Free Republic

In 2020, America elected Joe Biden to be not-Trump—a role for which he seemed well-suited. In 2016, the country voted for burn-it-all-down upheaval. Trump was the tribune of those who felt betrayed and misled and mistreated. Four chaotic years later, alarmed voters fled into the arms of an aging former vice-president and senator—a man they had twice rejected as a presidential contender—who seemed the personification of the steady hand. No one expected Biden to be transformational or extraordinary, but we did need him to be the anti-Trump in the most important ways. We needed him to be sober and responsible,...

The 2022 midterm elections were a catastrophe for Republicans, and a historic one at that. Every meaningful trend favored GOP candidates: uneasy economic conditions, an unpopular president who seems better suited to a bingo hall, a volatile foreign-policy environment, and a midterm voter pool that has consistently favored Republicans. Democratic candidates won many competitive Senate races, and the nearly inevitable Republican takeover of the House barely materialized. Some candidates, like Kari Lake in Arizona, snatched defeat from the jaws of certain victory. And President Trump vented his frustration at pro-lifers who fueled his 2016 victory. It might be time to...

Karma, Nemesis, payback . . . and all that stuff. The Left has gone mad over Donald J. Trump—past, present, and future. The current Democratic Party and NeverTrump “conservatives” assumed that Trump was and remains so obviously toxic that they do not have to define exactly what his evil entails. Accordingly, they believe that any means necessary are justified to stop him. And furthermore, these zealots, when out of power, insist such extraordinary measures should not be emulated and institutionalized by their opponents, much less ever boomeranged back upon their creators. In this context, the Republicans retaking control of the...

Former President Donald Trump still has a reverence for the FBI, even after the Russia collusion debacle and Mar-a-Lago raid. But he's adamant the bureau needs to be banned from meddling in elections by pressuring social media firms to censor Americans' opinions.In a wide-ranging interview Tuesday with Just the News, America's 45th president said it was "shocking to me" when Twitter released internal files showing the extent of FBI efforts to censor content during the 2020 election, including the creation of a command center in San Francisco just for that mission."You always want to love the FBI and all you...

"The View" co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin declared the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center was a "huge win" for Donald Trump and said it "kills" the Mar-a-Lago case. "Absolutely no one's going to like this take, but I'm going to go there anyway," Farah Griffin, a former Trump administration aide, began. "I want to be clear the facts are different then the Trump case, however I think this is a huge win for Trump. Because if you're Merrick Garland, who is already extremely cautious and doesn't want to break the longstanding precedent of not indicting a president,...

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is done being underestimated. Having vanquished both a Donald Trump-backed Republican challenger and Democratic star Stacey Abrams to win reelection, Kemp is looking to expand his influence in his second term, free from the caricature of the gun-toting, pickup-driving, migrant-catching country boy that emerged during his first campaign for governor. A new vision of Kemp steering his party toward a non-Trumpian conservatism made its debut in his November victory speech after it became clear that he had defeated Abrams by a much larger margin in their rematch than he had in their tight 2018 matchup. “This...

Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have stormed the National Congress building in Brasilia - in a move similar to Trump Voters' January 6 invasion. The protestors invaded Congress building, the Supreme Court, presidential palace and are calling for the military to overthrow current President Luiz Inacio. Left-wing veteran Inacio has only been in power for a week, after being inaugurated a week ago as supporters of the former president claim the election was stolen. Footage from the scenes strike an eerie similarity to those who stormed the Capitol building on January 6th after claims from former President Trump...

Former President Donald Trump has been served with a wrongful death lawsuit by the estate of a US Capitol Police officer who died the day after the Jan. 6 riots. The suit alleges that Trump incited his supporters to commit violence on that day, which led to an assault on Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick by two men. Sicknick, 42, died on January 7 after having two strokes. Washington DC’s chief medical examiner said in April 2021 that the officer died of natural causes brought on by his illness. The lawsuit was filed by Sicknick’s longtime partner, Sandra Garza. It...

Breaking Exclusive: President Trump Tells Gen. Flynn He Would Serve as House Speaker By Bryan Chai January 6, 2023 at 9:36am There has been a stunning development in the ongoing House speaker drama: Former President Donald Trump said he would accept the role of speaker if elected. Both Kari Lake and Gen. Michael Flynn confirmed the news to The Western Journal. “I talked to President Trump last night and told him he would be great and he should do it,” Lake told The Western Journal. “[I said] that he could take Congress from the most hated branch of [government] to...

Tomorrow is January 6. J6. Imagine the exploding Democrat heads if President Donald Trump is elected Speaker of the House on that anniversary. CHAOS! I think this is a win-win in a yuuuuge way. First of all it resolves the current deadlock in the House on the Speakership vote. And the votes for Trump would come from both conservatives and from the McCarthy camp since it would be the only way he would get his PRECIOUSSSSSSSS as long as he waits for Trump to step down in April. By that time Speaker of the House Trump would have instituted changes...

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., doesn't care that former President Donald Trump backs Kevin McCarthy for speaker of the House. "Endorsements don't matter to me," said Norman, one of 20 Republican holdouts who have blocked McCarthy, R-Calif., from winning the majority he needs on a series of deadlocked votes for House speaker. "This is our fight here." Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., another anti-McCarthy voter, took umbrage at Trump calling recalcitrants on behalf of the beleaguered House GOP leader. "Let’s stop with the campaign smears and tactics to get people to turn against us — even having my favorite president call us...

As the fight over who will be the Speaker of the House rages on, there are some interesting sub-battles going on within the Republican Party.Perhaps the most surprising dynamic is Donald Trump reiterating his full-throated endorsement of Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday, while McCarthy’s detractors remain almost universally Trump-supporting Republicans. It’s hard to get more “MAGA” than Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, with the latter actually doing an “America First” tour during the last election season.Trump just endorsed McCarthy on Truth Social.pic.twitter.com/9eiHpJRq0Q— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) January 4, 2023Yet, here we are, with previous alliances fraying, and several members of the anti-McCarthy...

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) stated Wednesday in response to former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-FL) for House speaker that the former president’s renewed endorsement of McCarthy was “sad.” Gaetz is one of 20 conservative holdouts who opposed McCarthy’s bid for speakership on Tuesday. McCarthy was 16 votes shy of the threshold. Twenty GOP lawmakers opposed McCarthy – about 10 percent of the Republican House majority. “Sad!” Gaetz told Fox News. “This changes neither my view of McCarthy, nor Trump, nor my vote.”

Former President Trump on Tuesday declined to say whether he will stick by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) as his bid to become Speaker appeared to hit a wall. “We’ll see what happens,” Trump told NBC News in a phone conversation when asked if he stands by his endorsement of McCarthy. “I got everybody calling me wanting my support,” Trump told NBC. “But let’s see what happens and we’ll go — I got everybody calling, wanting my support. That’s all I can say. But we’ll see what happens. We’ll see how it all works out.”

In a historic vote for the first time in over a Century Congress did not get a Speaker of the House in a first vote. Make history even more bigly : Make Trump the first non member to become Speaker!

The Hill predicted Sunday that Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis will secure the 2024 GOP presidential nomination with former President Donald Trump as the runner-up contender.DeSantis was picked as the top candidate for his double-digit reelection during the midterms and what The Hill calls "his embrace of culture war issues and his opposition to COVID-19–related lockdowns." Explaining why Trump was ranked as the second most likely 2024 nominee, the outlet said: "Trump would have been the runaway favorite had these rankings been drawn up the day before the midterm elections. Since then, virtually everything the president has touched has turned...

Former President Donald Trump pledged he will never cut Social Security if elected again to the White House in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News here earlier in December. “We’re not cutting Social Security,” Trump said. “It’s very simple. It’s a simple answer. We’re not cutting Social Security.” *** “We have to protect it. It’s a contract with the people,” Trump said of Social Security. “They go in. They work and they do. They put their blood, sweat, and tears into Social Security and then you have a guy like a Paul Ryan or others that want to destroy it....

Trump: First of all, I think Kevin has really worked hard. I think perhaps most importantly, we’re playing a very dangerous game. We have a majority of literally a few votes. A few votes and you could end up with somebody just horrible. You could end up with a horrible speaker, including possibly a democrat speaker. So they’re playing a very dangerous game. ... Root: He's better than the worst case scenario, but you know that at times, McCarthy stabs you in the back? Trump: No of course he did. I understand that, I understand that. And if he does...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has vowed to investigate the conduct of the partisan January 6 Congressional committee, though his past statements have led critics to question his commitment. In the immediate aftermath of the January 6 Capitol protests, McCarthy echoed leftist talking points by saying that then-President Trump “bears responsibility” for any violence that took place. Around that same time, McCarthy was caught on an audio recording saying that he would advise Trump to resign.“Let me be clear, last week’s violent attack on the Capitol was un-democratic, un-American, and criminal. Violence is never a legitimate form of protest…....