Free Republic

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan revealed Monday that he was convinced to launch his Senate campaign after witnessing former President Donald Trump’s overt influence on the debate surrounding a bipartisan border bill last month. “It’s why I decided to run for Senate,” the Republican Maryland Senate candidate said during an appearance on MSNBC. Hogan, 67, announced his bid for the Senate seat currently occupied by retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) on Feb. 9. The former governor had previously dismissed having any interest in serving in the upper chamber, citing the quarrelsome nature of life in the Senate.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr pushed back against the claims that former President Trump’s trials will interfere with the 2024 election, calling them “simply wrong.” “The basic principle in the criminal justice system is if a prominent person commits a crime and they’re seeking office, that doesn’t give them immunity,” Barr said on Fox News’s “America Reports.” “If there’s enough time to have it resolved before the election, it should be resolved.” Barr was also shown a clip of Republican presidential candidate and Trump critic Chris Christie saying earlier this week that Trump’s “conduct” and “insistence on continuing to run...

Just saw the driver of the millenium on CNN's Inside Politics and he was asked directly for proof of his charge of bribery. He went into a rant about "coercion" and "loans to Turkey" being made. Pathetic.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Wednesday that former President Trump is “afraid” to take the stage in Republican primary debates after Trump, who holds a commanding lead in the GOP polls, floated skipping the events. Christie, a former Trump ally who has become one of his more vocal Republican critics, told conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt that the GOP should hold “as many” debates as it can and should have an “open format” to allow for follow-up questions and prevent candidates from giving “soundbyte-y answers that nobody believes will solve any problems.”

KYIV, April 3 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Ukraine on Monday to underscore his support for Kyiv and said he would work towards Washington supplying F-16 fighter jets and long-range missiles for the country's war against Russia. Asked whether he would back providing Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets and long-range missiles Pompeo said: "Yes. And the training and the software and all the things needed to actually protect and defend your own land." Addressing an audience of Ukrainian lawmakers, government officials, representatives of the military, civil society activists and students, he said providing military support...

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the Department of Justice had “no choice” but to raid former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate to recover classified documents. Guest-host Terry Moran asked, “You mentioned the former President, Donald Trump. Let’s talk about the search of Mar-a-Lago and the legal battle that’s come out. Chris, call on your experience on that. The judge in this case, or in the case that the Trump team brought has appointed a special master to look over all of the material seized out of Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department is appealing....

Former Attorney General Bill Barr called the newest federal grand jury subpoenas probing the Jan. 6, 202, Capitol riot "a significant event," one that suggests that government prosecutors are probing high-ranking Trump administration officials and allies, and even former President Donald Trump. "This suggests to me that they're taking a hard look at the group at the top, including the president and the people immediately around him who were involved in this," Barr told CBS News' Catherine Herridge in an interview Friday.

‘That’s what I tried to do — use one standard equally for both sides,’ the former U.S. attorney general told The Federalist Saturday. If Americans believe the U.S. Department of Justice is creating a two-tier justice system in the United States, “the proper remedy is to vote people out of office, including the president,” said former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr to The Federalist Saturday. Asked what he did as U.S. attorney general to remedy the politicized use of the U.S. Department of Justice, Barr responded he had pressure from both the left and right to weaponize that department for...

.@GovLarryHogan @LarryHogan speech to @Reagan_Library ... GOP “won’t win back the White House by nominating Donald Trump or a cheap impersonation of him" ...full video here: https://t.co/af2xrlyxWj pic.twitter.com/yhWBMuGT4r— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) May 5, 2022

Speaking to Bret Baier, Christie said Biden and his administration are not up to the job. “They ran based upon uniting the country, bringing greater competence to the White House in their view, and they failed miserably on both. They’ve gone far left on all their policies. This is like we elected Bernie Sanders,” he said, noting crime, inflation, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and more. “Biden knows that Republicans are gathering momentum. I don’t know how Joe Biden running in 2024 would be the least bit intimidating to Republicans or the least bit reassuring to the American people.” [cut] Baier asked...

Don't get me wrong, the guy the protester is protesting is a bona fide jerk. Nevertheless, looks like a threat to me. Why isn't DOJ investigating BLM? Pic is from article about guy in Virginia who blasts out monkey sounds, etc, when people go by.

A woman at a grade-school football game in Ohio on Wednesday was reportedly tased and arrested by a police officer for not wearing a face mask in the stands. The woman was sitting in the bleachers with her mother when she got into an altercation with the cop about mask-wearing at a middle school in the town of Logan, the Marietta Times reported. Video of the incident, which was posted to YouTube, shows the woman resisting as the officer struggles to handcuff her for nearly two minutes before he deploys his Taser.

Just as highly important information on antibody testing has started to come in, Governor JB Pritzker announced Friday that he will de-prioritize that testing. He is withholding results collected so far in Illinois. His full comments are reproduced below. That’s indefensible and opposite of what other states are doing. It’s another case of Pritzker’s stage managing the facts and expecting the public to trust him blindly. Why would Pritzker want to cover up the data? Maybe he thinks it’s his place to take in upon himself to protect individuals from their own misuse of the testing. On the other hand,...

Not to brag or anything but this arrest was HUGE. Not much of a flight risk, this one. Even if he CAN make it up to his feet, how fast could his mobility scooter possibly go? ___________________________________________________________________ Ali Y. Al-Baroodi @AliBaroodi Latest photos for #ISIS Mufti. He was the strongest supporter of demolishing Mosul heritage. He used to give the Friday Sermon in my neighborhood. He cheered up in the very Friday after the blowing of Prophet Jonah Mosque in the early days of their invasion. 📷 Social media https://twitter.com/AliBaroodi/status/1217752217639362561 … View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Ali...

The cast of Morning Joe on Friday was clearly worried that Donald Trump might be headed for reelection next year. Joe Scarborough contrasted Trump's forceful appearance at yesterday's Cincinnati rally with the Dem candidates getting down in the wonky policy weeds at their debates this week. Scarborough said that Trump reminded him of Fat Bastard, of Austin Powers fame. Not the most flattering metaphor, but one that emphasized the president's power. Scarborough cited a New York Times column by David Brooks in which he, in turn, quoted Marianne Williamson to the effect that if Dems are going to defeat Trump,...

Basically leading with short dispatches saying the North Koreans did this at around 0906 am local Saturday (8:06 pm eastern USA) in Korea/Japan, about 90 minutes ago, into the Sea of Japan, traveling 70 to 200 kilometers from a launch site near Wonsan on DPRK east coast. (Report in Japanese—because fast breaking) Conservative Sankei Shimbun news, Tokyo

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea announced that it has test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon. The Korean Central News Agency says Chairman Kim Jong Un observed the firing of the weapon Wednesday by the Academy of Defense Science. The agency reports that Kim said "the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army." The agency says Kim mounted an observation post to learn about the test-fire of the new-type tactical guided weapon and guide the test-fire. The announcement came after reports of...

Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” left-wing documentary filmmaker Michael Moore said the Republicans 2017 tax cut was an act of “terror.” Moore said, “All the Republicans in that photo you showed standing there on the steps with him a year ago today all looking so slap happy and ah, remember it’s not just Trump, all of the Republicans, all of them, nobody has had the courage to stand up and say this is wrong, this is un-American. This hurts this country. This is— this tax cut in a sense an act of terror because it’s going to make the...

It falls to Michael Moore’s empty stomach to help explain to me the difference between hope and optimism. “Right now, I’m hoping that somebody will feed me today,” he says. But that hope is passive. It may whet his appetite, but the disappointment will be all the more crushing if it isn’t satisfied. On the other hand, he explains, optimism is constructive, strategic. “I’m in a first world country, and somewhere I have a wallet with a credit card and some money in it. So the optimist in me has credibility, because it’s safe to say I will eat. Does...