Free Republic

On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) stated that he has offered to let President Joe Biden use the Connecticut Guard to help secure the border, but Biden won’t use them. Co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked, “You may need housing for a different reason, immigration. You have people being bused up there — not in the same way that is being — that’s happening here — what do you think of the immigration problem in America, and do you think that blue states, which, for so long, thought this was a not in my backyard...

During a portion of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that is set to air on Monday’s edition of “Laura Coates Live,” CNN host Laura Coates told Harris that she was “struck, just in your presence” and watched her on stage “with your passion that you are displaying and talking about so many issues. And yet, you hear candidates suggesting that a vote for President Biden, because of his age, is somehow a vote for you, and that is hurled as an insult.”

During an interview with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday’s “NBC Nightly News,” host Lester Holt stated that while Israel has produced video of weapons “it says were recovered at the al-Shifa hospital, video of what may be a tunnel” that “doesn’t necessarily point to a Hamas command and control center as Israel and the U.S. have maintained.” Holt asked, “Israel is showing video of weapons it says were recovered at the al-Shifa hospital, video of what may be a tunnel. But it’s clear that the evidence doesn’t necessarily point to a Hamas command and control center as Israel...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) pushed back against Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” by saying, “Israel is not conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign. Israel is not engaged in genocide. Israel was brutally attacked in the most horrific way on October 7. It has resulted in the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.” And Israel is responding.

During a portion of an interview set to air on Sunday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that was aired on Friday’s broadcast of FBN’s “Mornings with Maria,” 2024 presidential candidate former President Donald Trump stated that “it probably was” a mistake for him to nominate Christopher Wray to be FBI Director during his term and Wray “was recommended very strongly” by 2024 GOP rival former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Host Maria Bartiromo introduced the clip of the interview by stating, “President Trump reacting to this week’s Judiciary Committee hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray. I...

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Senate Minority Whip Sen. John Thune (R-SD) responded to a question on the possibility of a government shutdown by stating that “anything right now is on the table” and whether a deal is reached largely depends on how badly Democrats “want to get a deal to not blow it up with all kinds of new non-defense-related spending.” Thune also argued that the massive increase in spending “has contributed to and been largely responsible for the run-up that we’ve seen in inflation.”

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Jose Diaz-Balart Reports,” Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) argued that “with the exception of family separation, virtually all Trump border policies are still in place today.” And things on the border have gotten worse because of Republican policies. Escobar stated, “Republicans continue to complain that they want Trump policies reinstated. The fact of the matter is, Jose, with the exception of family separation, virtually all Trump border policies are still in place today. And not only are we not seeing a slowdown in migration, not only are we [not] seeing things — a more orderly process...

During a portion of an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of “The Issue Is,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg responded to a question on whether he likes California’s plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035 — a plan that drew praise from Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm last week — and whether he thinks it could be a national model by stating that it’s “interesting” to see what states are doing and he’s “really interested to follow these developments” at the state level. Host Elex Michaelson asked, “California recently announced that, by 2035, all vehicles that are new...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that while some conservatives do want to whitewash the past, “plenty of liberals also want to abuse history to control the present,” through presentism and acting as through “the capacity for cruelty” is “a white thing.” Maher began by saying, “How we teach our kids history has become a big controversy these days, with liberals accusing conservatives of wanting to whitewash the past, and sometimes that’s true, sometimes they do. But plenty of liberals also want to abuse history to control the present, and last month, a scholar named...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) stated that the Inflation Reduction Act is “partly about bringing down utility costs, and it’s partly about bringing down healthcare costs.” But admitted it only does so in the long run and stated that “long-term is where, I think, everybody in America would like to see those prices come down.” Host Andrea Mitchell said, “[T]he Inflation Reduction Act, so named, doesn’t really reduce inflation. It brings the deficit down, less than one might have hoped because of Manchin and Sinema taking things out on the tax piece of...

During the Overtime segment of Friday’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) program busing migrants to New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago has called the bluff of liberals in those cities and exposed the “hypocrisy” of people on the left saying, “let’s have open borders or close to it,” “but not in my backyard.” Maher said, “It is an interesting question for liberals to be like, hey, let’s have open borders or close to it, and then when they come, but it’s not in our states. And the Texas Governor kind of called their...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that while he is pro-choice and thinks abortion isn’t murder, it’s wrong to say pro-life people are anti-women, because if you think abortion is murder, you can’t say, “well, except for people with a vagina, they can commit murder.” And pushed back against arguments that pro-life people shouldn’t impose their values by saying, “you wouldn’t say that about a murderer. That’s what their point is.” Maher said, “I’m more pro-choice than you can imagine. I don’t think life is always precious, most people don’t think that. What I’m saying...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said there was “a conspiracy to get rid of” former President Donald Trump by the media, who buried the Hunter Biden story “because they were like, we can’t risk having the election thrown to Trump, we’ll tell them after the election.” Maher said, “[M]y friend Sam Harris was on a podcast…they were talking about Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was a story and now all the mainstream press has finally admitted it was a real story, it was a real laptop — now look, let’s not pussyfoot around this, he was...

During the Overtime segment of Friday’s broadcast of “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that some of the increased funding for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act will be used to audit middle-class taxpayers. While discussing Washington Post columnist, CNN Contributor, and “PBS NewsHour” Special Correspondent Catherine Rampell’s recent tour of an IRS facility and the problems the agency has with processing tax returns due to outdated technology, Maher said, “This bill that Biden signed this week has $80 billion…that’s what it’s for, right? It’s $80 billion to the IRS. Now, of course, the Republicans are saying, you’re going...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that America was “robbed blind” by fraud with coronavirus relief programs and said that this makes him “a little less excited about the money they’re planning to spend.” He also wondered why Democrats aren’t being “the good government party” they’re supposed to be and Republicans aren’t being the fiscal watchdogs they’re supposed to be. Maher said, “[T]his is the question I asked back in April and I’m going to ask it again, it doesn’t really make me a conservative, does it, that I don’t want to be absolutely robbed...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher praised the climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act but noted that climate activists have “thrown around these numbers forever.” And said that back in the 1990s “we were already going to die” if numbers reached levels they’ve already reached. Maher began by saying that President Joe Biden “just signed the biggest climate bill ever. Finally, we’re doing something about climate.”

On Saturday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) responded to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that the Inflation Reduction Act won’t have much of an impact on inflation this year or next year by saying that many economists say “inflation is already coming down. Gas prices are coming down. So, I believe that you will be able to feel it.” Host Fredricka Whitfield asked, “But do you worry that many Americans won’t actually feel the impact of the bill — some of the impact, for a long time? I mean, it’s called the Inflation Reduction Act. But...

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “Quest Means Business,” Jason Furman, who served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama and on the Council of Economic Advisers and the National Economic Council under President Bill Clinton and is currently a Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at Harvard University and the Harvard Kennedy School, stated that while some action was needed, President Joe Biden’s economic stimulus plan was too big, badly designed, ultimately “brought us a lot more inflation than it did in terms of economic growth.” And “got the balance wrong.”

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher argued Democrats should move President Joe Biden “into a more ceremonial role.” Because while his first year was “Not horrible, certainly better than the alternative,” “for some reason, America has lost its faith in Joe.” And “even when Joe does something good,” like the economy, “he seems to get no credit.” Maher began by saying, “Democrats must thank President Biden for his great service to America, and then move him into a more ceremonial role.”

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that he’s never “thought life itself was particularly precious.” And “life is for the living. Until you’re born, you’re not living. I mean, yes, it’s becoming a life, but it’s not. And we wouldn’t miss you if you’re not born.”