, foreign policy, the economy and energy. Here’s a closer look at the facts. 2020 election TRUMP, referencing former President Joe Biden: “... a man that didn’t win the election, by the way, it’s a rigged election. Everybody knows that now. THE FACTS: This is a blatant falsehood that has been disproven many times over… International...

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre replied Monday to President Donald Trump’s highly controversial letter linking his desire to acquire Greenland to being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is given out by a committee of five chosen by the Norwegian parliament. “I can confirm that this is a text message that I received yesterday afternoon from President Trump. It came in response to a short text message from me to President Trump sent earlier on the same day, on behalf of myself and the President of Finland Alexander Stubb,” Støre replied, adding: "In our message to Trump we...

Former Democratic strategist James Carville has predicted a 'wipeout' for Republicans at the 2026 midterms. On Saturday, Carville forecast a startling loss for Republicans in the upcoming midterms, with Democrats managing to pick up a 'minimum' of 25 seats and likely regain control of the Senate. 'Frankly, it's going to be a wipeout,' Carville told Fox News' Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday in America. 'Your viewers need to know that the Democrats are going to pick up at a minimum 25 seats, maybe as high as 45. In all likelihood, the Democrats will carry the Senate.'

A new Yahoo/YouGov poll finds Americans split over whether they approve (40%) or disapprove (38%) of the U.S. military operation that toppled Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this month. Nearly a quarter (22%) say they’re unsure how to feel.But the public is much more certain about what they want — or rather, don’t want — to happen next. With Maduro gone, President Trump has said that the United States is "going to run the country” of Venezuela from afar, insisting that "we’re in charge" now.“Only time will tell” how long U.S. control of Venezuela lasts, the president mused in a...

At least six career prosecutors in the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney's office — including Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson — have resigned as the office continues to face pressure to treat the investigation of the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer as an assault on a federal officer case. Thompson also previously served as the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota; he was appointed by President Trump in June and served in the position until October. He resigned from the attorney's office along with Harry Jacobs, Melinda Williams, Thomas Calhoun-Lopez, Ruth Schneider and Tom Hollenhurst. Two sources familiar...

Many of the troops and ships once at the president’s disposal have shifted to the Caribbean.The Trump administration has insisted it has numerous military options to deploy against Iran if the regime uses force against demonstrators. But that menu is far more limited than it was even a year ago. The U.S. troops and ships that were once at the president’s disposal have shifted to the Caribbean. A major American defense system sent to the Middle East last year has returned to South Korea. And administration officials say there are no plans for the movement of major assets. The president...

President Trump has found a powerful but obscure bulwark in the appeals court judges he appointed during his first term. They have voted overwhelmingly in his favor when his administration’s actions have been challenged in court in his current term, a New York Times analysis of their 2025 records shows. Time and again, appellate judges chosen by Mr. Trump in his first term reversed rulings made by district court judges in his second, clearing the way for his policies and gradually eroding a perception early last year that the legal system was thwarting his efforts to amass presidential power. When...

Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) are planning to introduce a bill that would strip federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers of their qualified immunity protections. The bill, called the ICE OUT Act, comes amid fervent debate over whether an ICE officer should face criminal prosecution for the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good on Wednesday. Macklin Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minnesota after reportedly dropping her son off at school. Videos shared to social media showed Macklin Good’s car stopped on a snowy road when officers approached, demanding she...

Angie Craig is a Minnesota congresswoman seeking the Dem nomination for an open Senate seat. Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, Craig's ultraliberal primary opponent, has accused Craig of being too tough on immigration. Craig committed the unforgivable sin -- in leftist eyes -- of voting for the Laken Riley Act, and supporting a House resolution condemning antisemitism and expressing gratitude for ICE. So Craig is clearly on a campaign to atone for her transgressions, and prove to the kind of far-left Dems who vote in Minnesota primaries that she is just as out there as the wackiest of them. MS NOW's...

Responding to the Trump administration’s announcement that the United States is withdrawing from 66 international organizations, conventions, and treaties, Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, said: “This is a vindictive and reckless assault on the legitimacy and integrity of the United Nations and the rules-based international order that has been the bedrock of global cooperation for the past 80 years. With this latest in a series of damaging attacks, President Trump is shamefully doubling down on his efforts to destroy the multilateral system that the United States helped to build from the ashes...

Laura Ingraham waded into a rent-a-mob gathering on Minneapolis and asks a protestor if she has a job. The woman (at least I think it's a woman) shrieks, "I'm at it right now!Jump to the 1:40 mark

GOP lawmakers are fleeing for the exit in droves, with many pointing to a Congress they argue has grown too dysfunctional and a demanding schedule that leaves little time for their families. More than 50 lawmakers in both parties have announced decisions to leave their seats, scrambling the calculus on both sides of the aisle ahead of next year’s high-stakes midterms. The wave of exits could be particularly ominous for Republicans in charge of the House and Senate. The number exiting is nearly on par with 2018, a dismal midterm year for the GOP. Some lawmakers frustrated with inaction on...

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday released the 255-page transcript and video of the deposition of former special counsel Jack Smith’s deposition before the committee that took place earlier in the month. During his opening statements, Smith said he and his team "developed powerful evidence that showed that President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January of 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a ballroom and a bathroom. He then repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents." He later added, "I made my decisions in the...

The Trump administration is freezing child care funding to the state of Minnesota in response to a viral video that purports to expose extensive fraud by federally funded day care centers. Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old self-described "independent YouTube journalist," posted the 42-minute video on X and YouTube the day after Christmas. In it, he and an older man — identified only as "David" — visit various seemingly empty day care centers, bombarding Somali employees with questions and accusing them of not providing services to any children despite receiving public funds. The pair claim to have exposed over $110 million in...

Gen Z right-wing influencers like Nick Fuentes have suggested they may not support Vice President JD Vance if he becomes the Republican presidential nominee in 2028 and have praised California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. Why It Matters The 2028 election is years away, but talk about who could run for higher office has already begun. Vance is viewed as the frontrunner on the Republican side. The Democratic primary is likely to be more competitive if current polling stands, and Newsom is viewed as a leading candidate. He has cast himself as a staunch rival of the Trump administration. The...

Elon Musk's much heralded chainsaw couldn't make the cut. Despite the Trump administration's efforts to slash government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, federal expenditures actually increased in fiscal year 2025. A new investigative report from the New York Times released this week showcased that many of the contracts cut by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by tech billionaire Musk for the start of Trump's term, were already winding down, or were not on track to reach their maximum spending allotment. The findings were stark: Of the top 13 contract cancellations in DOGE's database all 13...

Katie Couric spoke out against "bothsidesism" in news coverage and insisted people don't want "just the facts" in the current media environment. (snip) "So what I try to do and what we try to do is help people stay abreast of everything that's happening, which is increasingly difficult given the velocity of things that are thrown at us primarily by this administration," Couric told host Dylan Byers. "But try to understand and give them some perspective and context and help explain in some cases why people need to be aware and concerned about some of the things that are happening...

Few things better illustrate why there has been a steep decline in the quality of writing at The New Yorker under the editorship of David Remnick than his absurd reaction to finding out that a letter supposedly written by Jeffrey Epstein to convicted serial sex offender Larry Nassar which implicated President Donald Trump in something bad has been determined to be fake.On Tuesday, Remnick revealed just how sadly his obsession over his Orange Whale has overwhelmed him to the extent that he has laughably lost whatever sense of rationality he might have left as you can see in "Trump, Epstein,...