Free Republic

MANCHESTER, UK – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and a delegation of senior House lawmakers visited the North of England on Friday to meet with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and discuss opportunities to deepen the economic and security ties between the US and the UK. Chancellor Osborne hosted the delegation for a working lunch at Peover Hall, which General George Patton and the Third Army used during World War II to plan and train for the Normandy breakout. There, participants had a fruitful discussion on the state of the British economy, our shared efforts to defeat ISIL, and...

Speaker of the House says he received no information from Israel on nuclear talks as was suggested in 'Wall Street Journal' report. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday that he was "shocked" and "baffled" by a Wall Street Journal report published Tuesday morning that claimed Israel had spied on US nuclear talks with Iran, collecting information that was used to lobby him and his colleagues in Congress to drum up opposition to an emerging nuclear deal. "I'm not sure what the information was, but I'm baffled by it," Boehner told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. "No information [was]...

Move to eliminate all U.S. funding for diplomacy with Iran Congressional leaders have begun pressuring their colleagues to cut off all U.S. funding for the ongoing talks with Iran over its contested nuclear program as the Obama administration rushes to hash out the details of a deal in the coming months, according to multiple sources and a letter that will be sent next week to appropriators in the House of Representatives. With the deadline approaching, congressional Republicans have been exasperated by the Obama administration’s efforts to prevent them from having any oversight over the deal.

House Speaker John Boehner showed up President Barack Obama earlier this month by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge Congress against a nuclear deal with Iran. Now, with negotiations stalling over the timing of sanctions relief and centrifuge development, the GOP leader is setting the stage to do it again. Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected lead a group of lawmakers to Israel at the end of March, a trip that could coincide with the March 31 deadline to get a framework agreement in place, according to reports. Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith confirmed the visit and said it was planned...

Trip was arranged before election but is likely to be a 'victory celebration' for Netanyahu and Obama's arch rival. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner is expected to visit Israel in about a week. Boehner, a member of the Republican Party, is U.S. President Barack Obama’s arch rival and the man who invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make his controversial speech in Congress. Senior Israeli officials who asked to remain anonymous said Boehner will begin his visit, which has not yet been announced publicly, on March 31, heading a delegation of Republican Congress members. The...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — March 7, 2015 … US President Barack Obama spoke today in Selma, Alabama. Obama marked 50 years since 600 protesters speaking out against discrimination and demanding greater freedom and security faced off with Alabama state police . The same Barack Obama used every PR asset in his office to silence Jews who arrived in Washington 4 days ago. Jews who came to protest against a terror state – Iran – which is developing a nuclear weapon. Iran which has vowed to annihilate every Jew in Israel. Obama called upon his Vice President...

A new bombshell report from Politico found that House Speaker John Boehner had several days of secret negotiations with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the recently emboldened former Speaker, leading up to his decision to flip-flop and fund President Obama’s executive amnesty—including a pre-hashed out deal to use the hoopla around Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Tuesday address to Congress over Iran’s nuclear ambitions as political cover to sneak in the extraordinarily controversial vote. Even with the bombshell report, however, Boehner’s office continues to deny any deal took place. “It was Monday at 5:30 p.m. when Pelosi and Boehner agreed that...

The House Freedom Caucus doesn’t have a Web site. It’s not completely clear exactly who belongs to the group. But in the just-completed fight over Homeland Security funding, it was hard to miss the influence of the insurgent conservative bloc as it clashed with GOP leadership. The small group of far-right renegades has emerged as the latest embodiment of the internal GOP resistance to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio); as a general rule, they are unpredictable, opaque and completely unwilling to back down from any fight against President Obama and his agenda. As the unified Republican majority looks to...

Daily Show host Jon Stewart took issue with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Monday after he failed to pass funding the Department of Homeland Security.“So to stop the President from being too lenient on illegal immigration, you want to defund the department that secures the border?” Stewart asked.“It’s as though the caucus that you, John Boehner, purport to control has told you to [kiss] their ass,” Stewart said, referring to Boehner recently making kissy face noises at a reporter.Republicans touted their leadership skills just before the midterm elections, but so far, that hasn’t worked out well.“This finally answers the question,...

House Speaker John Boehner plans to present Prime Minister Netanyahu with a gift when Netanyahu speaks to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. The gift is a bust of a politician whom Netanyahu greatly admires: Winston Churchill. House Speaker John Boehner plans to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a bust of Winston Churchill when he speaks to a joint meeting of Congress about the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran. The gift was chosen because Netanyahu and the former prime minister of Britain are the only foreign leaders who have addressed Congress three separate times. ... Boehner also...

Let’s try this again. Congress returns Monday staring at another deadline to finance the Department of Homeland Security. But instead of stalling again, lawmakers look more likely this time to steer the anti-terrorism agency away from the funding cliff through September. With the clock ticking until the new Friday deadline to avert a DHS funding lapse, the GOP-controlled Senate will take the first step with a vote Monday on whether to head into formal negotiations with the House on financing the security agency. Senate Democrats are expected to block that move. That will put the onus squarely back on Speaker...

As negotiations over a deal with Iran continue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in the United States ahead of his address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. A senior Israeli official told reporters on Netanyahu's flight that Congress could be "the last brake" for stopping a nuclear deal with Iran. Saying it was Israel's impression that members of Congress "do not necessarily know the details of the deal coming together, which we do not see as a good deal," the official said Netanyahu in his speech would give a detailed explanation of his objections to an...

Secretary of State John Kerry is awfully frustrated with House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress this Tuesday. Here’s what Kerry had to say about Boehner’s daring invitation Sunday morning on ABC’s "This Week: “It was odd, if not unique, that we learned of it from the speaker of the House and that an administration was not included in this process," he said. "But the administration is not seeking to politicize this.” While insisting the White House has no political desires in regards to the foreign leaders' appearance (Kerry said they don't want it to...

House Speaker John Boehner’s annoyance with President Barack Obama is turning into a grudge match against the Constitution. His decision to invite a foreign head of government to address Congress without first consulting the sitting president has no precedent in American history. And for a simple reason. It’s unconstitutional. Boehner (R-Ohio) fully admits that his failure to communicate with the White House was not an oversight. Like a schoolboy passing notes when the teacher turns to the blackboard, he sneaked behind Obama’s back to set the date for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech with his country’s ambassador to the...

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the White House has "attacked" him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Netanyahu's planned address to Congress Tuesday in which he is expected to criticize international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. "The demand for seats in the House, the demand for tickets, I've never seen anything like it. Everybody wants to be there," Boehner said. "What I do wonder is why the White House feels threatened because the Congress wants to support Israel and wants to hear what a trusted ally has to say. It has been, frankly, remarkable to me, the...

Funding for the department expires at midnight on Friday. ... Boehner doesn't appear to be going along with his Republican counterparts in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is looking to avert a shutdown by offering Democrats a clean funding bill for DHS. The speaker would not say whether he would back a Senate funding bill without provisions that would defund President Obama's executive actions on immigration. At one point, Boehner blew kisses at reporters after they asked whether he would. ... McConnell had attempted to push through a House-passed funding bill four times, but Senate Democrats blocked it...

In what is becoming an increasingly nasty grudge match, the White House is mulling ways to undercut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming trip to Washington and blunt his message that a potential nuclear deal with Iran is bad for Israel and the world. There are limits. Administration officials have discarded the idea of President Barack Obama himself giving an Iran-related address to rebut the two speeches Netanyahu is to deliver during his early March visit. But other options remain on the table. Among them: a presidential interview with a prominent journalist known for coverage of the rift between Obama...

The Obama administration is taking measures to undercut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States. Top officials, including Vice President Biden, are being sent away when the Israeli head of government delivers his address in March. The friction between the Israel and the United States is looking more like a feud between the Soprano and Lupertazzi families (via Associated Press): In what is becoming an increasingly nasty grudge match, the White House is mulling ways to undercut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming trip to Washington and blunt his message that a potential nuclear deal with Iran is bad...

Nearly two dozen US House Democrats on Thursday urged the postponement of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress, claiming the controversially-timed address could "undermine" nuclear negotiations with Iran, reports AFP. Republican House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress on March 3 two weeks before his country's elections, and the speech, in which the prime minister will discuss the threat of Iran's nuclear program, has led to an outcry from the left in the US and Israel. Twenty-three lawmakers wrote Boehner urging him to postpone the invitation, which the Republican leader extended without...

A group of 23 liberal House Democrats urged Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday to delay Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress next month. In the letter spearheaded by Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the lawmakers argued that Netanyahu was being used as a "political tool" against President Obama. "As members of Congress who support Israel, we share concern that it appears that you are using a foreign leader as a political tool against the president," they wrote. Netanyahu's March 3 address will be just two weeks before the Israeli elections and...