Free Republic

Democratic senators on Tuesday praised Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) for his retirement-announcing speech, which called out the GOP for its "reckless" support of President Trump. "We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals," said Flake, who has repeatedly clashed with the president and his advisers. Flake called out Trump for what he sees as his "coarseness," his "personal attacks" and his "flagrant disregard for truth and decency" in remarks made minutes after Trump met with Republican senators for a strategy lunch. "Senate is losing a good man in @JeffFlake. He made...

Hillary Clinton's White House bid may have ended with the presidential election, but paychecks issued by her campaign committee continue unabated for top aides. Third-quarter filings to the Federal Election Commission show key figures from Mrs. Clinton’s failed presidential campaign continue to collect thousands of dollars from Hillary for America. FEC documents viewed by The Washington Free Beacon reveal: FEC documents viewed by The Washington Free Beacon reveal: • Elizabeth Jones, the chief operating officer of Hillary for America, received $95,000 by the campaign in 2017. • Huma Abedin received $65,000 between mid-November to the end of June. Roughly $2,000...

On Oct. 16, 11 months after defeating her, President Trump tweeted another of his regular insults about his 2016 opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Sandwiched between boasts about his presumed role in the stock market’s rise and his rally in South Carolina, Trump wrote: “I was recently asked if Crooked Hillary Clinton is going to run in 2020? My answer was, ‘I hope so!’” Putting aside the reckless braggadocio — and blatant sexism — inherent in such a statement, the entire scenario seemed absurd. Most pundits (and most of the American public) discount the idea of Clinton running in 2020, doubtful...

I'm all about holding leaders' feet to the fire, even taking it to them hard if necessary. Being subject to a critical eye is part of their job, and it is our job as responsible citizens to hold them accountable. So yeah, I like it. What I don't like, however, is the abandonment of decency and truth for partisan political advantage. This is exactly what we are witnessing in this firestorm that Rep. Frederica Wilson has ignited with President Trump. The Florida congresswoman should be ashamed of herself. No evidence of shame exists, however. Rather, Wilson seems pleased with herself,...

President Donald Trump could have an easy victory in 2020 thanks to the Democrats’ problematic financial situation, which has reportedly left it struggling to rake in funds. A report from Politico suggests the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is struggling to get financing, in a situation that could leave the party unable to fulfill promises as it continues to reel from its defeat in 2016. In fact, the party’s financial situation is reportedly so dire that it is asking its members to donate or raise $1,000 each, and has a million-dollar shortfall in its State Party Innovation Fund, Politico’s report suggests.....

FairVote, a nonpartisan think tank that analyzes elections and proposes electoral reforms, has issued its new Monopoly Politics 2018 report on U.S. House elections. Using its proven model, the organization projects that Republicans are likely to maintain a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives absent an historic partisan wave in 2018. FairVote’s model has missed only one high-confidence projection in more than a 1,000 congressional races in the 2012, 2014 and 2016 cycles. This year we have made high-confidence projections in 374 of 435 U.S. House races, including 208 sure wins for Republicans and 166 for Democrats. That means...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday said President Donald Trump doesn't get enough credit on all that he's done, such as the appointments he's made, which McConnell said will "get the country growing again." "I think President Trump doesn't get nearly enough credit for the changes that he's brought about that are unrelated to legislation," McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview with CNN's "State of the Union."

WINCHESTER, VA. — The melodic sounds of a street musician’s trumpet echo through every corner of this old Virginia town as locals shop or make their way to lunch. Daren Johnson has been blowing his horn at the pedestrian mall in the shadow of the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum for over an hour. He performs for two reasons: “To make some extra cash and to share a little bit of lightness. We are exhausted as a country,” he said, “a direct result of last year’s election.” Johnson and his wife were tireless volunteers for Hillary Clinton last year. They...

Rep. Frederica Wilson's (D-Fla.) offices in Washington and Miami have reportedly been inundated with phone calls and threats following a war of words with President Trump this week. Staffers at one point had to turn off the phones in Wilson's D.C. office after callers bombarded the phones lines, forcing many callers to only reach a voicemail, a local CBS affiliate reported Friday. The number of calls has apparently reached the thousands over the past few days, according to the report, which said that fax machines were turned over to investigators as threats rolled in, pulling in the Capitol Police, Homeland...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nine months into the Donald Trump era, Democrats are still searching for a standard-bearer and a crisp message to corral widespread opposition to an unpopular president and a Republican-led Congress. The minority party has put that struggle on vivid display this week in Nevada, site of Democrats’ first national party gathering since a contentious chairman’s election in February. The party’s congressional leaders and potential presidential candidates mostly stayed away, with the exception of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, whose name has surfaced among possible 2020 hopefuls. The activists and party leaders who did attend expressed optimism...

Saturday could mark a historic moment for the undocumented community in the United States. The Democratic National Committee could appoint Ellie Pérez to be its first undocumented member in history, a move that would potentially allow the 26-year-old Dreamer from Mexico to take part in the 2020 presidential nomination process. Pérez has been nominated to be a DNC member for the next four years, which includes the next presidential election cycle. If appointed, she could potentially become a superdelegate and get to cast a vote for the party's nominee at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. "This nomination, this appointment to...

Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) said President Trump’s White House is “full of white supremacists” in a new interview Friday. “The White House itself is full of white supremacists,” she told The New York Times. It is the latest response in a four-day controversy over Trump's response to military families who have lost a loved one. Wilson earlier this week described a phone conversation she was listening in on between Trump and the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in Niger. The White House later accused Wilson of politicizing a "sacred" issue. Wilson's interview is not the...

Should Mitt Romney run for the U.S. Senate? By all means. Indeed, Sen. Orrin Hatch should step aside. The Old Souls in the House and Senate will be taking a beating this coming year and Judge Roy Moore, newly nominated gunslinger from Alabama, will lead the charge. Possibly on horseback. For with the rise of Donald Trump to the Oval Office, America has entered a new age of Andrew Jackson. Trump has even placed a portrait of Jackson in the Oval Office to boldly indicate the dramatic shift in paradigm. But it was a long time in coming. I’d written...

Rep. Frederica Wilson on Friday accused White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly of lying about her and using a “racist term” when he publicly admonished her for politicizing the president’s condolence call to a Special Forces’ widow. Mr. Kelly, a retired Marine general whose son was killed in action in Afghanistan, on Thursday denounced the Florida Democrat for listening in on President Trump’s call to Army Sgt. La David Johnson’s widow and then accusing the president of being disrespectful. “He has my sympathy for the loss of his son, but he can’t just go on TV and lie...

Hillary Clinton’s former campaign spokesman called retired Gen. John Kelly “odious” on Thursday after the White House chief of staff and Gold Star father spoke about President Trump’s decision to call the families of four soldiers killed in Niger earlier this month. “Don’t be distracted by the uniform,” Brian Fallon, a CNN contributor and past communications director for Clinton’s campaign, wrote on Twitter following Kelly’s remarks. (TWEET-AT-LINK) “Kelly isn’t just an enabler of Trump. He’s a believer in him. That makes him as odious as the rest,” wrote Fallon, who is also an adviser to the Democratic political action committee,...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi jokingly said she would rather have Mitt Romney running the country than Donald Trump. Speaking at a Q&A session hosted by The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday evening, the Democrat suggested she would now prefer to see the man she once branded a misogynist as America’s leader. “Wouldn’t be nice if he were president of the United States?” she said of Romney, prompting a round of applause from the crowd. Her comments harked back to those she made in November 2016, when she once said, “Doesn't Mitt Romney look good to us now? Oh my...

Republican Roy Moore leads Democrat Doug Jones by 11 percentage points in a new Raycom News Network Senate Election poll conducted by Strategy Research. The survey of 3,000 likely Alabama voters finds Moore receiving 51% support to 40% for Jones. Nine percent remain undecided in the exclusive poll conducted on Monday. "The value of a poll depends on a range of circumstances. A number of recent polls have shown us with a strong lead, but at the end of the day, the one poll that matters above all others is taken on Election Day," Moore campaign chairman Bill Armistead said....

DES MOINES, IOWA — The Democrats who gathered here for a day of fairly anguished strategizing about what they’d have to do to win back rural voters did not speak kindly of their own national leadership or reputation or behavior. Over and over, during a seminar called “Winning Back the Heartland,” they bemoaned the condescending way some of their fellow Democrats talk about their fellow Midwesterners, particularly those who live in small towns. “We forgot how to talk to folks, and when we did, we often talked down,” said Tom Vilsack, the former agriculture secretary under President Barack Obama and...

Because rejecting “the republic for which she stands” is the real message of the left The latest addition to the “this protest is not about America” leftist playbook is taking a knee for the Pledge of Allegiance. Four members of the Ann Arbor city council took a knee during the saying of the pledge that opens their meetings. Michigan Live reports: Four Ann Arbor city council members chose to kneel during the Pledge of Allegiance at a meeting on Monday, Oct. 16. Chip Smith, 5th Ward; Chuck Warpehoski, 5th Ward; Sumi Kailasapathy, 1st Ward; and Jason Frenzel, 1st Ward; moved...

I was very pleased when President Trump signed his first executive order to dismantle ObamaCare in the face of the Republican Congress having broken its repeatedly made promise and pretense to do the same. However, I was utterly repulsed by an aspect of what happened at that event. Therefore, I am taking time from completing my forthcoming book* to comment on what I consider to be the despicable obscenity of RINO Virginia Foxx worming her way (15:52) to be next to Mr. Trump. Foxy weasel Foxx obviously hoped to benefit from the public opposition to the very ObamaCare monstrosity that...