Free Republic

Lucy Aharish is one of the most prominent television broadcasters in Israel—and the very first Arab Muslim news presenter on mainstream Hebrew-language Israeli television. Born and raised in a small Jewish town in Israel’s Negev desert, as one of the only Arab Muslim families, she has a unique lens through which to view the divisions in Israeli society, the complexity of the country’s national identity, and the Middle East more generally. Lucy has long been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is equally critical of her fellow Arab Israelis, particularly of Arab violence and the Arab leadership...

Months ago, I was asked to give a lecture at the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention. It was a surprising invitation for a number of reasons. First, I am not a lawyer. Second: I am not a member of the Federalist Society—the libertarian and conservative legal organization. (If the name rings a bell it’s probably because you’ve heard of it in the context of the hearings of any of the conservative justices who currently sit on the court.) Third: if you look at the people who previously gave this particular lecture—Supreme Court Justices, attorneys general, people like Bill Barr, Don...

On Nov. 10, The Federalist Society invited journalist and founder of The Free Press Bari Weiss to deliver the Barbara K. Olsen Memorial Address at their national convention. Weiss, by her own admission, was taken aback by the invitation as she is not a lawyer and she considers herself a liberal. But Barbara Olsen was a political commentator whom Weiss respected. She was also a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.

Call it a realignment, call it a political awakening, call it a vibe shift. Something has changed since the attacks on Israel. Here’s an example of what we mean: a friend, appalled at the equivocation and apologia in the West after the brutal Hamas killings, told one of us that he used to consider himself a “conscientious objector” in the culture wars. “Not anymore,” he said. October 7 changed that. Liberal friends were suddenly talking about buying guns. Progressive friends were texting about topics like border security and immigration. In a whisper, one even admitted to watching Fox News. For...

Matt Taibbi, who authored the first release of the infamous “Twitter Files,” is back for round two. Or at least he’s back to provide a supplement to round one while round two is still being worked on. According to Taibbi, James Baker, who was general counsel for Twitter and a former top-level FBI official, inserted himself into the disclosure in an attempt to “vet” the files that were ultimately released. Elon Musk was not notified of Baker playing middle-man. As RedState reported, Baker was fired on Tuesday, and with Taibbi’s latest thread, we now know why. I normally try to...

At dinner time on December 2 , I received a text from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, founder of SpaceX, founder of the Boring Company, founder of Neuralink, on most days the richest man in the world (possibly history), and, as of October, the owner of Twitter. Was I interested in looking at Twitter’s archives, he asked. And how soon could I get to Twitter HQ? snip In the days that followed, we—the journalist Matt Taibbi; investigative reporters connected to The Free Press, including Abigail Shrier, Michael Shellenberger and Leighton Woodhouse; plus Free Press reporters Suzy Weiss, Peter Savodnik, Olivia...

Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt who, together with Louisiana’s Attorney General Jeff Landry, filed a lawsuit alleging collusion between the federal government and social media companies to censor certain speech, sent a letter to Twitter asking for the preservation of evidence related to communications between the company and federal government officials on content moderation and misinformation. Schmitt, who was elected to the Senate in November, referenced the internal documents, dubbed “Twitter Files,” that are being released by CEO Elon Musk via journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Michael Shellenberger. The files showed that then-deputy legal counsel Jim Baker, who was...

1. A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users.

Journalist Bari Weiss asked former Attorney General Bill Barr if convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein may not have taken his own life. Epstein was discovered dead of an apparent suicide in his cell at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2019, according to The New York Times, but some have speculated that he did not kill himself or may have been murdered. In an interview released Thursday, journalist Bari Weiss asked Barr, “Is it possible that Jeffrey Epstein didn’t die by suicide?” “No,” he responded.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr criticized some on the right for “pandering to outrage” after the unprecedented raid by the FBI on former President Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago.On an episode of journalist Bari Weiss’ “Honestly” podcast released Thursday, Barr defended the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) handling of the raid. He admitted, however, that the politically motivated investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump 2016 campaign damaged trust in federal law enforcement and “created the condition” for the public to think “the worst.”“So what do you say to conservatives who say, ‘Why should we possibly trust these institutions to prosecute...

We need strong leaders like Lisa Murkowski – someone who has worked tirelessly for the people of Alaska her entire career. Alaska, please join me in supporting @LisaForSenate !

Sen. Tim Scott Thursday defended his endorsement of Sen. Lisa Murkowski for re-election, amid blowback from some Republicans who support her Trump-endorsed opponent, Kelly Tshibaka. "The road to socialism runs right through a divided Republican Party," Scott, R-S.C., said. "I like winning and frankly the best shot at us keeping that seat is without doubt Lisa Murkowski." Scott said that among the reasons he thinks Murkowski, R-Alaska, gives Republicans the best chance to hold on to her seat in a key election year is that "the power of incumbency is undeniable." He added that "she works really hard." The senator's...

Journalist Bari Weiss spilled the details of an internal battle at The New York Times over an op-ed piece submitted by Senator Tim Scott during his appearance on her podcast this week. On the Wednesday episode of her show, Honestly with Bari Weiss, she hosted Scott to talk about his time in the Senate and his life story. At one point during the conversation, Weiss recalled a story from her time as a writer for Times, a position she departed from in 2020 citing bullying from colleagues and an “illiberal environment.” The story centered around a behind the scenes debacle...

A former New York Times opinion page editor alleges that her bosses refused to run an op-ed submitted by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) without first getting approval from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Bari Weiss, who resigned from the Gray Lady two years ago citing “bullying” as well as an “illiberal environment” for those with right-leaning views, made the allegation during an interview with Scott on her popular podcast “Honestly with Bari Weiss.” Weiss’ comments were reported by the news site Mediaite. The Post has reached out to the Times seeking comment. During the interview, Weiss recalled a discussion...

Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI), a moderate GOP congressman, blasted Democrats for bankrolling his Trumpian opponent, John Gibbs, ahead of Tuesday’s primaries in Michigan. Democrats have been financially backing MAGA GOP candidates this primary cycle in order to have a better shot at beating them ahead of an expected Republican wave in November. In Bari Weiss’ Substack outlet, Common Sense, Meijer wrote that he voted to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory as president, while noting that Gibbs “denies the results” of that election. “The DCCC’s ad buy was more than Gibbs raised over the entire duration of his campaign. It was...

To the Antisemites Who Sit Next to Me at School My NYU classmates talk about the 'Zionist grip on the media' and tweet 'death to Israel.' To my law school classmate who tweeted, “my love language is marg bar [death to] Israel”: thank you. To the Students for Justice in Palestine, who explained: “Zionism is, by design, an ideology that promotes violence against, and hatred and delegitimization of Palestinians. Embedded in the Zionist supremacy narrative is the orientalist, Islamophobic idea that Azkenazi [sic] Jewish whiteness is fundamentally superior to Palestinian lives, culture, and identity”: thank you. To the dozen NYU...

"Weiss said that the COVID-19 restrictions will be "remembered by the younger generation as a catastrophic moral crime." Journalist and author Bari Weiss appeared on TV host Bill Maher's show Friday night and delivered an impassioned discourse on the COVID-19 narrative. "I'm done with COVID. I'm done!" declared Weiss as the crowd applauded. "I went so hard on COVID. I sprayed the Pringle's cans that I bought at the grocery store. I stripped my clothes off because I thought COVID would be on my clothes. Like, I did it all. I watched Tiger King. I got to the end of...

Ex-NY Times journalist warns of corporate wokeness in media industry: 'What happens is a kind of internal self-censorship' Former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss confronted CNN’s Brian Stelter about his network’s coverage of the COVID-19 lab leak theory when listing examples of why the world has gone mad "Where can I start? Well, when you have the chief reporter on the beat of COVID for The NY Times talking about how questioning or pursuing the question of the lab leak is racist, the world has gone mad. When you're not able to say out loud and in public there...

A former New York Times reporter claims the newspaper held her story about the ravaging effects of the Kenosha riots on impoverished neighborhoods until after the 2020 elections. Nellie Bowles went to the Wisconsin city to report on the racial justice riots in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in August 2020, according to a Thursday post on partner Bari Weiss’ Substack channel Common Sense. Protests, riots and civil unrest engulfed the city for days, and the events were the backdrop of then-17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse’s fatal shooting of two people. Bowles said she was sent to report...

Bari Weiss has condemned the liberal media and Democrats for convicting Kyle Rittenhouse on a campaign of lies before his case even went before a jury, laying bare how left-wing outlets and members of Congress pedaled lies about the teenager that have now been disproven at his trial. Weiss quit the New York Times last year in a row over how woke the paper had become. Now, she has launched a newsletter and is a founding trustee of The University of Austin, an independent school in Texas that she says will serve as an antidote to the left-wing colleges in...