Free Republic

Chuck Todd scoffed at the premise that the media failed to adequately cover the decline of former President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 election. Speaking with Chris Cillizza on his Substack channel Monday, Todd — the former moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press — rejected the idea that media outlets dropped the ball and did not question whether Biden’s cognitive function was sufficient to run the country for another four years. “This is not a media failure,” Todd said. “This was a failure of the Democratic party. And the virtue signaling that some people have done to try to...

Investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger says that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the CIA and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) helped orchestrate President Trump’s 2019 impeachment. In an interview on Fox News, Shellenberger recounted how the impeachment case was brought about based on the word of a CIA analyst, left over from the Obama administration, who claimed to have heard from White House staff that Trump had pressured Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, in a phone call, to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. Shellenberger said that a memo written by that analyst, which served as the...

More than a dozen senior lawyers — many with decades of experience working under presidents of both parties — have been reassigned, the current and former officials say. Some have resigned in frustration after they were moved to less desirable roles unrelated to their expertise, according to the sources. “It’s been a complete bloodbath,” said a senior Justice Department lawyer in the division who is not authorized to speak publicly... The managerial jobs vacated in recent weeks have not been filled, so the traditional work of the division has all but stopped.

Two weeks ago, the sharp-tongued comedian Bill Maher had dinner with Donald Trump. Maher emerged from the meeting thoroughly charmed. During the opening monologue on his show on Friday, he described Trump as engaged and even likable. Trump made him feel comfortable and listened to. In their conversation, which included “an amazing tour of the whole house,” Trump remained empathetic. “He didn’t get mad. He’s much more self-aware than he lets on in public,” Maher recalled. “Why can’t we get the guy I met to be the public guy?” It’s unfortunate that Maher allowed himself to get played like this.In...

Mike Howell was looking at his phone in an airport lounge this month when he saw a letter from the attorney general of Missouri questioning whether President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had the “mental capacity” to sign the pardons and executive orders he issued during his final months in office. Mr. Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project, a branch of the conservative Heritage Foundation, sensed an opportunity, he said in an interview. For months, he had been comparing Mr. Biden’s signature on dozens of official documents and noting that many of them appeared identical. Before boarding his flight, Mr....

The Wall Street Journal has called for Donald Trump to be sued to prevent tariffs being imposed on Canada and Mexico. The newspaper's editorial board wrote in very blunt terms that Trump did not have the power to order the tariffs without Congressional approval. 'He's treating the North American economy as a personal plaything, as markets gyrate with each presidential whim,' the WSJ board wrote. 'It's doubtful Mr Trump even has the power to impose these tariffs, and we hope his afflatus gets a legal challenge.' The WSJ, published by Rupert Murdoch who also owns Fox News, is usually sympathetic...

The Justice Department has removed top national security officials as part of a widespread purge of senior career leaders across the law enforcement agency, according to people familiar with the decisions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues. The transferring of at least three national security officials amounts to a complete gutting of leadership in the highly sensitive National Security Division, which is charged with working with the FBI and other intelligence agencies to protect the nation from threats. It is unclear if the national security officials were provided a reason for their removals. They were...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Giving a new meaning to the phrase mad scientists, angry researchers, doctors, their patients and supporters ventured out of labs, hospitals and offices Friday to fight against what they call a blitz on life-saving science by the Trump administration. In the nation’s capital, a couple thousand gathered at the Stand Up for Science rally. Organizers said similar rallies were planned in more than 30 U.S. cities. Politicians, scientists, musicians, doctors and their patients made the case that firings, budget and grant cuts in health, climate, science and other research government agencies in the Trump administration’s first 47...

flow of military intelligence to Ukraine this week has aided the Russian advance along a critical part of the front, weakening the negotiating position of President Volodymyr Zelensky and killing many Ukrainian soldiers in recent days, according to five senior Western and Ukrainian officials and military officers familiar with the situation.

NEW YORK (AP) — Scrambling to replace their health insurance and to find new work, some laid-off federal workers are running into another unexpected unpleasantry: Relatives cheering their firing. The country’s bitterly tribal politics are spilling into text chains, social media posts and heated conversations as Americans absorb the reality of the government’s cost-cutting measures. Expecting sympathy, some axed workers are finding family and friends who instead are steadfast in their support of what they see as a bloated government’s waste. “I’ve been treated as a public enemy by the government and now it’s bleeding into my own family,” says...

“$1.9 billion to recently-created decarbonization of homes committee, headed up, and we know she’s involved, just at the last moment the money was passed over, by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her?” — President Donald Trump, in an address to a joint session of Congress, March 4 We fact-checked 26 claims in Trump’s address on Tuesday night, but this one required more research to nail down. From Trump’s phrasing, it sounds like Stacey Abrams somehow got her hands on nearly $2 billion at the “last moment.” Abrams, of course, helped ensure Trump’s 2020 election loss...

"BERLIN—President Trump’s embrace of Russia is causing Europeans to rethink their security and giving currency to an idea the U.S. has long sought to avoid: a nuclear-armed Germany. Friedrich Merz, who is poised to become Germany’s next chancellor, said Berlin should start talks about expanding the French and British nuclear deterrents to cover Europe, according to an interview the conservative politician did with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung weekly. .... On the nuclear side, researchers and some politicians say Berlin’s fastest route to rebuilding a deterrent could be to replicate its arrangement with the U.S. This could see French nuclear bombers...

Here some key projects around the world that AP has confirmed have closed: 1. In Congo, aid group Action Against Hunger will stop treating tens of thousands of malnourished children from May. 2. In Ethiopia, food assistance stopped for more than 1 million people. 3. In Senegal, the biggest malaria project closed. 4. In South Sudan, the International Rescue Committee closed a project providing access to quality health care and nutrition services. 5. In Colombia, program shuttered by the Norwegian Refugee Council left 50,000 people without lifesaving support. 6. In war-torn Sudan, 90 communal kitchens closed in the capital Khartoum....

Republicans will receive a briefing on the FCC probe into George Soros’ takeover of 200 radio stations. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is set to address how Biden’s FCC fast-tracked the deal.

Washington CNN — The CIA is conducting a formal review to assess any potential damage from an unclassified email sent to the White House in early February that identified for possible layoffs some officers by first name and last initial and could’ve exposed the roles of people working undercover, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.That’s just one of multiple aftershocks from President Donald Trump’s push to take a jackhammer to the federal government – including the CIA. The administration’s efforts to cut the workforce and audit spending at the CIA and elsewhere threaten to jeopardize some of the...

President Donald Trump reversed course on Friday and said Russia did in fact invade Ukraine, and that Kyiv would soon sign a minerals agreement with the United States as part of efforts to end the Ukraine war.

Nikki Haley, who served as United Nations ambassador in Trump’s first term and later challenged him for the 2024 GOP nomination, admonished Trump in a social media post: “These are classic Russian talking points. Exactly what Putin wants.” Another figure from Trump’s first term joined Haley in her condemnation. “Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war,” Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, wrote on X. “Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives.” Blowback also came from the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, normally a Trump-friendly outlet. The tabloid’s cover on Friday featured a...

Clinton reduced the federal workforce by more than 377,000 employees. Within weeks of his inauguration, he signed an executive order calling on agencies to cut 100,000 jobs over three years, with 10% or more coming from high-level federal workers. In 1994, Clinton signed the bipartisan Federal Workforce Restructuring Act, which offered $25,000 to buyout non-Defense Department workers. By the end of his term, Clinton reduced the federal government's workforce by more than 377,000 employees. But that all unfolded over several years, and with the help of Congress. In an attempt to defend the Department of Government Efficiency's controversial moves, Elon...

President Donald Trump gave Europe three weeks to sign off on terms for Ukraine's "surrender" to Russia, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) claimed. Observers of the 3-year-old war have worried that Trump may strike a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that pressures Ukraine to abandon its aspirations to join NATO and cede its currently occupied territories, effectively capitulating to Moscow's demands. Ukraine says it has been excluded from high-stakes negotiations that will shape its future. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Finland's Mika Aaltola of the European People's Party claimed that the U.S. "has given us...

Public comments from President Trump blaming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s invasion of his country are unnerving Senate Republicans, who have largely sought to avoid conflicts with the White House. Trump’s escalating war of words with the Ukrainian leader comes as hawks in both parties plead with the president not to give Moscow a free pass in talks to end the bitter three-year conflict. “I’m concerned with anything that would ultimately allow there to be a moral equivalency between Zelensky and Putin,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who visited Ukraine alongside a pair of Senate Democrats over the weekend...