Free Republic

Sen. John McCain should reconsider his wish that President Donald Trump not attend McCain's funeral, said Sen. Orrin Hatch, the most senior GOP senator. McCain prefers instead that Vice President Mike Pence attend his funeral rather than Trump, who has mocked McCain for being tortured and attacked him for voting against Obamacare repeal. But Hatch said he thought keeping the president from his funeral was too much: "I think it's ridiculous." Hatch said he does not expect McCain, who is battling brain cancer, to return to the Senate. "That's what I've been told,” said Hatch, who is 84 and retiring...

Women’s History Month. I’m all for it. We should celebrate anyone (like these fearless women) who’ve helped to positively shape the greatest nation on earth. And yes, my American exceptionalism bias will always show.Of course, in this day in age, it’s gotten a bit murky since anyone, apparently, can be a woman. Perhaps the historical designation has run its course. It’s increasingly being made irrelevant by a pseudoscientific ideology that denies there is any distinction between women and men. We’re all just the same. And we can all be the same, as long as we self-identify as anything we want...

@MittRomney has announced he is running for the Senate from the wonderful State of Utah. He will make a great Senator and worthy successor to @OrrinHatch, and has my full support and endorsement! 9:21 PM - 19 Feb 2018

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.

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch became a meme sensation overnight after a clip of him removing a pair of glasses he didn’t seem to be wearing went viral. Twitter and the rest of the Internet expectedly erupted into a frenzy. Loading... According to CNN, 83-year-old Hatch took off his invisibility cloak glasses during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Hatch seamlessly placed his spectacles next to him while continuing to speak in the committee hearing. The gif of Hatch raced its way across the Internet and people couldn’t get enough of it.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Senate Republican, announced on Jan. 2 that he would not seek re-election – ending weeks of speculation to the contrary. Hatch, an 83-year-old from Utah, said he would retire at the end of his term. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., also announced the same day that he would not seek re-election. Shuster, 56, told the Washington Examiner that he hopes to work with President Trump on an infrastructure bill before he retires. Multiple Republican lawmakers have already announced that they would not return to Washington after 2018. In general, fall retirement announcements are nothing new. On...

Outgoing Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Wednesday that former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney would have his support if he runs to take his place in the Senate. Hatch's remarks come a day after the 83-year-old senator announced his retirement. President Trump had urged Hatch to stay in the seat, reportedly as an attempt to block Romney from taking the Senate spot. "There's no question that he loves Utah and wants to support Utah any way he can. And I'm hopeful he'll run, because he would be just fine," Hatch said in a radio interview on Utah's Morning News program....

The longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history announced this week that he will finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally retire. That's seven "finallys" -- one for each of the consecutive six-year terms Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, served. He begin his occupancy in 1976, when all phones were dumb, the 5.25-inch floppy disk was cutting-edge, the very first Apple computer went on sale for $666.66, the Concorde was flying high, O.J. Simpson was a hero, Blake Shelton was a newborn, the first MRI was still a blueprint, and I was a gap-toothed first-grader wearing corduroy bell-bottoms crushing on Davy Jones....

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is not running for re-election, an announcement which immediately renewed rumors that former presidential candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will run for the open seat. His path would be pretty crystal clear, it seems. Mr. Hatch’s decision clears the way for the political resurrection of Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee who is now a Utah resident and is popular in the Mormon-heavy state. Mr. Romney has told associates he would likely run if Mr. Hatch retires.“It would be difficult to defeat Mitt Romney if he were running here,” said...

Orrin Hatch, who's served in the U.S. Senate representing Utah since 1977, announced Tuesday he would not seek re-election in 2018.

Orrin G. Hatch, the longest-serving Senate Republican, will announce that he will retire at the end of the year, clearing a path for Mitt Romney to run....

Video at link. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the longest-serving GOP senator in U.S. history, announced Tuesday that he'll retire at the end of his term. Hatch made the announcement in a video posted on Twitter. The announcement is a blow to President Trump, who has publicly encouraged him to run for reelection. The 83-year-old senator appeared to be signaling in recent weeks that he’d run for an eighth term in 2018, even though he previously said he’d retire when his term is up in January 2019. The powerful Senate Finance Committee chairman played a significant role in helping Republicans pass...

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,”host Joe Scarborough criticized Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) for “fawning” over President Donald Trump in public while in private they “mock” him and say he “is a horrific president.” After playing video of McConnell, Ryan and Hatch praising the president after lawmakers passed the tax bill,  Scarborough said, “Most autocrats around the world would be embarrassed to have so many people fawning over them in public like that. You looked at what Mike Pence said in the Cabinet room also, I’m really serious here, you wonder, of course,...

Back in November, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, the 83-year-old Republican from Utah, was at the helm when the Senate's massive tax bill came through the Finance Committee. But Hatch also deputized four younger Republicans on the panel to serve as de facto co-chairmen over various parts of the legislation. This week, with a compromise bill marching toward final passage in both chambers, the House will take the unusual step of voting first - because a pair of senators, Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are recuperating from, respectively, non-melanoma skin surgery and the side effects of cancer treatments. Hatch's...

President Trump’s trip to Utah Monday was ostensibly about eliminating national monument status for two Utah landmarks. But most speculate that the real reason for the trip was a subtle effort to block Mitt Romney from reentering politics. Romney has made noise about a potential run for Senator Orrin Hatch’s seat, should the longtime Utah senator choose not to seek reelection next year. Monday’s presidential visit seemed to turn into a full-on lobbying effort to get Hatch to stay put. Or perhaps more to the point, to get Romney to stay far away from Washington. And Romney was all too...

TRUMP MOVES TO BLOCK ROMNEY FROM SENATE President going all out to persuade 83-year-old Orrin Hatch to seek re-election in Utah Published: 24 mins ago (POLITICO) Donald Trump is going all out to persuade seven-term Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch to seek reelection — a push aimed in no small part at keeping the president’s longtime nemesis, Mitt Romney, out of the Senate. Romney has been preparing to run for Hatch’s seat on the long-held assumption that the 83-year-old would retire. Yet Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, is now refusing to rule out another campaign — a circumstance Romney’s...

The GOP tax plan was passed through the Senate Friday night in a 51-49 vote. There are a number of things included in the last-minute text, including a provision by Sen. Gardner of Colorado that exempts Kombucha, a fermented tea drink, from alcoholic taxes and regulations. Why it matters: These are small examples of what got slipped in the bill last-minute as the Senate vote neared, and reveals some of the senators' pet projects back in their home states. Odd amendments included in the tax plan: Sen. Orrin Hatch Prohibit things like cash and gift cards to be given as...

RUSH: I got in today and my email was blowing up with people, “You gotta see it. You’ve gotta see it. Oh, my God, it’s the best. It’s the greatest ever. And it’s about time.” I said, “What’s this?” So I read what this is about, and apparently Senator Orrin Hatch let Senator what’s-his-name, Sherrod Brown of Ohio have it for demagoguing tax cuts. I haven’t heard it. I’ve only read it, and I’ve had people say, “I’m sure it will be in your sound bite roster, and if it isn’t, you’ve got to make sure it’s there. It’s just...

With Video ----------------------- Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) admonished Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) for accusing Republicans of writing the tax bill "for the rich" at a late night hearing on amendments and markups. "With all due respect, I get sick and tired of the rich getting richer," Brown said in a diatribe against Republicans. "I come from the poor people, and I have been here working my whole stinkin' career for people who don't have a chance, and I really resent anybody that says I'm doing it for the rich. Give me a break. I...

Eight years ago, Sen. Orrin Hatch argued in a Senate Finance Committee then controlled by Democrats that Congress does not have the constitutional power to order people to buy things. The committee was discussing the incipient Obamacare bill. It's most outrageous element: The so-called "individual mandate," which would force Americans to purchase health insurance. Hatch did not believe the Constitution's Commerce Clause -- which gives Congress the power to "regulate Commerce with foreign nations, and among the states" -- could be stretched to give the federal government the power to compel individuals to do this. "Rather than regulate what people...