Free Republic

A majority of voters don't believe what the government has to say about the Jeffrey Epstein case in what could prove bad news for President Donald Trump as he tries to move past the scandal, a recent poll found. Overall, 56% of voters do not believe the FBI's conclusions about the late billionaire's death, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey. The bureau concluded that Epstein likely did kill himself, despite pervasive suspicions of foul play. Just 21% believed the official FBI/Department of Justice narrative. A further 23% were unsure. The survey questioned 1,164 likely U.S. voters from July 8-10. "This...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded to a question on whether he thinks the 2026 midterms will be rigged by saying that “in many of the states where there will be competitive gubernatorial elections and certainly in the overwhelming majority of the states where the House will be decided, there are Democratic governors, Democratic attorney generals, and Democratic secretaries of state” “And I’ve got trust in those leaders to make sure that there are actual free and fair elections.” But he’d “be far more concerned…if we were looking at a situation...

https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr1/BILLS-119hr1rh.pdf SEC. 110115. MAGA ACCOUNTS. (a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter F of chapter 1 is amended by adding at the end the following new part: ‘‘PART IX—MAGA ACCOUNTS ‘‘SEC. 530A. MAGA ACCOUNTS. ‘‘(a) GENERAL RULE.—A MAGA account shall be exempt from taxation under this subtitle. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, such account shall be subject to the taxes imposed by section 511 (relating to imposition of tax on unrelated business income of charitable organizations). ‘‘(b) MAGA ACCOUNT.—For purposes of this section— ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘money account for growth and advancement’ or ‘MAGA account’ means a trust created or organized in the United...

Trust me, I’m a doctor” is a humorous expression that suggests one’s opinion should be accepted without question, regardless of whether the person offering the opinion has actual medical expertise or experience. The assumption is that physicians are knowledgeable, competent, and trustworthy. At one time, few would have questioned that assumption. ... Lies and coverups are a great way to destroy trust. Dr. Anthony Fauci and his cabal lied to the public about the origins of COVID ... and to conceal their illegal gain-of-function research. Additionally, it may have been to maintain and protect money flow from China to the...

President Trump announced Friday that he is “immediately revoking” former President Joe Biden’s security clearances and access to daily intelligence briefings – telling The Post he doesn’t “trust” his predecessor with such sensitive information. Trump, 78, argued in a Truth Social post that the former president set the precedent when he barred him from receiving access to the same briefings four years ago, citing Trump’s “erratic behavior.” “There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information,” Trump wrote. “Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” the president...

The hot news this week in politics has been the sober approach of Elon Musk and DOGE to federal spending outlays, specifically to USAID, and the wailing reactions seen from the Democrats and the intemperate criticisms of this in the press. The amazement in all of this has been the outrage that many have expressed over DOGE looking to eliminate wasteful, useless spending. This is apparently so contradictory to political thinkers as to appear like a hate-crime. Now, we are in the midst of an adjacent storyline, one involving Politico and other news outlets, and the federal spending involving these...

The commandant of the US Coast Guard has been terminated over concerns about the border, recruitment and an “erosion of trust,” a senior DHS official confirmed to Fox News. Adm. Linda Lee Fagan, 61, has been terminated by Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamin Huffman, the official said. Fagan has demonstrated leadership deficiencies, operational failures and an inability to advance the strategic objectives of the Coast Guard. These include the failure to address border security threats, insufficient leadership in recruitment and retention, mismanagement in acquiring key acquisitions such as icebreakers and helicopters, excessive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives...

It gives me no joy to write this, but it must be said — the FBI is a broken law enforcement institution and should be dismantled. I believe the same about the CIA, but that’s a topic for another day. Based on the FBI’s conduct over the last eight years, I find no reason to trust anything that FBI officials say with respect to the recent attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Yes, I think both acts qualify as terrorism, but I have little confidence that we are getting, or will get, the true story. I worked closely with...

Gaslighting as usual, the White House is telling Americans freaked out by the drones hovering ominously over parts of New York and New Jersey: Everything’s fine! Just trust us! Since the first known spotting Nov. 18, at least 3,000 sightings have followed in New Jersey alone, and it’s spread to Staten Island and The Bronx. Guesses as to what’s going on proliferate, some more believable than others: more Chinese surveillance, launches from an Iranian mothership parked off the East Coast, and so on. Is this a case for Fox Mulder and Dana Scully? Pushed by local leaders to address exactly...

A real-life "Succession" battle for Rupert Murdoch's media empire has ended with a Nevada court commissioner denying the billionaire's bid to change a family trust and give control to his eldest son. The case pitted the 93-year-old against three of his children over who would gain the power to control News Corp and Fox News when he dies. It has been reported that Mr Murdoch wanted to amend a family trust created in 1999 to allow his son Lachlan to take control without "interference" from his siblings Prudence, Elisabeth and James. A Nevada commissioner ruled Mr Murdoch and Lachlan had...

Trust in the justice system has been “almost irreparably damaged by the Bidens,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in reaction to President Joe Biden pardoning Hunter, his criminal son, for crimes spanning back to 2014. Johnson reminded Americans of the fact that Biden insisted time and time again that he would not pardon his son. “President Biden insisted many times he would never pardon his own son for his serious crimes. But last night he suddenly granted a ‘Full and Unconditional Pardon’ for any and all offenses that Hunter committed for more than a decade!” Johnson exclaimed.

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For evildoers shall be cutoff, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek will inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

As FBI director Chris Wray performed his usual smarmy stonewalling in Congress Wednesday, a damning report on his $10 billion agency’s “cult of narcissism” was delivered to the House Judiciary Committee by an alliance of retired and active-duty agents and analysts. The same group gave us the scathing DEI report last year about the FBI’s degraded recruitment standards and cosseting of physically unfit, mentally ill, drug-taking or generally useless agents to satisfy diversity requirements at the expense of merit and experience. This time they have assessed the entire bureau and drawn several worrying conclusions, including that local law-enforcement partners have...

Young people, women, and Democrats reported the largest drops.Confidence in higher education has plummeted to its lowest level ever according to the results of two new national polls commissioned by FIRE and conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. In two AmeriSpeak panels representative of the U.S. household population, we asked Americans: “How much confidence, if any, do you have in U.S. colleges and universities?” This question was first asked in February and then again in May, and its wording is similar to a question posed by Gallup in Summer 2023 when Americans were asked about their confidence in...

I don’t typically go where I’m not wanted, but I do tend to go where I’m needed. So I was intrigued by the invitation to attend a globalist sleepaway camp in the beautiful Swiss Alps — some pop-up utopia called Davos. At first, it sounded as dreadful as a road trip with the New York Times editorial board. The infamous hypocritical self-avowed Marxists, private-jet environmentalists, and genocide-adjacent humanitarians want to hear from the Heritage Foundation how they can “rebuild trust” with everyday Americans against whom they have weaponized their institutions. The biblical principle “cast not your pearls before swine” came...

In just a couple of days it will be three years since the January 6 United States Capitol attack.Ahead of our 'Jan 6' debate on Saturday, it feels apt to take a step back to try and capture an overview of the state of trust in institutions in the United States.As Statista's Anna Fleck detail below, based on data collected by Gallup in June 2023, of the institutions selected, only the military and small businesses saw a great deal or a fair amount of trust in them from a majority of U.S. respondents.This is at odds with Congress, which saw...

Media trust among Americans has reached its lowest point in six years.Gallup began its survey on media trust in 1972, repeating it in 1974 and 1976. After a long period, the public opinion firm restarted the polls in 1997 and has asked Americans about their confidence level in the mass media - newspapers, TV, and radio - almost every year since then.Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti and Sam Parker illustrates Gallup’s latest poll results, conducted in September 2023, in the graphic below:Americans’ Trust in Mass Media, 1972-2023Americans’ confidence in the mass media has sharply declined over the last few decades.Trust in...

Democratic consultant and political commentator James Carville said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that he believed Tuesday’s election results showed voters don’t trust Republicans on the issue of abortion because “they keep lying.” Host Ari Melber asked, “What are the voters saying?” Carville said, “Well, I think voters said that they don’t like being lied to. They did it in Kansas. They did it in Ohio. They tried to confuse people, change the wording.”

Never before have we talked to so many top government officials who, in private, are so worried about so many overseas conflicts at once.Why it matters: We don't like to sound dire. But to sound a siren of clinical, clear-eyed realism: U.S. officials say this confluence of crises poses epic concern and historic danger. (snip)Former top intelligence officials tell us domestic unrest is one of their biggest fears — whether it's triggered by court rulings against former President Trump or protests over war in the Middle East. (snip) But there has been a total collapse of people's trust in the...

At the heart of America’s political and cultural turmoil is a crisis of trust. In the space of a generation, the people’s confidence in their leaders and their most important institutions to do the right thing has collapsed. The federal government, big business, the media, education, science and medicine, technology, religious institutions, law enforcement and others have seen a precipitous decline. As public faith in the performance, credibility and integrity of these institutions has collapsed, so too has mutual trust—the social glue that holds the country together. Americans have become suspicious of one another, distrusting their fellow citizens as much...