Free Republic

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is playing the running-not-running game as hard as he can, given the Florida ‘resign to run‘ law he is intentionally breaking. Thus, the severity of the self-centered egoism from the man who calls himself the “savior Top Gov of America,” starts to take on context.According to the DeSantis media operation known as “Florida’s Voice“, the sanctimonious meatball has already scheduled campaign appearances in New Hampshire, Michigan, Ohio and Maryland for April [SEE HERE]. Then, following the instructions of the brand management team in control of him, Ron DeSantis sat down with Rupert Murdoch’s toady, Piers Morgan,...

Big changes are coming to Disney, and though I would have never suspected it given past history, it looks like Bob Iger is looking to turn away from overt political activism.Iger returned to the role of CEO in the last few weeks, having started Disney’s woke revolution many years ago. Yet, the company’s disastrous battle with Florida’s Ron DeSantis has him ready to change course. According to Iger, he regrets the clash with the rock-star Republican governor and will look to move Disney toward a more neutral position in the culture wars.Iger expressed regret that Disney engaged in the high-profile...

So, I told someone hardcore that I would be writing a column called “The Case Against Ron DeSantis 2024,” and he asked “Oh, will it be blank?” Amusing, and not unexpected because we are still at the DeSantis infatuation stage. As I wrote in my previous column, “The Case For Ron DeSantis 2024,” there is a lot to like about the Florida governor. But this is not time to go moon-eyed over The New Shiny Thing. We need to be ruthless in our vetting of the candidates. I was when I wrote “The Case Against Donald Trump 2024” (he sent...

WASHINGTON — When John H. Durham was assigned by the Justice Department in 2019 to examine the origins of the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, President Donald J. Trump and his supporters expressed a belief that the inquiry would prove that a “ deep state” conspiracy including top Obama-era officials had worked to sabotage him. Now Mr. Durham appears to be winding down his three-year inquiry without anything close to the results Trump was seeking. The grand jury that Mr. Durham has recently used to hear evidence has expired, and while he could convene another, there...

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that former President Donald Trump will be indicted for crimes related to the mishandling of classified documents soon. Cohen said, “I do think there’s going to be an indictment and relatively soon. I believe there will also be congressional hearings with Donald in the hot seat where, you know, either he’ll come in willingly, which I don’t think he will or via subpoena. I mean, the real questions that they have to be asking right now is, you know, where are the documents that were in the empty top...

James Carville is predicting that former President Trump’s alleged mishandling of official documents could be the most significant story in a generation, with the potential to help transform the midterm elections. “This Mar-a-Lago story … might be the biggest story since 9/11,” the Democratic strategist told The Hill in an on-camera interview. “That’s not going anywhere.”

... All across America, Democrats are using abortion as a powerful cudgel in their 2022 television campaigns, paying for an onslaught of ads in House, Senate and governor’s races that show how swiftly abortion politics have shifted since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June. With national protections for abortion rights suddenly gone and bans going into effect in many states, senior White House officials and top Democratic strategists believe the issue has radically reshaped the 2022 landscape in their favor. They say it has not only reawakened the party’s progressive base, but also provided a wedge...

'Star Wars' character Obi-Wan Kenobi only became more powerful after he was defeated. So if Rep. Liz Cheney is ousted from her leadership role by House Republicans, could she actually become a bigger foil for the party's Trump loyalists backing 'the big lie'? We discuss that with Cornell Belcher and Michael Steele.

The New York Times reported Friday that Fox News has not had Donald Trump on its network in over 100 days, which the paper said was part of a larger strategy to eliminate the former president as a major GOP player. Trump's last appearance on Fox News came April 13 on "Hannity." But, The Times noted, even Trump has complained his longtime friend "doesn't seem to be paying him much attention anymore." The paper said Trump believes Fox's strategy of shunning him is an effort in "effectively displacing him" from the news cycle and as de facto leader of the...

Three months ago in our quarterly list of the top 10 most likely Democratic candidates for president in 2024, we changed things up. For a while, we had been ranking only the candidates not named Joe Biden. In the seemingly unlikely scenario he didn’t run again, the idea was, here’s who would be next in line. [Snip] 10. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 9. Roy Cooper (North Carolina governor) 8. Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan governor) 7. Gavin Newsom (California governor) 6. Bernie Sanders 5. Elizabeth Warren 4. Amy Klobuchar 3. Kamala D. Harris 2. Pete Buttigieg 1. President Biden (Brandon)

Researchers on 4Chan have begun examining an offline backup of Hunter Biden’s phone. They found the password and are going through all the files.Hunter Biden’s laptop data, with many concluding there is over 450GB of data still remaining hidden on the President’s son’s iPhone backup log.The individual who initially released the data claimed to have been threatened by unnamed individuals close to the administration.

Almost 4 months after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the war turned into an "artillery duel". And victories in battles are increasingly being won by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. A significant role in this is played by the supply of Western weapons, which are gaining momentum, but are still insufficient. Der Spiegel writes about this in an analytical article. "At the beginning of the offensive, when Russian troops began to advance in large columns from the north to major Ukrainian cities such as Kiev and Kharkiv, the goal was to lure the enemy into ambushes,...

Russia could be just two weeks away from achieving one of its stated aims in the conflict in Ukraine, with its troops close to taking over the entire Luhansk region in the east. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia is now achieving tactical success in the industrial Donbas, comprised of Luhansk and Donetsk, which would give Moscow a high-profile victory. “Russian forces have generated and maintained momentum and currently appear to hold the initiative over Ukrainian opposition,” the MoD tweeted on Friday in its latest intelligence briefing.

The jury in the Michael Sussmann criminal case resumes deliberations today after the long Memorial Day weekend. While prosecutors presented overwhelming evidence over the last two weeks that Sussmann lied to then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in 2016, an acquittal by the D.C. jury still seems likely. Judging the success of Special Counsel John Durham’s probe into the investigation of President Trump and those associated with the Trump campaign and administration should not rest on the outcome of the Sussmann prosecution, however. In fact, even if the special counsel’s office scores a conviction in its false statement case against Sussmann,...

Vladimir Putin appeared to walk with a limp and sat with a blanket over his lap during Victory Day commemorations in Moscow today, raising fresh doubts over his health. -snip- at several points - including as he left a speaking podium and went to the Tomb of the Unknown Solider to lay a wreath - Putin appeared to be walking with a heavy step, as if trying to disguise a limp. And, during the parade itself, he was seen sitting with a heavy blanket across his knees despite geriatric war veterans being sat around him with their laps uncovered.

Russia may be looking to conclude its war in Ukraine within four months’ time, according to Kyiv's Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense, which said Tuesday it believes September is Moscow’s intended deadline. "There is information among the occupier's military that … the so-called ‘special military operation’ is set for September 2022," the ministry said. Russia’s deadly war has persisted for nearly 70 days with Moscow focusing all its efforts in eastern and southern Ukraine after its forces failed to take Kyiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin has attempted to justify his illegal invasion by claiming Russian forces...

Ukraine is believed to be running out of weapons as it continues to hold off Russian forces, amid warnings some countries have failed to send promised aid. Western nations have thrown their support behind the war-torn nation following Vladimir Putin's invasion on 24 February. According to The Times, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Boris Johnson that his country was getting through a week's supply of weapons in just 20 hours as the Russian attack and constant shelling comes on multiple fronts. But while many countries have promised weapons to help bolster the Ukrainian arsenal, some have not kept up...

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has become increasingly frustrated and paranoid, according to reports — and fearing he will be poisoned or assassinated soon, Putin has reportedly purged his entire personal staff. Just a day after a public address where Putin denounced those Russians against his bloody invasion as “traitors” and “scum” and threatened to “spit out” domestic enemies, it was reported that an estimated 1,000 people have been fired and replaced around Putin in just the last month. The purge of personnel is because Putin has become paranoid that he’ll be poisoned, Inside Edition reported. Craig Copetas, an editor for...

On Wednesday, a Russian-born banker and entrepreneur posted on the social networking website LinkedIn offering a $1 million bounty to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes. In a post that’s no longer viewable on LinkedIn, Alexander Konanykhin said, “I promise to pay $1,000,000 to the officer(s) who, complying with their constitutional duty, arrest(s) Putin as a war criminal under Russian and international laws.” “Putin is not the Russian president as he came to power as the result of a special operation of blowing up apartment buildings in Russia, then violated the Constitution by eliminating free elections and murdering...

Retired Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor joined Tucker Carlson on Fox News Tuesday to discuss the latest developments of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, noting that the first phase of Russia’s incursion is over, marking the “beginning of the end of the Ukrainian resistance.”“The first five days, we witnessed a very slow, methodical movement of Russian forces into eastern Ukraine,” MacGregor said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Tuesday.“That is Ukraine — the third of Ukraine, which is on the eastern side of this river, called the Dnieper. They move slowly, cautiously. They try to reduce casualties among the civilian population, tried to give as...