Free Republic

Over half of likely Arizona voters surveyed said they’d choose political newcomer Mark Kelly over current seatholder Sen. Martha McSally in their race, according to a poll released Wednesday. Kelly, a Democrat, led McSally 51%-42% in the OH Predictive Insights survey of 600, with 7% undecided. The cellphone-landline poll of 600 contacted April 7-8 had a margin of error of 4%.

Anthony Fauci looks to be skating on thin ice with President Trump, despite — or perhaps because of — a growing sense that he is the most trusted expert on the coronavirus crisis. The White House moved on Monday to squash suggestions that Fauci could be ousted from the president’s task force on the crisis. And Fauci himself sought to shore up his position during the White House press briefing, when he walked back remarks he had made at the weekend. During a CNN interview on Sunday, Fauci had suggested that mitigation measures would have been more effective had they...

PHOENIX (April 14th, 2020) –As Arizona residents endure a stay-at-home order and thousands of people suffer from coronavirus, President Donald Trump continues to fall in a head-to-head matchup with former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden has expanded his lead over Trump in the April edition of OHPI’s Arizona Public Opinion Pulse (AZPOP), now leading the president 52 to 43 with 5 percent of voters undecided. This nine-point advantage for Biden is a sign the former vice president continues to gain traction in a historically ruby-red state. After a December poll showed Biden trailing the president, capping off a summer and...

It happened in Chicago, but it did not start or stop there. A 60-something-year-old woman from the Windy City traveled halfway around the world to Wuhan, China, this past December. Her husband stayed in Illinois. She came home on Jan. 13 -- and brought something with her. She gave it to her husband. "The individual did not have symptoms while traveling," Dr. Jennifer Layden, chief medical officer for the Illinois Department of Public Health, explained during a Jan. 24 press briefing sponsored by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that, of course, was not the end of...

Walgreens pharmacies in seven states will soon offer drive-thru coronavirus testing stations. The nationwide retailer announced on Tuesday its partnership with Abbott Laboratories to offer rapid-result coronavirus tests for patients in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas. The COVID-19 test produced by Abbott can deliver results in 13 minutes. In total, 15 stores will offer the testing services. Walgreens has yet to announce the exact locations for the drive-thru testing centers but noted that the company had been in talks with the Department of Health and Human Services to determine the best "hot spot" location for the centers...

The World Health Organization has been “covering up” for China amid the coronavirus outbreak -- so its leader needs to go, a U.S. senator said Thursday. Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., called on WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to step down during an appearance on FOX Business' "Mornings with Maria." McSally told host Maria Bartiromo that under the leadership of Tedros, 55, an Ethiopian politician who has led the global health entity since 2017, WHO failed to adequately oversee China’s reporting of data related to the coronavirus outbreak, which as of early Friday had sickened more than 1 million people worldwide,...

Major League Baseball and its players’ union are reportedly considering a highly complex and unorthodox plan to be able to restart the sport as early as next month — which would involve radical changes to the game and could end up sequestering players and coaches for the entire season if the coronavirus outbreak stretches throughout the summer. According to ESPN, the league’s unusual proposal for jump-starting the 2020 season next month has gained the blessing of high-ranking public health officials. But to comply with online social distancing guidelines and anticipated lockdowns in many states where teams play, MLB would attempt...

Major League Baseball (MLB) could hold the entirety of the 2020 season at the Arizona Diamondbacks' stadium in Phoenix, Ariz., without any fans attending if officials go through with a plan that has reportedly been discussed by top league officials and members of the MLB players' union. The Associated Press reported that the two groups are in talks about potential plans for the 2020 season, which is supposed to be already underway but has been delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak that has swept across the U.S. and around the world. One of the plans being discussed involved teams meeting...

Democrats on Friday introduced a measure to amend the $2 trillion CARES Act, extending the cash payment benefit to non-citizens, including illegal aliens. Three House Democrats, Reps. Lou Correa (CA), Judy Chu (CA), and Raúl Grijalva (AZ), introduced the Leave No Taxpayer Behind Act designed to amend the cash payment portion of the CARES Act — the $2 trillion emergency economic relief measure designed to help U.S. citizens who are facing economic hardship caused by the coronavirus pandemic — to extend to non-citizens. Currently, the CARES Act requires recipients to have a Social Security number. ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers)...

President Donald Trump has used emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic to implement the kind of strict enforcement regime at the U.S. southern border he has long wanted, suspending laws that protect minors and asylum seekers so that the U.S. government can immediately deport them or turn them away. Citing the threat of “mass, uncontrolled cross-border movement,” the president has shelved safeguards intended to protect trafficking victims and persecuted groups, implementing an expulsion order that sends migrants of all ages back to Mexico in an average of 96 minutes. U.S. Border Patrol agents do not perform medical checks when they...

The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) is looking to increase its covert influence in the Arizona and Texas Democratic Party and state governments in the 2020 election cycle. This is part of a wider strategy 'playing out in several states'. The CPUSA has infiltrated the Democratic Party at every level in key states across the nation. Numerous articles have been written exposing this serious penetration. The Democrats cannot plead ignorance. Patrick Morales, a long-time Arizona Communist Party ally is running for the Arizona House of Representatives in Legislative District 26 in a four-way Democratic primary scheduled for Aug. 4. In Texas,...

In the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, about five-in-six American adults said they want to see the United States end all immigration from Mexico. The latest Harvard/Harris Poll asks Americans whether they would support or oppose an immigration moratorium on Mexico during the coronavirus crisis. Overall, 83 percent — or five-in-six — said they favor ending all immigration from Mexico at the moment.

The Arizona woman who said that she and her 68-year-old husband ingested a substance used to clean fish tanks after hearing President Donald Trump tout chloroquine as a cure for the coronavirus has given thousands of dollars to Democratic groups and candidates over the last two years. The woman's most recent donations, in late February, were to a Democratic PAC, the 314 Action Fund, that bills itself as the "pro-science resistance" and has vocally criticized the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic and held up her case to slam the White House. Wanda told the Free Beacon that she...

The U.S. Army has awarded $524 million to Southwest Valley Constructors for design and build of a section of wall along the U.S. Mexico border, the Department of Defense announced. The deal modifies an earlier contract, originally awarded in May 2019, for design build replacing the section of the wall near Tucson, Ariz... The project has an estimated completion date of Sept. 7, 2021.

Amid deadlock, Senator Martha McSally threatened to introduce a bill withholding Senators pay “until Americans are put before politics” if the coronavirus relief package fails a second time. If the Senate can’t come together in a time of great need, no Senator should receive a paycheck—like millions of Americans. If the urgent COVID-19 relief package fails again, I’m introducing a bill immediately to withhold Senators’ pay until Americans are put before politics.

While the world is absorbed in the Coronavirus drama, yet another caravan of illegal immigrants is heading north to the United States from Central America. The group departed recently from the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula and is making its way to Guatemala en route to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The final destination is the U.S., according to a Mexican news report that reveals the caravan has some 500 Central Americans but is expected to grow along the way. “They left their country due to a lack of work opportunities and prevailing violence,” according to the...

Another 74 miles of 30-foot tall wall is set to be built on the Arizona-Mexico border, federal officials said on Monday. Customs and Border Protection officials on Monday asked for public comment on new border wall projects in Cochise, Pima and Santa Cruz counties. These projects are in addition to 63 miles of wall being built in Cochise and Pima counties, as well as other wall projects in Yuma County. The new wall projects announced Monday will consist of 30-foot tall steel poles, known as bollards, that are 6 inches in diameter, according to CBP. This is the same design...

At Pajamas Media, Stephen Green rightly titled his live blog on the debate, “Grumpy Old White Men: Drunkblogging the Democratic Diversity Debate. But these two old codgers are beyond grumpy; they are both tethered to the already done or distant past. The first half hour of this match was dedicated to the current crisis of the coronavirus. They both puffed themselves up to tell us all what they would do; each and every suggestion from both of them were things President Trump has already done, already put in place. It was as though neither of them has paid a bit...

Arizona House Bill 2683 was on track to be a powerful bipartisan statement that antisemitism is not welcome in the Grand Canyon State. That is, until last week.  Before then, all seemed ready for my state to put antisemites on notice that any crimes committed would be considered hate crimes. The original bill in the Arizona House of Representatives had 56 out of 60 members join as cosponsors. The Senate version, SB1143, had 27 out of 30 senators as cosponsors with near universal approval. This support was unprecedented in the legislative history of America’s 48th state and came none too soon.  Antisemitism in...

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday the results from a massive federal operation targeting the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), which is one of the most notorious drug cartels in Mexico. The Justice Department (DOJ) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) revealed that over 600 arrests had been made as a result of Project Python, which started late last year. “Project Python marks the most comprehensive action to date in the Department of Justice’s campaign to disrupt, dismantle, and ultimately destroy CJNG,” Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Criminal Division said during a press conference. “When President...