Free Republic

Election officials in some of the most closely watched jurisdictions across the country say they are bracing for a new wave of conspiracy-fueled threats — even as they remain confident in their ability to do their jobs under heightened scrutiny. In interviews with a dozen local election officials in the swing states of Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona, most expressed concern that the election denialism and conspiracy theories they have spent the last two years combating have already taken on new life, fueling isolated yet alarming incidents at drop box locations in Arizona and Pennsylvania, for example. Those...

When it finally dawned on Donald Trump in the twilight of his presidency that he wouldn’t be living in the White House for another four years, he had a problem: he had barely packed and had to move out quickly. West Wing aides and government movers frantically tossed documents and other items into banker boxes that were shipped to a storage room at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida along with other, previously packed records set aside by Trump, sometimes erratically so, according to two sources with knowledge of Trump’s move and records issues.

WASHINGTON — It's the "most wide-ranging investigation" in Justice Department history: the unprecedented manhunt for hundreds of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Donald Trump's behalf on Jan. 6, 2021, and the criminal inquiry into efforts to stop the peaceful transfer of power. It's also a logistical nightmare. As cases against Capitol rioters work their way through the court system and a federal grand jury hears testimony about Trump’s role in Jan. 6, some federal officials are raising concerns that it could bring the already stretched investigation of Jan. 6 to a breaking point. The Justice Department has asked...

Donald Trump has said that pregnancy is “wonderful" – unless you’re an employer. In an October 2004 interview with NBC’s Dateline, Trump said pregnancy is “a wonderful thing for the woman, it’s a wonderful thing for the husband, it’s certainly an inconvenience for a business. And whether people want to say that or not, the fact is it is an inconvenience for a person that is running a business.” That interview, called “Blonde Ambition," highlighted then-Trump Golf Properties Executive Vice President and Apprentice boardroom mainstay Carolyn Kepcher and focused on all things Carolyn – her book, her career, and her...

A Louisiana judge issued a temporary restraining order Monday against the state from enforcing its ban on abortions, leading to the immediate resumption of the procedure. Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Robin Giarrusso granted the request of plaintiffs Hope Medical Group For Women and Medical Students for Choice. The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, which for nearly 50 years had granted women the constitutional right to an abortion. Providers in Louisiana had stopped performing abortions on Friday, unsure of the legality of the practice due to the vagueness of the bill, according to reproductive rights...

Officials in Otero County, New Mexico, voted to certify primary election results on Friday in compliance with a state Supreme Court order after refusing to do so, citing concerns about voting machines. In a 2-1 vote, the Republican-led commission certified the county's results from its June 7 primary. One of the commissioners, Vickie Marquardt, said she voted to certify over fears of criminal charges and possible jail time. “The New Mexico Supreme Court, the Democrat-controlled state legislature and the Democrat-controlled Secretary of State and the Attorney General will not allow us to withhold approval pending investigation. Instead, they are railroading...

While some Democrats are voicing concerns about President Joe Biden’s re-election prospects, Gov. Jared Polis, D-Colo., says President Joe Biden “has plenty of time to turn this around.” The New York Times reported this week that “dozens” of Democratic lawmakers and officials are frustrated with Biden as he faces low approval ratings, with some suggesting he should not run again. Asked about that report on Meet the Press NOW, Polis said Friday that Biden still has time to improve his standing. “I think he has every opportunity to turn this around,” Polis said of the president. “Maybe pull some new...

A document, titled “1776 Returns,” which federal prosecutors said was used by the leader of the Proud Boys, lays out a plan to occupy Capitol buildings on Jan. 6, 2021, using covert operators to let "patriots" inside government offices in an apparent effort to force a new election. Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, and four other members were indicted on seditious conspiracy charges this month. Tarrio has twice been ordered detained until trial. The nine-page document, filed in federal court Wednesday, lays out a plan to fill buildings “with patriots and communicate our demands." Its stated...

Two Maryland mothers say their son was unfairly denied admission into a private school, claiming administrators told them their family’s “lifestyle” doesn’t align with the school’s Christian values. “I just thought, it’s crazy that something like this would still be happening in today’s world,” Megan Stratton said. (Snip) As his moms – Jennifer Dane and Megan Stratton – started the process of figuring out where he’ll go to sixth grade next year, they thought it would be a slam dunk getting into Grace Academy in Hagerstown. He’s a good student and they had stellar recommendations from friends who work at...

A grocery store. A hair salon. A church. In less than a week, these everyday settings have become the tragic backdrops for the latest outbreak of what has become the quintessential American expression of deadly violence — a mass shooting staged by a lone gunman armed to the teeth with guns and grievances. Experts who have studied the phenomenon said the three shootings, which have left 11 people dead and 11 more wounded since Wednesday, underscore a sad fact that most of us already understand on some level — that no place is safe anymore. “They are targeting people in...

The war in Ukraine is widening.With Russia’s advance stalled due to fierce local resistance and Western support, analysts say both sides appear ready to dig in for a protracted conflict that is showing increasing signs of spilling beyond the battlefield.From warning of nuclear confrontation to stoking energy crises and perhaps even eyeing up fresh territories to invade, Moscow has ramped up its threats this week — but so has the West: The United States and its allies are readying huge new shipments of heavy weapons and military equipment to help Ukrainian troops on the ground, while voicing more ambitious goals...

Speaking to reporters after a visit to Kyiv, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin said the U.S. wanted to see Russia “weakened to the extent that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

As Russia launched its invasion, the U.S. gave Ukrainian forces detailed intelligence about exactly when and where Russian missiles and bombs were intended to strike, prompting Ukraine to move air defenses and aircraft out of harm’s way, current and former U.S. officials told NBC News. That near real-time intelligence-sharing also paved the way for Ukraine to shoot down a Russian transport plane carrying hundreds of troops in the early days of the war, the officials say, helping repel a Russian assault on a key airport near Kyiv. It was part of what American officials call a massive and unprecedented intelligence-sharing...

Anyone who cares about the advancement of sports, and women's sports in particular, should celebrate her win.

They are a distinct minority in their own party and, for that matter, their country: Republican holdouts amid an ever-widening consensus that Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine poses a mortal threat to American interests.A far right wing of the Republican Party tightly bound to former President Donald Trump is fighting to push the GOP toward the “America First” isolationism that underpinned his 2016 presidential bid.For the first time since Trump’s rise, his party is pushing back.That much was clear from the House vote Thursday on a bill ending normal trade relations with Russia as punishment for attacking Ukraine. A total...

Many Americans have grown increasingly numb from a seemingly endless stream of dispiriting stories highlighting our political leaders’ fading commitment to democracy. However, if anything has the potential to awaken us from our stupor of exhaustion, it must be the recent news that Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, attended the Jan. 6 populist rally at the Ellipse in Washington, which preceded that day's Capitol riot. Thomas and her political activities have long raised eyebrows. Thomas is a conservative activist, with close ties to organizations that support many causes and positions that parallel cases that have appeared,...

PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden told House Democrats gathered here on Friday that 2022 “may be the most important off-year election in modern history,” gave his party credit for an improving economy and rejected blame for rising gas prices. “Democrats didn’t cause this problem. Vladimir Putin did,” Biden said of the Russian president. “Putin’s gas tax has pushed prices higher.” Biden touted the $1.9 trillion Covid relief and economic stimulus package on the anniversary of its enactment. “We created 6.7 million jobs last year, more than any other time in American history,” he said. “We did it alone. Without one...

Exposure to leaded gasoline lowered the IQ of about half the population of the United States, a new study estimates. The peer-reviewed study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on people born before 1996 — the year the U.S. banned gas containing lead. Overall, the researchers from Florida State University and Duke University found, childhood lead exposure cost America an estimated 824 million points, or 2.6 points per person on average. Certain cohorts were more affected than others. For people born in the 1960s and the 1970s, when leaded gas consumption was skyrocketing,...

Twitter has banned more than 100 accounts that pushed the pro-Russian hashtag #IStandWithPutin for participating in “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” days after the hashtag trended on Twitter amid the invasion in Ukraine. A Twitter spokesperson said on Friday that it is still investigating the origins and links between the accounts, and that it banned the accounts for violating its “platform manipulation and spam policy." The accounts with the most retweets about the hashtag on Wednesday only had a few dozen followers and used stock photos as profile pictures, which led disinformation researchers to question how the tweets went viral. It’s an...

WASHINGTON — It is rare that a president can show he is living up to the mantle of "leader of the free world" — and even less common for him to do so against the backdrop of his main political rival praising an autocrat. But that's what President Joe Biden did during his first State of the Union address, highlighting how he has led the Western world in defending Ukraine against Russia's invasion. "Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But...