Free Republic

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted Sunday that the Supreme Court will send former President Trump’s immunity case back to the lower courts. “Well, I think the court’s gonna find that presidential immunity exists for President Trump like every other president, but you got to be within the scope of being president. I think they’ll send it back to the lower courts to find out exactly what actions fall within presidential immunity and what are considered personal. I think that’s the way this will end — there will be some immunity for some of the actions,” Graham said on CNN’s “State...

2024 GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie predicted former President Trump will be a convicted felon by spring 2024. In an interview Thursday on CNN’s “The Lead” with Jake Tapper, Christie suggested America’s founding fathers would never had predicted a convicted felon could run for the presidency. If they had, Christie argued, they would have specifically banned felons from the presidency. In a discussion about Trump’s top two GOP rivals — former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — Christie recalled a question posed by moderators in the first debate.

Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) predicted Wednesday that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will become the next Speaker of the House, a spot currently vacant after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted from it on Tuesday. In an interview on CNN’s “AC-360,” Kinzinger said he expects that the candidacy of Jordan — who has entered the race for Speaker along with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), McCarthy’s longtime No. 2 — will become a “new litmus test” for conservatives. “Jim is going to be now the new litmus test of: Are you a true conservative or not? Steve Scalise...

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Sunday predicted that President Biden’s poll numbers will improve as the 2024 campaign season heads into full swing just after a CNN poll showed voters grading the 46th president dismally. Coons reiterated a notion many Democrats have stressed – that Biden’s record will convince the public to re-elect him in 2024.

(NEXSTAR) – Inflation may be easing, but households are bracing for at least one monthly bill to go up next month. The Energy Information Administration estimates the average natural gas heating bill will go up 28% this winter when compared to last winter. About half of homes nationally rely on natural gas for heating, according to U.S. Census data. While the U.S. doesn’t rely heavily on natural gas imports, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has still been affecting prices here at home because American natural gas producers have been exporting so much of their production to Europe, reports NPR.

Pennsylvania Senate nominee John Fetterman (D) said on Monday that he expects his opponent Mehmet Oz (R) to lead initially in the state on Tuesday night due to the sequence of vote counting. The Democratic Lt. Gov. of Pennsylvania said that the GOP planned voting so that their party could “baselessly sow doubt about the election results when it suits them.” “Counting for ballots cast by mail and early in-person cannot begin until Election Day, thanks to the GOP-controlled legislature,” Fetterman wrote in a memo according to The Washington Post, calling the move “intentional” to help Republicans contest election results.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday predicted that Democrats will maintain control of the upper chamber of Congress in next week’s midterm elections. “It’s tight,” Schumer told the Associated Press, but added, “I believe Democrats will hold the Senate and maybe even pick up seats.” After a strong showing over the summer, Democratic Senate candidates appear to have lost momentum in the final weeks of the elections, threatening the party’s slim majority.

Republicans are now favored to retake the Senate on November 8, forecaster FiveThirtyEight predicted Tuesday for the first time since July. FiveThirtyEight estimated Republicans are favored to take back the Senate with 51 seats. The Senate is currently split 50/50 with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote. The pollster appears to have shifted the Nevada race in favor of Republicans. Nevada Republican Adam Laxalt is challenging Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).

President Joe Biden on Thursday appeared cautiously optimistic about Democrat prospects in the midterm elections in November. “So far, it looks like in the Senate we not only will hold but maybe pick up a couple seats,” Biden said to supporters at a fundraiser in Red Bank, New Jersey, with Governor Phil Murphy.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), predicted Friday that Republicans will have a “minimum” two-seat pickup in the Senate, taking them from 50 to at least 52. In a memo to NRSC donors, Scott said Republicans will defeat the radical Democrats in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania because of his strategy to spend early money in the races, thus “defining” Democrats early and impacting the media’s polling:

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) predicted on Sunday that the 2024 elections will be a “mess” when asked how worried he was about the next time the U.S. votes for president given how divided the country is over who is to blame for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. ABC’s “This Week” moderator George Stephanopoulos said all signs pointed to controversy similar to that seen in the aftermath of the 2020 election, especially with some of former President Trump’s allies in charge of certifying election results on the state level this time, before asking, “How worried are you about 2024?”

Former Attorney General Eric Holder predicted Friday that Donald Trump as well as other top officials from the former president's administration will be indicted by the U.S. government over the events of January 6, 2021, and their efforts to change the 2020 election results.

CNN)President Joe Biden predicted Wednesday that if the Supreme Court officially overturns Roe v. Wade's holding of a federal constitutional right to abortion, the court will next look to strike down other landmark cases guaranteeing Americans' rights, from same-sex marriage to contraception access. "It's not just the brutality of taking away a woman's right to her body ... but it also, if you read the opinion ... basically says there's no such thing as the right to privacy. If that holds ... mark my words: They are going to go after the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage," said Biden,...

President Biden on Wednesday predicted Democrats can pick up three Senate seats in in the upcoming midterm elections, as the country reckons with the Supreme Court looking set to overturn Roe v. Wade. “I think we can pick up three Senate seats” and increase the Democratic majority in the House, Biden said at a Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraiser in Chicago. He argued that the Supreme Court’s leaked opinion on abortion rights, if held, could generate enthusiasm on the Democratic side in November, due to the on-the-ground consequences of such a decision.

Former President Trump appeared to cast doubt on former Vice President Mike Pence’s viability as a 2024 presidential contender, saying in a new interview that it would be a “hard” election for Pence should he choose to run. During an interview with CBN News published Wednesday, the Christian news outlet asked Trump about Pence’s chances at the presidency should the former vice president choose to run. “I don’t want to say,” Trump responded. “If Mike got in, I think it would be a hard one for him. I think it would be a hard one. I understand where the base...

Deutsche Bank has said it expects the US economy to fall into a recession in late 2023 as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates sharply, becoming the first major lender to make such a prediction. The bank's analysts, including chief US economist Matthew Luzzetti, said the Fed has historically triggered recessions when it hikes rates to deal with strong inflation. "A mild recession will be needed to take sufficient steam out of the economy and labor market to bring inflation back down," they wrote in a major report on the global economy, released Wednesday.

COVID-19 could become endemic sometime this year as vaccination rates increase, getting the US to a place where Americans “learn to live with it,” a former member of President Biden’s coronavirus task force said Sunday. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who was a member of Biden’s Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, said the virus could finally get under control with the help of vaccine mandates. That would make it endemic like the flu, which is a constant presence but not a major concern.

Don’t bet against the red wave, a top political handicapper predicts for 2022. The Cook Political Report is projecting that Republicans have an advantage in taking back a majority in the House of Representatives during the coming midterm elections. The GOP need to flip just five seats to reclaim control of the lower chamber, with the party expressing optimism about their odds.

As many as 1.3 million new COVID-19 cases are expected in the US by Christmas Day — and as many as 15,600 additional deaths by Jan. 8 — as Omicron continues to spread in the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned. The grim predictions mean that “a total of 837,000 to 845,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by this date,” the CDC said in its latest update from Wednesday. In addition, the number of new daily confirmed hospital admissions will likely increase over the next month, with 6,300 to 18,400 likely reported on Jan. 7, the...

Top Senate Republicans are predicting that they'll get enough GOP support to help advance a deal on the debt ceiling, as GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) pitches his caucus on the agreement. Under the deal, the House and Senate will first need to pass a bill that sets up a subsequent one-time simple-majority vote to raise the debt ceiling. Though Democrats would then be able to raise the debt ceiling on their own, they would still need 10 GOP votes to advance the initial legislation that lays out how the debt ceiling vote will work.