Free Republic

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) says he saw blood drain from Adam Schiff’s face when Trump’s lawyers confronted him about his fake call and transcript. Barrasso was seated in the second row, per the Senate seating chart. Deputy White House Counsel Mike Purpura opened the White House defense of President Donald Trump with video of Adam Schiff’s fake call and transcript he read during the House impeachment proceedings. Mike Purpura played the video immediately after taking the podium on Saturday. And there Schiff was lying his face off for the whole world to see. Schiff completely fabricated transcript of Trump’s phone...

President Trump’s defense team opened their arguments against impeachment on Saturday by attacking the credibility of lead Democratic impeachment manager Adam Schiff. “Impeachment shouldn’t be a shell game,” lead impeachment attorney Pat Cipollone told senators. A group of Trump’s defense team argued for only two hours against the two articles of impeachment charging Trump with obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.... “The most effective thing that happened was when they first read the transcript of the phone call, and then played the video,” Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, said. “From where I was sitting, the blood drained from...

Roughly a dozen GOP senators want to change the Senate’s rules and allow for lawmakers to dismiss articles of impeachment against President Trump before the House sends them over. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the resolution on Monday, arguing the Senate's impeachment rules do not envision a scenario where the House would delay transmitting articles against a president, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has done. "The Constitution gives the Senate sole power to adjudicate articles of impeachment, not the House. If Speaker Pelosi is afraid to try her case, the articles should be dismissed for failure to prosecute and Congress...

When John Barrasso, a Republican from oil and uranium-rich Wyoming who has spent years blocking climate change legislation, introduced a bill this year to promote nuclear energy, he added a twist: a desire to tackle global warming. Mr. Barrasso’s remarks — “If we are serious about climate change, we must be serious about expanding our use of nuclear energy” — were hardly a clarion call to action. Still they were highly unusual for the lawmaker who, despite decades of support for nuclear power and other policies that would reduce planet-warming emissions, has until recently avoided talking about them in the...

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed on Tuesday not a single Senate Democrat voted in favor of the Green New Deal because she asked them to vote “present.” “Because I encouraged them to vote present, along w/ others,” Ocasio-Cortez responded when Republican Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso asked her why Democrats ducked going on the Senate record in support of her radical anti-climate change resolution. The New York congresswoman’s response came only hours after the Senate voted 57-to-0 to kill the Green New Deal, which was introduced by Ocasio-Cortez and Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey. Three Democrats voted against the...

The Senate on Thursday voted to confirm Andrew Wheeler as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a 52-47 mostly party-line vote. Every Democrat voted against Wheeler, while Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) was the only Republican to vote against him. Collins in a statement Wednesday said she would not vote for Wheeler, a former energy lobbyist, because of his track record backing policies that weaken rules protecting are pollution and lowering car emissions. “While Mr. Wheeler is certainly qualified for this position, I have too many concerns with the actions he has taken during his tenure as Acting Administrator...

The Senate on Wednesday took a symbolic shot at President Trump’s trade policy amid anxiety on Capitol Hill over his tariff strategy. Senators voted 88-11 to instruct lawmakers hashing out a deal on a government funding bill to include language “providing a role for Congress” on tariffs implemented for national security reasons, known as Section 232 of the trade laws. The vote is nonbinding, meaning lawmakers don’t have to add trade language into the funding bill. But the vote margin, with more senators supporting it than the amount needed to override a veto, underscores the depth of concern on Capitol...

More than two dozen Senate Republicans are urging President Trump to re-engage in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. The 25 GOP lawmakers sent a letter to Trump on Friday saying they support his recent comments that he may consider U.S. participation if the 11-nation Asia-Pacific pact is improved.

Republican establishment-types in the House, as well as congressional Democrats, say they are close to finalizing a bipartisan amnesty plan for as many as 3.5 million illegal aliens. In a comment to the Hill, Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) said a group of House Republicans and Democrats were swiftly crafting an amnesty to push for passage either this week or at the beginning of the new year. “We’ve had very good meetings here with the Problem Solvers Caucus — [Rep.] Will Hurd [R-Texas] has been working on a potential compromise with some Democrats as well, so we could see something as...

Sen. John Barrasso said Wednesday there will be plenty of time to tackle immigration reform, including a new policy for children brought to the U.S. illegally, early in 2018. “The deadline that President Trump has set is actually March and so there’s time to do that,” Mr. Barrasso, Wyoming Republican, said on Fox News. “There are discussions. But for me, I’m going to focus on border security, enforcement and ending chain migration.” Mr. Trump announced the end of DACA — an Obama-era policy that allowed people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to stay — and asked Congress to...

In a letter Monday to Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairwoman Kristine Svinicki, Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is demanding an explanation for how U.S. uranium left the country after the Uranium One deal. The senator, who represents the home state of three of the company’s uranium recovery facilities, said he registered “strong concerns” about the 2010 deal with President Barack Obama. He said he now believes the response he received, and the “process” through which he received it, were “misleading.” He notes that in March of 2011, then-NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko...

Senate Republicans have approved the repeal of ObamaCare’s individual mandate as part of their tax-cut bill, a major step forward toward ending an unpopular part of the healthcare law. “Families ought to be able to make decisions about what they want to buy and what works for them –not the government,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said, hailing the accomplishment.

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. It's not like $500M is that big of a deal. Just tack it on to the $19,000,000,000,000+ national debt! Via Fox News: Two Republican senators are accusing the State Department of misusing taxpayer dollars by green-lighting $500 million for a United Nations climate change program without first obtaining congressional approval. The senators now are demanding the department justify the “cloak-and-dagger” contribution to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) – even threatening legal action. Lawyers cannot replace the constitutional requirement that only Congress can appropriate money,” Sen. Cory Gardner,...

Senators on Thursday rejected a push by Sen. Rand Paul to tie a battle over accepting refugees in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks to an ObamaCare repeal bill. Senators voted 10-89 on the amendment from the Kentucky Republican, who is running for president. Sixty votes were needed for the amendment to be adopted. Republicans Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Mike Lee (Utah), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), David Vitter (La.) and Paul supported the amendment. Paul's amendment would place a "pause" on issuing visas to more...

Sen. John Barrasso gives the Republican Party's Weekly Remarks Hi. I’m Dr. John Barrasso, United States Senator for Wyoming. Let me tell you a story about a family in my home state. Andy Johnson is 32, he works as a welder. He and his wife Katie have four kids and they live out in the country. They have a few cows and some horses. (Scroll down for video of these remarks.) Two years ago, the Johnsons wanted to build a small pond in their front yard. They got their plan approved by the state, and used the pond to provide...

Senate Republicans concede they are not likely to have enough votes to overturn President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran unless they can swing a key Democratic voice against the accord. They’re setting their sights on Hillary Clinton, vowing to tie her to the deal in hopes of pressuring her to oppose it. GOP leaders need 67 votes to override Obama’s expected veto and keep sanctions on Iran in place. The administration has not yet announced an accord but lawmakers expect it to come soon. “It could be a good policy strategy. It’s not going to be hard to come up...

Nancy Pelosi is now predicting that Republicans will “rue the day” that the Supreme Court guts Obamacare subsidies for millions in three dozen states. “They’re going to then go out and say we’re going to take subsidies away from people who have health care? No, I don’t think so,” says Pelosi. “It would be really bad news for them.” Meanwhile, if anything, Republicans may be moving away from their previously-stated vow to participate in providing a contingency fix to temporarily keep those millions covered. The Hill reports that GOP Rep. Tom Price, the chairman of the House budget committee and...

Republicans believe a Supreme Court ruling against ObamaCare this summer would give them leverage to force President Obama to scrap the healthcare law's central pillars. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who is leading the Senate GOP’s response to King v. Burwell, said Republicans will be willing to strike a deal with Obama to ensure that the 7.5 million people who stand to lose their subsidies are protected, at least until the 2016 elections. But in return, they would demand that Obama to do something he has long resisted: nix the employer and individual mandates for insurance coverage. “Is the president going...

Senators on Wednesday blocked a Republican push to tie Iran's support of terrorism to a final deal on the country's nuclear program. Senators voted 45-54 on the amendment from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), which would have required President Obama to certify as part of a diplomatic deal that Iran hasn't carried out or directly supported an act of terror against the United States or a U.S. citizen. Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Dan Coats (Ind.), Bob Corker (Tenn.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Orrin Hatch (Utah) and John McCain (Ariz.) voted with Democrats against the amendment....

The repeal of ObamaCare is the priority of the Republican party, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on Sunday. “There will be a vote on repeal. The president, in the White House, will veto that,” he said of the symbolic gesture offered by GOP lawmakers still unsatisfied with the healthcare legislation. However, Barrasso told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” that there would also be other bills that strike at other parts of the Affordable Care Act – some of which have gained bipartisan support – including a repeal of the medical device tax and the employer mandate. There is...