Free Republic

TUCSON — When Sen. Mark Kelly set out for a day of midterm campaigning, it only took about 15 minutes for someone to address the elephant in the room. “We need to make sure that we've got leaders in the United States Senate, in Congress and potentially in the White House as well,” Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said, coughing toward Kelly. “Who can actually understand what we need to do and support veterans. I’m gonna nudge him a little bit. I have to,” Fontes added as the crowd cheered. Kelly, legs crossed, smiled from under his U.S. Navy baseball...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday rejected Florida Democratic US Senate nominee Angie Nixon’s accusation that Republicans were “literally trying to kill us” and her characterization of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a “weaponized paramilitary force” designed to terrorize people. Nixon made the comments during an interview on the “QNA: Questions Need Answers” podcast earlier this month, days before she won Florida’s Democratic Senate primary. While explaining why she believed voters should send fighters to Washington, Nixon dismissed the prospect of bipartisan cooperation. “Folks often say, like, ‘Oh, are you going to be able to work across...

A Black and reportedly autistic man touted as the youngest scholar of color to serve as a chair at the University of Cambridge was accused of plagiarism before authorities say he took his own life last week. If that were the only headline following professor Jason Arday’s death at age 41, then it would be tragic enough. However, the feeding frenzy that followed the plagiarism allegations, the way Arday was hounded relentlessly online and in print regarding his credentials and biography, and the way his story became an opportunity for the left and right alike to promote their own beliefs...

WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema opened up about the sordid details of her dalliance with her then-married ex-bodyguard during a deposition in the $75,000 “homewrecker” suit brought by his angry ex-wife. Sinema (I-Ariz.), the first openly bisexual person elected to Congress, fessed up to having repeated sex with Matthew Ammel in cities across America in an affair that upended his 14-year marriage. She confessed that she first had sex with Ammel, her then-bodyguard, around Memorial Day of 2024, two years after he began working on her security team. “We were staying at an Airbnb in Napa, California. We were...

When Joe Biden announced that he had written a memoir of his four years as president, the reaction on the blogosphere was mockery. Even his most ardent defenders now admit that the guy was barely functional as president, that he was kept under lock and key by White House staff for most of four years, and that the mainstream press was in on the cover-up. Biden needed cue cards to handle press questions. He needed a guy dressed in a bunny suit to keep him from saying stupid things to citizens. He needed an autopen to sign presidential documents. He...

If Democrats want to save their party and themselves from the radical socialist takeover, they'd better start taking the threat seriously. As Speaker Mike Johnson said the other day, the barbarians are inside the gates. And it will be ugly for all of us, but the first to go down will be the Democrats and the party the socialists used to gain power. How do we know this? We've read a history book. The socialists and their communist brethren always, invariably, imprison or murder the people who helped elevate them to power, because they know those people pose a threat...

Political strategist James Carville offered a series of harsh criticisms against the far-left Democrats taking aim at their own party in the ongoing primaries, while calling the candidates’ ongoing cannibalization of longtime incumbents “part of the problem.” In a blistering video, Friday, for his “Politics War Room” podcast, Carville blasted the nationwide sweep of far-left and Democratic Socialist primary election victories, while calling certain candidates “part of the problem” within the party. “These people are so f------ stupid I don’t know what to say about it,” Carville said. “So now we have this idea that these insurgent Democrats — and...

Democrat Chris Murphy is getting slammed for replying "awesome" to the news that 26 Iranian shadow fleet vessels breached the U.S. naval blockade. Murphy has been hammering the war effort. He's argued the U.S. is spending “billions” to keep its navy there “to fecklessly fail,” calling the conflict “pointless” and warning current plans are “almost certain not to work.”

Just hours after a mass shooting that left eight children under the age of 15 dead in Louisiana, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is bashing the NRA “and their lackeys in Congress.” “This is an unspeakable tragedy. Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones suffering in Louisiana,” Newsom’s press office said on X. “Repeated horrors like this don’t happen anywhere else but this country.” Calling the mass shooting a “total moral failure,” Newsom’s press office said the National Rifle Association “and their lackeys in Congress are complicit in this madness.”

Former President Barack Obama said in a YouTube interview posted Feb. 14 he wants to meet Pope Leo XIV. Left-leaning political YouTuber and podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen asked who the former president most wanted to meet at the end of a wide-ranging Q&A that began with the topic of a controversial racist social media post that portrayed him and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, as apes. Obama answered that he wanted to meet the pope, “and I hope I get an opportunity sometime in the future.” Obama, whose second term ended in 2017 when President Donald Trump entered...

Sen. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) has been held up as a model for the Democratic Party’s future since winning his Senate seat in 2024, with colleagues praising his skills as a communicator who succeeded during a time when other Democrats have struggled. He has drawn consistent praise for his authenticity and for his ability to connect with voters — particularly Latinos, a key demographic Democrats have sought to win back in recent years. But this week, the junior senator from Arizona has faced questions that could taint his future political prospects — particularly if he decides to run for president in...

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar blamed an accounting “discrepancy” for errors in a financial disclosure that listed her net worth at up to $30 million – while doubling down that she is not a millionaire, a report said. The lefty “Squad” lawmaker – facing fraud probe calls from President Trump – insisted the initial figures in a disclosure filed last May were completely off-base, as an amended filing now shows shared assets with her husband of up to just $95,000, according to The Wall Street Journal. “The amended disclosure confirms what we’ve said all along: The congresswoman is not a millionaire,”...

One day after Sen. Ruben Gallego said he was “betrayed” by good friend Eric Swalwell, a New York lawmaker is calling on Gallego to release communications between him and the former California congressman. “Yesterday we heard claims of drugging, choking, rape,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said, referring to news reports about Swalwell, D-Calif., who resigned from the House Tuesday after reports of sexual misconduct. “I think it’s imperative for Ruben Gallego to release every text message, every email, every social media exchange, every photo or video of his interactions with Eric Swalwell.”

The Arizona Democratic senator said he regrets not seeing the signs that his colleague was “a predator.” Sen. Ruben Gallego said his former close friend, Rep. Eric Swalwell, “betrayed” his trust following revelations of sexual assault allegations and denied having any knowledge of the serious accusations lodged against the California Democrat. “Eric Swalwell lied to all of us — lied to the most powerful people in this country — and they trusted him,” Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, told reporters Tuesday afternoon in his office. “I fell for it,” Gallego said, adding that Swalwell “became very good at being a predator.”...

I am suspending my campaign for Governor. To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past. I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.

On Tuesday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough blithely delivered his legal judgment on potential U.S. strikes against Iranian infrastructure, declaring: “that’s a war crime, by the way.” The remark came after a clip of NBC correspondent Garrett Haake pressing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on President Trump’s warning that Iran should make a deal or face overwhelming U.S. military force. HAAKE: “Why is the president threatening what would amount to potentially a war crime with the U.S. military?” LEAVITT: “...the United States Armed Forces has capabilities beyond their wildest imagination, and the president is not afraid to use them.” Co-host...

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said the military conflict in Iran will be looked at as one of the greatest “presidential blunders of our time.” Host Kristen Welker said, “The U.S. has reportedly sent Iran a 15-point plan addressing its ballistic and nuclear weapons program, and some analysts have already drawn some comparisons to the talks under the Obama administration. The deal that was struck during the Obama era. Do you support the Trump administration’s efforts to try to negotiate a deal with Iran to bring this war to an end?” Booker said, “I don’t...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at airports could “brutalize” or “kill” Americans.Host Dana Bash said, “We just heard from the white House about President Trump’s plan to deploy ICE agents to airports tomorrow.”She asked, “What’s your response to what Tom Homan revealed here?”Jeffries said, “Well, good morning. Great to be with you. There are three things that have been true since Donald Trump and Republicans came back into power last January. Life is more expensive. Life is more chaotic, and life is more extreme. The last...

On Monday’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough predicted that the U.S. conflict with Iran would end in “disaster,” repeatedly warning that American intervention abroad “always leads to disaster” before concluding ominously: “This won’t end well either.”Mika Brzezinski responded with a sarcastic aside. Noting Graham’s “Free Cuba” hat, she said she felt like there was another hat missing: a “FAFO” hat. Mika's implication was unmistakable: by confronting Iran, the United States is the one that will “find out.” Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Former President Joe Biden told mourners at Rev. Jesse Jackson’s memorial service Friday that he is “a hell of a lot smarter than most of you,” a pointed remark that stood out during his tribute to the late civil rights leader. Biden made the comment while recounting how he was mocked as a child for his stutter and how speech impediments are often mistaken for a lack of intelligence. “If I told you I had a cleft palate or clubfoot, none of you would have laughed,” Biden said. “But it’s OK to laugh at stuttering. … It’s the one place...