Free Republic

Sending Ukraine offensive weapons could push Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former NATO supreme allied commander, said on Monday. Speaking ahead of the announcement of the U.S.-NATO weapons deal for Ukraine, Stavridis said he was hoping the deal would “move beyond strictly defensive weapons, such as the Patriot missiles, which are the air defense systems that the Ukrainians desperately need.” “What I would like to see is a provision for the United States to send more harpoon missiles to go after the Black Sea fleet, more HIMARS, surface-to-surface weapons that can reach...

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday he believes a client list associated with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein once existed but was “destroyed” by the Biden administration. “I think the files existed at one time,” Burchett said in an interview on NewsNation’s “On Balance” with host Leland Vittert. “I think they were destroyed in the previous administration.” The Justice Department (DOJ) released a memo earlier this week concluding that Epstein did not keep such a list that was allegedly used to blackmail high-profile individuals — contradicting conspiracy theories circulating for years that suggested otherwise.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in a Sunday morning interview pushed back on claims that President Trump acted outside his Constitutional authority by ordering strikes on Iran. “No, he was within his Article II authority,” Graham said in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” when asked if Trump violated the U.S. Constitution by “acting unilaterally.” “Congress can declare war or cut off funding,” Graham continued. “We can’t be the commander in chief. You can’t have 535 commander in chiefs.” “If you don’t like what the president does, in terms of war, you can cut off the funding. But declaring...

Rep. Sean Casten (D-Il.) said late Saturday that President Trump’s move to bomb Iranian nuclear sites without congressional approval amounts to an “unambiguous impeachable offense.” “This is not about the merits of Iran’s nuclear program,” Casten said in a post on the social platform X. “No president has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the US without the approval of Congress. This is an unambiguous impeachable offense.”

All members of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board resigned Wednesday, citing alleged political interference by members of the Trump administration. In a statement posted to Substack, the dozen former board members said they “voted overwhelmingly” to resign “rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago.” snip The prestigious program — which awards a select group of scholars and academics the opportunity to continue research abroad each year — is managed by the State...

Joe Walsh, a former Republican member of Congress, said Tuesday he is becoming a Democrat, marking the end of his five-year streak as a political independent after leaving the GOP in 2020. Walsh announced his formal affiliation with the Democratic Party in a Tuesday Substack post, saying he made the decision because he views the Republican Party as a threat to democracy and the rule of law and thinks defeating the GOP requires “a broad coalition of moderates, progressives, and, yes, even conservatives.” “Three words I never thought I’d ever utter: I’m a Democrat. This former Republican Congressman, former Republican...

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, called the Russian proposal for a three-day ceasefire next week “absurd” and said the U.S. wants a more lasting peace deal in Ukraine. “A three-day ceasefire is absurd. What the president wants is a permanent, comprehensive ceasefire — sea, air, land, infrastructure — for a minimum of 30 days, and then we can extend that,” Kellogg said in a Fox News interview Tuesday.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said on Sunday he does not think the law would allow President Trump to send United States citizens convicted of violent crimes to Salvadoran prisons, despite the president’s suggestion that he might be open to that possibility. “No, ma’am. Nor should it be considered appropriate or moral,” Kennedy told NBC News’s Kristen Welker when asked on “Meet the Press” whether he thinks such a move would be legal. “We have our own laws,” he continued. “We have the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. We shouldn’t send prisoners to foreign countries in my judgment.” Trump, in a...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said on Sunday said he’s questioning President Trump’s “endgame” in his approach to tariffs, saying the ongoing “volatility” isn’t good for businesses. “One thing I learned in the private sector is unpredictability can work pretty well in the negotiation, but the private sector — businesses want certainty. They want stability. They don’t like to see volatility,” Johnson said in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.” “And, so, I’ve just been questioning exactly what’s the endgame here? What’s the strategy?” he continued. Johnson called himself an “unabashed free trader” and touted what he sees as the...

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said Sunday that forcing Ukraine to agree to a resource deal with the U.S. in exchange for the possibility of support against Russia is akin to “victim extortion.” The moderate Republican said Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion of Ukraine three years ago, should be the one forced to pay. “Putin, and Putin alone, should bear the economic costs of Putin’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Fitzpatrick said in a post on the social platform X. “To force Ukraine to pay these costs is the epitome of victim-blaming and victim extortion.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he doesn’t approve of President Trump’s pardoning of the Jan. 6 rioters, especially those who “beat up cops” who were defending the Capitol. “No,” Graham said, when asked whether he’s OK with the most violent offenders on Jan. 6 getting pardoned, in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I’ve always said that I think when you pardon people who attack police officers, you’re sending the wrong signal to the public at large, and that’s not what you want to do to protect cops,” Graham continued. “But he has that power.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), former chair of the Jan. 6 committee, said in a Thursday interview that he would accept a preemptive pardon from President Biden if he offered one. CNN’s Jim Acosta asked Thompson whether he wanted Biden to extend the pardon offer — in light of recent reporting that Biden was considering using the pardon power to protect those he feared may be targeted in Trump’s second term. “The president, it’s his prerogative,” Thompson said about whether he wants Biden to preemptively pardon him. “If he offers it, to me or other members of the committee, I think...

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) pushed back against the idea that the Russian war in Ukraine could end in peaceful negotiation, saying those who hold that view “may be deceiving” themselves. In a speech at the Halifax International Security Forum this weekend, Rounds called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “tyrant” and suggested he would be surprised if Putin were satisfied with any concession from the West. “It’s time to take a hard look at this thing and really ask ourselves, do you believe that this tyrant, if you offer him a part of a free country, do you think he’s going...

Veteran journalist Bob Woodward said Monday that President-elect Trump appears to be trying to recreate the “imperial presidency” by selecting appointees with little relevant experience to their nominated posts. Woodward criticized Trump’s selection of Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, in an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.” The former White House press secretary-turned-cable host asked him directly whether he thinks the Fox News host was equipped to do the job. “Somebody should get that job who knows the military and has had also management experience,” Woodward said of Hegseth. “From what I read about him, no, he doesn’t.” He...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the leading candidate for his state’s Senate seat, said he would advise Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike Iranian ballistic missile factories. In an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Schiff said such a response would be “proportionate” after Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles last week aimed at Israel. “If I were advising the Prime Minister of Israel, I would say, go after those ballistic missile factories storage areas,” Schiff said. “That would be proportionate, in my view,” Schiff continued. “But it would also help degrade Iran’s capacity.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) defended her vote against bipartisan legislation that expanded health benefits for veterans, saying Tuesday she didn’t want to spend “$600 billion forever.” Boebert faced off in a general election debate against her Democratic opponent, Trisha Calvarese. The Democrat pressed Boebert to explain why she didn’t support the landmark “Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our PACT Act,” which expanded benefits for millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins during service and are suffering illnesses as a result. “If you’re going to take care of folks, what about our veterans, Lauren? You know, because you’re talking...

Hannah Muldavin, a senior spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), said on Sunday that Robert F. Kennedy’s endorsement of former President Trump’s White House bid “changes nothing” about the 2024 race. Muldavin said Kennedy’s announcement on Friday was “not surprising for a second,” pointing to the Trump allies and conservatives who supported Kennedy and their similar messaging against President Biden and Vice President Harris.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican vice presidential nominee, that GOP voters “tried to kill your predecessor,” during remarks at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago. “Remember what the mob chanted as they stormed the Capitol and injured our officers? ‘Hang Mike Pence’,” Raskin said during his Monday night speech, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. “Someone should have told Donald Trump that the President’s job under Article Two of the Constitution is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not that the Vice President is executed,” he...

Video Player is loading. Advertisement: 0:11 Democratic strategist Van Jones said Monday that former President Trump is “freaked out” that he’s not getting as much press attention as Vice President Harris and is responding by sharpening his rhetoric about the threat he says his political opponents would pose on the country. “He‘s failing and flailing. Listen, they‘re saying that these are the worst three weeks of his campaign,” Jones, a CNN contributor, said Monday in an interview with Anderson Cooper. “That‘s what the press is saying.” “This is the year in which he got indicted, convicted, and shot at —...

More voters say they trust Vice President Harris to handle the economy than they do former President Trump, according to a poll released Monday by the Financial Times and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Harris leads Trump 42 percent to 41 percent in the August poll when respondents were asked which candidate they trust to handle the economy, regardless of whom they plan on supporting in November. The finding marks the first time the Democratic candidate has inched ahead of the GOP candidate on the economy question since the monthly poll began tracking voter sentiment on the...