Free Republic

Spare some pity for Mike Johnson, the stuck speaker of the House of Representatives. A relatively obscure congressman thrust into leadership six months ago when the ungovernable Republican majority threw out the former speaker, Kevin McCarthy, Mr Johnson may be defenestrated too if he does something that he seems to think that he must: provide additional military aid to Ukraine, over the objections of the isolationist wing of his party. While the European Union and its member countries have contributed considerably to Ukraine’s budget and humanitarian needs, America has been Ukraine’s largest provider of military aid, amounting to $44bn since...

An amendment was proposed by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), which would have required a warrant for the FBI to conduct surveillance on Americans under FISA. The floor vote resulted in a tie vote of 212-212. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) then broke the deadlock by casting the tie-breaking vote against the amendment, a move criticized by grassroots supporters. Johnson betrayed Americans and defied the US Constitution. Worse yet, less than 24 hours later Mike Johnson posted on X about America’s founding principles — after giving the regime power to spy on any American at will! The man is either clueless or...

Here are 10 key reasons experts say U.S. support for Ukraine should be continued: 1. Putin's aggression must be stopped. 2. Putin's atrocities need a response. 3. Russia is targeting evangelical Christians for persecution. 4. Ukraine wants only to regain its sovereign territory. 5. Russia has not "won" the war. 6. Russia is rearming for a larger war. 7. Most Ukraine aid goes to U.S. contractors. 8. Europe fears a coming attack on NATO. 9. Support for Ukraine signals to China: Do not invade Taiwan. 10. Give Ukraine aid to let Trump bring peace.

A Mexican drug cartel used death threats to force a tribal leader to back out of testifying to Congress this week, according to another tribal leader who did show up to tell lawmakers just how much power the drug lords have accumulated.Jeffrey Stiffarm, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana, said he didn’t want to name the fellow leader who backed out, but he said the threat seemed real and credible.“One thing that we really seem to overlook all the time is the threats, the death threats we get from cartel leaders,” he told the House Natural Resources...

What’s the best way to get rich in America? Start a business? Get a four-year degree? Take a job on Wall Street? Wrong. The answer is get elected to Congress. Imagine buying shares in companies you regulate, or investing in defense contractors right before a war breaks out, or selling your stocks because you found out before everyone else there’s going to be a global pandemic. James Poulos and the Blaze Originals team traveled to Washington, D.C. to expose how members of Congress get filthy rich. Featuring: Unusual Whales, @RepMattGaetz, Chip Roy, and George Santos.

— ACEP maintains it values "a diverse and representative emergency physician workforce"Rep. Greg Murphy, MD (R-N.C.), will speak at the American College of Emergency Physicians' (ACEP) leadership meeting later this month, despite calls for the congressman to be disinvited over his bill proposing a ban on federal funding for medical schools with diversity initiatives. Last month, the North Carolina congressmen introduced the Embracing anti-Discrimination, Unbiased Curricula, and Advancing Truth in Education (EDUCATE) Act, which per a press release on Murphy's websiteopens in a new tab or window aims "to ban race-based mandates at medical schools and accrediting institutions." ACEP's president,...

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron told America that “it’s profoundly in your interests” to shovel more money into Ukraine while saying he would like to meet with any members of Congress in need of persuading as he visits Washington. For Ukraine, “perhaps nothing is more important than the supplemental the Congress is looking at the moment” former Prime Minister David Cameron — who quit the post over losing his own Brexit referendum, but is now back in government as Britain’s chief diplomat — said on Tuesday. Now Lord Cameron — after he was elevated to Britain’s largely appointed House...

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) stated that if 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump wins in 2024, he’ll nominate more judges who believe that unelected federal agency officials shouldn’t make crucial policy decisions and that this should be left to Congress. While discussing judicial nominees and courts, Klobuchar said, “It matters, you…are going to discuss later in your program whether or not a president is above the law, whether or not he can claim immunity for any act, because that’s what Donald Trump is claiming. We know, with the Mifepristone decision,...

Below is my column in the New York Post on the recent rebuke of the Justice Department by a federal judge in a hearing on the refusal to comply with House subpoenas in the Biden corruption investigation. The Justice Department appears little concerned over the glaring disconnect in how it treats its own attorneys as opposed to other citizens — a pattern that we have discussed previously. Here is the column: “Are you kidding me?” Those are four words that no lawyer wants to hear from a judge in a hearing. But that was not the least of it for...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in remarks published on Saturday, said his country was awaiting a much-needed, large-scale aid package from the United States and that he still believed Congress would vote it through.

Kyiv will lose the war against Russia if the U.S. fails to approve military aid to battle Moscow’s invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday. Tens of billions of dollars in military assistance for Kyiv has been blocked for months in Congress. The package faces resistance from House Republicans. “It is necessary to specifically tell Congress that if Congress does not help Ukraine, Ukraine will lose the war,” Zelensky said during a video meeting of Kyiv-organised fundraising platform United24, per AFP.

The Biden administration has finalized a new set of regulations to prevent a future president from initiating a wholesale purge of the US civil service along the lines of what former president Donald Trump envisioned during the final months of his term. The new rules, published in the Federal Register on Thursday and which would go into effect on 9 May, are meant to provide the 2.2 million nonpartisan civil servants who staff the executive branch with more defined protections that cannot be easily stripped away by presidential fiat. They were inspired by an October 2020 executive order issued by...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Doing their part to engage in the day's traditional hijinx, the United States Congress played a hilarious April Fools joke by announcing they are working hard to serve the American people. In the ridiculous gag, timed perfectly to coincide lawmakers assured the public they are toiling tirelessly to devise solutions to the pressing problems faced by everyday Americans, totally owning their constituents in the process. "We promise to do our best," Nancy Pelosi while holding back a snicker during a Congressional press conference. "The American people have our solemn pledge that everything we do in Washington,...

House Intelligence chairman Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation” that more funding for Ukraine will have “overwhelming support” in Congress. Partial transcript as follows: ED O’KEEFE: Thanks for sticking with us. We go now to the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Ohio Congressman Mike Turner, who joins us this morning from Dayton, Ohio. Congressman- Chairman, good morning to you. Our understanding is that Speaker Johnson plans to hold a vote on funding for Ukraine aid when Congress returns a week from tomorrow. Is that still the plan?

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) announced Friday he would resign from Congress before his term is up, shrinking the GOP’s already razor-thin majority in the House. Gallagher, a four-term lawmaker who is considered a rising star within the GOP, announced last month that he would not seek reelection. But Friday, he said he would leave the House on April 19. “I’ve worked closely with House Republican leadership on this timeline and look forward to seeing Speaker Johnson appoint a new chair to carry out the important mission of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party,” he said in a statement....

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says he plans to invite Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress. What better way for Netanyahu to counter Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's completely inappropriate and disgraceful speech he delivered that encouraged Israel to hold an election while Israel is at war? Schumer most likely delivered that speech at President Biden's request. Biden doesn't have the nerve to be honest about his feelings about Netanyahu. He likes to point to several decades of friendship but privately he is stabbing Netanyahu and Israel in the back. Israel has a...

Congress will vote Friday on a $1.2 trillion, 1,000-plus page spending bill revealed Thursday just before 3:00 a.m. The bill will start in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will move the bill under “suspension of the rules.” Johnson repeatedly has used suspension of the rules — which requires two-thirds support but bypasses procedural opposition from conservatives — to advance legislation lacking broad Republican support. Suspension of the rules also enables Johnson to bypass a requirement that Congress receive at least 72 hours to review legislation before voting on it.

MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY… There is a hijacking in progress. The US military is being hijacked by feather merchants, perfumed princes, Maoists, social justice warriors, wokesters, feminists, homosexuals, transgenders, radical Democrats, Wellesley wack jobs, Berkeley pinkos, and Beltway swamp creatures. Aided and abetted by gutless, woke senior military leadership, the worst senior military leadership in US history, bar none; revolutionaries are conducting a great leap backward to destroy every value, every code, every sacred principle, every ideal of sound reason and conduct in the US armed forces; all in the name of diversity, equity and inclusiveness. What kind of senior leaders...

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - An agreement reached by U.S. congressional leaders and the White House on a massive bill funding military, State Department and a range of other government programs will continue a ban on U.S. funding for UNRWA, the main U.N. agency for Palestinians, until March 2025, two sources said on Tuesday. President Joe Biden's administration said in January it was temporarily pausing new funding to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after Israel accused 12 of the agency's 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly Oct. 7...

Just wanted ones to see wovoted on another liberal Biden nominate to serve as a United States circuit judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit judge moving toward being appointed. Berner is a resident of Montgomery County, residing in Takoma Park, Maryland, where she and her former wife raised their three sons. She is married to civil rights attorney Debra Katz. If confirmed, Berner would be the first openly LGBTQ judge to serve on that court.