Free Republic

@RepThomasMassie Unfortunately, this is not April fools. Johnson, Schumer & the deep state are writing the Ukraine bill. Then Johnson will suspend rules to pass it. “We’re putting that product together & we’ll be moving it right after the district work period,” -Johnson.

Congress will vote Friday on a $1.2 trillion, 1,000-plus page spending bill revealed Thursday just before 3:00 a.m. The bill will start in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will move the bill under “suspension of the rules.” Johnson repeatedly has used suspension of the rules — which requires two-thirds support but bypasses procedural opposition from conservatives — to advance legislation lacking broad Republican support. Suspension of the rules also enables Johnson to bypass a requirement that Congress receive at least 72 hours to review legislation before voting on it.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) begins Wednesday, attracting conservatives at home and abroad, but the anti-Trumpers want everyone to know they are holding a counter-summit, which they claim is about “rebuilding principled leadership,” but is openly “anti-Trump.” (snip) But the Never Trumpers said they are holding a counter-event, called the Principles First Summit, which they claim will gather hundreds of “pro-democracy, anti-Trump conservatives and centrists,” starting Friday.Some of the anti-Trump figures highlighted for the counter-summit include George Conway, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Bill Kristol, failed Trump challenger Asa Hutchinson, and former Rep....

This weekend, Senate Democrats (joined by a few Republicans, including most Republican leadership) forced through a “security supplemental” that spends close to $100 billion, most of it on Ukraine. It was the culmination of months of secretive negotiations on border security. Those negotiations produced a border security product unacceptable to most Republicans, so then Republicans voted it down, and then an hour later we were debating a security supplemental with border security stripped out. The quick pivot, refusal to negotiate another round on border security, and immediate shift to blame Trump confirmed one thing: Republican leadership wasn’t serious about border...

Senate Republicans eager to ram Ukraine funding through the upper chamber are just as eager to dismiss their voters as dimwitted and “shortsighted.” “Our base cannot possibly know what’s at stake at the level that any well-briefed U.S. senator should know about what’s at stake if Putin wins,” said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, according to Punchbowl News Monday. Senate lawmakers spent the weekend advancing another $61 billion to Kyiv following last week’s embarrassing rejection of a bipartisan compromise bill that threatened to codify the invasion on the southern border. The more than $95 billion foreign spending package headed for...

America last! The U.S. Senate has cast a contentious vote, advancing a massive $95 billion foreign aid package that supports Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Taiwan, but notably omits any provisions for bolstering U.S. border infrastructure. In a 67-32 cloture vote, the Senate crossed party lines, with several RINO senators joining Democrats to move the foreign aid bill forward. Republicans who joined Democrats in voting in favor include: Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Bill Cassidy (R-LA) Roger Wicker (R-MS) Todd Young (R-IN) Susan Collins (R-ME) Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) John Kennedy (R-LA) John Thune (R-SD) Dan Sullivan (R-AK) Mitt Romney...

A U.S. Senate committee approved legislation on Wednesday that would help set the stage for the United States to confiscate Russian assets and hand them over to Ukraine for rebuilding after the destruction of the nearly two-year-long war. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 20 to 1 in favor of the unprecedented "Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act." If it were to pass the full Senate and House of Representatives and be signed into law by President Joe Biden, as expected, the act would pave the way for Washington's first-ever seizure of central bank assets from a...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s top aides bluntly told lawmakers in a private meeting on Wednesday that if Congress fails to authorize additional military aid for Ukraine in the coming days, Russia could win the war in a matter of weeks — months at best, according to two people familiar with the meeting.National security adviser Jake Sullivan and the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the lawmakers that Ukraine will run out of certain air defense and artillery capabilities in the coming weeks, according to the people familiar with the meeting.The grim assessment, which one White House official described...

@LindseyGrahamSC Just returned from a very successful and important visit to Ukraine with Senators Blumenthal and Warren. Eighteen months after the invasion, Ukraine is on the offense recapturing land that was illegally seized by Russia, NATO has increased in size, the Russian economy is in decline, the Russian military is being decimated, and Putin is facing an international arrest warrant for war crimes involving children. It is imperative that America continues to support Ukraine’s military. Specifically, the need for long range artillery - ATACMS - is urgent. America should also take over the F-16 transfer program to speed things up....

On Wednesday, appearing on the LindellTV with Emerald Robinson, former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, advocated for ending U.S. military aid to Ukraine to protect them from the Russian invasion. "Let me give you my judgment on where we are right now," said Flynn. "I think that anybody that anyone that continues to put fuel on a blazing fire, meaning more weapons, more ammunition, more of the sort of warfare-type stuff that's thrown into this fire is going to keep this fire blazing for a long, long time. And I think that doesn't benefit anybody."

Russian President Vladimir Putin may use the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine as a pretext to order a new campaign to interfere in American politics, U.S. intelligence officials have assessed. Intelligence agencies have so far not found any evidence that Putin has authorized measures like the ones Russia is believed to have undertaken in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections in support of former President Donald Trump, according to several people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive findings. But given Putin’s antipathy toward the West and his repeated denunciations of Ukraine, officials believe...