Free Republic

Is Taylor Swift the last hope for Biden’s flailing presidency? Rob Reiner seems to think so. Rob Reiner is begging Taylor Swift to publicly endorse President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, saying he’d “give anything” for the pop star to make an announcement. Swift has remained conspicuously silent on the 2024 presidential election, after endorsing Biden four years ago. The singer must weigh the damage such an endorsement would do to her personal brand at a time when 81-year-old Biden is facing record-low popularity, especially among young Democrats, millions of whom have soured on his presidency. “I’d give anything for her...

The speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament is accusing the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and other groups of killing Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. ... "Washington and Brussels are to blame for Navalny’s death," Volodin said, according to translations from the Moscow Times. "Who benefits from Navalny’s death today?" "All their names are known: from the Secretary General of NATO and the U.S. leadership to [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz, [British Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky — they’re the perpetrators of Navalny’s death," he added, according to the Moscow Times.

On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, a former ally of Donald J. Trump, delivered a blistering critique of the former President, implying that Trump prioritizes personal loyalty over the nation’s welfare. In 2017, Donald Trump, who was then serving as President, threw his support behind Ron DeSantis in the race for Florida’s governorship. This endorsement from Trump was a significant boost for DeSantis, a tea-party conservative, enabling him to surpass the right-wing GOP candidate Adam Putnam, who was serving as Florida’s agriculture commissioner at the time, Politico reported. “Congressman Ron DeSantis is a brilliant...

Ron DeSantis asked Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday to arrange a head-to-head debate that would allow the Florida governor to take on former President Trump. “Well, Sean, I don’t think we’ve spoken since that debate, and the reaction that I’ve gotten has been incredible in terms of obviously being able to show that freedom works, and the California model’s a failure, what that means for the country,” DeSantis said. DeSantis praised Hannity’s moderating skills and suggested he hold additional debates with either of his top competitors in the presidential primary

The White House on Thursday knocked the House GOP’s resolution to formalize its impeachment inquiry into President Biden, calling it a waste of time. “This baseless stunt is not rooted in facts or reality, but in extreme House Republicans’ shameless desire to abuse their power to smear President Biden. Fox News already reported that the only reason they’re having this vote is to ‘put a GOP win on the table for the base,’ which is sad, pathetic, and a waste of everyone’s time,” Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight, said in a statement.

Video of a retail theft arrest at 95th and Ashland.The subject resists police and takes off running. Patrick Johnson-Henry, 32, was taken into custody on the 9400 block of S Justine and was charged with 4 counts of resisting police, 1 count of possession of a replica firearm, 1 count of retail theft.

WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Monday to pause the effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, halting a Republican campaign that alleges he has been derelict in his duty of in managing the U.S.-Mexico border. The articles of impeachment, introduced by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday, contend that Mayorkas, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, violated his oath of office by failing to constrain the record numbers of migrants arriving at the border. The House voted to refer the articles back to the House Homeland Security Committee, which is...

Former Vice President Michael Pence announced Saturday he is suspending his 2024 presidential campaign. The Republican presidential candidate made the announcement while at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s leadership conference. “I came here to say it’s become clear to me: This is not my time,” Pence said.

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan weighed in on the current struggle for the Republican conference to elect a new speaker of the House following the historic ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Of the publicly fractured House Republicans, he said the conference is "basically a bifurcated coalition government,” referencing the growing division and significantly differing factions within the party. “This is a political-leaning conference right now, not a policy-leaning conference,” he said in an interview with Politico. He explained this resulted because “our party is a populist-leaning party right now, not a policy-leaning party.” During his time in office,...

Just hours before her death, 90-year-old Dianne Feinstein was helped onto the Senate floor for the final public act of her trailblazing career. The California Democrat, holding onto her aide's arm, slowly raised her hand to vote 'aye' on Thursday morning in a procedural vote for short-term government funding. Feinstein walked in without the wheelchair she used in the final months of her 30-year Senate career as her health deteriorated following a bout with shingles. After giving her colleagues a brief wave, she was escorted out again following her last fleeting appearance in the upper chamber. Feinstein subsequently missed two...

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former President Donald Trump was a “puppeteer” making those who do his bidding “look pathetic.” Anchor Dana Bash said, “In a private call, the now Speaker Kevin McCarthy told the former president that he supported the idea of expunging Trump’s two impeachments but apparently he didn’t commit to bringing it to the floor for a vote. You oversaw both of these impeachment proceedings. What is your reaction to that notion?”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis moved into a virtual dead heat with former President Donald Trump in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in Florida, according to a new Victory Insights survey. DeSantis earned 38.2% support and Trump earned 38%, with a 3.9% margin of error, in the Victory Insights poll. No other GOP candidate received more than 3.1%. A total of 12% likely GOP voters said they were undecided, and 3.5% said they chose someone other than the candidates presented. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., (3.1%), former Vice President Mike Pence (2.5%), former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (2.5%), and...

Russia’s scaled-down Victory Day military parade showed not only Moscow’s insecurities over possible Ukrainian attacks but also highlighted the country’s depleted military resources due to the conflict, political analysts said. May 9 is a public holiday in Russia when it commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. It is arguably the most important day in Russia’s public calendar and history, forming a central part of the country’s modern national identity. This year’s military parade through Red Square in Moscow and celebrations around the country were noticeably smaller than in previous years or entirely canceled, with...

After calling for and then deleting his demand for the left to “exterminate” conservative “cockroaches,” Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt is still walking back his incendiary comment, claiming he meant to say “exterminate at the ballot box.” In a recent set of angry tweets, Steven Van Zandt defended his use of “cockroaches” to describe the political opposition after someone pointed out that the same insult was used in Rwanda to foment genocide. Van Zandt claimed his use of “cockroach” was just “symbolism” and that he really meant to say “exterminate at the ballot box.” He called...

Thursday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel, law professor Jonathan Turley criticized the merits of the Manhattan grand jury’s indictment of former President Donald Trump. Turley deemed the indictment “legally pathetic.” “It is, it’s historic, it’s not necessarily good history that it is being made,” he said. “It’s not that I oppose the indictment of a former president. I don’t even oppose the indictment of a sitting president on a constitutional basis. But this indictment, if it is reportedly following the theory that we’ve been talking about is political. It’s a raw political prosecution. Now, the indictment may come...

Former Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake won a straw poll for the Republican vice presidential pick during the Conservative Action Political Conference (CPAC) this weekend. Among a field of 28 candidates, Lake won the poll with 20 percent of the vote, beating former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis received 14 percent of the vote, and Haley, who announced her bid for the White House last month, won 10 percent. Lake, who was also a featured speaker at CPAC’s Ronald Reagan Dinner over the weekend, has refused to accept her loss in the governor’s...

Pete Buttigieg admits he got it wrong on the Ohio train derailment response. But while the criticism is fair, he says, the critics are mostly not. “It’s really rich to see some of these folks – the former president, these Fox hosts – who are literally lifelong card-carrying members of the East Coast elite, whose top economic policy priority has always been tax cuts for the wealthy, and who wouldn’t know their way around a T.J. Maxx if their life depended on it, to be presenting themselves as if they genuinely care about the forgotten middle of the country,” the...

Billionaire Elon Musk Sunday accused the media of being racist against whites and Asians after U.S. newspapers dropped a white comic strip author who made derogatory comments about Black Americans. The Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and USA Today were among newspapers that canceled the cartoon "Dilbert" after its creator Scott Adams said Black Americans were a hate group and posted racist comments on his YouTube channel Wednesday. In replies to tweets about the controversy, the Tesla and Twitter chief executive said the media had long been racist against non-white people but are now "racist against whites & Asians."...

And the presenters are … The Grammys announced Wednesday the lineup of celebrities who will be presenting during Sunday’s star-studded award show. Past Grammy hosts James Corden and Billy Crystal are slated to hand out some awards at the ceremony and First Lady Jill Biden is also set to make an appearance. Cardi B, Viola Davis, Shania Twain, Olivia Rodrigo and “Black Adam” star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson were also revealed to be presenting. Last week, several stars including Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Luke Combs, Steve Lacy, Lizzo, Kim Petras and Sam Smith were announced as performers.

Election officials in a rural Arizona county are gearing up for a slew of legal battles after they failed to certify the results of the 2022 midterm elections, facing criminal penalties and at least two lawsuits. Two Republican supervisors in Cochise County, Arizona, voted to delay the county’s election results until Friday — four days after the state-mandated deadline. The vote quickly spurred court battles from state officials as they scramble to complete the statewide canvass, which requires certified results from all 15 counties before being completed. “It’s astounding that Cochise County officials failed to certify the election results,” Alex...