Free Republic

Biden national security adviser pushed collusion claims after they were debunked. An attorney for the Clinton campaign exchanged emails with Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan regarding a discredited theory of Trump-Russia collusion at the center of an ongoing special counsel investigation, the New York Times reports. Attorney Marc Elias exchanged emails with Sullivan and other Clinton campaign officials on Sept. 15, 2016, regarding a purported link between the computer servers of Donald Trump’s real estate company and the Russian oligarch-owned Alfa Bank, the Times reported. Elias and Michael Sussmann, partners at the firm Perkins Coie, shared the data with...

The Washington Supreme Court is on a roll. On March 11, it took the unprecedented step of outlawing mandatory sentences of life without parole for people under the age of 21—making Washington the first state in the nation to extend such protections to defendants who, while technically adults at the time of their crime, have greater potential for rehabilitation because of their youth. The previous month, a majority of the court struck down Washington’s drug possession law, effectively legalizing possession of controlled substances while overturning thousands of convictions going back decades. And, in January, the court made it easier for...

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Tomorrow is a day many convicted of small criminal charges have been waiting for. Tomorrow, Governor Gretchen Whitmer is expected to sign the “Clean Slate” bill. The so-called “Clean Slate” bill passed in a 29-to-8 vote. The bill, once signed, will erase a person’s record seven to ten years after being convicted of certain charges like marijuana misdemeanors. It doesn’t apply to offenses that carry a prison sentence of ten years or more, including assault and human trafficking.

There is no question that, if confirmed, Barrett would cast the fifth vote to either hollow out Roe v. Wade or overturn it altogether. Similarly, there is no doubt that Barrett would dramatically expand the Second Amendment, invalidating gun control measures around the country. It’s quite possible, perhaps even likely, that within a year of her confirmation, Americans will be forbidden from terminating a pregnancy in 21 states—but permitted to purchase assault weapons and carry firearms in public in every state.

The governor then carried out a slow, cautious reopening by keeping many of her stay-at-home orders in place through late May. Most recently—over loud braying and protests from the state’s conservatives—Whitmer put in place orders that require masks in public spaces and prohibit high-risk businesses like gyms and bars from fully reopening. ... Naturally, Michigan’s Republican Party wants to put a stop to that. Michigan Republicans are now attempting to execute a plan to strip Whitmer of her emergency order powers—and unilaterally end the protections she has put in place against the pandemic—by exploiting their favorite state constitutional loophole. That...

This week we look at our old pal, House races. In 2018, all anyone wanted to talk about was the House—the House this, the House that. Who’s going to win the House?, the people would ask. Now no one cares! Well, the Surge is here to fix that. We’ve got a mix of remaining primaries and a few general elections to look at where incumbents are either in danger, criminals, or—somehow—both. Let’s start in Michigan, where it’s illegal to be fun and say fun things.

(@brithume The author of this nonsense is a professor at the highly regarded Northwestern University.) In the early days of the pandemic, did you ever fantasize what we’d do when people could go outside again and gather together? Did you dream of a better, “post-pandemic” America? One with more hugs, more mutual care and concern for our fellow humans, having all gone through (in differing and unequal ways, but still having shared) a harrowing common experience? People are going out again, all over the United States. But it’s not to celebrate a vaccine or a debt jubilee. The first national...

How does Watergate differ from Obamagate? Journalists led the charge to uncover the first. But now? Now journalists are leading the coverup of the second. J. Peder Zane has illustrated the media coverup exactly: “This week’s news that at least 39 Obama officials had unmasked Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s private conversations during the last month of their administration seemed a little shocking. Today, major media outlets are telling readers and viewers that the practice is “routine.” A CNN headline told readers, “Trump pushes 'Obamagate' conspiracy based on routine intel activity.” Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, now a CNN...

Several states are taking a stand on whether or not it’s “essential” to continue abortion during the coronavirus crisis. And so are many in the media. Their stance is no secret: abortion is “essential.” Pieces from Slate to the New York Times go so far as to suggest it’s even more necessary during a pandemic. And the politicians that are placing abortion on hold are “f****** monsters,” according to one Vice editor. That’s because, among their many reasons, they say that abortion is time-sensitive – and the lack of it endangers lives. Never mind that at least one life ends...

The source of the hopes for a coronavirus cure should raise a lot of red flags. President Donald Trump’s daily press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic has been compared to many things: state propaganda, daily talk show, three-ring circus. It is somehow all of these things, but it is also something else: an infomercial. For the past two weeks, the president has been hawking a miracle cure: the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. He has hailed it as “very encouraging,” a “phenomenal drug,” and “the biggest game changer in the history of medicine.” Trump has also portrayed it as a Hail Mary:...

No matter how many abortions there are in America, Planned Parenthood and their blood-thirsty cohorts are always screaming, “More, more!” On Twitter, Planned Parenthood freaked out that with the proposed Chinese coronavirus stimulus bill, Republicans are “ONCE AGAIN exploiting a public health crisis to target sexual and reproductive health care” and “cater[ing] to anti-abortion extremists while threatening health care access for millions.” Their complaints? That the bill doesn’t take the unprecedented step of ignoring the Hyde Amendment that protects taxpayers from funding abortion, that Planned Parenthood could potentially be denied new nonprofit loans, and, for some reason, they wanted funds...

Earlier today, the Atlantic’s McKay Coppins published a lengthy profile on Mitt Romney, apparently part of Romney’s effort to set himself up as the noble Republican foil to an out-of-control president. These sorts of pieces, which are more about narrative setting than anything else, typically don’t contain a lot of new information, but this had one notable exception. About midway through, the usually guarded senator revealed that, just like fellow lone-voice-of reason-haver James Comey, he was the owner of a secret Twitter account. At one point, as Coppins asked him about the #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY hashtag Trump tweeted into being earlier this...

The newly rebellious senator has become an outspoken dissident in Trump’s Republican Party, just in time for the president’s impeachment trial..... Mitt Romney is leaning forward in his chair, his eyes flashing, his voice sharp. It’s a strange look for the 72-year-old senator, who typically affects a measured, somber tone when discussing Donald Trump’s various moral deficiencies. But after weeks of escalating combat with the president—over Ukraine, and China, and Syria, and impeachment—the gentleman from Utah suddenly appears ready to unload.

Earlier today leftist tool Mitt Romney was featured in a lengthy anti-Trump expose’ in The Atlantic. During the interview Mitt admitted to having a second secret Twitter account following 668 people. Via the Atlantic: That’s kind of what he does,” Romney said with a shrug, and then got up to retrieve an iPad from his desk. He explained that he uses a secret Twitter account—“What do they call me, a lurker?”—to keep tabs on the political conversation. “I won’t give you the name of it,” he said, but “I’m following 668 people.” Swiping at his tablet, he recited some of...

"The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins published a lengthy profile on Mitt Romney, apparently part of Romney’s effort to set himself up as the noble Republican foil to an out-of-control president." "About midway through, the usually guarded senator revealed that, just like fellow lone-voice-of reason-haver James Comey, he was the owner of a secret Twitter account."

WESTERVILLE, Ohio—At an event in an ice cream shop downtown in this small suburb of Columbus, hours before Democrats’ presidential debate blocks away, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez held court with a dozen or so young, rising Ohio Democrats to declare that the national party was here for a reason. “We’re here in Ohio because Ohio’s a battleground,” Perez said, “and I’m confident we can win Ohio.” Perez wasn’t just trying to cheer up the troops. He was weighing in on a live, controversial question: Should Democrats give up on Ohio? For more than half a century, this question...

In February 2017, the Washington Post’s Miller had the lead byline on a story based on leaks of Trump’s conversations with Australia’s prime minister and Mexico’s president. Six months later, the Post published the entire transcripts of both conversations in another Miller story. It was through such national security correspondents that anti-Trump sources -- intelligence officials -- pushed leaks of classified information and other tidbits intended to damage Trump into the media. There it merged with other anti-Trump currents in nearly every corner of the press, where it blossomed into Russiagate. After a nearly two-year investigation, the special counsel found...

Earlier this year, a Connecticut woman died after she fell trying to carry her 1-year-old daughter in a stroller down a staircase in a New York City subway station. Nine months later, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has provided us with the answer: It costs $81 million to make a station wheelchair-accessible—between three to 10 times what peer cities pay for the same work. Eighty-one million dollars for an elevator, or perhaps two. It’s a scandalous figure, and one that says as much about the state of American public infrastructure at large as it does about New York. We’re...

Lewis and Clark Stop celebrating. They don't matter. By David Plotz Posted Friday, August 16, 2002, at 7:40 AM PT The American infatuation with Lewis and Clark grows more fervent with every passing year. The adventurers have become our Extreme Founding Fathers, as essential to American history as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson but a lot more fun. Last month, President Bush announced the Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebration, a three-year, 15-state pageant that begins Jan. 18 in Virginia and could draw as many as 25 million tourists to the Lewis and Clark trail by the time it wraps up...

Ripping the "new low" for the media in the coverage of his administration, President Donald Trump ripped "crooked journalism" for being "an evil propaganda machine for the Democrat Party." President Trump tweeted: "The Failing New York Times, in one of the most devastating portrayals of bad journalism in history, got caught by a leaker that they are shifting from their Phony Russian Collusion Narrative (the Mueller Report & his testimony were a total disaster), to a Racism Witch Hunt..... President Trump continued: ".....'Journalism' has reached a new low in the history of our Country. It is nothing more than an...