Free Republic

Are you obsessed with President Trump? Case in point: Conversation with my son today: MY SON: “Mom, when’s dinner?” ME: “He just landed in Tuscaloosa.” MY SON: “Mom, I didn’t ask about Trump… I asked about dinner.” ME: “Oh… yes… okay. Um, dinner is at 5:00 PM!” MY SON: “Mom, do you realize that you live and breathe President Trump every day? Do you wake up in the morning thinking about what he’s doing?” ME [putting hands over my face]: “Actually, yes. I do!” MY HUSBAND: “It’s WMAL 24/7 (our local conservative news talk radio station) and Trump 24/7. I...

Scientists at the cutting edge of ecological research, Dr. Hanson among them, argue that the century-old American practice of suppressing wildfires has been nothing less than a calamity. They are calling for a new approach that basically involves letting backcountry fires burn across millions of acres. In principle, the federal government accepted a version of this argument years ago, but in practice, fires are still routinely stamped out across much of the country. To the biologists, that has imperiled the plants and animals — hundreds of them, it turns out — that prefer to live in recently burned forests. “From...

President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on imported cars is working, sending foreign leaders from Mexico to Japan racing to the negotiating table to make deals. But their offers may not satisfy a president who has shown a willingness to embrace trade tensions in an effort to extract more from American trading partners. The European Union on Thursday made one of the most significant concessions, saying it would cut its existing penalties on automobiles to zero, provided the United States dropped its own tariffs. Although the president has called for something similar, Mr. Trump said he wanted Europe to go...

One of the most bizarre aspects of the investigations engulfing the Trump administration is the lawyers involved. Here we have a presidency on the line, and this is Trump's team? The top legal spokesmen for each side are . . . Rudy Giuliani and Lanny Davis!? Up until this point, though, Giuliani was the Great Contradictor and Davis was merely a colorful character. Now that has changed in a big way. In a new interview with The Washington Post's Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman, Davis is backing off two massive claims he made in recent weeks, including that former...

An FBI special agent told Congress earlier in August that the bureau has used leaked news stories as justifications to obtain surveillance warrants against American citizens, a source familiar with the testimony tells The Daily Caller News Foundation. During a closed-door interview with the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees on Friday, Special Agent Jonathan Moffa told congressional investigators that the FBI and Justice Department have leaked stories to the press and then used them to obtain warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). “He more or less admitted that the FBI/DOJ have previously leaked info to the press...

An attorney for Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, is backing away from confident assertions he made that Cohen has information to share with investigators that shows Trump knew in 2016 of Russian efforts to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Lanny Davis, a spokesman and attorney for Cohen, said in an interview this weekend that he is no longer certain about claims he made to reporters on background and on the record in recent weeks about what Cohen knows about Trump’s awareness of the Russian efforts. Davis did not rule out that his claims were correct but expressed regret that...

An attorney for Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, is backing away from confident assertions he made that Cohen has information to share with investigators that shows Trump knew in 2016 of Russian efforts to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Lanny Davis, a spokesman and attorney for Cohen, said in an interview this weekend that he is no longer certain about claims he made to reporters on background and on the record in recent weeks about what Cohen knows about Trump’s awareness of the Russian efforts. Davis did not rule out that his claims were correct but expressed regret that...

Joel Arrona was heading to a San Bernardino, California, hospital with his pregnant wife for a planned cesarean section when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained him, forcing his pregnant wife to complete the journey and deliver the baby without him. Arrona, 35, is "a citizen of Mexico illegally residing in the United States" and has an outstanding warrant for homicide charges in Mexico, ICE said in a statement.

When he applied for refugee status in the United States, Omar Abdulsattar Ameen told officials he was fleeing persecution in his native Iraq. He was cleared by federal officials to immigrate in 2014 and eventually settled in Sacramento, where he worked as an auto mechanic to make ends meet. But authorities say Ameen’s dramatic arrest Wednesday revealed an uglier truth: He was the persecutor.