Free Republic

Here’s the astonishing truth the media’s not talking about and Democrats refuse to believe — Donald Trump is getting more than double, and sometimes more than triple, the black vote Romney got 4 years ago. Recent polling by Remington Research shows Trump getting 22% in Florida, Romney got 5 percent. In North Carolina, Trump’s getting 19%, Romney got 4 percent. Trump’s getting 22% of black voters in Wisconsin compared with Romney’s 6% 4 years ago. And in Pennsylvania, Trump scores an astounding 29% against Romney’s 7% share in 2012. Nationally, Romney received less than 7% of the black vote in...

North Carolina's senior U.S. Senator, Richard Burr, says the state should make changes to the controversial new law known as House Bill 2.... "It's now time," Burr told ABC11 after a Raleigh event, "for the General Assembly to take the opportunity that if we can roll this back, that it's probably in the best interests of North Carolina."...

Burr calls NC GOP governor 'off base' for seeking congressional action North Carolina's senior senator said his state's Gov. Pat McCrory is "off base" in calling for congressional intervention to resolve a state dispute over restroom access for transgender people. "I've never seen Congress get involved in judicial matters and this is turned over to the court system now," Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr said Tuesday. "So, I think the governor's off base."... Burr said he would rather see the issue remain in the courts. "That's where they chose to put it,” he said. “I would have preferred that they...

Sens. Richard Burr (R) of North Carolina and Dianne Feinstein (D) of California should be stripped of their positions for introducing a bill that would endanger American digital security and privacy. The Burr-Feinstein antiencryption bill isn't just bad, it's evidence of a dangerous incompetence in congressional leadership that is undermining America’s security. In fact, the draft bill, leaked two weeks ago and now officially released, is compelling evidence that Senate leadership should strip – or at least not reappoint – Senators Burr and Feinstein of their positions on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.... To say this most recent Burr-Feinstein...

Analysis In the wake of the FBI's failed fight against Apple, Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have introduced a draft bill that would effectively ban strong crypto. The bill would require tech and communications companies to allow law enforcement with a court order to decrypt their customers' data. Last week a draft copy of the bill, dubbed the Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016, was leaked, but the new version is even worse than the discussion draft.... The senators want to have their cake--by requiring tech companies to protect their customers' data--and eat it too--by insisting...

It's no secret that law enforcement agencies and governments at large want to have access to our personal data whether we like it or not. Hot on the heels of the FBI managing to bypass security measures that should have protected the data on a terrorist's iPhone 5c, we see that the case is definitely not closed. As many had suspected, now that the floodgates are open, agencies like the FBI are not content to let this one win be the last. This week, draft legislation leaked out of the U.S. Senate that to some highlights the government's ignorance about encryption. Within...

PPP's first general election poll for the US Senate race in North Carolina shows the way Donald Trump could make life harder for other Republican candidates down ballot this fall. The Senate race is tight, with Richard Burr holding just a 5 point lead over Deborah Ross at 40/35, with Libertarian candidate Sean Haugh pulling 7%. To put the current state of the race in perspective Elizabeth Dole led Kay Hagan by 5 points on our first poll after the primary in 2008 too, so Ross is starting her upset bid in a very similar place to where Hagan started...

Earlier today it was widely reported that North Carolina Senator Richard Burr was not happy with Ted Cruz. That doesn't make him a special snowflake. Most of the practitioners of crony capitalism and Failure Theater in the Senate are not happy with Ted Cruz. But Burr was not content to merely take a number and get in line. Burr had to make a point of how pissed he was at the idea of Ted Cruz winning the nomination. (Burr's Heritage Action score is 45%, which is the same as arch-conservatives John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell.) Cruz has become such a...

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr on Thursday strongly denied a news report that said he had told people he would vote for Democrat Bernie Sanders over Republican Ted Cruz. Burr’s aides asked The Associated Press for a retraction. An AP spokesman said the news agency was sticking by its story. “I will support whoever the GOP nominee is,” Burr tweeted. “@AP is trying to create discord where there isn't discord by telling lies.”

Reflections on the anniversary of America’s most tragic duel… Early in the morning of July 11, 1804, the Vice President and the former Secretary of the Treasury stood on the Plain of Weehawken – a wild land in New Jersey, where the laws were different from civilized New York, across the water – and they had their interview, like many a pair had before them, on that “field of honor.” There was a time in American history when every product of our education system (yes - public, private, and homeschooled alike!) knew the participants in our most famous duel. Children...

In late 18th century New York, with a revolt against tea in place and plain water mostly undrinkable, coffee’s popularity surged.And the city’s love affair with coffee beans began.Coffee houses soon sprang up. Unlike the cafes of today, these were more like taverns, where the city’s political and merchant elite met to exchange ideas and do business while nursing a cup of joe (and probably stronger drinks as well).One coffee house on the bustling corner of Wall and Water Streets, the Tontine (the second building on the left, above), bore witness to some of the events and the development of...

Richard Burr’s favorite judge legalized gay “marriage” in North Carolina around 5:30 PM on Friday. By Tuesday, the Administrative Office of the Courts — the state agency overseeing all those guys and gals in the black robes – had published the ground rules for this brave new era:

Just spoke with Senator Burr's DC office. Senator Burr announced this morning he will vote to defund!

A pair of tea party groups is teaming up to pressure key Republicans to support an effort to defund Obamacare. Tea Party Patriots and the grassroots group For America are launching online ads against a dozen GOP senators who either oppose the effort or haven’t announced a position. Along with the ads, leaders of the groups will embark on a six-state, five-day “Exempt America” tour (the idea being that the American people should be exempt from Obamacare) that will bring them to the home states of several of these senators. Update 12:01 p.m.: The conservative group Heritage Action is also...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Richard Burr, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that the CIA has “flatly refused” to give some Benghazi-related documents to the committee, which is conducting an investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the State Department and CIA personnel and facilities in Benghazi, Libya. Sen. Burr made the assertion last week at the confirmation hearing for John Brennan, whom President Barack Obama has nominated to be director of the CIA. Brennan currently serves as the president's counterterrorism adviser. “Mr. Brennan, as you know, the committee's conducting a thorough inquiry into the...

This column was co-authored by Bob MorrisonSen. John Kerry has a long and dubious record in foreign policy. In the 1970's, he testified against his fellow Vietnam War veterans before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He charged that they were violating the Geneva Conventions every day in Vietnam. Some POWs were outraged at Kerry's disloyal statements. They said they had been tortured by their Communist captors trying to force them to make such untrue statements. Worse, Kerry went to Paris in 1971. There, he met with North Vietnamese Communists. We need to see all his notes from those meetings....

Many politicians (and many voters) duck the hard choices when it comes to Medicare reform. But what’s remarkable about the past year is that, in some ways, momentum appears to be building for real improvements to the program’s quality and sustainability. Based on a new proposal from Sens. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) and Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), the impossible seems within reach: the triumph of sound policy over interest-group politics.Today, Sens. Burr and Coburn have put forth a new Medicare reform proposal, the Seniors’ Choice Act, which combines the ideas behind the best two bipartisan plans that came out last...

A member of the US Senate Intelligence Committee has told CNBC that the death of Osama Bin Laden was a direct result of enhanced interrogations."The information that eventually led us to this compound was the direct result of enhanced interrogations; one can conclude if we had not used enhanced interrogations, we would not have come to yesterday's action," US Senator Richard Burr in a telephone interview with CNBC. As a member of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Burr was briefed on the attack on the compound that led to Bin Laden's death and believes the failure of Pakistani security forces...

First, the White House spoke out against NBC News and its editing of Richard Engel's interview with President George Bush. And, today, the White House takes on the New York Times editorial page for its editorial, "Mr. Bush and the GI Bill." From the White House statement: Once again, the New York Times Editorial Board doesn't let the facts get in the way of expressing its vitriolic opinions - no matter how misleading they may be. In today's editorial, "Mr. Bush and the GI Bill", the New York Times irresponsibly distorts President Bush's strong commitment to strengthening and expanding support...

In a surprising move, after voting against cloture earlier in the day, Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) and Sen. John Ensign (R., Nev.) both voted to repeal the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on homosexuality. The measure passed by a 65–31 margin this afternoon. Other Republicans voting in favor of repeal: Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.), Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.), Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and the Maine ladies, Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins. Burr said it was not a difficult vote to cast, despite his state’s being home to Camp Lejeune, the largest...