Free Republic

“$1.9 billion to recently-created decarbonization of homes committee, headed up, and we know she’s involved, just at the last moment the money was passed over, by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her?” — President Donald Trump, in an address to a joint session of Congress, March 4 We fact-checked 26 claims in Trump’s address on Tuesday night, but this one required more research to nail down. From Trump’s phrasing, it sounds like Stacey Abrams somehow got her hands on nearly $2 billion at the “last moment.” Abrams, of course, helped ensure Trump’s 2020 election loss...

Deputies of Elon Musk have sought access to massive amounts of information across the federal government, much of it personal and highly revelatory in its insights into the lives of everyday Americans. They justify their work for the U.S. DOGE Service as a dogged quest for government efficiency. But people with deep knowledge of federal data systems and cybersecurity say they’re skirting guardrails meant to protect sensitive data from misuse. Before DOGE launched, most of the records at issue were kept in the hands of a select few officials to preserve privacy and avoid crossing legal red lines. Now Musk’s...

More than 200,000 people have canceled their subscriptions to the Washington Post in revolt over the paper’s refusal to endorse Kamala for president. That’s some 8% of the paper’s subscribers.

When clients tell Mercury Public Affairs, a consulting and lobbying shop with 18 offices worldwide, that they’re concerned about Donald Trump’s possible return to office, the firm has just the person to ease their nerves: Bryan Lanza. “He gives them assurances that there will be life after Nov. 5,” said one of the colleagues, referring to Election Day.Lanza declined to comment through a Mercury spokesman. A Trump spokesman did not respond to questions.Eight years after Trump entered politics promising to reduce the influence of Washington lobbyists — to “drain the swamp,” as he put it — advocates for corporate interests,...

On Tuesday, a few hours after Vice President Kamala Harris revealed she’d picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, the conservative radio host Erick Erickson posted a video from Walz’s 2022 reelection campaign attacking his military service record. The slickly produced video resembled a professional television news segment, but it came from a Minnesota website called Alpha News, which received a “red” unreliable rating from media watchdog NewsGuard because it fails to disclose it was founded by the head of a conservative advocacy group. In the video, an unidentified woman interviews Thomas Behrends, a Minnesota farmer who served...

When the polls closed on election night in 2020, President Donald Trump appeared to be winning Pennsylvania. But over the next several days, as officials counted mail-in ballots, his lead shrunk and then disappeared. By Saturday, Joe Biden was the clear winner of Pennsylvania — and with it, the presidency. --SNIP-- If the electoral college comes down to Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, we might still face a long period where we don’t know the winner,” said Rachel Orey, an elections expert at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

After weeks of intense focus on President Biden’s health and age that ended with his withdrawal from the campaign on Sunday, the script has flipped: Former president Donald Trump is now the oldest presidential candidate in history — and one who has been less transparent about his medical condition than his former opponent. Trump, a 78-year-old with a history of heart disease and obesity, according to experts, has not shared any updated bloodwork results or other specific information during this campaign to help experts assess his ongoing medical risks. Instead, he has released a vague, three-paragraph letter from his primary...