Free Republic

Government leaker and transgender rights advocate Chelsea Manning entered the U.S. Senate race in Maryland to huge fanfare this year, but her campaign is poised to wind down quietly Tuesday when voters head to the polls on primary day. Ms. Manning promised to shake up the race, using her high profile to push a platform that included creating a universal health care system, abolishing federal law enforcement agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and combating what she called the American “police state.” But the strain of being in the public eye after seven years in prison for leaking...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday that he will cancel the August recess, citing "historic obstruction" by Democrats. “Due to the historic obstruction by Senate Democrats of the president’s nominees, and the goal of passing appropriations bills prior to the end of the fiscal year, the August recess has been canceled," McConnell said in a statement. He added that senators would stay in session "to pass legislation, including appropriations bills, and to make additional progress on the president’s nominees.” The Senate had been expected to leave town on August 3 for a four-week break and not return...

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday quietly met with Sen. John McCain (R) and his wife, Cindy, at the couple’s home outside Sedona, Ariz., GOP sources in the state told The Hill. The meeting, which was not on the governor's official schedule, comes amid speculation over whom the Republican governor would appoint to fill the Senate seat should the ailing 81-year-old senior lawmaker and Vietnam War hero unexpectedly leave office. McCain is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma and has remained in Arizona since mid-December. GOP sources with knowledge of the meeting Tuesday said they did...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee passed its version of a $716 billion defense policy bill on Thursday, including a measure to prevent Turkey from purchasing Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets.The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, from Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Senator Thom Tillis, would remove Turkey from the F-35 program over its detention of U.S. citizen Andrew Brunson, Shaheen’s office said. Brunson, a Christian pastor who could be jailed for up to 35 years, denied terrorism and spying charges in a Turkish court this month. He has been in pre-trial...

Speaker Newt Gingrich was fond of saying “The Democrats are our adversaries. The Senate is our enemy.” The Senate has long been a frustration to the impatient warriors for change. Its rules and culture are intentionally designed to be slow and deliberative, in contrast to the quick-moving partisan House. Today, Republicans have control over all the levers of power. The White House, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the state legislatures, and the governors -- they are all dominated by Republicans. The conservative grassroots is rightfully expecting big things after years of promises. And big things are happening. The...

Follows recent tweet by President Trump urging Senate to stay in session through the summerThe clamor for Congress to scrap its summer vacation is growing louder, with more than a dozen Senate Republicans officially petitioning Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday to keep the chamber in session on nights, weekends and even through their normal August break to make headway on President Trump’s agenda. Partly born of frustration with Democrats and partly worried that voters will see a lack of progress from an all-Republican Washington, the senators said voters preparing for the November elections deserve to know that the Republican...

U.S. Senate candidate Howard Sherman is holding a campaign kickoff party from 6-9 pm on Meridian City hall lawn Saturday may 12th

Maryland Democrat also calls for national single-payer health care systemSenate hopeful Chelsea Manning said she’ll work to abolish federal immigrations and customs agencies if successful in her bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, Maryland Democrat. Ms. Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst convicted of leaking classified documents to the WikiLeaks website, listed eliminating both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) as top priorities on her platform unveiled Thursday. “We believe the solution to the so called ‘immigration’ issue, which amounts to nothing more than justification for ethnic cleansing in America, is not...

U.S. troops could continue fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda and would be given explicit new permission to battle the Islamic State — but would not be authorized to attack the capabilities of any nation state, such as Syria — under updated rules of war proposed by a bipartisan group of senators Monday. Led by Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, the new Authorization for the Use of Military Force would replace 2001 and 2002 AUMFs that started the war on terror and paved the way for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The commander in chief —...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday he plans to confirm three of President Trump’s judicial nominees by the end of the week, continuing to fulfill the president’s promise to remake the federal bench with conservative jurists. If all three of his picks are cleared this week, it will bring the total number of Mr. Trump’s district court picks to 17 that have been confirmed since the president took office. Claria Horn Boom, who was nominated more than 300 days ago...

Mississippi’s Gov. Phil Bryant will reportedly appoint the state's first female member of Congress by picking the state’s agriculture commissioner to fill the vacancy to be left by Sen. Thad Cochran’s upcoming retirement. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Cindy Hyde-Smith, who has served as the state’s agriculture commissioner since 2011, will step into the veteran Republican’s seat. That announcement could come as soon as Wednesday. Should Hyde-Smith be appointed, she will hold the seat for the special election on Nov. 6, when she would be backed by the GOP establishment against both Democrats and a challenger from the right...

‘My position in the media helps me better serve the state and the nation’ Talk radio kingpin Michael Savage recently told his 7 million listeners that he felt a strong calling to run for the U.S. Senate seat in California. The popular host followed up with a statement spelling out his intended platform and issues of importance as a potential lawmaker. But no more. Mr. Savage has changed his mind, influenced he said, by his ability as a radio host to effectively push back against President Trump’s recent decision to allow elephant trophy imports into the U.S.

A lawsuit filed last year by West Virginia's Republican attorney general Patrick Morrisey has resulted in a new Trump administration directive to evaluate the opioid production quota system, which Morrissey says is "responsible for many deaths across the country." Morrisey, who has been attorney general since 2013 and is now running for U.S. Senate, has long viewed the Drug Enforcement Agency's quota system on controlled substances as broken, believing it was setting limits based on sales numbers instead of true medical needs of Americans. He told the Washington Free Beacon he has been digging for information on the system for...

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) on Monday said he will resign from the Senate next month, saying his "health has become an ongoing challenge." "I intend to fulfill my responsibilities and commitments to the people of Mississippi and the Senate through the completion of the 2018 appropriations cycle, after which I will formally retire from the U.S. Senate," Cochran said in a statement. He is set to resign from his seat on April 1, according to his office. Cochran is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. His announcement comes as Congress aims to pass a mammoth government funding bill by...

Democrats blocked a vote Tuesday on cracking down on sanctuary cities as the first day of the immigration debate began with a whimper. Sen. Charles E. Schumer said debating sanctuary cities would be getting off “on the wrong foot,” insisting this week’s floor fight should only be about illegal immigrant “Dreamers” and border security. The early jockeying underscored the problems the Senate is about to face. Democrats had begged for a “fair” process to debate immigration, but are now worried about just how wide-ranging that debate will be, and are trying to shape the amendments that will be offered.

The neighbor of Sen. Rand Paul who is accused of attacking the Kentucky Republican has been charged with a federal crime, the Department of Justice announced Friday. Rene Boucher, 58, of Bowling Green, Ky., has been charged with assaulting a member of Congress, resulting in personal injury, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Josh Minkler announced. On Nov. 3, Boucher allegedly "had enough" after seeing Paul stack brush onto a pile near the senator's property, according to court documents. Boucher then ran onto Paul's property and tackled him, leaving him with six broken ribs, the documents state. Paul...

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The government has told a federal judge in New Jersey it will seek a retrial of Sen. Bob Menendez, whose 11-week corruption trial ended in a hung jury in November. The filing to the judge on Friday seeks a retrial of the Democrat “at the earliest possible date.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is one of the most talked-about potential Democratic candidates for the White House in 2020. But she has also turned into a thorn in the side of the Department of Justice as she holds up one of DOJ's highest-profile postings. The junior senator from New York plans to use her “blue-slip prerogative” to block the confirmation of Geoffrey S. Berman, if he is nominated by President Trump to be the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Gillibrand spokesman Glen Caplin told Fox News. Berman, 58, a former prosecutor in the...

Seventeen of President Trump’s federal court nominees cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, setting them up for floor votes as Republicans look to install as many conservative judges as possible. Eight of the judges were deemed very controversial and were approved on a 11-10 party-line votes, while just two were approved unanimously. Three of the judges were for circuit courts. Democrats raised concerns over several of the nominees over their LGBTQ positions, saying they would not be fair to that community. But Democrats spent the most time protesting Thomas Alvin Farr, who was nominated to be a district judge for...

Senators confirmed President Trump’s 20th federal judge Tuesday, approving William L. Campbell Jr. to a seat on a federal court in Tennessee by a 97-0 vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said the Senate will have three more district court nominees on its agenda this week as well, but he complained it will consume the chamber’s entire floor time as they overcome Democrats’ procedural hurdles.