Free Republic

Mitt Romney is a spring chicken. At a sprightly 73, the GOP’s 2012 nominee is: one year younger than the outgoing president and 2024 frontrunner, five years younger than both the incumbent president and the Senate minority leader, and seven years younger than the Speaker of the House. In the uppermost echelons of American government, only the Senate majority leader—boy wonder Chuck Schumer—is any younger, and only by three years. This fact has been gnawing at me as the septuagenarian Utah senator/Massachusetts governor from Michigan snatches headlines left and right. Maybe I’m wrong; I hope I am. But in the...

Utah is very close to passing HB60, a strong Constitutional Carry bill. HB60 passed the House, 54-19. It passed the Senate 22-6. In the Senate, the bill was amended to include the creation of an account to provide funds for suicide prevention. HB60 creates a restricted account in which the funds collected for concealed carry permits are segregated and used for the administration of the issuance of the permits.The Senate amendment takes 50% of the funds left over at the end of the fiscal year, from the concealed carry account, and assigns them to a suicide prevention fund, where the...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Saturday offered blistering criticism of a plan by at least 12 Republican senators to challenge the results of the election next week, warning that they "imperil" public trust. “The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic. The congressional power to reject electors is reserved for the most extreme and unusual circumstances. These are far from it," Romney said in a statement. Romney had previously told reporters Friday that objecting during Wednesday's joint session, where Congress will formally count the Electoral College vote, would help...

Do a good job and report the truth, and you're probably going to catch hell. The challenge is being willing to do it anyway. — Dan Rather The Dan Rather Medals for News and Guts honor the process of journalism as much as the end product. They will be awarded to professional and collegiate journalists who go the extra yard — overcoming obstacles like stonewalling and harassment — to get the story that tells truth to power. The Medals are named for Dan Rather, the legendary reporter and anchor who went far afield from his Texan roots but never forgot...

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney on Sunday called for the country to "get behind" President-elect Joe Biden and said he has seen no evidence of widespread voter fraud, even as President Donald Trump has pushed for election-related lawsuits and refused to concede the election. "I think we get behind the new president, unless for some reason that's overturned, we get behind the new president and wish him the very best," Romney, who was the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union." While CNN and other networks projected Saturday that Biden will become the 46th President...

@MittRomney Ann and I extend our congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. We know both of them as people of good will and admirable character. We pray that God may bless them in the days and years ahead.

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes has announced a leave of absence from his position in the state to work with President Donald Trump’s legal team as he prepares to challenge election results in key battleground states that initially reported wide victory margins for the president, but after days of discovering and counting mail-in ballots went to Joe Biden. “Despite months of predictions about a ‘blue wave,’ @GOP kept the Senate & expanded seats in the House,” wrote Reyes. “Biden & his allies know @POTUS will win if only verified, #legal votes are counted.” He added that, presumably at least in...

Sen. Mitt Romney's (R-Utah) announcement on Tuesday that he will entertain confirming President Trump's Supreme Court nominee this year sparked fervent responses from both liberals and conservatives on social media. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, was seen as crucial in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) plan to vote on the president's nominee to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat. The president has said his team is vetting a shortlist of five women and wants his nominee confirmed before Election Day. He is expected to announce his nominee on Saturday. Romney's decision essentially gives McConnell the necessary...

Sen. Rand Paul is joined by Sen. Mike Lee for a discussion on current events, freedom and individual liberty in the first lecture of the 2020 Capitol Hill Lecture Series. This is Great!They discuss: - The Tea Party and why Rand and Lee are senators. - Big government Republicans. - Bail outs. - Bush/Obama deficits. - Coronavirus and the the tyrannical governors. Plus a wide ranging discussion about the Constitution, the states and individual liberty. [51:00 mins] Video....

WASHINGTON - Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) sent a letter to the CEOs of Alphabet, Facebook, Squarespace, and Twitter Thursday asking each company to identify and justify their content moderation process. “I am specifically concerned about corporations using their power unilaterally to silence opinions they dislike and thus warp the public debates their platforms present to the American people,” the letter reads. Sen Lee goes on to ask the Big Tech CEOs 11 questions including: “What content-moderation standards do you employ when you remove content from your platform, where the content does not violate state or federal laws?” “How do you...

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) activated the state's National Guard after rioters in Salt Lake City were seen flipping police cars.

@MittRomneyI know Joe Scarborough. Joe is a friend of mine. I don't know T.J. Klausutis. Joe can weather vile, baseless accusations but T.J.? His heart is breaking. Enough already.

Utah lawmakers recently proposed four different state laws that would infringe upon the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, which is seemingly in violation with the text of the U.S. Constitution, something the lawmakers would know if they had bothered to read the document. In response, several hundred supporters of the Second Amendment rallied outside the State Capitol in Salt Lake City on Saturday. Firearm owners carried weapons and signs to show their support of the Second Amendment. The new bills would institute universal background checks, red-flag laws, and eliminate private gun transfers. The Daily Mail reported...

Center is the head coach of the men’s tennis team at the University of Texas at Austin. According to court documents, a witness told investigators that in 2015, Center agreed to accept approximately $100,000 from the witness as a bribe, in exchange for Center to designate a student as a UT tennis team recruit, thereby facilitating his admission to UT. The documents said the student was a California resident who did not play competitive tennis... clients paid anywhere from $100,000 to $6.5 million... The University of Texas gave the following response to KVUE: “Federal authorities notified us this morning that...

People need to cut back on burgers because they're contributing to climate change, the United Nations said this week. The United Nations Environment Program said research shows that Americans eat about three burgers a week, and if one of those was swapped for "a plant-based alternative burger for one year, it would be like taking the greenhouse gases from 12 million cars off the road for a year." The World Economic Forum blames the beef and dairy industries for churning out more greenhouse gas emissions than oil companies or some countries like Germany. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association argued that...

Republican Utah Senate candidate Mitt Romney reacted Wednesday to a series of apparent explosive devices sent to leading Democratic Party members, claiming without evidence that the sender was motivated by “hate speech.” “Disgusting, vile threats and actions against fellow Americans and our institutions are sadly unsurprising: hate acts follow hate speech,” Romney, once a staunch critic of the president, wrote on Twitter. “It is past time for us to turn down and tune out the rabid rhetoric.” Without evidence, the failed presidential candidate placed the blame on a “fellow” American — a fact no law enforcement official at this time...

He’s asked in the clip below about having led the Never Trump movement, which he denies. And I suppose that’s fair enough: There was no formal Never Trump “leader.” But Romney, as the reigning GOP nominee and the person who delivered the most scathing anti-Trump speech by a Republican during the 2016 cycle, was the closest thing to one. In fact, I take his denial to be aimed not so much at the claim that he led Never Trumpers as at the idea that he even was a Never Trumper.

The man accused of killing University of Texas at Austin student Haruka Weiser has been found guilty of capital murder. It took the jury of seven women and five men a total of 10 and a half hours to come to their verdict. Since he has been found guilty, Meechaiel Criner, 20, will spend the rest of his life in prison. Because he was 17 years old at the time of Weiser's murder, he is not eligible for the death penalty. He is eligible for parole after 40 years in prison.

Day five of Meechaiel Criner's capital murder trial started with testimony from a forensic scientist who analyzed the hairs and fibers taken as evidence in the case. Criner, 20, is accused of killing University of Texas student Haruka Weiser in the spring of 2016... Prior to the trial starting, Judge David Wahlberg decided to throw out major DNA evidence in this trial because of procedural errors in analyzing it at the Department of Public Safety Lab. Instead, most of the evidence the court has heard for the case against Criner has been circumstantial, trying to tie Criner to Weiser's murder...

University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson has become a new favorite target of the left on American college campuses. Peterson defies the progressive narrative on gender, and other issues. For this, he is declared anti-LGBT.Peterson is slated to give a lecture at the University of Texas at San Antonio, but a socialist student group is trying to get the event cancelled.Peyton Dillberg reports at Campus Reform: Socialist students seek to shut down Jordan Peterson eventA socialist student group at the University of Texas at San Antonio is promoting a petition demanding the cancellation of an upcoming lecture featuring Dr....