Free Republic

MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell revealed on Wednesday night that he was exhausted by covering President Donald Trump and that he was taking a week off from hosting his show, “The Last Word,” lamenting that it was only day 52 of Trump’s second term. “I know you’ve pledged to cover and be here for the first hundred days of the Trump presidency. I hope you noticed that I did not make that same pledge,” O’Donnell told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Maddow, who usually hosts her show once a week on the network, recently committed to hosting her program daily for the duration...

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” host Lawrence O’Donnell stated that “Elon Musk himself, personally, could pay for the entire budget of USAID, the entire budget, by himself, without missing that money at all, and easily, easily pay for all of the life-saving work that USAID does.” And “He says USAID isn’t doing it right, but why doesn’t he just step forward and show us how to do it right with his own billions? That, of course, will never happen.” O’Donnell said, “So, one of the ugly truths of this is that, unlike anyone else in the history...

Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll is reportedly refusing to give the names of the officials involved in January 6 cases and Trump investigations. Brian Driscoll is currently serving as Acting FBI Director as Trump nominee Kash Patel awaits confirmation. CNN reported that “At least six FBI leaders” have been removed or told to resign by Monday. President Trump fired the head of the FBI Washington Field Office, David Sundberg, canned 20 other heads of offices. As many as 88 FBI officials were marched out of their offices on Friday. According to an email from acting Director Brian Driscoll and reviewed...

You won’t believe this one. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been funneling millions of taxpayer dollars to organizations linked to Bill Kristol, the neoconservative war hawk best known for pushing endless wars and failed foreign policy. But here’s the twist—Elon Musk just exposed it, and now the heat is on. Who is Bill Kristol? He’s the guy who cheered on the Iraq War, pushed for regime change everywhere, and now runs “Defending Democracy Together,” a group that’s received at least $2 million from USAID to influence American politics. Why is USAID involved? USAID is supposed to fund...

The Trump administration has removed two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development after they refused to let representatives of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” access restricted spaces at the agency on Saturday, said current and former USAID officials. The placement of the security officials — John Voorhees and his deputy — on administrative leave is the latest effort by the Trump administration and Musk to wrest control of the world’s largest provider of food assistance, which they have denigrated without offering evidence as left-wing and corrupt amid objections from Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Amid the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -FBI employees were ordered on Sunday to answer a questionnaire about any work they may have done on criminal cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, stoking fear about a fresh round of firings at the law enforcement agency. The list of questions in the memo, seen by Reuters, direct employees to give their job title, any role they played in the investigations into the Jan. 6 riot by supporters of President Donald Trump and whether they helped supervise such investigations.

... and then we'll make a decision" ...

The EU has warned Donald Trump it is ready to retaliate against “hurtful” tariffs as the US president kick-started a global trade war. European leaders including Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, warned that the EU had “its own courses of action” after the new president said the bloc had treated the US “terribly” and would be next in line for tariffs after Canada, China and Mexico. It comes as Sir Keir Starmer is set to be the UK’s first Prime Minister to attend an EU summit since Brexit, when he travels to Brussels on Monday as part of a “reset”...

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) criticized President Trump’s decision to impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods and a 10 percent tariff on Chinese exports. In an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” Klobuchar said Americans are likely to see prices continue to rise with Trump’s tariffs imposed on goods. “This is just the latest example, as you’ve detailed every day, chaos up, corruption up, and, sadly, prices of eggs up. And we’re going to see more of this if he follows through on this 25 percent tariff on Canada, Mexico, 10 percent on China,” Klobuchar told Psaki.

On Sunday's edition of The Weekend on MSNBC, weeknight host Chris Hayes questioned Trump's machismo for imposing higher tariffs on Canada and Mexico than on China. He's tougher on allies than on adversaries, because that's easier, less risky. He even claimed Trump has been "extremely generous to adversaries" like Russia and China. HAYES: He likes the conflict, he likes to project strength, but he's sort of a coward fundamentally. And the stakes of actual conflict and fights with adversaries is much higher. And so this is a way of kind of, a little bit of bullying, and cake and eat...

President Trump upended political norms and sparked widespread confusion with a series of executive orders challenging the Constitution and congressional control over the federal budget.Democrats responded in outrage, blasting the administration for sowing “chaos” and harming average Americans, and California and other states sued. Standing before a mourning nation following a tragic commercial airline crash that killed nearly 70 people in Washington, D.C., President Trump offered his somber condolences and said everyone was “searching for answers.”He then insinuated, without evidence, that diversity hiring practices at the Federal Aviation Administration — and the politics of his Democratic predecessors — were to...

After months of uncertainty, the White House has finally announced tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. The uncertainty since the election and especially the lack of clear communication in the past several days have caused apprehension in the stock market, which is likely part of the reason why these measures were announced on a Saturday, when the markets are closed — always a sign of confidence that an economic policy decision is the right one. The stated purpose is to reduce the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants to the U.S. Trump has had success using blunt-force threats in the...

Two weeks into the second term of President Trump and the activity when combined with the future outlook is excellent. Apoplexy abounds throughout the DC system as President Trump continues to overwhelm every silo of opposition simultaneously; meanwhile, the media is being bombarded with so much activity they are completely flummoxed like a bunch of one-legged plate spinners in a three-ring circus. The systems’ outrage machine is bellowing dark smoke, clanking, spluttering and in a state of perpetual tilt. Things are going swimmingly. With the latest outrage du jour, the elimination of USAID now sucking all the oxygen from the...

Is the FBI trying to interfere in the 2024 election by intentionally sparking conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump? We have a true tin foil hat theory that Trump was never hit by a bullet, a piece of misinformation that was printed in a prominent magazine and now MSNBC’s Lawrence O’DonnellWe know he was shot. Everyone who has eyes knows this, but it’s another unhinged and ridiculous liberal media operation to marginalize what could have been a source of trauma for the country.

MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell thinks he has a solution to Joe Biden’s debate problems. Just allow Biden’s staff to be on stage with him during the debates. To be clear, O’Donnell suggests that this is something that all candidates should do, even Trump, presumably. But we all know that O’Donnell is only saying this now because he thinks that Biden is the one who needs the help of other people to get through a debate. It’s amazing that this is the sort of analysis that MSNBC viewers get on a regular basis. Transcript via Real Clear Politics: LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Allow...

I admittedly have not followed much of the ongoing show trial of former President Donald Trump in New York City for supposedly paying hush money to former adult film performer Stormy Daniels precisely because it's a show trial. If I want to see a serious analysis of fiction, I just read TV Tropes. Still, it does make me happy knowing the "star witness" Michael Cohen, Trump's former "fixer," just keeps digging the prosecution's grave further and further down till they hit bedrock and probably resurface in China. As our indispensable Matt Margolis wrote earlier today, Cohen's latest entry of his...

MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell, Wednesday on his show “The Last Word,” compared stroke survivor Democratic Senate candidate Lt. Gov John Fetterman (D-PA) to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill because they also had health issues. Discussing a book on Winston Churchill’s health problems, O’Donnell said, “During all of those illnesses, including the stroke, Winston Churchill was serving as the now widely regarded greatest British prime minister in history. A British prime minister who rallied his country to continue to fight Hitler when it seemed that all was lost. When he suffered an acute stroke, Prime Minister Churchill simply retreated to...

Leftist lunatic and MSNBC host Joy Reid came out of the gate on a tare, lashing out at the Supreme Court over their historic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade to the states and the people's representatives. Being the vile demagogue that she is, Reid accused activists in the right-to-life movement and all conservatives broadly as wanting to repeal the "20th century." "We begin tonight with a theme that, by now, may be familiar to viewers of this show. Repeal the 20th century. The notion that, for many on the far right, the good ole days start with 17 and...

Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) declared Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” that former President Donald Trump “is going into a season of legal reckoning.” Anchor Lawrence O’Donnell said, “The evidence since your case was filed has developed very much in your favor. Including much of what we heard in the January 6 committee from people who actually attack the Capital, saying on video that Donald Trump sent them there to do that. That is your essence of your lawsuit.”

MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell said on his Monday show “The Last Word” that Democrats were abusing the reconciliation process to pass President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package. The Senate parliamentarian ruled Monday Democrats can use the reconciliation process for infrastructure, meaning it can pass with a simple-majority vote.