Free Republic

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is leading a field of possible candidates for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination in New Hampshire, according to a new poll. In the Granite State Poll from the University of New Hampshire, Ocasio-Cortez garnered 22 percent backing from respondents, with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg behind her at 21 percent and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) trailing at 9 percent. Last October, Buttigieg led the field with 19 percent support, followed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) at 15 percent and Ocasio-Cortez at 14 percent. A few months later in February, Buttigieg maintained his lead with 20...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has voted repeatedly for resolutions to withdraw U.S. troops from the military conflict with Iran, told reporters Wednesday that the United States is “worse off” than it was before President Trump launched the war in late February. “I think the Iran war has not been a success. I’ve been opposed to the Iran war from the beginning. I think by any objective measure we’re worse off than we were before the war,” Paul said on Capitol Hill. “If you look at the militarization of the Strait of Hormuz, that’s never happened before,” he said. “There’s...

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Tuesday that Republicans would “welcome” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) into their conference if he decides to leave the Democratic Party over growing hostility to Isreal among progressive Democrats. “Yes, we would welcome him,” Thune said when asked whether Republicans would roll out the red carpet for Fetterman if he ever decides to leave the Democratic Party. Thune said he’s had “conversations” with the maverick Democratic senator — as have several other GOP colleagues – about a potential party switch. “I have had conversations with him in the past as have many of my...

Nearly half of Americans say they believe the Supreme Court is ruling on President Trump’s policies based on ideology instead of the law, according to a new poll. The Washington Post/Ipsos survey, conducted July 8-13, found that 46 percent of 2,648 respondents said they believe the nine justices are ruling on cases impacting the president’s agenda based on ideology. A quarter of respondents said the high court is ruling on those cases based on the law, while 28 percent had no opinion and 1 percent skipped the question.The Supreme Court has given Trump multiple unfavorable rulings during his second term....

Arizona state Rep. Alexander Kolodin, an election attorney, is projected to defeat former state GOP chair Gina Swoboda in the Republican primary to take on Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) in November, according to Decision Desk HQ. Kolodin is best known for his efforts to contest the 2020 election results, with the State Bar of Arizona ultimately sanctioning him over the move. In 2023, the Arizona state House Republican supported legislation alongside most of his GOP peers in both chambers that would have given counties the ability to hand-count ballots instead of tabulating them through machines. Some Republicans have...

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is threatening to block two of President Trump’s ambassador nominees if the administration does not present evidence of progress on releasing funds to the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (PEPFAR), a government program which provides treatment for HIV and AIDS around the world. “The only way it seems like you can get the administration’s attention on some of these funding issues is by using the leverage to withhold votes on nominees,” Cornyn said in an interview with Semafor on Tuesday. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which Cornyn sits, is scheduled to vote on the...

Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D) received a harsh reception from an attendee at his town hall in Houston on Sunday. Video from the event, during which Talarico took questions for more than 90 minutes, captured by the Austin American-Statesman’s Faith Bugenhagen, shows a Black woman yelling, “So you stay here, you answer our questions or you suffer the consequences.” Other attendees clapped in support of the woman’s remarks, while one man said, “Say it with your chest.” When Talarico told the woman he appreciated her for traveling to attend the town hall, she replied, “I did it for my...

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Saturday slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s post commemorating two U.S. service members killed in Jordan as a result of Iranian strikes. “Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve,” Hegseth wrote on social platform X. Greene said it was inappropriate to deem their deaths a “sacrifice.” “Sacrifice?? What the f— are you talking about?? They did not willingly sacrifice themselves. They were killed because of the war you, Trump, and the admin, are waging on behalf of a FOREIGN COUNTRY, Israel,” Greene wrote in a response on X. “You mean their deaths fuel...

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) late Thursday called on Congress to impeach President Trump after the president claimed during a primetime address that forces that stole the 2020 presidential election are still at work and threaten the integrity of the 2026 midterm elections. Trump used words such as “rigged and stolen,” “corrupt” and “cover-up” and cited some recently declassified documents to support his alarming claims, though critics in both parties say he still failed to substantiate his central contention that U.S. elections are marred by widespread fraud. “Trump must be impeached for undermining and subverting our free and fair elections,” Markey...

Several Democrats have either been arrested, detained or charged under the Trump administration due to the White House’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin has condemned their treatment, arguing lawmakers are being assaulted without reason. “Elected officials are being arrested for doing their jobs,” Martin wrote in a Wednesday statement on social platform X. “Once again, the Trump administration is silencing people who disagree with them in broad daylight.” Here are Democrats who have been recently apprehended by law enforcement: NYC Comptroller Brad Lander Sen. Alex Padilla Rep. LaMonica McIver Judge Hannah Dugan Newark Mayor...

President Trump on Sunday shared a video calling for “hardcore communist ********” to be deported, notably naming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). Conservative pundit Michael Savage’s 49-minute-long video, which he posted on July 4, claims that democratic socialist candidates running as Democrats have been turning the U.S. into a socialist country through, for example, the launch of “free” programs. Savage claimed the country was turning into Cambodia under the dictator Pol Pot. “That is exactly what Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists will do to you,” Savage said. “Forget the smirks, forget the smiles, forget the bull— that it’s...

The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will have ripple effects on the GOP agenda in the coming weeks, as Washington mourns one of its most outspoken dealmakers and defense hawks. Graham had risen to become one of the most influential voices among Senate Republicans since he was first elected to the chamber more than 20 years ago, becoming a top ally for President Trump. The senator’s office announced Graham died Saturday evening from a “brief and sudden illness” at the age of 71. Preliminary findings from the Washington, D.C., chief medical examiner revealed Graham is believed to have...

Hunter Biden, the son of former President Biden, was awarded $1.7 million in damages on Friday as part of a defamation lawsuit against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne. Byrne, a known denier of Biden’s victory over President Trump in the 2020 presidential election, accused the younger Biden of taking part in an $800 million bribery scheme involving Iran and failed to defend his claims in court. U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson of the Central District of California ruled the ex-executive acted with “intentional misrepresentation” and “conscious disregard” for Hunter’s rights, and said Byrne continued to amplify the false allegations even...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the Trump administration’s frontman for waging war on Iran during weeks of kinetic operations aimed at decimating its nuclear threat. Since President Trump signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran to end the war, without securing significant concessions on its missile or nuclear stockpiles, Hegseth has said little about the shift in strategy — as Vice President Vance takes the spotlight in defending the tenuous diplomacy. The public positioning of the top Trump advisers reflects reporting on their private counsel to the commander in chief, with Trump saying in March that Hegseth was “the...

A federal appeals court on Thursday reversed a lower court’s order that required the National Park Service (NPS) to restore exhibits and signs that had been removed by the Trump administration. The lower court ruling would have restored the signs and exhibits that the Trump administration had ordered removed because it viewed them as having disparaged Americans, according to The Hill. But the judges of the First Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Trump administration “made a strong showing that the harms that the district court relied on” had not met the standards for an injunction. They also found...

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) is alarmed that Democrats might expand the membership of the Supreme Court It is true that leading Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, have welcomed “ideas, for example, that are about Supreme Court reform, including the notion of expanding the court.” But it is wrong to call it court-packing. In fact, the Supreme Court has already been strategically stacked by President Trump and his Senate allies, entrenching an illegitimate conservative supermajority. Adding four seats under the next Democratic trifecta would actually be unpacking the court. After Justice Antonin Scalia died on Feb 13. 2016, President...

The Supreme Court strengthened President Trump’s control over independent agencies in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, overruling 91 years of precedent that allowed Congress to insulate certain executive branch officials with firing protections. In an expansion of presidential power, the ruling gives Trump the right to sack Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic appointee who took center stage in his quest to set aside constraints on his removal authority.It formally overturns the high court’s 1935 landmark decision, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which laid the groundwork for certain agencies across the executive branch to enjoy a degree of...

CNN’s chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins pushed back on President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the rise of democratic socialism in the U.S., which Trump has incorrectly conflated with communism, following several victories from progressive House candidates in New York primaries. During “The Source with Kaitlan Collins” on Friday, the CNN anchor aired remarks Trump made earlier that day at the annual Faith & Freedom Coalition Conference, where he described democratic socialists as “hardcore Godless communists” and “the most serious threat to our country since its existence.” Collins challenged the president’s “border apocalyptic” comments that America could become a communist...

Some Black Democrats are frustrated with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (D-Fla.) decision to run in a South Florida congressional district home to a large Black voting population, sparking an intraparty clash that is poised to become a defining battle of the campaign season. Wasserman Schultz, a veteran lawmaker who has served in Congress since 2005, is running in Florida’s 20th Congressional District, which had been represented by former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) for four years before she resigned in April. Wasserman Schultz’s bid comes after GOP-led redistricting efforts in the state reshaped her current 25th District, making it far more...

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) didn’t mince any words Tuesday in calling out what he characterized as the “bulls—” arguments of fellow Republican Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) on social media, revealing the tensions within the Senate Republican Conference over how to push forward on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act. Tillis said Lee’s push for Republicans to force Democrats to actively hold the floor in continuous debate to block the bill — in other words, to force Democrats to employ a talking filibuster — is “goofy.” “I think it’s silly. All of it’s just goofy stuff,” he said. “It’s...