Free Republic

Justice Democrats, a far-left political advocacy group aligned with ‘Squad’ members like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), are being mocked widely online after a case of mistaken identity drew allegations of racism. A new ad targeting more moderate Democrats whom the organization feels are not leftist enough and thus threaten to “tank” Joe Biden’s presidency contains headshots of nine lawmakers — though one of them is actually a Republican. The “rookie error” was noted and tweeted by Jake Sherman, a co-founder of Punchbowl News. “@justicedems have a new ad hitting moderate Dems for their demands on infrastructure...

President Donald Trump has signaled to Hill Republicans that he will not sign a new coronavirus stimulus package without the inclusion of a payroll tax cut, according to three sources close to the issue. This new red line from the White House serves to illustrate the challenges that lay ahead in negotiating another Covid-19 relief package. GOP and Democratic congressional leaders are trillions of dollars apart in funding goals for the package, as well as how those funds will be spent. Republicans have pushed for an overhaul to liability laws, which Democrats are skittish of, and Democrats are insisting on...

Jake Sherman is no fan of Republicans in general or of President Trump in particular. He's the author of an unflattering book about the Trump White House, in which he also described Mitch McConnell's handling of the Kavanaugh confirmation as "merciless" and "Machiavellian." So it was surprising to hear Sherman, on today's Morning Joe, express support for the notion of McConnell initiating a Senate trial even if Nancy Pelosi hasn't delivered the articles of impeachment. Sherman didn't merely report that it is "a very real possibility" that the Senate would conduct a trial in such a situation, and that the...

BREAKING … AP’S JILL LAWLESS in London: “Theresa May says she’ll quit as Conservative leader June 7”: “May announced Friday that will step down as U.K. Conservative Party leader on June 7, sparking a contest to become Britain’s next prime minister. She will stay as caretaker prime minister until the new leader is chosen, a process likely to take several weeks. The new Conservative leader would then become prime minister without the need for a general election.” AP IF PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP has succeeded in anything over the last month or so, it’s this: He has dragged House Democrats into...

n an interview with POLITICO, the president drew a red line in his funding fight with Democrats and said he doesn’t 'do anything … just for political gain.' For the past two years, congressional Republicans have persuaded President Donald Trump to delay the fight to fund his border wall, convincing him he would pay a steep political price for such a high-stakes legislative brawl. Trump is done waiting. Nine days ahead of a deadline that could trigger a partial government shutdown, with no solution in sight, the president told POLITICO in an Oval Office interview on Tuesday that he is...

Florida Rep. Thomas Rooney is the latest Republican who will not seek re-election in 2018, according to Politico’s Jake Sherman. In a statement tweeted by Sherman, Rooney said, “After what will be 10 years in the United States Congress representing the good people of Florida’s Heartland, it’s time to “hang em up” as my old football coach used to say.”

On Wednesday morning, not even 24 hours after Donald Trump effectively clinched the Republican nomination, Paul Ryan convened his top advisers for a call. With Congress out of session, Ryan was bouncing between multiple states, raising the piles of money needed to keep House Republicans in the majority. But Donald Trump was on his mind. The speaker could not — at least at this point — support him. And he wanted to talk through how to proceed. Ryan never expected Trump to lock up the nomination so quickly. He didn't think Texas Sen. Ted Cruz would drop out of the...

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had a rare dinner together Friday in the Wisconsin Republican's Capitol office. Sources familiar with the dinner, which lasted more than two hours, said Ryan asked his Democratic counterpart to join him. The meeting comes as both sides are engaged in contentious negotiations over a government funding bill.

Isn't that sweet: a Politico reporter assures a far-left MSNBC host that when it comes to a major issue. he shares her political view. On this evening's Rachel Maddow show, guest host Melissa Harris-Perry happened to mention that she was a "feminist." Barely were the words out of her mouth when Jake Sherman, congressional correspondent for Politico, broke in to assure her "me too!" View the video here.

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will not run for the House Speakership unless conservatives surrender “unconditionally” to him, Politico reports citing sources close to Ryan. “The conservatives who drove out Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) would need to get behind him unconditionally for speaker,” Politico’s Jake Sherman writes of the donor-class-backed Ryan. Ryan does not want to run for Speaker, he and his spokesman Brendan Buck have made “abundantly clear,” Sherman writes—before noting what exactly it would take for Ryan to get in the race. “But there’s one remote scenario, people close to him say, in...

Every week sparks a new fire for GOP leaders, and the right flank is feeling emboldened to challenge Speaker John Boehner. House Republicans have entered a new season of sniping. GOP leadership has spent weeks twisting arms to get dozens of lawmakers — even some subcommittee chairs — to pony up to the campaign arm, a basic annual obligation of party loyalty. The party is warring over funding for disease research, bickering over an education bill and deeply divided on the possible renewal of the Export-Import Bank, an object of scorn among the far right. On Wednesday evening, House Republican...

In an exclusive interview, the House speaker offers a blistering critique of U.S. policy in the Mideast. JERUSALEM — John Boehner thinks the “world is on fire.” And America isn’t doing nearly enough to stamp it out. “I wouldn’t have believed that I would be involved in as much foreign policy as I am today,” Boehner said in his hotel near Jerusalem’s Old City. “And it certainly isn’t by choice. It’s just that the world is on fire. And I don’t think enough Americans or enough people in the administration understand how serious the problems that we’re facing in the...

House Republicans will vote to pass a one-year delay of Obamacare in exchange for funding the government, a plan that drastically increases the chances of a government shutdown this Tuesday. The decision was announced by the GOP leadership in a closed meeting Saturday afternoon, according to sources present. Republicans will also pass a bill to fund U.S. troops if the government shuts down, according to GOP lawmakers. The House’s funding measure will keep the government open until mid December. This puts Senate Democrats and the White House at loggerheads with House Republicans, a standoff that could lead to the first...

The whip count on Syria has become like the war itself: No one in Washington wants to own it alone. While most top congressional leaders have vowed to back President Barack Obama in seeking authority to launch missile strikes, there’s little evidence that they can — or even want to — help him round up the rank-and file-Republicans he’ll need to win a vote in the House. Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman said that he “expects the White House to provide answers to members’ questions and take the lead on any whipping effort.” Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), whose aides and...

Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) said at a Thursday press conference that House Republicans will rise up against GOP leadership if House Speaker John Boehner tries to rush any immigration reform bill through his chamber of Congress. “There would be a revolt among Republicans” if Boehner abandoned regular order on this issue, Rohrabacher said in response to a question from Breitbart News at the presser. According to a recent Politico report, Boehner is seriously considering abandoning regular order to rush through immigration reform. Regular orders is the process by which a bill is supposed to come up through the respective committees...