Free Republic

The president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani, traveled to Tehran on Monday to meet with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who warned him to prevent “anti-revolutionary elements” from getting too friendly with the autonomous Kurdish region. The warning appeared to be a threat intended to dissuade Kurdish cooperation with the United States and any potential cordial ties with neighboring Israel. The KRG maintains friendly relations with the United States and cooperates militarily with Washington, particularly against the Islamic State (Isis) jihadist organization. The KRG’s Peshmerga forces were pivotal in the ouster of the ISIS “caliphate” from...

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) took a victory lap on CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday to brag about wrestling away control of the House from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). Jeffries’ boast followed three startling Democrat victories in the Johnson-led House that delivered significant lifelines to President Joe Biden, desperate for legislative victories to tout as he continues struggling in the polls against former President Donald Trump. Johnson’s actions spurred Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to commit to force a vote this week to eject Johnson from the Speakership.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Monday said she supports Democrat efforts to keep Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in power. Pelosi said she backs House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s plot to keep Johnson as the Speaker of the House. Pelosi said that they are backing Johnson to “support the integrity of the House of Representatives and will not let it be littered up by nonsense.” Pelosi defends Jeffries decision to protect Johnson. Says Democrats “support the integrity of the House of Representatives and will not let it be littered up by nonsense.” pic.twitter.com/aoyeFAu1RF — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) May 6, 2024...

Judge Juan Merchan admitted in court Monday that former President Donald Trump could become “the next president” — a tacit acknowledgement not only of recent favorable polls, but that his business records trial is occurring in the middle of a presidential election with direct bearing on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. “The last thing I want to consider is jail,” Merchan warned Trump about violating a gag order placed on him. “You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.” Merchan said Monday he would consider jail time for Trump if he continued to violate a gag order he...

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will meet with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday afternoon as the Georgia Republican vows to force a vote on the GOP leader’s ouster, two sources familiar with the matter told The Hill. The meeting is set to take place at 3:30 p.m. EDT, one source said. Greene requested the conversation, the source noted. Greene announced last week that she would move to force a vote on Johnson’s ouster this week, after dangling her motion to vacate resolution over his head for more than a month. Her effort, however, is all but sure to fail....

Former Fulton County prosecutor Nathan Wade said Monday on “Good Morning America” that former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case will get to a “day of reckoning.” Wade was required by the Judge to be removed from the case because of his relationship with District Attorney Fani Willis. Reporter Linsey Davis said, “One aspect Wade said he wasn’t prepared for was the intense public scrutiny and harassment he said he’s faced. You didn’t realize when you took the case your life was going to be under a microscope?”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is running for a fourth term in the Senate, he announced Monday, likely cementing the longtime progressive for the coming years in the upper chamber. Sanders, 82, is the second-oldest member of the upper chamber behind only Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.), who is 90. “This is the most important national election in our lifetimes,” Sanders said in a statement. “We must fight to make sure that we remain a democracy, not an authoritarian society. We must fight to make sure that we have a government which represents the working families of our country, not the billionaire...

TEXAS A&M, Texas (KBTX) - The George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum unveiled the former President’s 4141 locomotive in its new home Thursday. The locomotive joined the former president’s retired Marine One helicopter in the museum’s new addition, the Marine One/4141 Locomotive Pavilion. After years of collaboration between the Texas A&M University System, Union Pacific, George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, the George and Barbara Bush Foundation and other organizations, the locomotive is now a permanent part of the museum’s collection. The train was renamed in honor of President Bush in 2005, painted to match Air Force One....

Political commentator S.E. Cupp said Monday on CNN’s “News Central” that former President Donald Trump’s voters “have very low standards.” Host Sara Sidner said, “We’re going to start with the poll of polls. The average of the polls, looking at them tight as could possibly be. If you are running a campaign what do you thinking right now?” Cupp said, “Well, I think these polls are tight because Donald Trump’s voters have very low standards, and Joe Biden’s voters have standards that are probably a little too high.”

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is set to meet Monday with six Jewish college students to discuss the ongoing wave of antisemitism on campuses around the country — including one student, bizarrely, from the U.S. Military Academy. Politico reported Monday: Second gentleman Doug Emhoff on Monday will host a half-dozen Jewish students from colleges around the country amid a wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests criticized for featuring antisemitic behavior. … Emhoff is the only of the four principals at the White House who is known to have called students who felt targeted or threatened by the demonstrations. In all, he has...

NEW YORK — The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money trial has fined him $1,000 for violating his gag order and sternly warned the former president that additional violation could result in jail time. The fine marks the second sanction for Trump for inflammatory comments about witnesses since the start of the trial last month. He was fined $9,000 last week for nine violations. Judge Juan M. Merchan warned Monday that additional gag order violations could potentially result in jail time, though he said that was “the last thing I want to do.” Prosecutors in Trump’s hush money trial...

Three synagogues in New York City and the Brooklyn Museum were reportedly subjected to false bomb threats on Saturday. Congregation Rodeph Sholom in the Upper West Side received a bomb threat around 3:15 p.m. and was subsequently evacuated, police told the New York Post. The threat was ultimately unfounded, police confirmed. Then another bomb threat, which was also determined to be false, was reported at the Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, which is “progressive” and “LGBTQ-friendly,” according to the report. No one was inside the synagogue at the time of the threat, police said.

Governor Kristi Noem (R-SD) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that she had to kill her dangerous dog, adding that President Joe Biden’s dog “has attacked 24 Secret Service people.” Partial transcript as follows: MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, so you don’t agree with Mr. Trump’s statement there. I want to ask you again about the book. I- I know you know, this question is coming, because there’s been such an enormous backlash about your revelation that you shot and killed a Wirehair Pointer or named Cricket, who was 14 months old. You say in the book, she came from another...

Police officers repeatedly fired their guns at a New York City man who had called 911 during a mental health crisis as his mother and younger brother begged officers not to shoot, bodycam video released Friday shows. Win Rozario's family called on the officers to be fired and charged with murder after the footage of the killing was made public by the state's attorney general. “The video that was released makes it clear that Win should be alive but the police came and murdered him in our kitchen without any care for him or us,” said a statement from Rozario’s...

As frat boys counter-protesting radical Palestinian supporters marching on the University of Mississippi campus are accused of “racism” for mocking the left-wing anti-Israel activists, virtually no condemnations are heard from these same voices in response to a pro-Palestinian woman outright denouncing “white people” at the UCLA encampment in Southern California. In a viral clip that has been making the rounds on social media in recent days, an anti-Israel protester at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) can be heard dismissing a counter-protester because he is a “white person.”

Senator Mark Kelly (R-AZ) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he supported eliminating the filibuster to codify abortion rights. Host Kristen Welker said, “Let’s talk about what’s happening in your state, Arizona, is now effectively ground zero for the national fight over abortion rights. This week, the state legislature voted to repeal Arizona’s ban that went all the way back to 1864. Do you think the repeal minimizes the urgency that some voters will feel to get out and vote for Democrats?”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) joined Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM to discuss her effort, as expressed by host Matt Boyle, to “expose Speaker Mike Johnson’s power-sharing agreement with the Democrats.” Greene announced Wednesday she will force a vote on a motion to vacate on the floor after House Democrat leadership said that they would protect Johnson’s (R-LA) speakership.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was caught on camera bolting from local reporters who wanted to ask him about the recent arrest of an alleged cop killer. Johnson was at a National Day of Prayer service Thursday in the Windy City, with his chauffeured car waiting in an alley, according to reports. Local reporters darted after the mayor, hollering for him to wait and to comment about the arrest of Xavier Tate Jr., who allegedly killed Chicago Police Officer Luis Huesca in a carjacking last month, according to video.

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Steele sharply criticized former President Trump’s inability to admit he lost the last presidential election and said he’s afraid of losing the upcoming one in November because it will hit the most important thing to him, his ego. “Donald Trump is afraid of losing, because it strikes at the core of the thing that’s most important to him, and that’s his ego, and he doesn’t want to do the work to actually win,” Steele said on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.” “He wants to goad and cajole and bully people into believing something about our...

On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Biden 2024 Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks stated that President Joe Biden will not accept violence or antisemitism and “believes in what these protesters are saying and he is working to bring peace to the Middle East and bring the situation to a close.” Fulks said, “[W]hen it comes to this issue, I think it’s important to call out that the President has said, as you said, that he believes in the right for peaceful protest, but that political violence, antisemitism [are] not going to be accepted. The other piece here is...