Free Republic

Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) broke ways with President Joe Biden on Sunday after he said he wouldn’t support Israel if it retaliated against Iran. During an interview with CNN, Fetterman told host Jake Tapper that he disagreed with Biden’s stance, saying he would never "capitulate to the fringe" or “pander” to the Democratic Party. “Do you think that's the right call or should direct U.S. military action, as some of your colleagues in the Senate are suggesting, should that be on the table?" Tapper asked. The president made it clear that he would not back Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...

University of Texas which was laying off around 60 employees in order to belatedly comply with a state law prohibiting DEI. I say belatedly because the law in question took effect at the beginning of the year but it seems UT's first reaction wasn't to get rid of DEI offices and employees but instead to simply rebrand them. For instance, at the University of Texas the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement was renamed the Division of Campus and Community Engagement. But one of the authors of SB 17, the Texas DEI prohibition, caught wind of what was happening and...

A man died and another was questioned after an argument between a woman's ex-boyfriend and her friend ended in gunfire Wednesday in a Hialeah neighborhood. Hialeah Police officials said officers responded to a call of a shooting in the 4000 block of West 13th Lane around 6:40 a.m. and found a man dead at the scene. Police spokesperson Eddie Rodriguez said the man who died, identified as 26-year-old Christian Rueda, arrived at his ex's place and saw another man leaving the house. "This is an ex-boyfriend (Rueda) that she’s had problems with in the past, restraining orders, stalking," Rodriguez said....

Azhar Subedar is an Islamist with a busy schedule. One August day he is at a terror-related mosque in Boca Raton, Florida. The next, he is wakeboarding with someone whom the FBI alleged was a fundraiser for the Taliban. Two days later, he was at a global youth event, in Dallas, Texas, hosted by the US State Department. This past May, Subedar attended a Ramadan celebration at the White House, the invitation of which was from President Joe Biden, himself. Why would a radical Muslim be invited to an official gathering by the State Department or be allowed to step...

Larry Robbins jokes he’s the last hedge fund manager to move to Florida. But unlike those who relocated before him — most notably Citadel’s Ken Griffin — Robbins’ move comes with a twist. The founder of Glenview Capital Management is going to make Florida his family home and keep New York his professional one, at least for now. Robbins, 54, will commute to Manhattan starting in August and largely abide by Glenview’s three-days-in-the-office policy — using his Alpine, New Jersey home as his br, he said in an interview. Meanwhile, he, his wife and three young children will temporarily live...

RON DESANTIS IS BACK TO RUNNING Florida’s government. But he hasn’t really stopped running for president. Next month, DeSantis hosts a two-day presidential-donor gathering at the Hard Rock Hotel in South Florida that’s billed as—don’t call it a “fundraiser”—an “Investor Appreciation Retreat.” It’s the latest phase of an image makeover DeSantis started after he officially dropped out of the 2024 race on January 21 and endorsed Donald Trump. For the past month, DeSantis has hosted one-on-one thank-you calls with donors, small meetings with more of these “investors” in Naples and in Miami, and conference calls with former volunteers. In a...

Florida is taking a strong stand against retail theft and “porch piracy.” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law a bill that would crack down on criminals participating in shoplifting rings and engaging in other types of property crime. While doing so, he took some shots at California and New York for going easy on those committing these offenses. Amid widespread retail theft occurring across the nation, state and local governments are grappling with putting a stop to these operations while others are simply responding with a shrug. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis announced...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis believes Democrats don't stand a chance in the Sunshine State going forward. This comes as reports indicate registered GOP voters now outpace Democrats by nearly 900,000. "You're talking about a million plus voter registration shift," DeSantis told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo, claiming older numbers indicated Republicans were behind their Democratic adversaries by nearly 300,000 registered voters in 2018. "Part of that, I think, is a response locally where people are more likely to switch from Democrat to Republican in Florida, nonparty to Republican than vice-versa. That's been an important component of it, but I do think...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gathered about 100 top supporters and donors over the weekend at South Florida’s Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to say “thank you” — and to foreshadow what might be next. DeSantis supporters see those moves, along with the weekend event at the Hard Rock, as clear signs the Florida governor is once again eyeing a White House bid. The main event Saturday evening featured DeSantis speaking with Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., He needs to repair his image nationally,” said one of the attendees. “I don’t know anyone is going to be like...

Ron DeSantis isn’t committing to running for President again in 2028. At least not publicly. The Governor told Fox News Channel viewers that he didn’t “have any plans for the future” when asked about a future run by Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures. The comments are interesting in light of those being his first public remarks since a reported conclave with donors and supporters in South Florida,

A voter registration advantage of one million is “within reach” in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said, following reports that Republicans are nearing 900,000 more registered voters in the Sunshine State than Democrats. “Prior to 2021, FL never had more registered Republicans than Democrats,” DeSantis said. “Now, a million voter R registration advantage is within reach.” “Hillsborough (Tampa) is about to flip from D to R, which will mean every county in the Tampa Bay market has a R advantage in this previously ‘swing’ region of the state,” the governor continued, detailing the significance of this shift: Prior to 2021,...

former U.S. prosecutor from Tampa who helped the federal government indict Florida residents accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol is about to stand trial himself. According to court records, Patrick Douglas Scruggs is expected at the Pinellas County Justice Center on May 3 at 8:30 a.m. for a pre-trial hearing on allegations that he stabbed a 35-year-old man with a pocket knife during a road rage incident last year. Mr. Scruggs, 38, who has been released on bond, was arrested last September and faces three felony counts of armed burglary, aggravated battery and...

Donald Trump has raised $50.5 million at a Florida fundraiser for his 2024 re-election campaign - the highest amount ever raised at a single event. Saturday's $250,000-a-ticket bash was held at the Palm Beach home of Trump supporter John Paulson, and slightly exceeded the $50m fundraising total organizers predicted. The enormous amount is almost double the $26 million Joe Biden's campaign recently raised at a New York City bash which boasted the added star-power of former Democrat presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. 'It's clearer than ever that we have the message, the operation, and the money to propel President...

Former President Donald Trump lost three major legal challenges in the past week, including his efforts to dismiss a racketeering case on First Amendment grounds. Here is a look at the rulings in three separate cases this week in Georgia, Florida, and New York. New York judge denies Trump’s attempt to delay hush money trialNew York Judge Juan Merchan denied the former president’s attempt to delay his criminal hush money trial on Wednesday, after Trump claimed he was protected under presidential immunity. Merchan said that Trump had plenty of opportunity before March to claim presidential immunity in the case. Trump...

A man was taken to the Polk County jail and could be deported – again – to Mexico after he was pulled over for having illegal tint on his pickup truck, deputies said. Jose Alonso-Rodriguez, 37, was arrested on Tuesday for not having a valid driver's license, an arrest affidavit stated. On Tuesday afternoon, a Polk County deputy conducted a traffic stop on a Nissan Titan in the Eloise area of Winter Haven because the windows were "extremely dark," the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

PALM BEACH, Fla. (NewsNation) — With dueling events this weekend, some of the nation’s biggest GOP donors will have to choose between former President Donald Trump or former presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump is expected to attend a major joint fundraiser between his campaign and the RNC on Saturday. A campaign source confirmed to NewsNation that it will be hosted at a private residence in Palm Beach. Expectations are high for Trump to offset President Joe Biden’s recent $25 million fundraiser, with the Trump campaign anticipating an estimated $43 million fundraising haul Saturday. That’s an effort that could...

NBC News, or, as Greg Gutfeld aptly calls the mainstream media outlet, “Nothing But Crap,” recently outdid even itself in promulgating misleading information. A weekend report strongly implied that Florida is a veritable hellhole from which residents are fleeing at a remarkable rate. The outlet claimed that “a perfect storm of soaring insurance costs, a hostile political environment, worsening traffic, and extreme weather” had caused people to abandon the Sunshine State in droves.And they based that claim on interviews with “more than a dozen recent transplants and longtime residents who left the state in the past two years.” More than...

Florida recently passed a law that eliminates squatter's rights.. Squatting laws have become a frequent target of exploitation by savvy criminals who fraudulently move into vacant homes across the nation. Experts warn that the problem could be compounded by the ongoing immigration crisis, with migrants catching wind of the laws and taking advantage of them. "I have thought about invading a house in the United States," migrant Leonel Moreno said in Spanish in a TikTok video that went viral last month. "I found out that there is a law that says that if a house is not inhabited, we can...

The congressional field hearing was led by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra also testified during the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing...

MSNBC host Symone Sanders said Tuesday on “Morning Joe” that Democrats “definitely think” there is a path for President Joe Biden and other Democrats to win Florida in the November election. Sanders said, “Last year, when Republican legislators in Florida passed that six-week abortion ban, and they passed it because people were coming to Florida to get abortions because it was one of the only places left in the southeast where you could get an abortion if that was the care that you needed. Ron DeSantis didn’t like that, so he pressured the legislature to pass an even stricter abortion...