Free Republic

…In the days since special counsel Robert Hur released a report that described Biden’s memory as “significantly limited,” presidential appointees and friendly lawmakers have been stepping forward one by one to attest to his acuity. Biden asks “pertinent questions” and cares about “minute details,” they’ve told news outlets. He is “very engaging” and detail-oriented. The White House went so far as to put out a memo name-checking senior officials from both parties who’ve said they found Biden to be mentally sharp. For all the people vouching for Biden, some prominent Democrats aren’t persuaded that the approach will ease concerns about...

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...

WASHINGTON — Lawyers and pro-democracy advocates are in the early stages of building a nationwide network of specialists aimed at defending and protecting people who may be targeted for retribution once President-elect Donald Trump takes office, according to multiple people involved in the effort. The sprawling initiative is intended to go far beyond legal assistance for those potentially subjected to criminal or civil investigations in a new Trump administration. Those working to create the infrastructure said that in addition to lawyers, they are recruiting accountants to help people who may find their taxes under audit, employment experts to advise those...

WASHINGTON — Foreign leaders have lined up to speak with him. He has rattled Mexico and Canada with threats of steep tariffs and warned there would be “hell to pay” for militants in Gaza unless they release the hostages by the time he’s sworn in.That won't happen for another 45 days, but Donald Trump, the president-in-waiting, isn't shying away from acting like the president-in-reality.Trump can't sign a bill or issue an executive order yet, but he is crowding out Joe Biden as the sitting president winds down his term and steadily recedes from public view. In two foreign trips since...

WASHINGTON — A mad scramble is underway to introduce Vice President Kamala Harris to Americans who know little about her, with both campaigns vying to leave a vivid impression that sinks in before voters start casting ballots this fall. In the 11-week sprint to the election, Harris’ campaign is pouring tens of millions of dollars into an ad blitz meant to humanize a candidate whom the electorate may know only as the understudy to Joe Biden. As Democrats assemble in Chicago, Harris’ challenge is to persuade voters that the story she’s telling about her life and vision rings true, and...

WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris had one great day in her ill-fated 2020 presidential campaign: her first. Then came a rapid collapse. The freshman senator who announced her candidacy in January 2019 before 20,000 cheering supporters in Oakland, Calif. dropped out in December before a single vote had been cast. Now, Harris may get another shot. As the sitting vice president, she would be a leading candidate to succeed Biden if he succumbs to party pressure and exits the race. Other elected officials might step forward to challenge Harris, dividing Democrats and clouding the general election picture ahead of a November...

Recently there has been an ever increasing drumbeat from the media for a narrative portraying that Donald Trump would be a dangerous dictator if he returned to the White House in 2025, despite not becoming one during his first term. Further undermining the media's "Trump as dictator" narrative was an NBC News article on Monday that presents plans by liberals both in and out of government to curtail "dictator" Trump's power by using the law to thwart him, and hyped a Collusion Hoax peddler as the standard-bearer for that effort.The FIVE writers NBC crammbed into the article, Peter Nicholas, Katherine...

Among those being mentioned for Trump’s defense secretary are Christopher Miller, who served temporarily during his administration, Michael Flynn and Mike Pompeo. WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is sparking fears among those who understand the inner workings of the Pentagon that he would convert the nonpartisan U.S. military into the muscular arm of his political agenda as he makes comments about dictatorship and devalues the checks and balances that underpin the nation’s two-century-old democracy. A circle of appointees independent of Trump’s political operation steered him away from ideas that would have pushed the limits of presidential power in his last term,...

Right after Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman got a phone call. Whitman, a Republican, had endorsed Biden in the race against then-President Donald Trump. Now, the caller said, Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris wanted her cell number. No one ever called. Whitman was part of a cohort of prominent Republicans who broke with the party in 2020. Fed up with Trump, they gravitated to Biden’s campaign thinking he would be a unifying figure. Former Rep. Christopher Shays, a Republican from Connecticut, endorsed Biden in 2020 but says he is now...

WASHINGTON — The White House is exploring additional ways to ensure accountability for those who were responsible for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, administration officials said Tuesday. Pointing to the bonuses some bank employees got last week and stock sales made by senior executives in recent years, a White House official said, “All of those are worthy of a deeper look.” Biden privately told his advisers in meetings over the weekend that he wants tougher regulations on banks to prevent future failures, the second official said. Biden wants Congress to reverse the deregulatory actions lawmakers took during the Trump...

When it finally dawned on Donald Trump in the twilight of his presidency that he wouldn’t be living in the White House for another four years, he had a problem: he had barely packed and had to move out quickly. West Wing aides and government movers frantically tossed documents and other items into banker boxes that were shipped to a storage room at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida along with other, previously packed records set aside by Trump, sometimes erratically so, according to two sources with knowledge of Trump’s move and records issues.

They are a distinct minority in their own party and, for that matter, their country: Republican holdouts amid an ever-widening consensus that Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine poses a mortal threat to American interests.A far right wing of the Republican Party tightly bound to former President Donald Trump is fighting to push the GOP toward the “America First” isolationism that underpinned his 2016 presidential bid.For the first time since Trump’s rise, his party is pushing back.That much was clear from the House vote Thursday on a bill ending normal trade relations with Russia as punishment for attacking Ukraine. A total...

Far-left Democrats were dealt a big blow as former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, was defeated by Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown in a much-anticipated special US House primary election. With 96.5 percent of precincts reporting, Brown led Turner by 4,380 votes out of more than 71,000 votes cast. Turner conceded the race soon after 10 p.m. local time, telling supports: “On this night, we will not cross the river.” The contest in Ohio’s 11th District, a deep-blue constituency that includes most of Cleveland, parts of Akron and several majority-black precincts in between...

Fresh polls show that he has been unable to convert weeks of extensive media coverage into a widened lead. And some prominent Democrats whose support could boost his campaign are still not enthusiastic about his candidacy. Several new surveys show that Obama is in a tight race or even losing ground to Republican John McCain, both nationally and in two important swing states, Colorado and Minnesota. One new poll offered a possible explanation for his troubles: A minority of voters see Obama as a familiar figure with whom they can identify. Many voters still seem to be puzzling over who...