Free Republic

The first day of an unprecedented recount of every ballot cast by Maricopa County voters during last year’s general election almost did not happen Friday. A court battle nearly stopped it. And, as the recount was starting, officials seemed to be figuring out rules and training on the fly. Later, the daily press briefings that were promised were placed on an indefinite hiatus. What was clear is that the 2.1 million ballots the Republican-controlled state Senate obtained through a subpoena are now fully in the custody of a Florida-based company called Cyber Ninjas. Rows of pallets piled high with boxes...

In a sharp rebuke to Trump-era policies, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday formally scrapped a blueprint championed by his predecessor to limit U.S. promotion of human rights abroad to causes favored by conservatives like religious freedom and property matters while dismissing reproductive and LGBTQ rights. Blinken said a report prepared for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that sought to pare down the number of freedoms prioritized in U.S. foreign policy was “unbalanced,” did not reflect Biden administration policies and would not guide them. The report from Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights had been harshly criticized by human...

Lieutenant Gov. Geoff Duncan (R-GA) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Republicans did not need to pass election reform bills. Instead, he argued they needed to move past former President Donald Trump’s “tone and strategy.” Duncan said, “We passed four election reform bills two weeks ago in the senate. As you mentioned a second ago, there is a lot of solutions in search of a problem. Republicans don’t need election reform to win. We need leadership. Millions of Republicans are waking up realizing Donald Trump’s tone and strategy is un-winnable in forward-looking elections. We need real leadership and...

An independent forensic audit of the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Maricopa County, Arizona found that there was “no evidence of vote switching and concluded that the equipment tabulated and adjudicated ballots accurately” in the 2020 presidential election, according to government reports produced Tuesday.“The audits clearly dispel the notion that somehow the November election was rigged,” said County Supervisor Steve Gallardo. “Whether you liked the results or not, the will of the people was represented. Our equipment worked. Our people were above reproach. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 2020 elections in Maricopa County were safe,...

The U.S. Senate voted on Feb. 9 to authorize the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, overruling an argument by the defense alleging the Senate doesn’t have jurisdiction to try Trump because he’s now a private citizen. Over the course of four hours, House impeachment managers and Trump’s attorneys presented their arguments for and against the constitutionality of the trial. In the end, 44 Republican senators voted in favor of dropping the trial because it’s illegitimate, seven votes short of the majority needed to stop the proceedings at the gate.

Pennsylvania’s larger-than-life lieutenant governor, the 6-foot-8, bald and tattooed John Fetterman, will run for U.S. Senate, making the announcement Monday after kicking off an exploratory fundraising campaign last month that raised over $1 million. It will be the second bid for U.S. Senate by the plainspoken 51-year-old Democrat. He may ultimately see competition from a member of Congress for his party’s nomination in what could become the nation’s most competitive Senate race in 2022. Meanwhile, on the Republican side, a number of names are circulating — including former Trump administration figures. Another possibility is Jeff Bartos, a suburban Philadelphia real...

January 20th is past, and Joe Biden, not Donald Trump, is the President of the United States. To all those who prophesied that Trump would serve a second consecutive term and assured us that he would be inaugurated on the 20th, I appeal to you in the strongest possible terms: admit your error, take full responsibility, and do not, under any circumstances, continue to put a false hope into the hearts of God’s people. What you prophesied did not come to pass. There is not an alternative, spiritual reality in which Trump is still functioning as president. Nothing is going...

President Joe Biden implored Americans in his inaugural speech to come together and unify, but the right-wing media machine has wasted no time dishonestly trashing him — foreshadowing what the next four years of coverage from outlets like Fox News will look like. On Fox News Wednesday night, the network decided against airing most of the "Celebrating America" inauguration special — which every other network carried — opting to instead allow propagandists like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity to deliver fiery anti-Biden sermons.

President Joe Biden’s first official act on his first day in office was signing an executive order mandating that masks be worn on all federal properties and by federal employees and contractors. “The first order I’m going to be signing here relates to Covid,” Biden said. “It’s requiring, as I said all along, where I have authority, mandating that masks be worn, social distancing be kept on federal property.” The original story below was published on November 9, 2020. When President-elect Joe Biden accepted the Democratic nomination on August 20, he said part of his Covid-19 plan would be a...

Please help me understand how trump WON in a landslide yet according to this CNN article DJT never polled over 50% (CNN)Donald Trump has always been fixated on writing his name into the history books, to ensure his four years as president aren't forgotten. Well, he's done it! Trump ends his term with the lowest average job approval rating -- 41% -- of any president in the last seven-plus decades, according to Gallup. That's four points worse than the next, uh, worst -- Harry Truman, who averaged a 45% job approval score throughout his time in office. Barack Obama averaged...

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 19, 2021 / 11:00 am MT (CNA).- President-elect Joe Biden is expected to promptly roll back pro-life policies the Trump administration put in place, NBC News reported on Monday. Biden, who will become the second Roman Catholic president when he is sworn in to office on Jan. 20, is believed to be seeking to repeal the Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule and the expanded Mexico City Policy. The Protect Life Rule prevents organizations which perform or refer for abortions from receiving Title X family planning funds. It effectively stripped Planned Parenthood of approximately $60 million annually...

In one of his final acts as majority leader, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is pressuring Democrats to keep the filibuster — the procedural tool that liberals and progressives are eager to to do away with so President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative priorities can be approved more easily over GOP opposition. McConnell has told Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer that retaining the legislative filibuster is important and should be part of their negotiations for a power-sharing agreement in the narrowly divided Senate. Schumer and McConnell met Tuesday to begin hammering out the details of organizing the chamber, which will be split...

In the aftermath of the deadly siege on Capitol Hill nearly two weeks ago, vice-president-elect Kamala Harris took some time to call her aunt and uncle in Canada to let them know she was safe. "These days her life is so busy, they are very brief conversations, but she wanted to show me everything was OK," said Chinni Subash, the younger sister of Harris's late mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, on Rosemary Barton Live. The vice-president-elect was in Washington, D.C., when a mob of pro-Donald Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress voted on president-elect Joe Biden's...

The Department of Justice on Friday announced it closed an investigation into ballots that were discarded in Pennsylvania. “After a thorough investigation conducted by the FBI and prosecutors from my office, we have determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove criminal intent on the part of the person who discarded the ballots,” acting U.S. Attorney Bruce Brandler said in a statement. “Therefore, no criminal charges will be filed and the matter is closed.” Brandler recently replaced David Freed, the former U.S. attorney who last year revealed nine military absentee ballots had been tossed in Luzerne County. Freed resigned on...

Let me be clear: the president of the United States had every right to question the counting practices, lack of transparency and rules changes without legislative approval leading up to his defeat. Questioning government is a critical component of American culture and society. It's part of why a Republican form of government can work. The problem today is that too many people ignore facts and history and regurgitate "talking points" from agenda-driven elites who control the "means of communication". When the president of the United States is not "allowed" to inspire legal and peaceful protests, then we no longer live...

President Donald Trump plans to make the unprecedented move to depart the White House next Wednesday morning, just before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, ABC News has learned. Trump has requested a large sendoff to be planned for the morning of Jan. 20, sources said, after he choppers via Marine One to Joint Base Andrews, where he is expected to give remarks to supporters and departing members of his administration. Sources add that Trump has requested his departure ceremony to have a "military-like feel," although details are not finalized. He hopes to depart to the blare of a military band, with...

We received a lengthy letter from Dominion's defamation lawyers explaining why they believe that their client has been the victim of defamatory statements. Having considered the full import of the letter, we have agreed to their request that we publish the following statement: American Thinker and contributors Andrea Widburg, R.D. Wedge, Brian Tomlinson, and Peggy Ryan have published pieces on www.AmericanThinker.com that falsely accuse US Dominion Inc., Dominion Voting Systems, Inc., and Dominion Voting Systems Corporation (collectively “Dominion”) of conspiring to steal the November 2020 election from Donald Trump. These pieces rely on discredited sources who have peddled debunked theories...

The images of the storming of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 6 sent shock waves around the world. The theme of Thursday’s debate in the Bundestag — “In the Wake of the Storming of the Capitol: Strategies to Strengthen Democracy and the Rule of Law in Germany and the World” — shows that those extended to Berlin. Many of the speakers warned that democracy and the rule of law are under threat. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, of the Social Democrats (SPD), referred to the Capitol, the seat of the US House of Representatives and the Senate, as...

President Trump was impeached yesterday by a mostly party-line vote. Ten House Republicans did cross the picket line to back the Democratic Party’s unhealthy fetish with impeaching this president. They did it using the Russian collusion hoax. And now, this riot that erupted on Capitol Hill last week. The chaos occurred on January 6 when Congress was certifying the 2020 Electoral College results. Pro-Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. Five people died. It renewed an impeachment push from Democrats. More Republicans were going to back it. In the Senate, Mitch McConnell reportedly is not all that upset over this current...

<p>Donald Trump wearing a suit and tie smiling and looking at the camera: A law intended for Confederates like Jefferson Davis could apply to Donald Trump. A law intended for Confederates like Jefferson Davis could apply to Donald Trump.</p><p>No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.</p>