Free Republic

A transgender teenager from Pennsylvania has admitted to killing her 12-year-old friend while they were watching Netflix together and then posting photos of the child’s body on Instagram. Ash Cooper, 18, who was originally charged as Joshua Cooper, pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges including third-degree murder, possession of an instrument of crime and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in the death of Morgan Connors, Fox News reported. The two were watching Netflix on Nov. 25, 2022 at a trailer park in Bensalem Township when Connors got up to use the bathroom and Cooper decided to clean and organize...

New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy has suspended her U.S. Senate campaign to replace Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez as he faces federal corruption charges. Murphy announced her decision in a video posted to her social media on Sunday. “New Jersey’s next senator must focus on the issues of our time and not be mired in tearing others down while dividing the people of our party and state,” she said.

U.S. officials warned that President Joe Biden’s plan for the U.S. military to build a floating pier to deliver aid to Gaza could endanger U.S. troops, even if he has pledged there will be no boots on the ground in Gaza, according to a report. NBC News reported Saturday that current and former administration officials are worried the plan “carries security risks.”

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted Sunday that House Republicans won’t attempt to dethrone his replacement during this session of Congress. Last Friday, firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) dangled a motion to depose Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Friday, but framed that resolution as a warning. “Speaker Johnson is doing the very best job he can. It’s a difficult situation,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “I do not think they could do it again.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Sunday that the difference between democratic and authoritarian regimes is that Russia and Iran would not tell the United States if there was going to be a terrorist attack in the U.S. Host Shannon Bream asked Kaine on “Fox News Sunday” whether the southern border can lead to “real danger” within the U.S., pointing to the attack in Russia that has left more than 133 dead in a Moscow concert hall. He first reiterated that the U.S. warned Russia about this kind of attack earlier this year.

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Sunday on MSNBC’s “Inside” that it was “clear” former President Donald Trump “is a grifter.” Host Jen Psaki said, “You’ve been ahead of the curve that Trump is a conman for a long time. The fact they want to pay his own legal bills despite claiming he is a billionaire feels like it’s an in-your-face example. I know your concern is not the Republican donors, but are they being duped? Pelosi said, “Well, I think it’s very clear that Trump is a grifter. That is the way it is. Integrity which is something we all...

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) warned that the “train is coming” in her prosecution of former President Trump in his election interference case, despite efforts to slow down the case amid the discovery of her once-romantic relationship with a former special prosecutor. Willis, who avoided being disqualified from the case after appointing her former boyfriend to work it, said the weeks-long process detailing her relationship didn’t derail the main case because her team “has been continuing to work.”

President Biden’s reelection campaign has dubbed former President Trump “Broke Don,” taking a strategy out of Trump’s playbook that his political rivals know all too well. Trump has used nicknames — from “Little Marco” to “Crooked Hillary” to “Lyin’ Ted” — to put down a variety of opponents. For much of 2020, Biden’s moniker, courtesy of Trump, was “Sleepy Joe.” Now, the Biden team is seeking to turn the tables in attempting to make one stick to Trump while it worked this week to highlight the former president’s lagging fundraising numbers in the 2024 race.

Hell on Earth. Washington, DC, Possibly Sometime in the Near Future A 1-megaton thermonuclear weapon detonation begins with a flash of light and heat so tremendous it is impossible for the human mind to comprehend. One hundred and eighty million degrees Fahrenheit is four or five times hotter than the temperature at the center of the sun. In the first fraction of a millisecond after the bomb strikes the Pentagon, there is light. Soft X-ray light with a very short wavelength. The light superheats the surrounding air to millions of degrees, creating a massive fire-ball that expands at millions of...

As turmoil continues within the House Republican caucus, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime” and weighed in on that turmoil and the decisions his successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), is facing. According to the former California lawmaker, the beginning of the end for Republicans came when Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led his ouster last year.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden offered Kate Middleton their well wishes Friday after she revealed her shocking cancer diagnosis. “Jill and I join millions around the world in praying for your full recovery, Princess Kate,” the commander in chief wrote on X. The first lady followed the sentiment with her own message for the Princess of Wales: “You are brave, and we love you.”

Hollywood stars Liam Neeson and Glenn Close have performed dramatic readings of the Trump indictments for an MSNBC podcast devoted to celebrating the ongoing political and legal persecution of the 45th president and presumed GOP nominee for the 2024 presidential election. Set against an ominous musical soundtrack, Liam Neeson kicks off the podcast by reciting passages from the January 6 federal indictment in a special bonus episode of MSNBC’s “Prosecuting Trump.”

Maryland Democrat Senate frontrunner Rep. David Trone has apologized for using a racial slur during a House meeting, claiming he simply misspoke. Trone, a member of Congress since 2019, was talking about tax policies with Office of Budget and Management Director Shalanda Young — a black woman — when he uttered the word: “+-&_$$$.” The term has been used insultingly towards black people for over 100 years, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. “So this Republican $#@-:&&, that, you know, it’s the tax rate that’s stopping business investment, it’s just completely faulty by people who have never run a business,”...

Former President Donald Trump has opened up an 8 percentage-point lead over President Biden in the battleground state of Michigan, matching his largest margin in recent polling of the Mitten State. The CNN/SSRS survey published Friday showed the 45th president, 77, leading the 46th president, 81, by 50% to 42% among registered voters. The eight-point spread in favor of Trump matches a Detroit News poll of likely voters from early January that showed the former president leading Biden 47% to 39% among likely voters. In 2016, Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate in 28 years to win Michigan, before...

CNN commentator Adam Kinzinger said on Friday in CNN’s “Newsroom” that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filing a motion to vacate House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could force a deal with Democrats on foreign aid. Kinzinger said, “It’s ironic because right now they’re complaining about this bill. This year was spent on frivolous investigations that were pushed by the Freedom Caucus mainly because their whole obsession has been to take out Joe Biden. So there hasn’t been much opportunity, frankly, to negotiate any kind of a deal when you have such a close majority, the idea that the Democrats aren’t...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) passed a massive $1.2 trillion government funding plan despite the objections of the majority of House Republicans, violating the Hastert Rule and crossing the Rubicon into dangerous territory for the future of his speakership. House Republicans enacted the longstanding rule to prohibit Republican Speakers from colluding with Democrats to pass legislation. But Johnson sent the bill to the Senate despite the objections of 112 Republican colleagues, with only 101 Republican votes in favor, although Johnson and his leadership team applied significant pressure. Johnson also broke a House rule intended to give lawmakers time to review legislation...

Former President Donald Trump stands to get a windfall of $3.5 billion now that shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp. have approved a merger with his Truth Social on Friday. The potential multibillion dollar infusion comes as New York Attorney General Letitia James is moving to seize Trump’s assets to pay a $464 million bond in his New York civil fraud case. The long-delayed merger came after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved it last month, and means that Trump’s company Trump Media & Technology Group will trade on the stock market under the stock ticker “DJT” as early...

President Joe Biden’s average approval rating is well below the historic threshold for the incumbent to win reelection. RealClearPolitic’s average of Biden’s approval rating stands at 40.3 percent, while 56.3 percent disapprove of the president. His approval rating is lower than the three previous presidents’ ratings in March during the fourth year of their first terms: Trump 44.3, Obama 47.5, Bush 50.1:

Last year saw “the highest number and rate of abortions measured in the United States in more than a decade,” according to a report from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. In 2023 — the first full calendar year following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade — there were an estimated 1,026,690 unborn babies killed in abortions in the formal U.S. health care system and a rate of 15.7 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age, the institute’s Monthly Abortion Provision Study found. That number is a ten percent increase in abortions from 2020.

Outgoing Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) said Thursday on CNN’s “OutFront” that the Republican-led House impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s possible involvement with his son Hunter’s business deals was a “sideshow” that needed to end. Buck said, “I think the investigation is warranted in terms of looking at what Hunter Biden did. I think that we may want to look at laws that restrict the family members of the president and vice president in terms of outside of influences.”