Free Republic

The 60-year-old one-time Trump whisperer made his case for a presidential run in a fiery 45-minute rant that focused entirely on the man he went on to back in the 2016 election. ‘It was all about Trump. He was just wants to get into the ring with him and beat him up. He’s not in it to win it,’ said one source present at the previously unreported closed-doors event. Another source said: ‘Christie seemed very angry. He was saying I am the guy who can take on Trump, but I was left wondering if he had any other policies.’ He...

MANCHESTER, NH — Formers New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed Donald Trump on Monday during his first trip to New Hampshire this year, when he held the door open to entering the GOP presidential primary against his former ally and signaled he had until June would decide. In a nearly two-hour town hall at St. Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, Christie said Trump’s name more than 20 times, attacking and taunting the former president for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election he lost political acumen and blamed him for Republican losses at midterms 2022. Christie also presented...

It’s hard to recall a former politician who was showered with more free media attention than Chris Christie this month as he peddled his new book, “Republican Rescue.” Invited to appear on a carousel of shows, Christie was all-present as journalists lined up to interview him. CNN even dedicated an entire primetime hour to him, treating the in-your-face Republican as one of the most important political voices in the country. Consumers aren’t buying it. A senior publishing source with access to the industry’s BookScan tabulations tells me that “Republican Rescue” sold just 2,289 copies during its first week in stores,...

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) advised former President Donald Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to "keep quiet" and "stay off of TV" in an interview Tuesday with Hugh Hewitt. "If I were their lawyer, I would tell all them to keep quiet and not do anything that can help this government make a case against you," Christie said. "And that’s just the basics of criminal defense law. And it’s more difficult for public figures like Mayor Giuliani or President Trump, but first and foremost, if I were their lawyer and that’s the basis you’re asking me this question,...

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday accused President Biden of breaking “his own rule” and “lying to the American people” about the new Georgia election law. Christie was asked about Major League Baseball’s decision to pull the All-Star Game out of Atlanta as a result of the legislation on ABC’s “This Week.” SNIP “Joe Biden’s broken his own rule,” the ex-governor remarked, noting it had been 84 days since entering the White House, “Now, he’s lying to the American people, George. He’s lying about this bill. He’s lying to the American people about it to cause the raging...

GOP Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) on Friday said that if President Trump isn't prepared to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin "accountable" for aggression toward the U.S. then he should cancel their meeting next week. "President Trump must be willing to confront Putin from a position of strength and demonstrate that there will be a serious price to pay for his ongoing aggression towards the United States and democracies around the world. If President Trump is not prepared to hold Putin accountable, the summit in Helsinki should not move forward," McCain said in a statement.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was placed in custody on Tuesday as part of an investigation into allegations he received millions of euros in illegal campaign financing from the regime of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. A judicial source with direct knowledge of the case told The Associated Press that Sarkozy was being held at the Nanterre police station, north-west of Paris. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Sarkozy has vehemently and repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the case, which involves funding for his winning 2007 presidential campaign. Though...

A new Amnesty report details the horrific torture that thousands have been subjected to since the post-coup round-up. Following the attempted coup in July 15, upon the calls of mosques all across Turkey and of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and PM Binali Yildirim to the Turkish people “to take to the streets and airports,” pro-government Islamists started hunting Turkish soldiers – their own soldiers – in the streets, beating, torturing, lynching them. Torture and beatings of surrendering soldiers continued at police stations, too. In a disturbing video published on social media and some Turkish newspapers, a police officer threatens...

Turkish state media say authorities are acting to close down 626 private schools and other educational establishments, in the latest step of a crackdown after last week's attempted coup. The schools are linked to exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who set up a network of schools across Turkey to promote his teachings.

On the eve of a House vote Wednesday on his amendment to curb the National Security Agency's daily dragnet collection of Americans' phone records, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) tweeted, "Washington's elites fear liberty. They fear you." On Thursday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (shown) demonstrated just how eager he is to join the Washington elite. Speaking at the Republican Governors Conference in Aspen, Colorado, Christie delivered what Aaron Blake at the Washington Post described as a "clear broadside" against Republicans of a libertarian bent, including Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, expected to be competing with Christie for the GOP presidential...

The Venezuelan government has seized a U.S. flagged ship and detained its captain for more than a week. The ship Ocean Atlas has been at port in Maracaibo, Venezuela since August 29. After four hours in port, the ship was boarded by armed security personel, and the captain was detained on suspicion of trafficking in arms or drugs. The rest of the crew of 16 Americans has remained on board under guard. According to a well-placed source arrest warrants have been issued for all of the crewmembers, who are to be taken off the ship for questioning. Incredibly, my Forbes...

(SPRINGFIELD, Mass.) — A former postal service employee has pleaded guilty to stealing more than 30,000 DVDs that moved through a western Massachusetts post office... Federal prosecutors say the movie rental company alerted Springfield post office officials that a suspiciously high number of DVDs were disappearing. As many as 100 movies a week were disappearing. Weathers was arrested in February 2008 after investigators filmed him taking DVDs from packages and slipping them into his backpack. He faces 10 months to 16 months in prison and restitution costs of about $38,000 at his Dec. 23 sentencing....

It’s been quite a turnaround for Bill Ayers. The Communist terrorist who planned bombings of police stations, in order to inflict maximum injury and death on police officers, is now depending on the police at the University of Illinois, where he is a “distinguished” professor, to protect him from the tough questions of students' parents. In fact, one parent who presented Ayers with a Bible and a copy of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged was arrested last Thursday night and charged with the curious offense of somehow interfering with university affairs. A visibly-nervous Ayers accepted the books but quickly placed them...

The billionaire banker accused of scamming $8 billion, R. Allen Stanford, was located by FBI officials today and served with civil papers by the SEC, putting an end to a nationwide search. Stanford later turned in his passport to federal prosecutors, saying "he would not flee," according to one of Stanford's lobbyists, Ben Barnes.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, renowned for colorful insults of world leaders, called U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin a confused "beauty queen" on Friday after she said he was a dictator. Chavez, a leftist who often mocks U.S. President George W. Bush, invoked the advice of Jesus Christ on how to handle the slights by Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska and a former beauty pageant winner. "I saw the vice presidential candidate, there she was talking about 'the dictator Hugo Chavez.' The poor thing, you just feel sorry for her," he said during a televised broadcast....

Obama spent the six years between 1979 and 1985 in Los Angeles at Occidental College and then in New York at Columbia University and in the workplace. His memoir, "Dreams From My Father," talks about this time but not in great detail; Siddiqi, for example, is identified only as "Sadik" — "a short, well-built Pakistani" who smoked marijuana, snorted cocaine and liked to party. Obama's campaign wouldn't identify "Sadik," but The Associated Press located him in Seattle, where he raises money for a community theater. Together, the recollections of Siddiqi and other friends and acquaintances from Obama's college years paint...

In his best-selling autobiography, "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., writes movingly about his high school best friend, whom he calls "Ray." Ray's real name is Keith Kakugawa. And Kakugawa's life could not have veered more starkly from that of his old friend, the presidential candidate. Kakugawa is currently homeless in Los Angeles, sleeping in the beat-up Mazda of his friend Jason Myles. He has been in and out of prison for the past few decades, mostly on charges related to cocaine possession and dealing. "To be honest with you,...