Free Republic

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that it is a “fallacy” to think tariffs will help the country’s economy as President Trump gears up to impose massive reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners. Paul, who has spoken out against tariffs previously, joined The Hill’s “Rising” on Wednesday, where he discussed his disagreement with tariffs, calling them “a tax.” “On tariffs, I think it’s just economically — it’s a fallacy to think that it’ll help the country,” the Kentucky senator said. “Tariffs are a tax, and if you tax trade or if you tax anything, you’ll get less of it.”

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said on Sunday that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe “lied repeatedly” about messages in a Signal group chat in which top members of the Trump administration discussed an attack on Yemen.“Intelligence officials told your committee this week that no classified information was shared. Do you believe that directors Ratcliffe and Gabbard were truthful when they testified before your committee?” NBC News’s Kristen Welker asked Bennet on “Meet the Press.”“No, I think they lied repeatedly to our committee and to the House committee. Kristen, let me try to make this as...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Monday that “nobody was texting war plans” following news breaking that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, gained access to a Signal group chat featuring Trump administration officials talking about plans for an attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen. “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said outside a plane in Hawaii after being asked about Goldberg’s access to the chat.Hegseth also called Goldberg “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”Goldberg gained access to...

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) broke with President Trump over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday and advised against a public spat between the two leaders. “Are you disturbed at all by the rhetoric coming from the Trump administration about Zelensky?” ABC News’s Martha Raddatz asked Lawler on “This Week.” “I did not agree with the president’s rhetoric about … Zelensky. What I would say is this, it is not — it does not behoove either side to have this public back-and-forth,” Lawler responded.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Wednesday criticized Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for defending President Trump’s recent pardons for rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “I’m speaking as a Christian here, I saw Speaker Johnson say, ‘We believe in redemption,’” Kinzinger said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” “How dare you use the Bible in this?” “I mean, don’t talk about repentance, Speaker Johnson, defend this,” Kinzinger added later. “Go out and defend that there’s these criminals on the street now, do that. I’ll respect if you do it.” Kinzinger’s remarks were first highlighted by Mediaite.

NBC News’s Chuck Todd in a recent analysis questioned whether President-elect Trump took moral character into consideration when picking Cabinet members, while also taking a swing at the former president and what he suggested was his “low-character crowd.” “He knows he’s behaved badly over the years — he has the civil judgments against him to prove it — in his drive to achieve fame and fortune,” Todd wrote Wednesday in his analysis, referring to Trump’s legal battles — which are in limbo following his electoral victory. “So, following that logic, nothing makes his success look more mainstream and acceptable than...

President Biden said the U.S. is doing “everything we can” to prevent wider war in the Middle East on Sunday. “We’re going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out,” the president said, according to a White House pool report, responding to a question about the region’s “rising tensions.” Biden’s words follow the recent exchange of fire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. More than 30 people were killed in an airstrike by Israel aimed at Hezbollah in Beirut, a Lebanese health official said Saturday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is pushing his state’s university system to look into former University of Florida (UF) President Ben Sasse’s expenses in the wake of reporting from a student newspaper on the subject. “We take the stewardship of state funds very seriously and have already been in discussions with leadership at the university and with the Board of Governors to look into the matter,” Bryan Griffin, a communications director for DeSantis, said in an emailed statement sent Thursday to The Hill. The Florida Board of Governors “oversees the operation and management of the Florida public university system’s twelve...

Vice President Harris is nipping at former President Trump’s heels in his home state of Florida, a pollster from Suffolk University says after a new Sunshine State survey. The USA Today/Suffolk University/WSVN-TV poll found Harris just 5 points behind Trump among likely Florida voters, 42 percent to 47 percent, just outside the poll’s margin of error. Florida has a million more registered Republicans than Democrats, and Trump won the state in both 2016 and 2020. “Given those circumstances, I was surprised that Harris is within striking distance, being only 5 points down,” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political...

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuedsay that attacks claiming Vice President Harris was hired as part of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives is “stupid.” “I would say, two attacks I’ve heard Republicans give that are totally stupid and dumb to do is the DEI attack, okay?” McCarthy said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW.” “The other attack that I would not do is saying that the president has to resign,” he added. “That would be an advantage for Kamala.” Harris is likely to replace President Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, after the incumbent...

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she isn’t calling for President Biden to step down when asked about calls from Democrats for the president to do so in the wake of his negatively-reviewed presidential debate performance. “I don’t know who’s doing that,” Pelosi said of the calls for Biden to step aside and make room for someone new to enter the race against former President Trump, according to MSNBC, in an audio clip played on anchor Ali Velshi’s show Saturday. “I’m not doing it,” Pelosi said in the clip. Biden’s debate performance, during which he had a raspy voice...

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who has been under the microscope this week for an anecdote about killing her dog, defended her actions Wednesday, saying she shot the “dangerous” pup in order to protect her children. “It was a dog that was extremely dangerous,” Noem said Wednesday on Fox News’s “Hannity.” “It had come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive.” “We were her second chance. And she was — the day she was put down was a day that she massacred livestock that were part of our neighbors,” she continued. “She attacked me....

Former CIA Director John Brennan criticized former President Trump in an interview with a Belgian state broadcaster published Sunday, saying Trump isn’t qualified to handle national security matters. “I think he didn’t believe what we were telling him,” Brennan said in the interview with RTBF, referring to a meeting on national security he had with Trump before his inauguration in 2017. “And he was especially trying to find out how we knew what we knew about Russian interference in the election,” Brennan continued. “According to me, he was not qualified at the time, and he is not qualified today. We...

A majority of Americans say the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was an “attack on democracy that should never be forgotten,” according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released this week. In the poll, 55 percent of respondents said the Capitol riot was an “attack on democracy that should never be forgotten,” but 43 percent said “too much is being made” of the riot and that it is “time to move on. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said former President Trump bears “a great deal” of responsibility for the Capitol riot, and 16 percent said he bears a “good amount”...

House Republican Vice Chair Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) became the chamber’s Speaker on Wednesday, three weeks after Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted.Johnson became his conference’s fourth Speaker nominee on Tuesday, and he takes over in the midst of multiple international crises, most notably in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine. There has been a split in the House GOP over aid to Ukraine as they face a war against Russia, making the passage of some recent bills a tough hill to climb in the lower chamber. President Biden announced the sending of a budget request to Congress requesting aid for both Israel...

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) took another swing at embattled New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (D) on Thursday, saying he’s not interested in Menendez’s explanation. “Unless Senator Menendez is coming today to resign, I am not interested in hearing his ‘explanation’ for gold bars stashed in a mattress,” Fetterman’s statement read. “We’re past the point of his tough talk and defiance, given the scope and scale of his alleged corruption.