Free Republic

We've already seen MSNBC legal blogger Jordan Rubin going full angst over the immunity appeal delay that threatens to push back the start date of the J6 trial which was originally scheduled to commence on March 4.On Wednesday, Politico reporters Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein joined Rubin in the Worry Room as they expressed their frustration over the slow pace of the appeal delay which threatens to push that critical trial past election day. Their utter frustration was on full display on Wednesday in "As judges mull presidential immunity, Trump reaps the benefits of delay."

A report has revealed how much Joe Biden is losing his “mind” regarding President Trump. Politico reported Thursday that Biden has taken to describing Trump in incredibly vulgar terms behind closed doors, including calling him a “sick f**k and a “f**king a**hole.” The president has described Trump to longtime friends and close aides as a “sick f*ck” who delights in others’ misfortunes, according to three people who have heard the president use the profane description. According to one of the people who has spoken, Biden recently said of Trump: “What a f**king asshole the guy is!” The website notes the...

Joel Kotkin reports from Davos that things are not well with Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum. Says he: The growing irrelevance of what Adrian Wooldridge has labelled “the progressive aristocracy” can even be seen in the less than enthusiastic press coverage. Politico describes the contemporary Davos crowd as a “smart set” which “sounds dumb.” Then he sticks in the shiv: The grandees don’t have to travel far to see the results of their “reset” as nearby Germany’s industrial machine collapses, with even its last solar panel plant about to go belly-up. But then there was Javier Milei’s rousing speech in...

According to a recent POLITICO news report, during the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, then US President Donald Trump told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in a private meeting, the following: “you need to understand that if Europe is under attack we will never come to help you and to support you, and by the way NATO is dead, and we will leave, we will quit NATO.” Trump said so according to Europe’s Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was also there, with von der Leyen and former European Commissioner for Trade Phil Hogan. Breton is quoted...

On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, a former ally of Donald J. Trump, delivered a blistering critique of the former President, implying that Trump prioritizes personal loyalty over the nation’s welfare. In 2017, Donald Trump, who was then serving as President, threw his support behind Ron DeSantis in the race for Florida’s governorship. This endorsement from Trump was a significant boost for DeSantis, a tea-party conservative, enabling him to surpass the right-wing GOP candidate Adam Putnam, who was serving as Florida’s agriculture commissioner at the time, Politico reported. “Congressman Ron DeSantis is a brilliant...

To get a sense of why conspiracy theories centered on sex trafficking and pedophilia — and now the “Epstein list” — are so buzzy in MAGA circles, POLITICO Magazine called up Mike Rothschild, author of The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything and Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories. Rothschild pointed to a toxic stew of age-old antisemitism; the worst incentives of today’s social media; and the right’s unending obsession with Bill and Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump pops up in the documents, including some released on...

The amazing thing about Politico's story on Thursday by global editor-in-chief John F. Harris and senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein about a couple of Trump cases heading to the Supreme court is the lack of detailed discussions of the legal aspects involved in "John Roberts, Donald Trump and the ghosts of Bush v. Gore."Why? Because Harris and Gerstein are promoting the highly disingenuous idea that Chief Justice John Roberts, who they claim has a court credibility problem, should steer his fellow justices to deliver a split decision because of PR optics. I kid you not.

Haley recently received a coveted endorsement from Gov. Chris Sununu.Nikki Haley is closing the gap on former President Donald Trump in a key early voting state.A CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday found that 29% of likely GOP primary voters in New Hampshire would vote for Haley, while 44% said they’re backing Trump. It’s the latest good news for Haley out of the Granite State, where she recently received a coveted endorsement from Gov. Chris Sununu, who has pledged to put “110 percent” behind the former South Carolina governor in the run-up to the state’s Jan. 23 primary.

DURHAM, New Hampshire — First Donald Trump’s Republican critics banked on one of his opponents catching a spark in Iowa. Then they said New Hampshire was where they’d make their mark. Eventually, advisers to Trump’s rivals maintained, someone would emerge from the field of lower-polling candidates to get a clear shot at Trump. After the past week, that idea has never looked more out of reach. In Iowa, new polling shows Trump not only maintaining his enormous lead in the first caucus state, but expanding on it — stretching his support to 51 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers. And in...

The Pentagon blocked members of President Joe Biden’s incoming administration from gaining access to critical information about current operations, including the troop drawdown in Afghanistan, upcoming special operations missions in Africa and the Covid-19 vaccine distribution program, according to new details provided by transition and defense officials.The effort to obstruct the Biden team, led by senior White House appointees at the Pentagon, is unprecedented in modern presidential transitions and will hobble the new administration on key national security matters as it takes over positions in the Defense Department on Wednesday, the officials said.Biden openly decried the treatment his aides were...

Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump railed against “so-called Christians” and “pieces of s—” evangelicals who supported Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, according to a forthcoming book. At the time, allies of Cruz had been making hay of Trump’s flub before an audience at Virginia’s Liberty University, a conservative evangelical college, in which he botched a question about his favorite Bible verse and replied that it came from the book of “Two Corinthians,” rather than “Second Corinthians.” “The laughter and ridicule were embarrassing enough for Trump,” Tim Alberta writes in his new book, “The Kingdom, the Power,...

Hamas’ brutal assault against Israel came on Vladimir Putin’s birthday. Such a catastrophic security shock in the Middle East was probably a welcome surprise for a Russian president whose strategic priority is to divert Western support and attention away from Ukraine. A massive conflagration in Israel risks doing exactly that. The big question is how much credit to give the Kremlin for the perfect storm of mounting crises — in Israel, Kosovo, the Caucasus and Africa — that are rearing up on America and Europe. For many, it’s tempting to see Putin as a mastermind or puppetmaster, stirring up more...

Search... Premium POLITICO: Fighting against the USSR didn't necessarily make you a Nazi Brett T. 8:30 PM I appreciate Twitchy favorite @bonchieredstate for drawing my attention to this POLITICO piece. As you know, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Canadian Parliament gave not one but two standing ovations to a World War II veteran who'd fought against the Russians … who happened to be our allies at the time. That didn't ring a bell with anyone … he fought the Russians, so let's give him a round of applause. I bring this up because when POLITICO wrote their take on...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, elevating the head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to a person familiar with the decision. Newsom is moving swiftly to name the next senator, two days after Feinstein’s death and just as a perilously split Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown. Senate Democrats are in need of every vote in the closely divided chamber. The announcement was expected to come Monday, and an adviser to the governor, Anthony York,...

Like much of Washington, the Biden White House was caught off guard Saturday morning when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy abruptly reversed course and announced that he would bring a clean bill to fund the government for the next 45 days. But aides weren’t terribly surprised. After all, they had assumed the government shutdown showdown would end this way at some point — with the main question being whether McCarthy would take his lumps before or after the funding deadline.

Politico reporter Kyle Cheney is clearly on pins and needles waiting for the January 6 trial of Donald Trump, which isn't until next March. But on Monday, he offered "pregame" excitement in a story titled Inside the courtroom of Trump’s D.C. judge."Cheney began: "U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan is poised to preside over a historic trial that will feature a defendant unlike any who has set foot in her court or any other: former President Donald Trump."Although Cheney noted she was an Obama appointee, the judge was presented as an impartial hero against Trump: "Chutkan probed potential jurors’ strong...

The Pentagon will exempt its Ukraine operations from a potential shutdown if lawmakers can’t agree on a deal to fund the government by the end of the month, allowing key training and other activities in support of Kyiv’s forces to move ahead uninterrupted, according to a Defense Department spokesperson. (snip)“Operation Atlantic Resolve is an excepted activity under a government lapse in appropriations,” Sherwood said, referring to the named operation for DOD’s activities in response to the Russian invasion. The move means that the U.S. military’s activities related to the war, such as training of Ukrainian soldiers on American tactics and...

Donald Trump’s campaign believes Ron DeSantis is flatlining. Now, they want to bury him. The former president and his team are beefing up their efforts in Iowa, hoping to deliver the type of knock-out punch that would effectively end the Florida governor’s bid and send a message to the other campaigns to get out of the way. Building on his seven visits to Iowa so far this year, Trump is embarking on a “Team Trump Caucus Commitment” organizing event in Iowa with campaign volunteers at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Maquoketa, and remarks at the Grand River Conference Center in...

Most people say former President Donald Trump should go to trial for his various cases regarding classified documents and attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election prior to the 2024 contest, in which he appears likely to be the Republican nominee. According to a new POLITICO Magazine/Ipsos poll, 62% of people said they believe Trump should stand trial for his storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, for which he was indicted in June, prior to the 2024 presidential election in November. Sixty-one percent also believed he should stand trial for cases regarding alleged attempts to subvert...

Russia's richest woman sues Forbes magazine MOSCOW, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Russia's richest woman, who is also the wife of Moscow's mayor, is suing the Russian edition of Forbes magazine for defamation over a story detailing her business interests, her company said on Wednesday. A spokesman for Yelena Baturina's Inteko firm said it had filed a suit against the magazine and its editor in Russian courts seeking compensation totalling 213,000 roubles ($8,100). "The article published in the December edition of Forbes magazine contains information which is not true," said Inteko spokesman Gennady Terebkov. That information included "the incorrect reproduction of...