Free Republic

In his first interview since dropping out of the presidential race, DeSantis told Blaze TV’s Steve Deace that the blame is on Iowa caucusgoers who rallied behind front-runner Donald Trump even though many didn’t like him. “They did not want to see Trump nominated again, but they had basically been told that it was inevitable, that it was over,” DeSantis told Deace on Tuesday. DeSantis, who lost to Trump in the Iowa caucuses earlier this month, added that those voters were “checked out” and had “just totally dropped out of the process.” The Florida governor told Deace he’d consider running...

Rolling Stone led leftist celebrations of Henry Kissinger's death with a brutal headline that labeled him a 'war criminal' and declared 'good riddance' to the 100-year-old statesman. The outlet published a skewering obituary by Spencer Ackerman last night in which they said Kissinger's legacy should only be his 'confirmed kills'. 'Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies,' read the headline. Ackerman compared Kissinger to domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who killed 168 people, and said: 'The infamy of Nixon's foreign-policy architect sits, eternally, beside that of history's worst mass murderers.' Leftists applauded Rolling...

On a recent flight, I found myself seated next to a man I’ll call Rick, who was keen for conversation. We established that we are both lawyers. Rick works for the government, and I explained that I lead a gun violence prevention organization. Rick took that as an invitation to talk about guns. A self-described “2A fanatic” from Texas, Rick grew up with guns and today owns more than 40 firearms. He considers himself a collector, and many of his guns are antiques — he’s not interested in assault-style firearms — and he makes his own ammunition from recycled casings....

As Israel escalates its attacks on Gaza, the State Department is discouraging diplomats working on Middle East issues from making public statements suggesting the U.S. wants to see less violence, according to internal emails viewed by HuffPost. In messages circulated on Friday, State Department staff wrote that high-level officials do not want press materials to include three specific phrases: “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm.” The revelation provides a stunning signal about the Biden administration’s reluctance to push for Israeli restraint as the close U.S. partner expands the offensive it launched after Hamas ― which rules Gaza ― attacked...

Oregon voters handed gun reformers a major victory when they backed a ballot measure creating one of the country’s most stringent systems for buying and selling firearms in 2022. New gun purchases would require approval from local law enforcement — a rule common in Europe but almost unheard of in the United States. Measure 114 banned both semi-automatic “assault” rifles and magazines capable of holding more than five rounds. It was a fleeting triumph. The next month, a state judge barred the law from going into effect. Parallel legal challenges are also working their way through the federal courts. A...

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Former television newscaster and failed Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake hinted at violence to a crowd of thousands of conservative activists Sunday, continuing her claim that she had really won last month. “On Nov. 8, they committed highway robbery,” she said, to chants of “Kari! Kari!” Lake, who has sued elections administrators alleging fraud, called the Maricopa County elections system a “house of cards” that she promised to take down. “I’m not just going to knock that house of cards over. We’re going to burn it to the ground,” she said. “They messed with the wrong...

The Republican Party may be girding for a brutal internal war amid the wreckage of its midterm elections — and Donald Trump is ready to “burn it all down” if he can’t keep his grip on the GOP, predicts New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. Who or what remains standing after such a clash is far from clear, she noted Friday. The throw-down is likely to begin next week when Trump is expected to announce that he’s running again for president, against the advice even of some of his allies. Trump has already been trashing potential primary rivals, including Florida...

Stephen Colbert returned to “The Late Show” Monday night after a bout of COVID-19 and jumped right back into the fray, suggesting Fox News host Tucker Carlson should probably be concerned that his “browser history matches that of a mass murderer.” First, the comedian expressed his sadness over the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York on Saturday that left 10 people dead, most of them Black. A white, 18-year-old male named Payton Gendron is accused of targeting the predominantly Black neighborhood in what authorities said was a hate crime. In online writings purportedly written by Gendron, he embraced the racist...

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) pleaded with voters in a viral tweet Friday to finally get off the “Trump train” and avoid the “wreckage.” Swalwell - who has been the target of vicious death threats over his opposition to Donald Trump and his supporters - issued the appeal after the dramatic revelations Friday in the unsealed warrant and property receipt used by the FBI to search Mar-a-Lago. **SNIP** The warrant indicated that Trump is under investigation for a possible violation of the Espionage Act. “If you’ve been aboard the Trump Train the last 7 years, you’ve been given an unexpected stop,”...

Way right Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday claimed he has “woke math’s” number, and he doesn’t like it. He railed about the mysterious mathematics Friday in a speech in Tampa to a group of conservative Moms for Liberty who are opposed to several aspects of education. DeSantis was unable to elucidate exactly what “woke math’ is. He indicated that it’s math with little regard for correct calculations, which was news to the world. “I’m just thinking to myself like, 2 + 2 equals 4. It’s not 2 + 2 equals: Well how do you feel about that? Is...

When the city of Friendswood, Texas, announced on Facebook that hometown hero Haley Carter would be the grand marshal for the town’s famed Fourth of July parade, the post was peppered with excited comments. Carter, who was in the Marines and is a retired professional soccer player, was just the type of person residents wanted to see lead the parade. Then the right-wing culture warriors showed up. Conservative radio host Jesse Kelly tweeted the same day that Friendswood had appointed a “gun-grabber” who is “into drag” and “trans activism” to lead the parade. Kelly is from Ohio, ran a failed...

Republican House candidate Carl Paladino praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s ability to rouse “the crowds” and declared Hitler “the kind of leader we need today” in a February 2021 interview on the radio station WBEN in Buffalo, New York. Paladino, a businessman and leading GOP figure in New York state who was the party’s gubernatorial nominee in 2010, is running for the Republican nomination to replace the retiring Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.).

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala,) is absolutely opposed to any new restrictions on guns — even regarding military-style assault weapons — because people need them to “take back” our government, he explained on Fox News Sunday. Such action should only be undertaken in the event America becomes “dictatorial,” Brooks told host Sandra Smith. “Oh, no, that’s wrong. That is absolutely false,” said Brooks, before Smith corrected him yet again. Brooks claims the whole idea of the Second Amendment was to arm citizens to take over the country if need be — and that not having enough guns will spark the appetite...

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) announced Monday night that they will vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making them the second and third Republicans to confirm their vote for President Joe Biden’s court pick. “After multiple in-depth conversations with Judge Jackson and deliberative review of her record and recent hearings, I will support her historic nomination to be an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court,” Murkowski said in a statement. Romney soon followed in a tweet:

Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker cast doubt on the theory of evolution in recent remarks, saying the fact that apes and humans coexist disproves accepted science. “At one time, science said man came from apes, did it not? ... If that is true, why are there still apes? Think about it,” Herschel said in an appearance at Sugar Hill Church in Georgia on Sunday.

Andrew Walls, 26, was slapped with weapons and assault charges after he was seen on video sucker-punching a woman outside a bar in Akron, Ohio. A chapter leader in the far-right Proud Boys extremist gang was charged with assault Sunday in Akron, Ohio, after he was recorded shouting racial epithets at a black woman and then sucker-punching her in the face. A man police identified as Andrew Walls, 26, was caught on video outside a bar in the early hours of Sunday, stumbling and scuffling with other patrons while spewing a torrent of racial slurs. His victim, 23-year-old Cameron Morgan,...

President Joe Biden announced Monday that he’s nominating Jerome Powell for a second four-year term as Federal Reserve chair, endorsing Powell’s stewardship of the economy through a brutal pandemic recession in which the Fed’s ultra-low rate policies helped bolster confidence and revitalize the job market. Biden also said he would nominate Lael Brainard, the lone Democrat on the Fed’s Board of Governors and the preferred alternative to Powell among many progressives, as vice chair. The president said he will fill the three remaining slots on the board, including a vice chair for supervision, a bank regulatory post, in early December.

If you’re having turkey at your Thanksgiving, Karen Davis is not the guest you want at your table. The president of United Poultry Concerns and a tireless advocate for chickens, turkeys and other farmed fowl, Davis can rattle off details and statistics about how turkeys are raised and “harvested” (industry-speak for slaughtered) that are guaranteed to curb — or kill — your appetite. But she’ll settle for three big reasons to skip the turkey this Thanksgiving: “Animal cruelty, disease, filth — the toxic waste in the conditions in which the birds are forced to live.” ADVERTISEMENT According to the U.S....

Not one outlet that spread the CIA lie that it was Russian disinformation (except POLITICO) has even mentioned it. That means that CNN, NBC News, MSNBC, PBS, @HuffPost, @TheIntercept and so many others spent weeks before the 2020 election spreading what they know is a lie from CIA. And now that there's new proof from a mainstream reporter that they lied, they won't even mention that. The most damaging and aggressive agents of disinformation in the United States are large corporate media outlets. All journalists make mistakes. The way to know that they're deliberate disinformation agents is when they ignore...

Basketball Hall of Famer John Stockton, the NBA’s all-time assists leader, didn’t score points with fans for appearing in an anti-vaccine documentary. In a clip from the series “Covid and the Vaccine: Truth, Lies and Misconceptions Revealed” making the rounds on social media Thursday, the former Utah Jazz guard brags about his supposed expertise on the coronavirus pandemic. “This isn’t a virus cheating us of this opportunity,” he says of COVID-19. “It’s the guys making decisions saying, ‘No, no we’re too scared. We’re going to shut everything down. Sit in your house and be careful.’ My kids and my grandkids...