Free Republic

Initial exit polls for the Polish presidential election put the race at a dead heat, with the neo-liberal establishment candidate leading his conservative upstart opponent by a fraction of a percentage point. UPDATE 2200: While the race is still too close to call, the votes from the Polish diaspora community in the United States have been fully counted. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, PiS conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki won 28,070 votes in America, or 56.65 per cent, compared to 21,479 votes, or 43.35 per cent, for liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. The original story continues as follows… Polish voters went to...

Both Poland and Romania will host presidential elections this Sunday, and a joint rally by the sovereigntist candidates from both nations saw a crowd of Polish voters chant the U.S. President’s name in response to a call for border control. Romanian Presidential election first-round do-over winner George Simion travelled this week to Poland to rally alongside the right-wing challenger for the highest office in Poland, Karol Nawrocki, calling on Europe to reject neo-Marxism, open borders, and to embrace freedom. The two men have already spoken of forming a “pro-MAGA” alliance in Eastern Europe, reports Poland’s TVP, calling also to “Make...

The George W. Bush Institute executive who organized a joint statement by 13 presidential libraries pledging to unify to preserve democracy was previously revealed as the person who leaked the infamous Steele dossier to BuzzFeed after the 2016 election. David Kramer, the executive director of the George W. Bush Institute, spearheaded a statement Thursday signed by 13 presidential libraries dating back to Herbert Hoover. "By signing this statement, we reaffirm our commitment to the principles of democracy undergirding this great nation, protecting our freedom, and respecting our fellow citizens," the statement read, in part. "When united by these convictions, America...

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that former President Joe Biden should have dropped out of the 2024 presidential race earlier so Democrats could have had a primary. Host Kristen Welker said, “Senator, would the party have had a better chance at winning in 2024 had President Biden dropped out sooner?” Klobuchar said, “You know, everything we look at in a rear-view mirror after you lose an election. Yes, we would have been served better by a primary, but we are where we are. We’re not on the History Channel right now, and I believe...

Grand Old Popey. Pope Leo XIV was an active voter who participated in several Republican primaries in recent years and voted in the most recent presidential election, according to a report. Then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, a Chicago native, pulled the lever in Republican primaries in 2012, 2014, and 2016, the Washington Free Beacon reported, citing election records. The Dolton, Illinois, born pontifex also voted in general elections in 2012, 2014, 2018, and 2024, the report stated.

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) suggested the Supreme Court ruling that a president is immune from prosecution when exercising the core powers of the office could help Judge Hannah Dugan who was charged with obstruction and concealment. Host Martha Raddatz said, “Let’s talk about Wisconsin and what happened in that courtroom. You’re a former prosecutor, would you have brought charges against that judge?” Christie said, “Well, I’ll tell you, Martha, this is one of those situations where everybody, I think, is acting badly. So, first off, you know, I don’t know what this judge was...

President Donald Trump defended his use of the power that comes with the presidential office, denying that he is “expanding” it while maintaining that he is “using it properly” in an interview on his first 100 days as the 47th president with TIME. Trump, who will have served 100 days of his second term on April 30, gave the extensive, bombshell interview to the outlet from the White House on Wednesday. The interview started off with a pointed question from TIME senior political correspondent Eric Cortellessa and editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs, who asked, “Why do you think you need more power?”...

Pete Buttigieg is expected to announce Thursday that he will not run for Michigan’s open Senate seat — leaving the door open for a widely expected presidential run in 2028, according to a report. The former Transportation Secretary, who earlier said he was “looking” at a Senate campaign to replace retiring Democrat Gary Peters in one of the most competitive seats in the 2026 cycle, plans to announce that he’s now not running at some point on Thursday, a person briefed on his decision told Politico. His decision was framed by allies as a move to put him in the...

Americans are far happier with the economic leadership of President Trump than they were under Joe Biden just a few months ago, according to a CNN poll released Wednesday. While American households are still laboring under the weight Biden-era inflation, the worst in forty years, their opinion of the president’s handling of the economy has surged higher with the changing of the guard at the White House. Biden left office in January with just 33 percent of Americans saying they approved of his handling of the economy, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS in January. A super-majority of...

Incumbent President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa narrowly defeated establishment socialist candidate Luisa González on Sunday in the first round of the nation’s 2025 presidential elections. Both candidates, who faced each other in 2023, will once again compete in a runoff election scheduled for Sunday, April 13, as neither obtained the required votes to be elected in the first round. Sunday saw over ten million Ecuadorians head to the polls and cast their votes to elect the president, vice president, and members of the National Assembly. At press time, voter results published by Ecuador’s National Electoral Council (CNE) indicate that, with...

resident Biden rejected the idea that commanders in chief are immune from prosecution for “official acts” during his final Oval Office speech on Wednesday, an apparent parting shot at President-elect Donald Trump. ”We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president, no president, is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office,” Biden said. “The president’s power is not unlimited,” the 82-year-old outgoing commander in chief argued. “It’s not absolute, and it shouldn’t be.” Last July, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents are afforded absolute immunity from prosecution for “official acts” undertaken as commander...

ROME — President Joe Biden has awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an honor the pontiff shares with George Soros and former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards. “Today, President Biden spoke with His Holiness Pope Francis and named him as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction,” states the White House in its Jan. 11 announcement. “The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors,”...

Did you know Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to have an armored limousine? At the height of World War II, the Secret Service decided that the president needed a safer means of transportation. And that tradition still stands today. Getting your hands on a presidential limo, though, is no easy feat—they don't just hand them out to civilians. But, if you head to the Mecum Kissimmee auction on January 18, 2025, you might be able to drive home in a rare armored Cadillac originally built for President Bill Clinton. This fully armored 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham was one...

President Joe Biden awarded Hunter Biden’s friend, Bobby Sager, with the Presidential Citizens Medal on Thursday, underscoring Hunter’s influence over the octogenarian. Sager, a photographer and philanthropist, earned the award after he allegedly created opportunity for low-income people abroad, including Palestinian women artisans. Sager is also a self-described “selfish” person who became friends with Hunter only in the last two years, NBC News reported.

Kamala Harris leads her closest potential 2028 Democrat presidential contender by 33 points, according to polling from Echelon Insights. Here’s the breakdown: Vice President Kamala Harris — 41 percent California Gov. Gavin Newsom — 8 percent Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — 7 percent Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — 6 percent Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — 6 percent On one side of the scenario, you can see why Democrat voters still support her, even after her decisive loss to President-elect Donald Trump two weeks ago. She still has the best name recognition. She’s been vice president for four years. She never...

Polling guru Nate Silver lashed out at other survey junkies in his field for “cheating” in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election — accusing them of recycling some results to keep the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris close. The FiveThirtyEight founder said irresponsible pollsters were “herding” their numbers, or using past results to affect current ones, to keep Vice President Harris and former President Trump to within a point or two of each other each time. “I kind of trust pollsters less,” Silver said on his podcast, name-checking Emerson College. “They all, every time a pollster...

The “world’s most accurate economist” is predicting Donald Trump will win the presidency and that Republicans are likely to take full control of Congress on Nov. 5. Christophe Barraud, the chief economist and strategist at Market Securities Monaco, also says a Trump win could boost the economy short-term but pose longer-term complications, particularly with the soaring deficit. “Looking at different metrics such as betting markets, polls, election modelers’ forecasts, financial markets, as of now, the most probable outcomes are: [1] #Trump victory [2] #GOP clean sweep,” Barraud wrote on X.

It's incredible how quickly things can change in politics. In August, Vice President Kamala Harris was riding a surge of manufactured "joy," backed by a mountain of positive press and an avalanche of donor cash. Spilling into early September, the polling landscape was still pretty friendly to her, and she was on the verge of building an air of inevitability. Others warned, though, that the sugar high would soon fade. Harris' fortunes have completely reversed in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. At the same time, the national polling has tightened to the point where the Republican electoral college advantage could...

This is the race Democrats feared. Less than a month before the US election, Donald Trump is regaining the slight edge he held before Democrats convened in Chicago to nominate Kamala Harris. According to the RealClearPoliticspolling average in battleground states, Trump trailed Harris from late August until late September. Now, though, he’s back on top at 48.4 to 48.1. His lead may be fractional — and Harris is up two points in the popular vote — but the numbers have Kellyanne Conway feeling good. Alongside a picture of the RCP numbers, the pollster argued this week that Trump is “in...

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck nationally, but Trump has the momentum after surging three points in a month, according to a Marist/NPR/PBS News poll. The September 3-5 poll, published Tuesday, finds 48 percent of 1,413 registered voters sampled back Trump, while 49 percent back Harris. One percent is undecided, and one percent would support a third-party candidate. Trump has gained three points of support since the Marist/NPR/PBS News August 1-4 poll, when he landed at 45 percent with registered voters in a field with third-party options. That poll showed him three points...