Free Republic

If you don’t like the pro-Hamas demonstrations by American college students, then you won’t like American higher education, which is the garden in which these flowers were grown. Within hours of the atrocities committed by Hamas operatives who invaded Israel on October 7, groups of American college students had organized to express their support for the terrorists. This caught many Americans by surprise. How could college students at some of America’s best universities sympathize with the perpetrators of gruesome attacks on unarmed civilians? The surprise, however, was not universal. Those of us who pay close attention to American higher education...

Joy Behar told her co-hosts Tuesday on ABC’s “The View” that she believed the support for former president Donald Trump is all about racism, taxes and retaining power. Behar said, “He threatened on a Veterans Day speech this past weekend, Trump threatened to, ‘Root out the radical left thugs that live like vermin with in the confines of our country.’ That is when you start talking about people as vermin. That means that you have dehumanized them and the next step is extermination. That is extermination talk.” She continued, “I mean, I’m not going to invoke, but this is what...

Spent the entire month of June in the va hospital. Again (second year in a row). And then 4 1/2 months in a skilled nursing rehab facility. Solved some of the medical issues but I'm still under the weather. Arms and hands still extremely weak. Still in bed for most of my time. Still can't sit in my powerchair very long. Still can't feed myself, etc. Still can't type. Still using voice recognition software to enter posts, etc. Very slow. Our big problem right now is Chris is overwhelmed and stressed out. We're now looking for a full-time, live-in 24/7...

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stated that if getting the hostages held by Hamas released “requires some sort of humanitarian pause or pauses, then we’re obviously in support of that as well.” Co-host Geoff Bennett asked, “You have said the U.S. welcomes a pause in the war to allow more time to get humanitarian aid in and hostages out. There are, of course, American hostages being held by Hamas right now. What’s the potential impact of this latest offensive on the effort to get those hostages released?”

Former President Donald Trump is reportedly not expected to support House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) in the speakership race against House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH). Trump, whose 2024 campaign Scalise did not endorse, is unlikely to help Scalise whip the votes to become speaker because “loyalty is a two-way street,” three sources close to the president told the Messenger on Wednesday. One person “familiar with the former president’s thinking” explained it this way: “Trump personally likes Steve. There’s no real animosity,” said one of the sources. “But the fact is, loyalty is a two-way street and Steve had...

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that he would not give Democrats anything in exchange for their votes to help save his Speakership, after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) moved to force a vote on ousting him. “They haven’t asked for anything. I’m not going to provide anything,” McCarthy said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Hakeem runs his conference,” McCarthy said of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). “He’s going to have a conference, and everybody’s going to talk about it, and I’m not going to put Hakeem in any position, and I respect whatever decision anybody makes.”

During an appearance on Thursday’s broadcast of FNC’s “Fox & Friends,” former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, blamed “awfully pathetic” President Joe Biden for the lack of support for U.S. involvement in Ukraine. According to the former Republican New Jersey governor, helping Ukraine is helping us. “It’s awfully pathetic,” he said. “And the reason why that there’s not even more universal support among the American people is we have a pathetic president of the United States who will not make the case for Ukraine because he can’t. Not because the facts aren’t there...

Comedian Larry David, the Seinfeld co-creator and Curb Your Enthusiasm star, reportedly screamed at billionaire Elon Musk over his ties to the Republican Party. The incident reportedly occurred at Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel’s high-profile wedding in Saint-Tropez, France last year. David even officiated Emanuel’s marriage to fashion designer Sarah Staudinger. Author Walter Isaacson writes in his new biography, Elon Musk, that David “seemed to be fuming” during the encounter. “Do you just want to murder kids in schools?” David reportedly asked Musk, a reference to the horrific shooting in Uvalde, Texas, wherein 19 children and two teachers were murdered.

Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) support among New Jersey Democrats took a hit over the past year, according to a poll published Thursday. In the latest Monmouth University poll, Menendez, who is up for reelection in 2024, had the approval of 58 percent of New Jersey Democrats, with 23 percent disapproving, and 19 percent saying they don’t know. That’s down from April 2022, when New Jersey Democrats’ approval of Menendez was at 66 percent, with at 16 percent disapproving, and 17 percent said they didn’t know.

A Trump-critical Republican non-profit launched an campaign Tuesday calling on GOP lawmakers to mantain support for Ukraine amid growing resistance to additional aid packages from key factions of the party. “Republicans for Ukraine,” launched Tuesday by the non-profit Defending Democracy Together, is a $2-million campaign with first-person testimonials from GOP voters urging politicians and lawmakers to support Ukraine. The ads will run on cable, network TV, and on YouTube through the end of the year. Defending Democracy Together describes itself as an “advocacy organization created by lifelong conservatives and Republicans.” The group has spoken out against former President Trump and...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said during a February trip to Europe that there is no “time limit” on American support for Ukraine, according to a report released on Monday. Politico released a detailed piece about McConnell’s efforts to curb the ascending Trumpist wing of the Republican Party and fend off Trump-leaning Republicans’ noninterventionist sentiment. He told Politico that the “most important thing going on internationally right now is the Ukraine war.”

Ukraine has summoned the Polish ambassador over “unacceptable” comments made about Kyiv’s gratitude — or rather, a perceived lack thereof — for the considerable military and fiscal support given to the nation to help it fight Russia. The Polish President’s international policy chief Marcin Przydacz said Monday that: “Ukraine has really received a lot of support from Poland. I think it would be worth them starting to appreciate the role that Poland has played for Ukraine in recent months and years.” According to a report in Wprost magazine, when pressed he doubled down on the point, saying in Warsaw: “…we...

Jack Schlossberg, one of the grandsons of President John F. Kennedy, has joined fellow members of the Kennedy family in attacking Democratic presidential Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his decision to run. NBC News reported Friday: In a video posted to his Instagram, Schlossberg, Caroline Kennedy’s son, said his grandfather’s legacy is important and that Biden is becoming “the greatest progressive president we’ve ever had.”

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and others are praising presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says childhood vaccines are linked to autism and that the Central Intelligence Agency killed his uncle. He has wondered out loud whether Wi-Fi exposure leads to cancer. Some of tech’s big stars are praising his campaign for president. Silicon Valley loves a contrarian, which is why some tech luminaries threw their support to Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. This time around, Kennedy, a Democrat, is the one getting the antiestablishment buzz in the tech world.

Nearly 18 months ago, Russia, after months-long border standoffs, launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The resulting conflict has been characterized by the resilience of Ukraine against Russian aggression, thanks in large part to extensive financial and military support from Western powers. The campaign waged by Moscow, riddled with military setbacks, has not deterred Ukraine’s tenacity or the American people’s unwavering support for Ukraine’s victory over Russia. The unwavering commitment of the U.S. to Ukraine’s sovereignty has been a consistent pillar of American foreign policy. President Biden, in February 2023, reiterated this commitment by declaring that “America will stand firmly...

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson had always been wrong in opposing the U.S. support for Ukraine. Discussing Carlson’s questions to former Vice President Mike Pence, anchor George Stephanopoulos said, “You weren’t at the Tucker Carlson forum, but if you were being pressed on Ukraine like that, how would you have responded?”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday said he does not believe it will “ultimately matter” when asked if he would personally support former President Donald Trump if he emerges as the Republican nominee in 2024, using the opportunity to criticize the GOP frontrunner. A reporter asked DeSantis about Trump’s attacks against him, inquiring, “Regardless of his attacks, will you 100 percent pledge to support Trump as a GOP nominee?” DeSantis, however, initially refused to overtly state if he would personally support Trump. Rather, he first criticized Trump’s line of attack, particularly on DeSantis’s handling of the coronavirus, only later...

American support for the Black Lives Matter movement has reached its lowest point since 2020, according to a poll released Wednesday. The Pew Research Center survey found about 51 percent of U.S. adults support the Black Lives Matter movement, a full six-point drop from last year when 56 percent supported it. Per The Hill: Two-thirds of U.S. adults said they supported the movement following Floyd’s death in 2020, according to a Pew analysis of the 5,073-person survey. Opinions on the movement vary by race, age and political leaning.

CHICAGO (CBS) –Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke Friday in favor of a basic income guarantee program at a conference held in Chicago. "We are ushering in a more dynamic, prosperous economy by giving people a guarantee that their lives have meaning," Johnson said. About 3,200 families are receiving direct payments in the first-ever Cook County Promise Guaranteed Income pilot program for low-earning households.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) shot down a Russian reporter’s suggestion that he does not support aid to Ukraine, pledging continued U.S. support for the country and calling on Russia to pull its troops from Ukraine. “No, I vote for aid for Ukraine. I support aid for Ukraine. I do not support what your country has done to Ukraine. I do not support your killing of the children either,” McCarthy said at a news conference in Israel on Monday. “And I think for one standpoint, you should pull out. And I don’t think it’s right. And we will continue to support,...