Free Republic

The shooting death of a 16-year-old in South Carolina led to the arrest of nine teenagers, including the victim’s alleged girlfriend. According to Fox News, authorities said the victim was involved in an argument about a girl with his alleged shooter. Trey Dean Wright of Johnsonville was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in June. Fox News shared video coverage: VIDEO AT LINK................. Additional details from Fox News: Kistenmacher was charged with being an accessory before the fact for allegedly bringing Raper to the crime scene knowing he was both armed and likely to kill her boyfriend, according to a...

A candidate for South Carolina's governor race was caught going on a bizarre rant in the back of a cop car after he was found wandering around in his underwear. Democrat William 'Mullins' McLeod, 53, was arrested by Charleston Police on May 15 after he was found 'yelling at the top of his lungs' while walking around the city in only underwear and shoes, reported WCBD. McLeod, a prominent Charleston attorney who ran for governor in 2010, became the first Democrat to enter the 2026 race on Monday officially. New camera footage of his arrest, which was released on Tuesday,...

At South Carolina GOP rally, Graham defends Israel against genocide claims, praises Trump’s steadfast support since Oct. 7 attack and warns US abandonment of ally would bring moral and spiritual consequences Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham delivered an emphatic defense of Israel on Wednesday night during a South Carolina Republican Party rally, telling the party’s evangelical supporters that the U.S. must continue to stand firmly with its Middle East ally. Speaking late in the evening, Graham described Israel as “in a fight for their lives,” surrounded by enemies who “would kill them all if they could.” He sharply criticized accusations of...

Wild, newly released dash cam footage shows the Democrat’s choice to run for governor in South Carolina getting arrested recently in just his underwear — with him swearing and using the n-word while referring to himself as both God and Superman. Married father-of-four William “Mullins” McLeod, 53, is facing calls from his own party to step down from the gubernatorial race he only formally entered Monday after video emerged a day later of his bizarre arrest just months earlier in May, according to WCBD. The prominent attorney was stopped in downtown Charleston while “yelling at the top of his lungs”...

Republican Sen. Tim Scott's goal in next year's midterm elections is not only to defend the GOP's 53-47 margin in the Senate, but to expand the majority. Scott, the conservative senator from South Carolina, told Fox News Digital soon after taking over late last year as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) that he aimed to increase the GOP's control in the chamber to at least 55 seats. And he's standing by his goal. "The bottom line is, I believe that we can defend our current seats while adding at least two more seats to our numbers," the...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “can’t tolerate” going “after his customers” ahead of an Alaska meeting between Putin and President Trump. “Putin could give a damn about sanctions. He evades them. He could give a damn about how many Russians die. The one thing that he can’t tolerate and live with, if we go after his customers,” Graham told NBC News’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.” “The whole goal is to crush his customers, India, and China, and Brazil. That if you keep buying Putin’s oil and prop up his war machine, you...

Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) entrance into South Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial primary is setting the stage for a tumultuous intraparty battle as five Republicans vie for the state’s top executive post. Early polling shows Mace and the state’s Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) leading the primary pack, with Mace calling the primary a two-way race between her and Wilson. The two officials already have a contentious history. Earlier this year the congresswoman accused four men of sexual misconduct in a speech on the House floor and accused the state attorney general of not prosecuting the men. However, other contenders, including Lt....

Former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer (R) is suspending his Senate campaign that sought to primary Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), saying he doesn’t want to further contribute to division in the country. “But I believe now, more than ever, that in order for us to truly move forward, we must stop tearing one another down with lies and division,” he continued. “I cannot and will not be part of a political climate that rewards deception over honesty, or ambition over unity. God calls us to walk in truth, to speak life, and to be peacemakers—not power seekers.” Bauer said...

“I watched the black-white stuff start on Thursday night.” In the 2024 election, Barack Obama found himself in the unexpected position of fighting against the rise of the second black president. Opposing him was nearly every black Democrat, from Rep. Jim Clyburn, who helped put Biden in the White House in exchange for promises to appoint a black woman as his VP and to the Supreme Court, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who were determined to make Kamala the candidate. Biden’s debate collapse had created a historic moment of the worst possible kind. Dems needed...

South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace on Monday officially announced her 2026 bid for governor of the state. Mace announced her much-expected run on a campaign website that reads: “Nancy Mace for Governor,” with a video of several media clips compiled together, in addition to President Trump calling her a fighter, saying that “when she sets her sight on something, she’s tough.” On Sunday evening, Mace posted on social media that on Monday that she would make a "Big Announcement," making her bid almost certain. She enters a crowded and competitive GOP primary field for the seat of Republican Gov....

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who announced his run for South Carolina governor last week, picked up two endorsements on Monday.Norman, currently a House Freedom Caucus member and a member of Congress since 2017, kicked off his campaign with a rally in Rock Hill on Sunday.“We do not need more career politicians or lawyers running government. We need business leaders, people who have signed the front of a paycheck and people who have signed the back of a paycheck. I am running for governor to shake things up,” Norman said Sunday.As governor, Norman plans to push tort reform, popular elections for...

He joins an increasingly crowded field hoping to take control of one of South Carolina’s Senate seats. President Donald Trump has sought a court-ordered deposition of Rupert Murdoch as part of his ongoing defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.The president specifically asked that the court set the timeline for Murdoch's deposition to 15 days, Reuters reported.Trump has struggled to contain political fallout from his administration's handling of the Epstein case and reports about his relationship with the late billionaire have persisted throughout the controversy. The Wall Street Journal, for its...

A lone Republican has risked President Donald Trump's ire after voting with Democrats in a bid to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna pushed an amendment to upcoming crypto legislation that would have forced Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all Epstein-related documents. Bondi would have to share the files on a 'publicly accessible website' within 30 days of passage. However, the effort was foiled, failing five to seven, during a Monday night vote by the House Rules Committee, a group of lawmakers that generally sign off on legislation before it gets a final vote on...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A former Columbia gas station owner accused of killing a 14-year-old boy appeared in court on Monday to request bond for a second time. Rick Chow is accused of chasing Cyrus Carmack-Belton from his gas station and convenience store on Parklane Road in May of 2023 and then shooting him in the back. Prosecutors say he falsely accused the teenager of stealing bottled water. Chow requested Monday’s second bond hearing after a judge initially denied his bond on the murder charge almost two years ago. “He was shot in the back, an act of cowardice and cruelty...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday launched a two-day tour of South Carolina, meeting voters across rural areas — and some GOP strongholds — in the early-voting state, the latest signal that the Democrat is eyeing a 2028 run for president. Over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday, Newsom is slated to make a total of eight stops across the state, a trip that state Democratic Party officials have said includes coffee shops, small businesses and churches. At the first of those, a coffee shop in the city of Florence, Gavin shook hands with nearly all of the roughly 100...

The Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that South Carolina has the right to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The pro-life state wants to be able to block taxpayer funding for the abortion business under Medicaid, but the abortion company sued to block that action. Today, the Supreme Court ruled South Carolina has the power to block funding. In the decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court said Medicaid laws do not give individuals the right to bring federal lawsuits against states. The high court’s ruling means that the state can direct Medicaid funding—funds intended to help low-income...

Thursday morning saw a flurry of decisions and updates from the Supreme Court of the United States. Many were helpfully captured in a long thread by legal expert Jonathan Turley on X, who chronicled the rapid-fire announcements. Buried in that thread was a key decision that SCOTUS made in the case of Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “We have our second opinion. It is Medina v. Planned Parenthood, an important case that has not drawn as much attention,” Turley explained. “It is written by Justice Gorsuch in a 6-3 opinion.” Turley further explained: “The Court considered whether there is...

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has unveiled a plan to override Homeland Security Committee Chair Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) proposal to fund border security and immigration enforcement activities at roughly half the amount favored by Senate and House Republican leaders. Paul created an uproar two weeks ago when he unveiled his portion of the Trump agenda megabill that would spend $6.5 billion on completing President Trump’s border wall and $22.5 billion on expanding detention facilities for migrants. Now Graham has answered with a move of his own, unveiling a proposal to restore funding for the border wall and Immigration...

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...

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is facing an uphill re-election battle due to declining favorability numbers among Republican primary voters, a new survey from one of the most accurate pollsters found. The new poll, which was conducted by Quantus Insights, surveyed 600 registered voters in the Palmetto State between June 10-13. In terms of overall approval among all voters, Graham finds himself in the red, with 41 percent of respondents voicing approval and 46 percent voicing disapproval. An additional 13 percent of respondents remain undecided. Among Republican respondents, 22 percent said they will “definitely” be backing a challenger to the longtime...