Free Republic

Eventually, everything in politics goes full circle. If you wait long enough, it all turns Ecclesiastes 3. Take Joni Ernst, the junior senator from Iowa, for example. She burst onto the national scene, pledging to “cut pork” in a very memorable way: When your opening line is, “I’m Joni Ernst, I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm,” not only do you have our attention — you’ve got us squirming in our seats. (Ouch.) Before the castration spot aired, Ernst was struggling to raise money, trailing Republican frontrunner Mark Jacobs by several points for the GOP nomination. Conservative women...

Establishment Republican strategist Karl Rove attacked highly popular Vice President-elect JD Vance this week for his successful Senate bid in 2022, claiming he was a poor candidate. Rove’s odd and unprompted insult came in a comment to the New York Times in an article published Thursday about Steven Law stepping down as head of the Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)-aligned Senate Leadership Fund super PAC: “There was a candidate running in Ohio who was a terrible fund-raiser and was not a particularly effective candidate and the rest of the Republican ticket is winning by — from 18 to 24 points,” Mr....

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) took a cautious approach to Kash Patel, President-elect Trump’s nominee to serve as head of the FBI, highlighting his support for current FBI director Chris Wray. “I think the president picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term,” Rounds told ABC “This Week” on Sunday. “When we meet with him behind closed doors, I’ve had no objections to the way that he’s handled himself, and so I don’t have any complaints about the way that he’s done his job right now,” the GOP senator...

Former GOP Congressman David Jolly said Friday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that the media should not give President-elect Donald Trump “equity” by going to Mar-a-Lago like “Morning Joe“ hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski did. Jolly said, “What is really unsettling about it is coming off of the election, those who have tried to act responsibly, feel the pain of the loss. We didn’t wake up after the election and think, I’m upset because I was wrong. We’re upset because we know we’re right, but we’re on the losing side of this battle. And so what does that mean for a...

Republican Senators should vote this nomination down. A co-sponsor of the Pro-Act as Labor Secretary? Absolutely not. ... The PRO Act makes it illegal to be an independent contractor. Democrats want a union between every American worker and the government so it can inflict things like DEI on every single business/contractor. ... The PRO act is one of the worst pieces of legislation ever conceived. It is anti-opportunity. It would significantly drive up cost. ... The only questions will be (a) when she walks it badk and (b) how far she walks it back and (c) whether enough GOP Senators...

A nonprofit drafted a plan to prosecute backers of Donald Trump under Arizona law nearly a year before the state’s Democrat attorney general secured 18 indictments related to Trump’s 2020 campaign. One of the nonprofit’s founders is a former Obama White House staffer who authored books targeting Trump. The organization, the States United Democracy Center, provided a 47-page memo to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on July 25, 2023. The memo outlined the potential criminal case against Trump associates and made repeated references to “Trump himself” as part of what it called a criminal “false electors scheme.” Mayes recently said...

Senate Republicans have once again enabled RINO Mitch McConnell, gifting him the chairmanships of the Senate Rules Committee and the powerful Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense for the 119th Congress. Despite concerns over McConnell’s mental acuity, his new roles position him to obstruct President Trump’s conservative agenda from within. McConnell will now chair both the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense—roles that could give him significant influence over key legislative priorities. RINO McConnell wasted no time declaring his intentions. McConnell claimed he would “play an active role” in safeguarding America’s security interests and protecting political speech...

Brooke Shields considered former President George H.W. Bush such a close "confidant" that she would ask him just about anything. Shields, 59, admitted that she considered the late politician her substitute grandfather during an event to support the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy's New York Celebration of Reading event at the Lotos Club. The actress and author, who will soon publish her new book, "Brooke Shields is Not Allowed to Get Old," even had a nickname for the 41st president of the United States. "I call him Papa Bush. I was dating somebody [whose father] was an ambassador in...

It was a long shot, but we all held out hope that Matt Gaetz could beat the odds and become our next attorney general. Once again, though, the RINOs played their dirty games and eked out a victory. But don’t worry—this setback is only temporary, because we’re just getting started. The war is far from over. As we assess what happened and how this loss unfolded, one thing is crystal clear: the Gaetz nomination was killed by a fresh-faced RINO from the same state that brought us one of the most infamous #NeverTrumpers in history—Utah. ... Yes, we finally got...

Collins told Axios that the Senate’s constitutional “advice and consent” duty for Trump’s appointees “means a background check, it means extensive committee investigations and questionnaires and public hearings.” The moderate GOP senator also said that she would be against Trump making recess appointments asserting it would be a way to “avoid and evade the Senate’s constitutional duty to do advice and consent

Chuck Schumer just confirmed another lifelong federal judge by a vote of 50-49 because Republican Senator Mike Braun did not show up to vote. This judge will now forever serve on the D.C. court. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is voting with the Republicans to block the nomination, and Kamala Harris is out of town and can't cast the tie-breaking vote. Yet we still can't get Republicans to stand up and fight. ... Senator Mike Braun knows exactly what he’s doing with his absence. He’s voting as a Democrat. ... So why is RINO Braun in the Republican party since...

The Kentucky Senator, who is known for advocating libertarian positions, said in an interview on Newsmax that it would be a “huge mistake” for Trump to use the military to help deport the tens of millions of illegal aliens currently residing in America. Trump has long insisted that he will use the military to help speed up the deportations, which will inevitably require a huge amount of manpower in order to send these individuals back to where they came from. Paul, meanwhile, does not agree. He explained:

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has voiced strong opposition to using the U.S. military to enforce deportation measures, emphasizing that immigration enforcement should remain the responsibility of domestic law enforcement agencies on Newsmax Tuesday.Paul, a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, criticized the idea of deploying the military to enforce immigration policies, calling it a "terrible image" for the United States.In an interview on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Paul addressed reports that President-elect Donald Trump or his spokesman suggested declaring an emergency to involve the military in deportation efforts.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sidestepped any specifics Tuesday when asked about Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who will be the first transgender member of the House, amid an effort by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) to ban transgender women from single-sex facilities such as women’s restrooms in the Capitol. “We welcome all members with open arms who are newly elected representatives of the people. I believe it’s a — it’s a command. We treat all persons with dignity and respect,” Johnson said at a press conference Tuesday when asked about McBride. “And I’m not going to engage in silly debates about this,”...

Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde has officially conceded the Wisconsin Senate race to incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin. Hovde’s statement came amidst mounting allegations of election fraud in Wisconsin. Hovde, a businessman and first-time Senate candidate, had been a formidable contender, focusing his campaign on key conservative priorities like fiscal responsibility, border security, and law enforcement support. On election night, early projections showed Hovde with a commanding lead. However, over 108,000 absentee ballots were dumped in Milwaukee at 4:00 AM, with Senator Tammy Baldwin receiving nearly 90% of those votes.

What a cavalcade of kooks and creeps Donald Trump is trotting out for positions of trust and responsibility in the United States government! If the character and quality of the individuals running the most important government agencies weren’t a serious matter, one could almost sit back and enjoy the spectacle. -snip Come on, now. If Democrats wanted to demonstrate the Republicans’ lack of a gag reflex, they can consider that point amply proven over the last few days. Now it’s time to make clear to the public just why these nominees are so nauseating, so worth gagging at. It’s true...

Mitch McConnell is a RINO and is a traitor to the people of this country. He staged a COUP against the incoming president and should have been hauled out of the Senate in chains, for he has abused his personal power to try to obstruct what the American people voted for to protect the swamp. Mitch McConnell engineered a coup against Trump’s agenda by calling for early leadership elections in the Senate to ensure that the RINOS would select his replacement to obstruct the American people again as he did throughout the previous Trump Administration. ... There were three candidates:...

Next year's outlandish confirmation fights could thrust incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) between his Republican conference and his president Why it matters: Thune can afford to lose three Senate GOP votes on Trump nominees. But at least six Senate Republicans, depending on the specific nominee, could be in line to blockade President-elect Trump

WEST VIRGINIA — Former West Virginia Delegate Derrick Evans has formally announced his intention to run for West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito’s seat in the U.S. Senate in the 2026 election. In his candidacy announcement, he called Capito a RINO (Republican In Name Only), stating that she stayed silent during a “secret vote” for Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Evans said that Thune is a career politician and that he is poised to delay or obstruct President Trump’s future cabinet appointments. Evans has thrown his vote behind Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, stating, “he’s one of us.” Evans was...

Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” network host Trey Gowdy, a former South Carolina congressman, blasted President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). Gowdy suggested Gaetz was corrupt and said naming a corrupt person to head the Department of Justice would not alleviate the corruption. “Trey, I had Senator Thune on, the incoming Senate majority leader yesterday, and he basically said, listen, it’s not going to be easy,” host Bret Baier said. “Some of these picks are not going to be easy to get through. But there is this mandate just by the vote that...