Free Republic

A sneak peek at the Times’s news analysis from Nov. 4, 2020. Nov. 4, 2020 In the end, a bitterly fought election came down to the old political aphorism, popularized during Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 run against George H.W. Bush: “It’s the economy, stupid.” This time, however, it was the Republican incumbent, not his Democratic challenger, who benefited from that truism. Donald J. Trump has been decisively re-elected as president of the United States, winning every state he carried in 2016 and adding Nevada, even as he once again failed, albeit narrowly, to gain a majority of the popular vote....

Democrats seem to agree: A job guarantee will be part of the 2020 election debate. What they don't yet agree on is what a "job guarantee" is. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is working on a full blown national bill to enshrine the right to a job. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has a bill that would essentially run a test pilot of Sanders' program. The Congressional Full Employment Caucus has been pushing yet another national job guarantee bill, with some differences from Sanders' plan, for years. Finally, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) just introduced his own bill, which would subsidize more private...

California Democrat Maxine Waters has distanced herself from supporters who burned a US flag outside her office as they counter-protested a far-right militia group. A few dozen supporters made a rebellious appearance outside the congresswoman's Los Angeles office on Thursday to counter the expected protest by the far-right Oath Keepers group. The flag-burning incident occurred soon after the Oath Keepers group failed to show despite vowing that it would rally against the Waters. Photos from the protest show a group stomping on the flag before circling around and cheering when it erupted into flames. The Democratic counter-protesters were heard chanting:...

Rep. Maxine Waters warned supporters on Wednesday of potential "armed protests" against her after an extremist group called for ongoing demonstrations outside her office in Los Angeles. In a lengthy statement issued late Wednesday, Waters, D-Calif., said she’d been notified about forthcoming protests by the Oath Keepers, which she described as "an anti-government militia" that's staged armed protests in cities across the country. She warned her supporters against being "baited" into counter-demonstrations or confrontations with the organization, which she said has a track record of "violent and provocative behavior." "I am requesting those individuals and groups planning a counter-protest to...

Rep. Maxine Waters continued her war of words with President Trump Saturday in Oakland, with the Los Angeles Democrat saying Trump was “embarrassing us every day” during his trip through Europe. “He’s over there supposedly meeting on NATO. He doesn’t know a darn thing about it,” Waters, a Los Angeles Democrat told a meeting of the California Democratic Party’s women’s caucus. “He doesn’t even understand what GDP is. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t even know how to spell his own wife’s name.” (VIDEO-AT-LINK) Waters has been critcized by Trump and by some of her fellow Democrats, including House...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed President Trump over his comments about Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) during a rally on Thursday night. Trump at the campaign-style rally in Montana called Waters a “low-IQ individual,” a claim that he has repeated many times. He speculated her IQ is “somewhere in the mid-60s.” The average IQ is 85-114, and a mid-60s IQ indicates mental challenges....

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, has cancelled a planned trip to Birmingham due to security concerns. She was scheduled to speak Friday at an annual conference for black female politicians, local officials and community leaders. Waters was supposed to address an audience of black women for the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative (NOBEL) Women's Annual Legislative Conference, which starts today and ends Sunday. But NOBEL President Karen Camper, a state representative from Tennessee, confirmed that Waters was no longer coming because of security reasons. Details about the safety concerns have not been released and it's not known if a...

As we all know, Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia asked White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and her family to leave on June 22. The owner of Red Hen, Stephanie Wilkinson, explained to The Washington Post that some of her staff were uncomfortable, including the LGBT staffers, due to Sanders support of a ban on transgender people in the military and a gay couple being refused to have a wedding cake baked for them because of religion. Wilkinson told The Washington Post that she pulled Sanders to the side and politely asked her to leave, saying, “I explained that...

The results in Tuesday's primaries in eight states are an early indication that President Trump's "America First" agenda and accomplishments are winning the support of the American people. This is good news for Republicans running in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. The Trump agenda of economic growth, job creation, border security, and peace through strength abroad is causing voters to seriously consider the consequences of supporting candidates who carry the Democratic mantle of tax hikes, protecting sanctuary cities, and the hyper-partisan and baseless impeachment witch hunt. In California, it will be hard for Democrats to point to evidence that a...

Voting precincts have closed in Alabama, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota as eight states hold primaries Tuesday, including in California where the Democratic Party’s plan to regain control of the House of Representatives faces a big test. The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former pharmaceutical executive Bob Hugin will win Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary in New Jersey. But it is too early to project a winner on the Democratic side, where incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez is battling fellow Democrat Lisa McCormick. Menendez’s corruption and bribery case is expected to play a starring role in...

FULLERTON, California (CNN) -- In a suburban enclave on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Republican Young Kim, a South Korean immigrant, is running to replace retiring Rep. Ed Royce. Kim's candidacy is years in the making for Republicans' efforts in the Los Angeles area to deepen bonds with the Asian-American community and encourage people like her to run for office. But that effort hit a wall in 2016. Asian-Americans, who have tended to vote for Republicans on the local level in Southern California, went for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the area and nationally. Now, ahead of Tuesday's primary,...

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., remained mute about her 2020 ambitions Thursday during a town hall meeting in her home state, but attacked the Trump administration’s immigration policies as “immoral” and said she supports a ban on “weapons of war.” “This administration, as far as I’m concerned, has put a target on California’s back and we’re going to need to fight this,” Harris told a crowd of more than 1,000 people in the San Fernando Valley, many of whom were young students, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. She criticized the administration's zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration, which has led...

At some point, one starts to feel sorry for House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. After all, being asked over and over again about the same fringe issue has got to be a bit of a soul-crushing experience for someone who’s supposedly focused on winning back the House. On Wednesday, during a town hall event hosted by CNN, the California congresswoman was asked again to comment on her Democratic colleagues’ efforts to impeach President Trump. “The issue of impeachment keeps coming out of the mouths of Democrats,” said CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “And a recent poll shows that more than...

Melania Trump, the First Lady of the United States, revealed her official platform this month. Melania’s platform for children, dubbed “Be Best,” is, according to CNN, a comprehensive program meant to focus on fighting opioid abuse, positivity on social media, and well-being. Separating children from their parents, however, is most definitely not a “Be Best” policy, according to Ted Lieu, a Democrat currently serving as the U.S. Representative for California’s 33rd congressional district. Mr. Lieu took to Twitter to launch an attack on the first lady, criticizing her and her husband’s administration’s immigration policies in one fell swoop....

TIME magazine recently honored Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. According to a press release about the honor, “The list, now in its fifteenth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals.” Waters said that she was shocked and surprised by the recognition and that she “felt very, very blessed” to receive the honor. In a commentary about the award, “Black-ish” actor Yara Shahidi wrote that, “Congresswoman Maxine Waters of the 43rd District of California, a.k.a. Auntie Maxine, has made my generation proud to be nieces...

California State Senator Kevin de Leon introduced himself to the DASB Senate on Wednesday, April 18. He formerly served as President pro tempore of the California State Senate, and is running to unseat incumbent U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein in the 2018 election. De Leon expressed his support for protecting undocumented immigrants and making college free. After Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was going to deport 11 million criminal violent felons, de Leon said he decided to author Senate Bill No. 54, also known as the California “Sanctuary State” Bill. He called Sessions’ comment “fake news,” and said Sessions was...

In an interview Thursday afternoon with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Democratic California Rep. Jackie Speier explained the thinking behind an effort from Democrats and a few Republicans in the House to force floor votes on several immigration-related issues, including both DACA and the border wall. "Will you get those five more Republicans and force a vote on this sensitive issue?" CNN's Blitzer asked. "I think it really depends on the polling that they're seeing in their districts," Speier said about her Republican colleagues. "I really do think it's self-preservation at this point from any of the Republicans, and that's why you...

President Donald Trump’s fiercest Democratic critic has launched a new attack on the president, this time telling him to just resign so that she no longer has to fight for his impeachment. Representative Maxine Waters, of California, has repeatedly called on Trump to be impeached, citing a variety of reasons, from his conduct in office to what she has alleged was his campaign’s collusion with Russia, even before Special Counsel Robert Mueller has concluded his investigation into Russian interference. Asked if she had any advice for Trump during a gala for the Time 100 in New York on Tuesday, Waters...

Is this the most dangerous campaign in history, or a surreal comedy act, playing to a crowd laughing too hard to listen? The US writer spends a day at a presidential rally I spent five hours at the Donald Trump rally in Sacramento, California, on 1 June. I spoke to and overheard dozens of the rally’s attendees, not as a journalist but as one ticketholder to another – I was dressed in jeans, workboots and wore a Nascar hat – and found every last one of the attendees to be genial, polite and, with a few notable exceptions, their opinions...

PHOENIX — Arizona's top elected officials, both Republicans, are not going to join the lawsuit filed by Democrat officials in some states challenging the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census even though it could mean that Arizona won't get its fair share of federal dollars and political representation. Daniel Scarpinato, press aide to Gov. Doug Ducey, said his boss is opposed to more lawsuits. "And he supports having accurate statistical information,'' Scarpinato said. Attorney General Mark Brnovich also has no interest in Arizona becoming one of the 17 states, seven cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors...