Free Republic

Comedian and former late night host Conan O’Brien visited the White House on Friday to interview President Biden for his podcast. O’Brien was spotted in the briefing room and briefly spoke to a few reporters in the room. SiriusXM later confirmed O’Brien was there to interview Biden for his podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.” The interview will be available Wednesday. “They won’t let me take questions, but boy do I have the answers to everything,” O’Brien joked during his brief stop in the briefing room.

Capitol Hill hearing room or UFC octagon? Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) nearly came to blows Tuesday with Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien, who has been trash-talking the lawmaker for months on social media. Mullin began his remarks during a testy Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing by reading off a series of mean tweets and other taunts from O’Brien, who challenged him to a fight earlier this year. “Sir, this is the time, this is the place. You wanna run your mouth? We could be two consenting adults. We can finish it here,” Mullin said . “OK, that’s...

Journalist Soledad O’Brien alerted reporters on Monday that the term “woke” has now become akin to a “racist slur” or “the n-word.” From her Twitter account, the ex-CNN anchor posted an image of a tweet from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., commenting on the Super Bowl pregame show. Greene wrote, “Chris Stapleton just sang the most beautiful national anthem at the Super Bowl. But we could have gone without the rest of the wokeness.” O’Brien tweeted in response, “So reporters… for many people, ‘woke’ means (b)lack people. Or more likely—a racist slur. So maybe do a better job in interviews...

Overclassification ensures the public won’t get a full view into the government’s behind-the-scenes machinations leading up to the events of January 6. The public is gradually learning how, despite repeated denials and non-answers, top government officials were well aware of the potential for violence on January 6, 2021. A chief investigator on the January 6 select committee told NBC News last week that law enforcement was privy to a trove of intelligence indicating problems could arise during the election certification process but, for some unexplained reason, chose to ignore the warning signs. “The Intel in advance was pretty specific, and...

Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, a critic of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, bucked his fellow Democrats to endorse the Republican challenger in one of the most anticipated local races this November. Reilly’s decision was announced by Patrick O’Brien’s campaign, but earlier last week the 42nd Ward alderman’s political committee gave $1,000 to the GOP challenger’s political war chest. Reilly also sent text messages and calls touting his endorsement to his ward’s residents. “Alderman Brendan Reilly 42nd Ward Chicago and his constituents know, firsthand, the consequences of Kim Foxx’s failure to aggressively prosecute repeat gun offenders and violent criminals downtown,”...

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is ramping up her attacks on her Republican challenger just as a new poll shows the Democratic incumbent losing ground. Foxx also reported a fundraising boost from a couple of top Democratic donors. The incumbent argues that O’Brien is “pure Trump." Republicans say O’Brien’s rise in the polls shows voters are deciding what’s wrong for voters are “the disastrous policies of Kim Foxx.” Foxx’s 30-second ad describes O’Brien and President Donald Trump as “angry” Republicans who want to “‘lock em up’ regardless of evidence.” Foxx has gone after O’Brien previously for his role as...

With less than three weeks until the final votes can be cast, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is heading into the home stretch of her re-election bid with the potential to be outspent nearly two-to-one by Republican rival Pat O’Brien. The Democratic incumbent reported having $202,290.45 left in her campaign coffers at the end of last month, and available filings show only $14,300 raised since then, giving her roughly $216,590.45 to spend. “Cook County residents have seen firsthand how Kim Foxx has failed to protect our families, victims of crime, and neighborhoods,” O’Brien said in a statement. “I look...

Kim Foxx said “no” to a debate against her Republican opponent in the Cook County state’s attorney’s race and will not sit on a stage with him at all as she campaigns for reelection. “We learned during the recent Ed board interviews, that the State’s Attorney participated in with Mr. O’Brien, that he will instead use the time for Trump-like name calling and fear mongering,” Sims wrote. “During this nationwide crisis, she will not sit across the stage from a Republican that exploits tragedy to win a campaign. We had plenty of that last night. Voters deserve better.” O’Brien quickly...

National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said Sunday that the only two people who opposed the historic agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates were the ayatollah of Iran and former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes. "I think getting out of the JCPOA was the predicate for this fantastic deal between UAE and Israel," he said on Meet the Press. "I never thought I would see President Trump being endorsed by Thomas Friedman on this deal and David Ignatius and others. I think the only people who were against the deal were the ayatollah and maybe Ben Rhodes." While the deal...

Former national security adviser John Bolton was advised to purge potentially biased holdovers from the Obama administration from the Trump White House, according to a top Republican in Congress. House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes said on Thursday that he warned Bolton, whom Democrats want to testify in the Senate impeachment trial against President Trump, of an anti-Trump spying operation by members of the National Security Council. The California congressman also said he told H.R. McMaster, who preceded Bolton, and Robert O'Brien, the current national security adviser, to take steps to cull what he called a "den of thieves."...

Today, President Donald J. Trump announced his intent to appoint the following individual to a key position in his Administration:Roger D. Carstens of Virginia, to be the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs.Roger D. Carstens is currently a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the Department of State, where he oversees the Bureau’s work in Near Eastern Affairs, Western Hemisphere Affairs, and the Office of Security and Human Rights.  Mr. Carstens previously worked overseas with international NGOs in Somalia and Jordan, where he provided humanitarian assistance and stability support to Syrian refugees and...

Former Acting DNI Joseph Maguire did not brief the white house prior to taking Shelby Pierson, the person in charge of evaluating intelligence regarding election security, to lead the presentation to the house intel committee (HPSCI). That’s the key takeaway from a taped preview of National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien on Face The Nation. With NSA O’Brien confirming what many suspected it begs the question why would Shelby Pierson and Joseph Maguire intentionally blindside the White House? The briefing was obviously spun by HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff and democrats on the committee; and there was no intelligence presented to support...

On Friday, a source told Fox News that a National Security Council (NSC) staffer had spoken about Trump’s July 25th phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “multiple” people outside of the NSC, and had characterized the call as “outrageous.” This occurred before the whistleblower’s complaint had been submitted. This development had been reported to then-senior National Security Council (NSC) leadership. According to Fox: The development comes as Fiona Hill, a former special assistant to the president who worked on European and Russian affairs, is set to give a deposition next week. Fox News has reached out to Hill...

President Trump named Robert C. O’Brien as his new national security adviser, picking a top hostage-affairs official for the high-profile White House role... (President) Trump tweeted the announcement Wednesday morning, writing "I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!"... Mr. O’Brien, who currently serves as special envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department, will be Mr. Trump’s fourth national security adviser. He also served under the George W. Bush administration at both the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and the State Department... Most recently, Mr. O’Brien was sent to Sweden to help...

President Trump announced in a tweet on Wednesday that he will name Robert O’Brien to succeed John Bolton as his national security adviser. “I am pleased to announce that I will name Robert C. O’Brien, currently serving as the very successful Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department, as our new National Security Advisor​,” the president said. “I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!​”​ ​The announcement comes a day after Trump released the five finalists on his list and called O’Brien “fantastic.”

•A federal judge has postponed until July 31 the start of the upcoming trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort. •The judge also has granted immunity to five potential witnesses for their testimony against Manafort, who is charged with crimes related to his consulting and lobbying work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. •Prosecutors in the office of special counsel Robert Mueller had asked for so-called use immunity for the five witnesses, which would bar their testimony at Manafort's trial from being used against them in a criminal prosecution. A federal judge has postponed from Wednesday...

Hugh Hewitt grilled reporter Soledad O’Brien Monday evening for accepting money from the government of Qatar, which is the top financier of the terror group Hamas and also has provided funds to other Islamist groups. Hewitt asked O’Brien, who does work for the Qatari government’s Al Jazeera news station, how she justified being paid by a government that supports terrorism. “Businessweek, has a story on Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, and the headline calls Qatar a patron of Islamists,” Hewitt said on his radio program. “It says that Qatar funds and arms Islamists fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad and bankrolling...

Miles O'Brien, award-winning science journalist and former CNN correspondent and anchor, revealed in a blog post that his left arm was amputated recently after an accident. "I wish I had a better story to tell you about why I am typing this with one hand (and some help from Dragon Dictate)," he wrote. The story is not, he wrote with bittersweet humor, as "entertaining" as an "out-of-control quad copter that turns on its master," or perhaps a shark attack or assassination attempt. What led to the loss of O'Brien's arm was a case of TV gear.

CARDINAL Keith O’Brien is facing a new investigation by the Vatican and may face a “trial” under canon law which could lead to him losing his red hat. Three priests in the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh have asked Leo Cushley, the new archbishop, to pass on to the Holy See their written complaints which characterise O’Brien as a “sexual predator” who used his authority to compel them into “coercive” and “abusive” sexual relationships. The priests, whose accusations led to the cardinal’s enforced retirement and disgrace last February, appear determined to force Pope Francis to make a final judgment....

Change.gov, the website created by the Obama transition team in 2008, has effectively disappeared sometime over the last month. While the front splash page for Change.gov has linked to the main White House website for years, until recently, you could still continue on to see the materials and agenda laid out by the administration. This was a particularly helpful resource for those looking to compare Obama's performance in office against his vision for reform, laid out in detail on Change.gov. According to the Internet Archive, the last time that content (beyond the splash page) was available was June 8th --...