Free Republic

Oregon’s house speaker Tina Kotek (D.) defended her staffer who was arrested in Portland this weekend for interfering with police during a riot. Kristina Narayan, Kotek’s legislative director, was arrested along with 58 others during a demonstration that broke out Saturday night in which rioters threw firebombs, rocks, and mortars toward police officers. Kotek, who is also on the board of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, defended her staffer for practicing "freedom of expression." "Freedom of expression is the foundation of our democracy. Every person—including members of my staff—has the right to stand up for what they believe and engage...

The so-called revolutionaries who were busted for rioting at a New Afrikan Black Panther Party rally took a break from their yacht club lives and modeling careers to be a part of the mayhem. The seven “comrades” — including wealthy Upper East Sider Clara Kraebber — had their mugshots tweeted out by the NYPD early Wednesday, days after their arrests for smashing storefront windows in the Flatiron District. They were cuffed during a protest organized by the Panthers and the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement groups condemning the death of Daniel Prude, who was killed while in custody of the Rochester Police...

Who knows what the 2020 election will bring? But after surveying Kenosha, I'm convinced Trump won't lose Wisconsin. If I were a betting woman, I'd say he won't lose the White House. He doesn’t seem well. In fact, he sounds exactly like every person I’ve encountered on their deathbed. These thoughts ran through my mind Thursday while I watched Joe Biden breathlessly address Kenosha community leaders through his surgical mask.Aside from the former vice president’s extortionate call-to-action that if you don’t vote for him, racism and riots will reign forever, my primary takeaway from his remarks was that Biden is...

If Democrats have the truth on their side, why do they need to lie so much? It’s a question for the ages. Every time you turn on the news or open a paper, some headline is blaring about how President Trump is a disaster. You name it – Coronavirus, trade, the economy, race relations, the military, schools – and there is a liberal Democrat with a press credential telling you how those things and more are bad, and have never been worse, no matter the evidence to the contrary. Adolf Hitler called it the “Große Lüge,” or “Big Lie,” and...

WASHINGTON -- In what The New York Times described as a "forceful rebuttal," Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden delivered a speech Monday in which he said, "Ask yourself: Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?" The former vice president also offered, "Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?" Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Joe Biden is elected? It took Biden and company months to figure out that voters are terrified of the violence they've seen in American cities in...

Members of the extremist Antifa network are flying around the country and participating in riots, Attorney General William Barr said in a new interview. “I’ve talked to every police chief in every city where there has been major violence and they all have identified Antifa as the ramrod for the violence,” Barr said in an appearance this week on CNN’s “Situation Room.” “They are flying around the country. We know people who are flying around the country. We know where they’re going.” “We see some of the purchases they are making before the riots of weapons to use in those...

<p>At the site of Trump's visit to Kenosha, Valerie, a 25-year-old African American from Milwaukee, said the welfare state, burning buildings, and defunding the police are not the kind of solutions black people need.</p> <p>When President Trump traveled to Kenosha, Wis., on Tuesday, Black Lives Matter protesters congregated by the county courthouse, which was gated off and protected by National Guardsmen. The protesters carried signs that said “F-ck the police,” “Dump Trump,” and “F-ck Trump,” but there was not a single sign for or against Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden.</p>

President Trump on Wednesday signed a memo ordering federal agencies to defund “anarchist jurisdictions” including New York City, Seattle and Portland.The New York Post reported: President Trump is ordering the federal government to begin the process of defunding New York City and three other cities where officials allowed “lawless” protests and cut police budgets amid rising violent crime, The Post can exclusively reveal.Trump on Wednesday signed a five-page memo ordering all federal agencies to send reports to the White House Office of Management and Budget that detail funds that can be redirected. New York City, Washington, DC, Seattle and...

On Friday, an anti-terrorism task force of the FBI conducted eight raids in Chicago and Minneapolis. Among the targets was Hatem Abudayyeh, executive director of the Arab American Action Network Network (AAAN). This much has been reported in the media. What has received less coverage is the connection between the AAAN and the President of the United States. This photo of Michelle and Barack Obama was taken on May 24, 1998 in Burbank, IL, where state senator Obama was an honored guest at a gala dinner. Hosting the event was -- drumroll, please -- the Arab American Action Network...

Janel Davis of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a “noted scholar, author and veteran civil rights activist” by the name of Angela Davis will deliver the keynote address January 18 at Kennesaw State University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance. This is the same Angela Davis “who supported the imprisonment of Soviet political dissidents (calling them common criminals), cheered on the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and was awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize (formerly the International Stalin Peace Prize) by communist East Germany,” as noted by another paper, the British Telegraph. The differences reflect the abysmal state of...

Donald Trump Jr. shared a video on Monday that shows Democratic leaders, liberal pundits and Hollywood stars cheerleading violence against political opponents as America has seen unrest and chaos erupt in major cities. “Dem leaders and their allies in the media cheered on the violent left every step of the way,” Trump Jr. wrote to accompany the video made by conservative website Caldron Pool that kicked off with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., asking why there aren’t “uprisings all over the country.” "Morning Joe” regular Donny Deutsch was shown declaring that “people need to start taking to the streets” and...

It was with no shortage of mirth that many witnessed the whiplash change in position from Don Lemon last week. After ponderous weeks of Democrat support and warm media coverage of the protests and riots across the country CNN’s star pundit suddenly was very dire in his call for the Democrats to speak out against the violence. The craven position now revealed is that months of destruction of property and lives was acceptable for their cause. Only after Dems began seeing their support burning down was it a problem to condemn. Lemon even cited what had him so spooked -...

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said on Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week” people were “not safe in Donald Trump’s America,” citing an “increase in hate crimes” and the coronavirus pandemic. Klobuchar said, “I have long condemned looting, violence, threats. That’s not peaceful protest, and I don’t care who’s engaging in it. You condemn it, and of course, Joe Biden has clearly condemned it, but let’s step back. This isn’t just happening in one place. It’s happening all over the country. It is happening under Donald Trump’s watch. What is going on? We have innocent people like George Floyd shot by...

Law enforcement officers have to consider if looters “needed” the stolen merchandise before charging them, according to new guidance issued by leftist lunatic Diana Becton, the first-term Costa County District Attorney supported by George Soros, the far-left, anti American billionaire.

Days after “social justice” riots erupted in downtown Denver last weekend, destroying businesses and launching fireworks at police, Colorado’s Democrat senator and its nominee to oust the state’s Republican incumbent have yet to condemn the political violence. Sen. Michael Bennet, re-elected in 2016, and former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is running to unset Republican Sen. Cory Gardner this November, have joined the vast array of Democrats turning a blind eye to the lawless unrest in their states while cities burn. “They brought weapons to the table. They had guns. They brought explosives, axes, machetes, and had one intent, purpose...

<p>Kenosha, Wisconsin is situated in the southern part of the state, about an hour and a half from Chicago, and has a population of approximately 100,000. Republican Rep. Bryan Steil, who represents Kenosha in Wisconsin’s First Congressional district, told The Federalist the city “is like a lot of cities in Wisconsin.” Steil says Kenosha is “family-centered” and “hard-working.”</p>

I just got a notification on my phone from Uber saying they support my right to protest and attached a guide from the ACLU informing me of my rights. Anybody else get this? I just uninstalled it!

Jacob Blake had a weapon on the driver’s side of his vehicle when a police officer, who has now been identified as Rusten Sheskey, shot him seven times in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Sunday evening. Blake was leaning into that side of the vehicle when the officer discharged his weapon.According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, police recovered a knife from the floorboard, but the agency did not say whether Blake, a 29-year-old black man, was holding the weapon when Sheskey shot him in the back, which left Blake paralyzed, according to his family’s lawyers. Video stills of the incident appear...

Don Lemon's timbre has never quivered so much. Even when he wept while reciting his own philippic to President Trump, the CNN host wasn't this unmistakably grave. "The rioting has to stop ... it's showing up in the polling, it's showing up in focus groups," he warned Tuesday night, referencing the nightly violence in cities like Portland, Ore. and Kenosha, Wis. Lemon was conversing with fellow host and quarantine scofflaw Chris Cuomo, but he was speaking directly to his target audience: Democrats, elected or otherwise. *snip* Democratic executives are starting to cave, after giving tacit approval to the smoking out...

Portland mayor Ted Wheeler (D.)—who has yet to provide his police department with consistent directives to quell the riots, arson, and looting that have plagued his city for months—told Oregon Public Radio his strategy was to let the violence "burn itself out." Wheeler told OPR reporter Rebecca Ellis last week that he expects daily protests in the city—which began in May following the death of George Floyd—to last for some time. He said he expects nightly violence that followed the protests "will ultimately burn itself out." The mayor, who is in charge of Portland's police force, told OPR the department...