Free Republic

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders released a statement condemning a new tell-all book about the Trump administration by Michael Wolff. “This book is filled with false and misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence with the White House,” Sanders said. Wolff cites more than 200 interviews with sources for the book and multiple meetings at the White House over a period of 18 months. But Sanders decried many of those sources, including former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who returned to Breitbart News as chairman after leaving the White House. “Participating in a book that...

Trump Tower meeting with Russians 'treasonous', Bannon says in explosive bookDonald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president’s son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”, according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian.....He is particularly scathing about a June 2016 meeting involving Trump’s son Donald Jr, son-in-law Jared Kushner, then campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York. A trusted intermediary had promised documents that would “incriminate” rival Hillary Clinton but instead of alerting the...

The Republican tax reform package agreed upon by House and Senate lawmakers contains language allowing illegal immigrants with American citizen children to get a tax credit. The final GOP tax bill doubles the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 and increases the amount of the refundable child tax credit to $1,400. This policy change geared towards helping working class families was pushed by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. The conference bill includes language from the Senate tax plan that allowed parents of so-called “anchor babies” to receive the tax credit. “In order to receive the child tax credit (i.e., both...

After years of strong gains in states across the country, Republicans now fear they stand to lose hundreds of state legislative seats in next year’s midterm elections if there is a significant voter backlash against President Trump. Any losses would come at the worst time: Just ahead of the redistricting process that begins with the 2020 census.

Let me say I am extremely disappointed in the loss tonight. I would have stuck with Strange in the primary, but I would have voted for Moore if I lived in Alabama. This is a double loss since Sessions has been such a lousy AG and set the table for this Mueller witch hunt but would have been a reliable Senate vote. I wish people would understand that the difference between glory and destruction with high risk candidates is pretty slim even in Alabama. The media is the enemy - the communication wing of the DNC and will sabotage R...

Donald J. Trump‏ Verified account @realDonaldTrump Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!

Senate panel building obstruction of justice case against Trump over Comey firing, Feinstein says The Senate’s investigation into Russian election meddling is crafting a possible obstruction of justice case against President Trump, the panel’s top Democrat said Sunday. The case has become clearer after Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI on Friday, said Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel “has an investigation going as well and it involves obstruction of justice and I think what we're beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice,” she...

A Split From Trump Indicates That Flynn Is Moving to Cooperate With Mueller

House Republicans on Friday quietly made changes to their far-reaching tax overhaul: Now its tax cuts would be less generous for many Americans. A day after the GOP unveiled its plan promising middle-class relief, the House's top tax-writer, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, released a revised version of the bill that would impose a new, lower-inflation "chained CPI" adjustment for tax brackets immediately instead of in 2023. That means more income would be taxed at higher rates over time — and less generous tax cuts for individuals and families. The change, posted on the website of the Ways and Means Committee,...

His "Price" was too high. Tom Price, secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, is leaving the Trump administration amid a furor over his taking more than two dozen costly private plane trips instead of less-expensive commercial flights. The White House said in a statement that President Donald Trump intends to tap Don Wright to serve as acting secretary. Wright currently serves as deputy assistant secretary for Health and director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Price's announced departure Friday from the administration came a day after he said he would reimburse taxpayers for just...

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly ensured that President Donald Trump was literally surrounded by amnesty boosters the night he agreed to give away a huge, expensive and unpopular amnesty in exchange for an empty bag of “border security” promises. The September 13 amnesty deal has proved so half-baked and disastrous that Kelly and other top officials have promised to develop a new immigration reform plan within ten days which matches Trump’s 2016 campaign proposals. The Kelly set-up was exposed by the seating chart, which seated Trump between the two Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and  Rep. Nancy Pelosi. According to...

Welcome to the "evil" part of "the lesser of two evils." Donald Trump was never the conservative ideologue many of us wanted in 2016, but he was the guy we needed in 2016 - the one thing standing between us and the very real risk of splitting the country apart that was a Hillary Clinton presidency. So, as The Donald jumps in the canoe with Chuck Schumer – who is laughing at him hysterically right now – we're experiencing the downside of playing a sub-par hand, and we're experiencing it good and hard. The Never Trumpers, who by and large...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spoke to President Trump by phone on Thursday and asked him to issue a tweet reassuring young undocumented immigrants that they won’t be deported in the next six months. According to a Democratic aide, Pelosi informed colleagues at a House Democratic whip meeting Thursday morning that she asked the president to make clear that recipients under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program won’t be subject to deportation as the Trump administration phases it out over the next six months. Trump tweeted Thursday morning, “For all of those (DACA) that are concerned about...

President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) have agreed to pursue a deal that would permanently remove the requirement that Congress repeatedly raise the debt ceiling, three people familiar with the decision said. Trump and Schumer discussed the idea Wednesday during an Oval Office meeting. The two, along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.), agreed to work together over the next several months to try to finalize a plan, which would need to be approved by Congress. One of the people familiar described it as a “gentlemen’s agreement.” Senate Democrats hope they will be able to...

President Donald Trump reached a deal with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to raise the debt limit, fund Hurricane Harvey relief, and keep the government open until December. The deal is a warning to Republicans — primarily to the party establishment, which has fought Trump at every turn, but also to conservative Republicans, who have long worried about Trump shifting leftwards. It is no secret that Trump is frustrated with the party establishment, and particularly with congressional leaders, notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who failed to whip his caucus into delivering the...

RUSH: Okay. I saw this news alert from the Wall Street Journal about 10 minutes ago. Here’s the headline: “Trump and Democrats Agree to Debt Limit Increase and Harvey Aid Package.” Trump, Democrats agree. Trump has sided with the Democrats on the debt ceiling. Well, Republicans are right in there too. I mean, it’s not they’re on the sidelines. And he says that Chuck “You” Schumer and Nancy Pelosi want to pass DACA. We have two sound bites. Here is Trump aboard Air Force One. THE PRESIDENT: We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. We...

Various media sources have reported that federal District Court Judge Reggie Walton has ordered the IRS to finally respond to various legal requests for information and documents made by the conservative tea party organizations that sued the agency. But the question that no one is asking is why that order was even necessary, and why the Justice Department, which is now supposedly under the control and authority of the new administration, hasn’t reversed its obstinate, inflexible, and stubborn defense of the IRS. It was over four years ago that the inspector general for tax administration at the Treasury Department released...

Sebastian Gorka is resigning his post as Deputy Assistant to President Trump, multiple sources familiar with the situation have told The Federalist. In a blunt resignation letter, the national security and counterterrorism expert expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the Trump administration. “[G]iven recent events, it is clear to me that forces that do not support the MAGA promise are – for now – ascendant within the White House,” Gorka wrote. “As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People’s House.” Gorka’s letter expressed unhappiness with the direction...

President Trump has decided on a strategy for Afghanistan that also takes a broad approach toward tackling competing interests in South Asia, CBS News' Margaret Brennan reports. The White House released a statement on Sunday saying that Mr. Trump will address the nation's troops and the American people on Monday evening from Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia, "to provide an update on the path forward for America's engagement in Afghanistan and South Asia." Officials expect Mr. Trump to announce a strategy that meets the requests of commanders in the field, allows for the deployment of around 4,000 more U.S. troops,...

For all their faults, Democrats have always been far more astute at the long game. Sadly, Steve Bannon was effectively fired in February. Bannon’s long road to exile began on December 29 last year, when Michael Flynn had an innocuous conversation with the Russian ambassador eavesdropped on and unmasked by Obama officials. After leaks to the Washington Post (probably from the recently fired Sally Yates or her cohort), Flynn resigned as National Security Advisor. Trump needed to fill the position quickly, with someone Democrats calling for Flynn’s scalp wouldn’t object to. He reached into the swamp, and pulled out Army...