Free Republic

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said Wednesday he would not vote for former President Donald Trump in November, breaking his debate pledge with the Republican National Committee (RNC), called the “Beat Biden Pledge.” The broken pledge and refusal to vote for the likely GOP presidential nominee appears to highlight Christie’s thirst to remain politically relevant, considering: Just two percent support Christie’s GOP primary bid, Fox News polling shows. He maintains a negative net approval rating (-55), according to the Wall Street Journal. “No,” Christie replied when MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle asked if he would vote for Trump, breaking his pledge with...

On Thursday, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez launched a major legal offensive in an attempt to address the online risks faced by minors. The lawsuit targeted Meta Platforms, Inc., its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and associated entities such as Instagram, LLC and Facebook Holdings, LLC. This bold action seeks to prevent the exploitation of children on social media platforms. “Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” Attorney General Torrez said in a statement. “As a career...

Last week the Wall Street Journal published an unsigned op-ed unworthy of one of the best teams of commentators in the country. The subject was some comments Donald Trump made on Truth Social that, by surprise, displayed his trademark turbo-charged hyperbole. The Journal is usually a reliable source of sober, judicious, and fact-based analysis, but this editorial is a troubling portent that Republican Trump-Derangement Syndrome hysteria may have a negative impact on next year’s election. Trump’s heinous sin, according to the editors, is saying “that Gen. Mark Milley, the nation’s highest military officer, deserves execution—as in death. He said NBC...

ROME—Pope Francis softened the Vatican’s ban on blessing same-sex couples, saying that priests may use their discretion in giving such blessings, so long as they don’t imply a same-sex union is equivalent to a heterosexual marriage. The pope’s statement, in a letter released by the Vatican on Monday, marks a significant shift in the Catholic Church’s stance on blessing gay relationships. Its release comes on the eve of a major Vatican meeting that will consider possible changes to church teaching and practice on matters such as homosexuality and women’s ordination. Catholic priests in Germany and some other northern European countries...

Former President Donald Trump is running about dead-even with President Joe Biden among voters, according to a poll published Saturday.The Wall Street Journal poll showed that Trump garnered 40 percent support versus Biden’s 39 percent support in a hypothetical rematch of 2020. While third-party candidates drew three percent, a large portion — 17 percent — were undecided.If other candidates were excluded, Trump and Biden were tied at 46 percent each with eight percent undecided.The poll was conducted August 24-30, with a sample of 1,500 American voters and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.Republican pollster Tony...

If Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan decided to be a presidential candidate next year, she would be barred from the debates. The GOP debate rules include a pledge to support the Republican 2024 presidential nominee and Ms. Noonan makes it clear, from the opening paragraph of her latest weekend column that she would not back a Trump candidacy.Noonan declares in her lede paragraph that if "Trump Republicans" nominate the former president next year, "they will have ended the Republican Party." That there be no mistaking her comment as mere figurative remark, she declares in the following paragraph: "I mean...

As a seventy-year resident of Springfield, Ill, I was amazed and amused that there was an article in the Wall Street Journal, a supposedly reputable, savvy business newspaper touting Springfield as a great place to buy a house. It is as if the reporter doesn’t know how to read, think, analyze, and ask questions before regurgitating something. WCIA TV writes:Springfield was featured in a national publication as one of the best housing markets.An article in the Wall Street Journal published earlier this month listed Springfield, Illinois as number 17 out of 300 for towns on the WSJ/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets...

This is what Orwellian economics looks like. After Biden announced a campaign based around freedom, the Wall Street Journal’s Richard Rubin decided to write a surreal column/op-ed/story (what is this thing even supposed to be) accusing Republicans of raising taxes by proposing to dump Biden’s corrupt green subsidies and the Inflation Increase Act’s IRS boom. Republicans Effectively Voted to Raise Taxes. They’re Fine With That – WSJ When dealing with the media, any weasel words added to a sentence means that the whole thing is a lie. Now you understand the purpose being served by “effectively” in there. Rubin claims...

Russian authorities on Thursday arrested an American journalist for The Wall Street Journal on spying charges. Evan Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of “espionage in the interests of the American government,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement, which was reported by state media. The FSB accused Gershkovich of collecting “information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

Russia’s top security agency arrested an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal on espionage charges, the first time a U.S. correspondent was put behind bars on spying accusations since the Cold War. The newspaper denied the allegations against Evan Gershkovich. The Federal Security Service said Thursday that Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information. The FSB, which is the top successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, alleged that Gershkovich “was acting on the U.S. orders to collect information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian...

Amid woes of inflation and high food costs, the Wall Street Journal has suggested that perhaps Americans should skip breakfast to save money. Breakfast staples, they write, are showing massive price increases for a variety of reasons, so maybe just don't eat it. Juices, eggs, coffee, wheat products are all at record high levels, the report states, so maybe just skip the whole thing, the Wall Street Journal suggested, perhaps taking a page from The Babylon Bee's book. Pushback to the concept on Twitter was fierce and swift—which could have been part of the point of the WSJ's intent. Senator...

Ukrainian leaders have vowed to retake all territory occupied by Russia, prompting a debate over what would be necessary for Ukraine to win and evict Moscow’s forces. The answer is primarily military because Russia is only going to abandon its hard-won gains if its troops suffer catastrophic losses, military strategists say. Behind those talks about weapons and ammunition is a deeper political question as Ukraine’s battlefield fortunes rely heavily on the willingness of Western governments to continue their multibillion-dollar military assistance to Kyiv. And pushing Russian forces out of the entrenched positions they hold in more than 15% of Ukraine’s...

Even before polls closed, one of the year's biggest Democratic donors had a very bad Tuesday. Sam Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency exchange FTX -- valued at $32 billion in January -- suffered a sudden liquidity crunch and was taken over by its rival Binance.

KYIV, Ukraine—Winter is approaching on the Ukrainian steppe. As temperatures fall, waves of chilling rain follow, dissolving roads and fields, turning them to mud that mires men and equipment. Then comes the deep freeze and snow, hardening the ground but making it tougher to fight. Armies on both sides of the war in Ukraine are girding for the unforgiving weather and shorter days of winter, which will affect the health and morale of troops, diminish the effectiveness of weapons and intelligence-gathering sensors and multiply the logistical difficulties of keeping soldiers in the field. “Land warfare is generally very difficult. Winter...

What was an Orthodox Jewish man doing working for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arguably the world’s most vocal antisemite?17 when Orthodox Jewish lobbyist Nicholas Muzin was paid millions of dollars to lobby for the Emir of Qatar to introduce him to the leaders of right-wing pro-Israel organizations, in an effort to curry favor with a Qatar-weary Donald Trump. Some of the most important right-wing activists for Israel were later ensnared in the controversy, exposed by national media outlets and in a huge investigative story by The Wall Street Journal. All said that they were traveling to Doha for Israel, even as,...

The depositions given by former British spy Christopher Steele and a longtime associate of John McCain must be unsealed, a federal judge said Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro overruled the objections of both Steele and David Kramer to make the depositions public. The pair gave testimony in a lawsuit brought against BuzzFeed in December 2018 by a Russian Internet entrepreneur. The businessman, Aleksej Gubarev, was referenced in the infamous dossier compiled by Steele about President Trump’s alleged connections to Russia. Gubarev objected to BuzzFeed’s publishing of the dossier in January 2017, which accused him of using his companies...

The Biden administration’s international tax agenda suffered a setback when Sen. Manchin rejected a 15% minimum tax on multinational companies this past week, dimming prospects of turning last year’s global tax agreement into reality. Biden administration officials had planned to use Democratic fiscal legislation to enact the U.S. piece of the deal struck last year by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and more than 130 other countries. They wanted quick action to set a 15% minimum tax on U.S.-based multinational companies in each country where they operate, a move aimed at showing international leadership and prodding other countries to follow suit....

Cassidy Hutchinson, a onetime top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that former President Donald Trump was warned that members of the crowd attending his rally on Jan. 6, 2021, were heavily armed and still directed them to march toward the Capitol. She also said she was told that Mr. Trump insisted on going to the Capitol with his supporters, even as officials, ultimately successfully, tried to stop him. Ms. Hutchinson recounted a dramatic altercation in the president’s limousine, known as “the beast,” after his Secret Service detail refused to drive him to the Capitol due...

Russian forces have conducted a series of operations against the U.S.-led coalition in Syria this month, including one this week at a strategically located base in the southern part of the country, U.S. military officials said. The Russian actions have alarmed U.S. military officials, who are concerned that a miscalculation might escalate into an unintended conflict between the U.S. and Russian forces in Syria. Tensions between the two countries are already high following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February and American efforts to arm the Ukraine military to defeat Russian forces there. On Wednesday, Russia carried out airstrikes at the...

BEIJING—For weeks, Beijing has teetered on the edge of a hard, Covid-induced lockdown. For the most part, citizens are unruffled, confident that the restrictions that have paralyzed Shanghai for six weeks are simply unthinkable in the capital.