Free Republic

Graham Platner, a far-left Democratic candidate running for Senate in Maine who has captured the enthusiasm of the party’s grassroots base, sought to preempt rumors circulating in recent weeks that a black skull-and-cross bones tattoo on his chest is a Nazi symbol. Speaking with Tommy Vietor on the “Pod Save America” political podcast, released on Monday night, Platner, 41, confirmed the existence of the tattoo, seen in video he shared displaying his bare chest, but suggested that his opponents in the race have been spreading claims that the symbol is affiliated with Nazism, which he forcefully denied. “I am not...

Now that the heavily hyped Maine "oyster farmer," Graham Platner, who is running as a Democrat to defeat incumbent Senator Susan Collins has been exposed as deeply flawed, Politico's senior political columnist Jonathan Martin has lashed out at who he considers responsible for foisting Platner upon us with minimal/no vetting. And according to Martin that culprit is primarily the Democrat party as you can see in his Wednesday column, "Democrats Keep Falling for Political Fantasies. When Will They Learn?."However, what is notable is that although he mentions "journalists" in passing, he conveniently overlooks Politico's own role in promoting the flawed...

Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s national finance director announced his resignation on Friday, marking the latest departure an exodus of personnel from a campaign dogged by controversy at every turn. Ronald Holmes, who started working for Platner’s campaign in August, announced his immediate exit in a LinkedIn post, saying he is “no longer fully aligned” with the campaign’s standards. The exit comes just days after Platner’s campaign manager, Kevin Brown stepped down after less than a week on the job, and two weeks since the campaign’s political director, Genevieve McDonald, left. “I joined this campaign because I believed in...

Someone needs to inform Jay Caspian Kang of the New Yorker that "dirtbag" is considered to be a pejorative, not a positive. Yet, Kang seems to think that he is somehow helping to restore the sinking candidacy of Democrat Graham Platner for the U.S. Senate from Maine by repeatedly referring to him as the "embodiment of the dirtbag left" as he did on Friday with "What Explains Graham Platner’s Popularity?"And Kang weirdly does his worst to help Graham's supposed popularity by emphasizing Platner as a "dirtbag" starting with the subtitle: "The U.S. Senate candidate from Maine seems like the embodiment...

It's super weird to have a Republican in New England, and we conservatives need to sit back, shut up, and enjoy the ride. As far as I'm concerned, she gets a permanent "Get Out of Conservative Media Outrage" card. She's not a Thom Tillis or a Jim Lankford who talks a good game about being conservative and proceeds to stick us in the back.

The Senate passed a resolution Tuesday aimed at ending President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, with five Republicans joining Democrats in a rare bipartisan rebuke of the president over trade policy. Sens. Rand Paul, Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell sided with Democrats in the 52 to 48 vote. McConnell has long been critical of Trump’s trade policy, and said in a statement ahead of the vote, “Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive. The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule.” The...

A growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill have raised concerns about President Trump’s expanding war against drug cartels carried out without consultation or authorization by Congress, and are pressing for more information and involvement in a campaign whose legal basis remains murky. Most in the group have not expressed explicit opposition to the strikes that have been carried out so far against boats in the Caribbean Sea and, this week, expanded to the Pacific. The vast majority of Republicans have enthusiastically rallied behind them, and this month, all but two of them voted to block a measure that would...

Graham Platner, the Maine Democratic Senate candidate backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), wrote in 2020 that he had an "antifa supersoldier" label on his "armor," according to an archived post reviewed by Axios. Why it matters: Progressives have elevated Platner as one of their top candidates in next year's midterm elections, but his old Reddit posts have thrown his campaign into turmoil. Platner is running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, Senate Democrats' top Republican target next year. The contest for the Democratic nomination between Platner and Maine Gov. Janet Mills — who's preferred by Democratic Party leaders — already...

Ah! It seemed too good to be true. A Marine veteran who was also an oyster-farmer man of the people who, as a Democrat, promised to take down Maine's Republican Senator Susan Collins in the 2026 election. The new Golden Boy of Democrats everywhere as well as an eager media who sung his accolades across the land.Unfortunately for them, it all came crashing down as you can read in a sad report on Thursday by Benjamin Hart of New York magazine's Intelligencer section which bluntly proclaimed, "Graham Platner’s Honeymoon Is Over."

Sen. Susan Collins is reportedly shopping around a potential off-ramp to the government shutdown that has paralyzed Washington, but the Maine Republican is not ready to give in on the primary demand by her Democratic colleagues. Collins has been circulating a “discussion draft” of a proposal that would include GOP pledges on a deal related to enhanced Obamacare tax credits, Punchbowl News reported. But Collins is insisting that any extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies should be negotiated after Congress passes a funding resolution that would allow the government to reopen. Collins told reporters Monday that she has a...

The criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey — ordered up by President Donald Trump as he seeks to punish one of his oldest adversaries — will be resolved by the newest judge in the federal court where Comey was charged. U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, a 2021 appointee of President Joe Biden, was randomly assigned Thursday evening to the Comey case, which quickly took on national urgency over questions about Trump’s deployment of federal prosecutorial power to exact revenge

What the f---?' Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills responded when peppered with questions about cocaine.. Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills was at a loss for words last month during a trip to the nation's capital when pressed about her alleged cocaine use. "What the f---?" Mills replied when asked if "sniffing cocaine at work" is a "human right." Mills refused to answer the question, which was followed by, "How much more does an eight-ball cost with inflation?" Mills ignored the second question and continued walking. A source shared the video with Fox News Digital after reporting Friday revealed the Department...

The Senate on Tuesday night narrowly confirmed Justice Department official Emil Bove to a seat on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, hours after his confirmation was stalled over whistleblower reports that he is under investigation. Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey requested information about the alleged investigation after a third whistleblower said Bove misled the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing. The whistleblowers also allege Bove abused his authority while working for the Justice Department. The Senate confirmed Bove in a 50-49 split. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski...

The US Senate on Thursday voted to advance Emil Bove’s confirmation to the Florida-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Toxin RINOs Murkowski (Alaska) and Collins (Maine) voted against invoking cloture. Collins said on MSNBC on Tuesday that Emil Bove “would not serve as an impartial jurist” based on his work to ferret out corrupt prosecutors while serving as acting Deputy Attorney General. The Senate broke the filibuster so they will have 30 hours of debate. Emil Bove can be confirmed as soon as Monday.

For a party with such distrust in the mainstream media, Republicans certainly put a lot of stock in the headlines about PEPFAR. While thousands of people would most certainly not die from the targeted cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Senate Republicans are determined to keep throwing taxpayer dollars at the Democrats’ woke programs in the name of “foreign aid.” In a blow to Donald Trump’s goal to end government bloat and abuse, moderate senators — led by Susan Collins (R-Maine) — threw a tantrum over the White House’s plan to shave a fraction ($400 million) of...

Senate Republicans blasted through Democratic and internal opposition to pass President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar clawback package early Thursday morning. The final vote tally was 51-48, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining every Democrat in voting against it. The package will now be sent to the House, which has until Friday to pass it. The $9 billion rescissions bill tees up cuts to "woke" spending on foreign aid programs and NPR and PBS that Congress previously approved. Republicans have pitched the bill as building on their quest to root out waste, fraud and abuse...

There will always be three who give us heartburn. Shockingly, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who has become the new John McCain of the Senate regarding being a thorn in the side, opted not to break ranks on the recissions package, which codifies some $9 billion in cuts. The gutting of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio is included in this package, which barely advanced on a key vote to move the bill forward. Vice President JD Vance had to go up to the hill to break the 50-50 tie. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), and...

Nothing will ever be easy with congressional Republicans. The reconciliation package aged all of us 35 years, as Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had to whip votes, hold the line, and make some phone calls. President Trump was also working the phones heavily when final passage was at stake in the House. Republican leadership held the line, but with Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) retiring after the reconciliation vote, delivering what’s left of the Trump agenda before the 2026 midterms is about to get even tougher. The House did its job and passed the rescission package, but...

*** Here’s an early look at the five Senate seats most likely to flip next year.Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff (Ga.) is considered the most vulnerable Democrat on the Senate map …. But ... Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) decided against a Senate bid, depriving the GOP of its top choice across the entire 2026 map. *** ... Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) is in, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is out, and operatives believe Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) may follow Carter into the primary. ***NorthCarolina If Democrats are going to make any headway toward winning back the majority, toppling Sen. Thom...

The Democrat and RINO effort to blow up Trump’s global tariffs suffered an embarrassing failure in the Senate this evening after two senators failed to vote. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Senator Rand Paul (RINO-KY) had sponsored a resolution that would have terminated ALL of Trump’s tariffs, including those on America’s top adversary, China. The vote deadlocked 49-49, meaning it failed by one vote. But there were three Republicans who voted to stab Trump in the back and end the global tariffs: Rand Paul of Kentucky Susan Collins of Maine Lisa Murkowski of Alaska Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Senator...