Free Republic

The testimony of three university presidents before a House committee last week provoked outrage after they suggested that calls on their campuses for Jewish genocide might not have violated their schools’ free speech policies. One of them, Liz Magill, was forced to step down on Saturday as president of the University of Pennsylvania, where I am a faculty member. But their statements shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Congress could have assembled two dozen university presidents and likely would have received the same answer from each of them. This is because the value of free speech has been elevated to...

A senior editor at the Washington Post sparked outrage online after tweeting on Thursday that the rifle used in the horrific mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, this week was “invented for Nazi infantrymen.” Marc Fisher tweeted on Thursday: “Invented for Nazi infantrymen, further developed by the US military, the AR-15 was the Texas school shooter’s weapon of choice…” A Washington Post editor angered people online when he tweeted on Thursday that the AR-15 rifle used in mass shootings in Texas, Las Vegas, and Connecticut was "invented for Nazi infantrymen." Marc Fisher tweeted on Thursday: “Invented for Nazi infantrymen, further developed...

President Trump’s advisers are letting it be known that he is seriously considering a televised national address on race and national unity. When your paroxysms of laughter subside, consider the serious point here: This reveals just how badly Trump misread the politics of this moment to a potentially fatal degree.

The Washington Post is out with an updated count of President Trump's false and misleading statements since Inauguration Day. And it shows that Trump has surpassed the 10,000 mark. It's a milestone, but not a cause for celebration. Whatever the opposite of popping champagne is, do that, I guess? "The president continues to say false or misleading statements at an unbelievable pace," The Post's fact-checker-in-chief, Glenn Kessler, said on CNN's "New Day" Monday morning. "He hit 5,000 in September. Now here it is, seven months later, and he's now hit 10,000," Kessler said. "That's an average of about 23 false...

Trump says they bought "1,000 burgers" for Clemson. "It was piled up a mile high," he said. FACT CHECK: At two inches each, a thousand burgers would not reach one mile high.

President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

When President Trump made a rare journey to the Capitol last week, he was expected to strategize about how to end the government shutdown he instigated. Instead, he spent the first 20-odd minutes delivering a monologue about “winning.” “We’re winning” on North Korea, the president told Republican senators Wednesday at a closed-door luncheon. “We’re winning” on Syria and “we’re winning” on the trade war with China, too. And, Trump concluded, they could win on immigration if Republicans stuck together through what is now the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, according to officials who attended the presidential pep talk....

Days before he officially becomes a U.S. senator, Mitt Romney took to the Washington Post to fire a shot across President Trump’s bow, saying Mr. Trump had made a “deep descent” in December and is hurting the national character. In an op-ed column published online Tuesday evening, Mr. Romney, now a Republican senator-elect for Utah, came down hardest on recent moves in foreign policy and Cabinet positions related to that. “After he became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the...

Months after President Trump took office, Russia’s disinformation teams trained their sights on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there.

The Post reports: Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Tuesday recommended that former national security adviser Michael Flynn serve no prison time, citing his “substantial assistance” with several ongoing investigations, according to a new court filing. Tuesday’s filing is heavily redacted, continuing to shroud in secrecy the details of what Flynn told Mueller’s team about his interactions with [President] Trump and other top officials. But the document noted that Flynn has assisted the special counsel with its “investigation concerning links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign.” You don’t have to be a...

Over the past decade, attackers motivated by right-wing political ideologies have committed dozens of shootings, bombings and other acts of violence, far more than any other category of domestic extremist, according to a Washington Post analysis of data on global terrorism.

Michael Vickers, a veterinarian and rancher in Falfurrias, Texas, says he won’t let outside militia onto his property and he doesn’t think such groups will be trusted by most area landowners. Gun-carrying civilian groups and border vigilantes have heard a call to arms in President Trump’s warnings about threats to American security posed by caravans of Central American migrants moving through Mexico. They’re packing coolers and tents, oiling rifles and tuning up aerial drones, with plans to form caravans of their own and trail American troops to the border. “We’ll observe and report, and offer aid in any way...

Sen. Joe Donnelly (Ind.), a conservative Democrat in one of the tightest reelection battles in the country, made a cringeworthy and puzzling statement about some minorities on his staff during a debate Tuesday night. To begin, here’s a quick vocab refresher. The definition of the word “but,” according to Google, is “to introduce something contrasting with what has already been mentioned." So it was strange when Donnelly, in what seemed like a genuine effort to compliment his aides, said this when asked how he would bring diversity into his staffing: “Our state director is Indian American, but he does an...

During the Obama presidency, the U.S. administration was wary of the Muslim Brotherhood, which had come to power in Egypt after the country’s first-ever free elections. Despite his declared support for democracy and change in the Arab world in the wake of the Arab Spring, then-President Barack Obama did not take a strong position and reject the coup against President-elect Mohamed Morsi. The coup, as we know, led to the military’s return to power in the largest Arab country — along with tyranny, repression, corruption and mismanagement. That is the conclusion that David D. Kirkpatrick arrives at in his excellent...

Donald Trump hadn't said 300 words during his announcement speech before he called Mexican immigrants rapists. Even before that, he'd already made fun of his sweaty opponents and President Obama. But by word 300, he'd already made the comment that prompted a backlash from Univision — a backlash that drew new attention to his hard-line stance on immigration and, by extension, moved him into first place in the polls. Trump mocked Vietnam veteran John McCain's war record. He made a comment about Fox News's Megyn Kelly that was widely interpreted as referring to her menstruation. He retweeted a joke about...

RNC officials said they would not participate in Sunday’s meeting, but they have been reassuring campaign operatives that they are willing to recalibrate the events.

Media: Does the Washington Post ever consult a dictionary? In what looks like an effort to lasso Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's rising star, they've built a shoddy two-story attack on a faulty definition of "exile." It started Oct. 20 when, on the front page, the Post headlined, "Marco Rubio's compelling family story embellishes facts, documents show." The hit piece, by Manuel Roig-Franzia, cited Rubio's repeated self-reference as the "son of exiles," saving the "Gotcha!" for the second paragraph: "The documents show that Rubio's parents came to the United States and were admitted for permanent residence more than two-and-a-half years before...

Colby King of the Washington Post comments on the GOP field.

A chief critic of ATF's gunwalking operation was reportedly briefed on the program last year --- but didn't object. That's according to unnamed sources speaking to the Washington Post about the classified briefing. The sources said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was given "highly specific information" in an April 2010 briefing, attended by members of Congress from both parties. The operation called "Fast and Furious" is now under fire by Issa and others for allegedly allowing thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. CBS News first broke the story in February. "All...

A chief Republican critic of a controversial U.S. anti-gun-trafficking operation was briefed on ATF’s “Fast and Furious” program last year and did not express any opposition, sources familiar with the classified briefing said Tuesday. Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), who has repeatedly called for top Justice Department officials to be held accountable for the now-defunct operation, was given highly specific information about it at an April 2010 briefing, the sources said. Members of his staff also attended the session, which Issa and two other Republican congressmen had requested. Fast and Furious targeted Mexican gun traffickers but was linked to the killing...