Free Republic

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...

Time magazine touted his “authenticity” and gushed, “It’s populism and piety, the proletariat and the Pharisees all rolled into a Texas-sized operation.” The Washington Post highlighted how Talarico was “leaning in to his Christian faith in political debate, an atypical approach for a Democrat.” The New Yorker’s soft-focus photo accompanied a fawning piece that described Talarico as looking “like he’d just finished his paper route and was eager to shovel the church’s walk.” It did the trick for the Lone Star State’s Democrats. But the moderate façade may already be crumbling. In 2020, Talarico was tweeting about the “virus” of...

Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was blasted after wrongly claiming the US has previously attacked Islamic countries during Ramadan. Omar, 43, belligerently ranted on X on Thursday evening ahead of the attacks on Iran. She claimed the US bombed Iraq in 1990 during Ramadan. 'And it's sickening to know that the US is again going to attack Iran during Ramadan,' Omar, who is Muslim, wrote.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani slammed President Trump’s strikes on Iran as an “illegal war of aggression.” “Today’s military strikes on Iran — carried out by the United States and Israel — mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war,” Mamdani posted on X. The US and Israel launched “Operation Epic Fury” early Saturday morning — striking the Tehran office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other targets.

Bill Clinton has issued a blistering statement claiming that he 'did nothing wrong' with Jeffrey Epstein as he slammed Republicans for forcing Hillary to testify. 'I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,' Clinton told lawmakers in a historic deposition near his home in Chappaqua, New York. The former president fumed at Republicans for dragging his wife to testify after Hillary on Thursday repeatedly told lawmakers she never met Epstein. 'Before we start, I have to get personal. You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing,' Clinton said. 'She has no memory of even...

Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) isn’t just leading in the Texas Democrat U.S. Senate primary anymore. She’s pulling away, and she’s doing it as early voting is already underway. The latest statewide survey, conducted Feb. 2 through Feb. 16 among likely Democrat primary voters, shows the Dallas congresswoman expanding her edge over state Rep. James Talarico. Early voting began Feb. 17 and runs through Feb. 27 ahead of the March primary, which means this shift is happening while ballots are being cast. “Crockett leads Talarico 56 percent to 44 percent among likely Democratic primary voters statewide.” Twelve points. That is...

Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez—whose Washington swing district makes her one of the most endangered members of Congress—has repeatedly claimed she was forced to work three jobs after her father cut her off financially because she stopped going to church. She says she struggled to pay her tuition at Reed College, a prestigious private institution in Portland, Ore., and resorted to unorthodox living arrangements to avoid paying rent. But documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon cast doubt on Gluesenkamp Perez's tale of woe. Her father, Jose Perez, whom she describes as a volunteer evangelical pastor in Houston, loaned Gluesenkamp...

Rep Ted Lieu has ignited a fresh political storm after alleging that Donald Trump is repeatedly named in the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act in January 2026. Lieu claimed that members of Congress who reviewed the fuller set of documents encountered disturbing allegations tied to the former president. His remarks, delivered during a forceful exchange on Capitol Hill, have triggered sharp partisan reactions and renewed scrutiny of the Epstein records. According to Lieu, the unredacted files viewed by a select group of lawmakers mention Trump “thousands and thousands of times”. He further asserted that...