Free Republic

Supreme Court fight pushes Senate toward brink BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 09/26/20 01:02 PM EDT The burgeoning fight to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Supreme Court seat is pouring fuel onto already simmering tensions in the Senate and threatening to fundamentally reshape the institution. Senators in both parties acknowledge the level of dysfunction in a chamber where the bulk of their time is spent processing nominations amid failures to break stalemates on pressing national issues such as coronavirus relief and police reform. “I’m praying to God that the better angels start flying with my colleagues. That’s all I can tell...

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC SEN. Kamala Harris is widely seen as a frontrunner for a spot on the ticket with presumptive nominee Joe Biden, with vetting well underway. Presidential vetting operations have entire teams of investigators, but for the public, when the pick is announced, the most common source for information about the person chosen is Wikipedia. And there, a war has broken out over how to talk about Harris’s career. At least one highly dedicated Wikipedia user has been scrubbing controversial aspects of Harris’s “tough-on-crime” record from her Wikipedia page, her decision not to prosecute Steve Mnuchin for mortgage fraud-related crimes,...

Senators aim to limit Trump's ability to remove troops from Germany BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 06/29/20 03:19 PM EDT A bipartisan group of senators is trying to place limits on President Trump's ability to remove troops from Germany unless the administration is able to meet a slew of requirements. The proposal, spearheaded by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), would prohibit the administration from reducing the number of active-duty troops in Germany below 34,500 unless the Pentagon can certify to Congress that it is in the national security interest of the United States and would not negatively undermine European alliances or NATO....

Democrat Senator and former VP running mate of Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine (VA) on Tuesday said the United States created slavery. To think this degenerate liar almost became Vice President of the United States. “The United States didn’t inherit slavery from anybody. We created it,” said Tim Kaine as he droned on about racism in America.

Five Democrat senators knelt during a moment of silence for George Floyd — a black man who recently died in police custody in Minneapolis — on Capitol Hill Friday afternoon. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Michael Bennet (D-CO) knelt during the tribute, which lasted for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time that video showed fired Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck before he died. Chauvin faces a second-degree murder charge over the incident.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who was Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential running mate in 2016, announced that both he and his wife Anne tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, meaning that it’s likely he was infected with the CCP virus. Kaine is the second senator to have presumably tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease, after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he contracted the virus and self-quarantined. “We each tested positive for coronavirus antibodies this month. While those antibodies could make us less likely to be re-infected or infect others, there is still...

The Senate failed Thursday to override President Donald Trump’s veto of a bill that would curb his ability to take military action against Iran. The Senate came up short of the two-thirds majority, and it voted 49-44, with seven GOP senators joining Democrats. Seven Republicans broke with Trump: Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Todd Young of Indiana, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) joined Democrats in February to pass the bill, but he did not vote Thursday. Trump on Wednesday night,...

The Senate on Thursday voted to pass a resolution limiting President Trump’s power to order military strikes against Iran without the approval of Congress. The bipartisan 55 to 45 vote — in which eight Republicans joined all Democrats in approving the resolution — was seen as a rebuke of Trump’s opposition to consulting Congress when making foreign policy decisions. But the measure is largely symbolic as it has been slammed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump, and so is not likely to garner enough Republican support to override an expected presidential veto. That would require a two-thirds majority.

Just how bad was it in swampville when President Trump was beginning to take off in the polls ahead of the 2016 election? Well, here's a pretty credible conversation recorded for a documentary intended to tell the election story for the benefit of Hillary Clinton's fans: Barack Obama called Donald Trump a "fascist" in a phone conversation with Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia during the 2016 presidential election, Kaine says in a video clip featured in an upcoming documentary about Hillary Clinton. Kaine, Clinton's running mate on the Democratic ticket, recounts the call during an exchange with Clinton that was caught on...

Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat, on Tuesday announced he has enough support to advance a key War Powers resolution designed to restrict President Trump’s authority to take military action in Iran. Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky have both expressed their support of the resolution with some changes to the language. Mr. Kaine has been working on bipartisan language for the legislation in a bid for greater support. “I’ve got 51 declared votes on version two,” Mr. Kaine said. “More [are] considering getting on board,” he added. Sens. Todd Young, Indiana Republican, and Susan Collins,...

"I've got 51 declared votes on version two," Kaine said on Tuesday while talking with reporters. Republicans who have voiced their support include Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, both of whom have expressed frustration with the Trump administration for the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday that he believes Congress must have a chance to vote on President Donald Trump's moves toward a war with Iran and has discussed a War Powers Resolution with co-sponsor, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. "I think killing a country's major general is an act of war," Paul said. "I don't think you can get away with saying it's 'imminent.' They've been complaining for years about Soleimani. I mean, most of the killings that are attributed to him are, I think, are from the Iraq War. You know, ten years ago or...

Most members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation reacted with ire to President Donald Trump’s drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a powerful commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, early Friday at Baghdad International Airport. Soleimani’s death was first reported by official Iranian media and confirmed by a news release from the Department of Defense that said Soleimani was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN that Soleimani had orchestrated an “imminent” attack but would not elaborate where or when the attack was to take place. Sen....

Senator Ted Cruz is promoting a resolution commending the Trump administration for its mission to take out Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. In doing so he is daring the Senate Democrats to oppose it. It is the perfect antidote to the criticism the left has voiced since the news of Soleimani’s death was announced.If Democrats decide to show disapproval of the resolution, they run the risk of showing disdain for those who carried out the mission to rid the world of Soleimani. The best part is that the resolution is “structured and worded the same way as a 2011 resolution...

TEL AVIV: Five days ago, an undisclosed intelligence agency intercepted a telephone call made by the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in which he was heard ordering his proxies in Iraq to attack the U.S embassy in Baghdad, as well as other Israeli and American targets, with the aim of taking hostages, Israeli sources say. It’s unclear whether this was a lapse in tradecraft on the part of the usually savvy Soleimani or whether the notorious Iranian military leader’s phone calls were being routinely intercepted. Nor is it clear whether it was the US or another...

Video: "Esam Omeish, Jerusalem Day Rally, 12-22-2000, Full Speech" Video Description: InvestigativeProject September 28, 2007 Dr. Omeish's full speech Category: News & Politics

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Friday introduced a resolution to block President Trump from further escalating hostilities with Iran. The resolution is privileged, which means Republicans cannot block it from reaching the floor, and comes the day after the surprise drone strike that killed Iraninan Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s elite Quds Force. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed “forceful revenge” against the U.S., and the Pentagon announced Friday that it will send 3,000 additional troops to the Middle East. Kaine’s resolution requires that...

I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count. Wait… you still need a hint? It rhymes with “rump.” Yes, Virginia Senator (and failed Vice Presidential candidate) Tim Kaine sat down yesterday with CNN’s John Berman to talk about the recent attack on a major Saudi Arabian oil refinery. Given all of the finger-pointing that’s been going on, surely he would be able to shed some light on things and offer a bit of clarity, right? Of course. And he quickly did, pinning the blame on Donald Trump for creating an atmosphere of war by continually “provoking” Iran...

U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu has recommended moving forward with charges against Andrew McCabe, Fox News has learned, as the Justice Department rejects a last-ditch appeal from the former top FBI official. McCabe appealed the decision of the U.S. attorney for Washington all the way up to the deputy attorney general, but the department rejected that request, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Dear friend, This week, the Trump Administration announced plans to take $3.6 billion away from military construction projects so the President can build portions of his border wall. That includes taking away more than $77 million from projects in Virginia. President Trump's decision to pull funding from critical national security projects is deeply concerning. Our military construction funding should be used for safety improvements that protect our troops and bolster our national security, not for a vanity project. The Department of Defense informed me that the Administration plans to take funding away from the following military construction projects in Virginia:...