Free Republic

The U.S. recession is here. How long it will last will depend on the course of a viral pandemic that could still kill hundreds of thousands of Americans, and has most of the country under lockdowns aimed at slowing the infection's spread. But how quickly the world's biggest economy will recover will depend on how much aid the government gives it, and how effectively it can be used to stem what are already millions of job losses, Fed officials said on Thursday. "One thing we know from 2008, when you had millions and millions and millions of Americans losing their...

Facing a potentially historic vote on whether to legalize medical marijuana in Kentucky, Republican lawmaker John Schickel is conflicted. A retired law enforcement officer, Schickel once steadfastly opposed medical cannabis, but his stance has softened. Now he says he’s approaching the question with an open mind. […] Schickel’s dilemma stands as yet another sign that views about marijuana are changing across the South, where efforts to legalize it have long been stymied by Bible Belt politics. While medical cannabis is legal now in 33 states, including Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida, other Southern states remain among the holdouts. Whether wavering resistance...

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee issued a sharp rebuke of President Donald Trump Thursday, slamming the administration's plan to divert $3.83 billion in Pentagon funding to border wall construction as unconstitutional and pledging to take action after lawmakers were notified of the move by the Department of Defense. Rep. Mac Thornberry, a Texas Republican who is the ranking member of the House committee and has announced he will not run for reelection this year, did not mention Trump by name but voiced strong opposition to the diverting of money from various Pentagon accounts for border wall...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Embittered “Never Trump” Republicans tied to former Ohio Gov. John Kasich have secretly schemed to assist Joe Biden’s campaign - because they think he’s the only Democrat who can beat the president and help them get “revenge,” The Post has learned. Emails obtained by The Post show that two top staffers from Kasich’s failed, 2016 primary campaign and Ohio’s former GOP chairman, a Kasich ally, were among those involved in efforts to boost support for the former vice president in last week’s botched Iowa caucus and Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. Funding for the plan came largely from...

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on Thursday that Republicans in Utah are not pleased with the state's other Republican senator, Mitt Romney, after he voted to convict President Trump for abuse of power in the Senate impeachment trial. “There will be some people who might be happy with it, and they might be called Democrats, for the most part. I think Republicans are very upset about it. And I, for one, disagree with it and disagree with it strongly,” Lee told Shannon Bream on “Fox News at Night.” ~snip~ Lee pushed back on Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., for praising Romney’s...

Governors of both major political parties are warning that a little-noticed regulation proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration could lead to big cuts in Medicaid, reducing access to health care for low-income Americans. The arcane fiscal accountability rule proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, would tighten federal oversight and approval over complex financing strategies states have long used to help pay for their share of the $600 billion program. Also targeted are certain payments to hospitals that treat many low-income patients. Public comments closed last week amid a chorus of criticism from hospitals, nursing homes,...

Mitt Romney is stoking suspicions that he is eyeing a third White House bid in 2024 after the Utah Republican broke with his party and insisted on witnesses at President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. A second Republican strategist neither affiliated with nor opposed to Trump agreed that Romney’s maneuvering during the four-month impeachment process was calculated. This veteran operative predicted the senator would be active after the November elections, trying to restore the internationalist, “Chamber of Commerce” Republicanism that dominated the GOP before the elevation of Trump, a populist and a nationalist. “He is cynically betting on an...

Mitt Romney is a good friend and an excellent Senator. We have disagreed about a lot in this trial. But he has my respect for the thoughtfulness, integrity, and guts he has shown throughout this process. Utah and the Senate are lucky to have him.— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) January 31, 2020

A pair of moderate Republican senators said Monday that the major revelations from a soon-to-be released book by John Bolton strengthen the case for calling witnesses in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial — and even a top ally of the president said Bolton would be a "relevant" witness. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said it's "increasingly likely" there will be enough Republican senators to vote in favor of calling witnesses in the president's ongoing trial. "I think, with the story (about Bolton's book) that came out yesterday, it's increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton," Romney...

Sen. Mitt Romney said Monday it's "increasingly likely" there will be enough Republican senators to vote in favor of calling witnesses in President Donald Trump's Senate trial to compel their testimony after major revelations from a soon-to-be released book from former national security adviser John Bolton. "I think, with the story that came out yesterday, it's increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton," the Republican senator from Utah told reporters in brief comments. He said he hasn't fully made up his mind on calling witnesses, but what Bolton has to say is "relevant" and "therefore...

It may be difficult to believe in this enlightened age but there was a time not so long ago when the National Review was the intellectual heart of America's conservative movement. Its writers were sharp, gifted and irreverent. Their appearances on Fox News and other TV outlets made them rock stars. All that ended on January 22, 2016, when the magazine posted online its "Against Trump" issue. Once again, the editors proudly chose to stand athwart history rather than make it. They chose to lose with what they consider honor rather than win. 22 writers signed on, each penning...

How imbecilic are those Republicans trying to make a name for themselves by supporting the unconstitutional Schiff/Pelosi articles of impeachment? Beyond polite description. Susan Collins, Rob Portman, probably the self-serving Mitt Romney, are each trying to be the biggest monkey wrenches in an already ridiculous endeavor to remove President Trump from office. Each of them should just admit they are Democrats at heart and switch parties. How else to explain their betrayal of their own party? Poor judgment is one thing, like Matt Gaetz voting for Pelosi's meaningless resolution to limit Trump's ability to counteract Iran. That was just dumb,...

President Trump’s Senate trial may have witnesses after all. Sen. Susan Collins on Friday confirmed she is working with a “fairly small group” of fellow Republican senators to ensure witnesses can be called. “We should be completely open to calling witnesses,” Collins (R-Maine) said Friday, the Bangor Daily News reported. “I am hopeful that we can reach an agreement on how to proceed with the trial that will allow the opportunity for both the House and the president’s counsel if they choose to do so.” Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has also had recent conversations with the Senate’s minority Democratic leadership, one...

It is Neil Shaffer’s job to get Donald Trump re-elected in a patch of rural Iowa that saw the largest swing in voters in the country from America’s first black president to one of its most divisive in 2016. But even Shaffer, the Republican party chair in Howard county, is not sure he’ll be voting for Trump again. The voters who migrated from Barack Obama to Trump in the county on Iowa’s border with Minnesota were among nearly 8 million across the US who switched parties four years ago. In swing states such as Iowa they were decisive in delivering...

Republican Senator Cory Gardner is what you would expect in a swing state like Colorado: affable, supportive of his party when it benefits his state, unafraid of independence, and not angry about any of it. Like Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Reps. Peter Welch, Elise Stefanik, and Will Hurd, Gardner has a different kind of personality than what is typically rewarded in the modern political environment. His uniqueness allowed him to successfully unseat a purple state Democratic incumbent to become Colorado’s junior senator in 2014. It also makes him the real target of impeachment. The impeachment of President Donald Trump is not...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) on Monday became the first Republican senator to state that he would like John Bolton, former White House national security advisor, to testify at the Senate impeachment trial if subpoenaed. “I would like to be able to hear from John Bolton. What the process is to make that happen, I don’t have an answer for you,” Romney told reporters on Capitol Hill when asked whether he would be open to hearing from Bolton.

Appearing on CNN’s Boss Files with Poppy Harlow, failed Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said she believes it is “vital� for President Donald Trump to be impeached.

Sen. Mike Lee’s S.386 green card giveaway to India’s U.S.-based workers has created a new opponent: dairy farmers who fear his bill will kill their ability to recruit and reward long-serving dairy workers with U.S. green cards. The result is that South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds will block Lee’s next attempt to pass his giveaway to India via the Senate’s Unanimous Consent rule, which is expected next week. “He is planning to object to a U.C.,” a Hill source told Breitbart News, if Lee cannot “address Senator Rounds’ concerns about dairy farms in South Dakota.” Rounds admitted his concerns in...

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will likely tap business executive Kelly Loeffler to the U.S. Senate despite strong criticism from his conservative base over Loffler’s affiliation with Planned Parenthood, Stacey Abrams, and establishment Republicans, according to a report released Friday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday that Kemp plans to tap business executive Loeffler next week as he will attempt to appeal to Georgia suburban women despite the conservative opposition to Loeffler. Kemp’s potential nomination of Loeffler will defy President Donald Trump, prominent conservative organizations, and Georgia’s conservative base that helped Kemp get elected to the governor’s office. Breitbart News has...

Moments before Wednesday’s impeachment hearings and right after U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland’s opening statement was released, Fox News contributor Ken Starr wondered aloud whether Sondland flipping on President Trump would cause GOP senators to push Trump to resign. “The real issue is the senators are watching,” Starr said. “Are senators going to now say in light of what we hear today, it’s going to be a long day even with the ambassador alone, in light of what we have heard, ‘We need to make a trip down to the White House’? That historic example set during the...