Free Republic

The most disturbing aspect of the scandal around Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server during her tenure as secretary of state is not the former first lady’s penchant for secrecy. What’s truly unsettling is that it has been widely taken as read among both the media and the general public that Mrs. Clinton will likely avoid serious legal consequences for her behavior because the Justice Department is ultimately answerable to President Obama – and Democrats will not use the instruments of government to destroy one of their own. Whether that eventually proves true, the sentiment itself reveals a...

Republican legislators have gotten their messaging instructions from their top leaders: Tout unpopular free-trade measures during the August recess, ignore popular curbs on the migration that saps Americans’ wages. Breitbart News has exclusively obtained an internal August recess messaging instruction set for Republican legislators produced by Sen. John Thune (R-SD) 52% , who orchestrates the GOP Senators’ PR pitch. This 20-page messaging instruction manual seems to confirm prior reports by Breitbart News that Republican Congressional leadership has no plans to enact popular immigration reforms to curb large-scale migration. Each August, Senators and Congressmen return home to listen to constituents’ concerns...

Anchor Babies, Common Law, The Constitution, Eliminate birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants Once again, Donald Trump has managed to open up a robust national discussion about an issue that up to this point had been largely ignored by the political class. This time, the discussion is about so-called “birthright citizenship,” the idea that whenever a foreign national (regardless of legal status and with a very few exceptions) has a child on American soil, this child automatically becomes an American citizen from birth. This approach to citizenship has been the de facto (though not de jure) approach to...

Jeb Bush wrote the book on immigration. Donald Trump blusters about it and appeals to the worst impulses of Americans who feel threatened by the nation's increasing diversity that they are powerless to stop. It is up to the former Florida governor to take the high road on a smarter approach to immigration policy and to call out Trump's pandering pledge to "take back our country'' even as other Republican presidential candidates meekly fall in line with the bombastic baiting. Bush ramped up his criticism of Trump's reckless immigration pledges this week at a campaign stop in a Texas border...

To support his insane interpretation of the post-Civil War amendments as granting citizenship to the kids of illegal aliens, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly is now taking job applications for the nonexistent — but dearly hoped-for — Jeb! administration, live, during his show.(Apparently my debate with O’Reilly will be conducted in my column, Twitter feed and current bestselling book, Adios, America, against the highest-rated show on cable news.)Republicans have been out of the White House for seven long years, and GOP lawyers are getting impatient. So now they’re popping up on Fox News’ airwaves, competing to see who can denounce Donald...

To support his insane interpretation of the post-Civil War amendments as granting citizenship to the kids of illegal aliens, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly is now taking job applications for the nonexistent -- but dearly hoped-for -- Jeb! administration, live, during his show. (Apparently my debate with O'Reilly will be conducted in my column, Twitter feed and current bestselling book, Adios, America, against the highest-rated show on cable news.) Republicans have been out of the White House for seven long years, and GOP lawyers are getting impatient. So now they're popping up on Fox News' airwaves, competing to see who can...

July 29—Internet users were snorting in derision after participants on a Fuji TV entertainment show wore T-shirts with a bizarre English slogan incorporating a word that some Caucasians might find offensive. The shirts read: “No Fun No TV Do Honky.” The overall phrase left viewers baffled, while the word “honky” has racial connotations. The T-shirts were worn by individuals such as comedians and presenters taking part in a marathon entertainment show that aired Saturday through Sunday.

Two years ago, Trump met with immigration activists who told them their stories and asked for his support on immigration. “You convinced me,” Trump said as the meeting ended.

In a speech in Iowa on Tuesday night, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump -- who has regularly promoted his negotiating skills as a selling point for his presidency -- used broken English to briefly impersonate Asian negotiators. "When these people walk into the room, they don't say, 'Oh hello, how's the weather? It's so beautiful outside. How are the Yankees doing? They're doing wonderful, that's great," Trump said, to some laughter from the crowd. "They say, 'We want deal!'"

It’s not your fault. It’s the ratio. To all the young, college-educated women out there who feel like Donald Trump will probably become president before they find a decent, eligible man, take comfort. According to author Jon Birger, you’re not imagining things. In “Date-onomics: How Dating Became a Lopsided Numbers Game,” out today, Birger, a former writer for Fortune and Money magazines, crunched demographic, census and other data to show that it really is historically rough out there for the ladies.

Up to 2,000 illegal immigrants could be released back into the United States as a result of a federal ruling last week that requires the Department of Homeland Security to free “without unnecessary delay” illegal immigrant children and their mothers from federal detention centers.A U.S. District Court judge in California issued the ruling, despite protests from the government and warnings that the legal order is misguided.The judge in the case ignored the government’s arguments against release, calling them “repackaged and reheated.” The ruling finds DHS in violation of a law mandating that immigrant children not be kept in unlicensed facilities,...

WASHINGTON -- Every sulfurous belch from the molten interior of the volcanic Trump phenomenon injures the chances of a Republican presidency. After Donald Trump finishes plastering a snarling face on conservatism, any Republican nominee will face a dauntingly steep climb to reach even the paltry numbers that doomed Mitt Romney. It is perhaps quixotic to try to distract Trump's supporters with facts, which their leader, who is no stickler for dignity, considers beneath him. Still, consider these: The white percentage of the electorate has been shrinking for decades and will be about 2 points smaller in 2016 than in 2012....

There are few uglier phrases in the modern conservative lexicon than "anchor baby," not least because of the literal imagery the term brings to mind of a human infant, wrapped in chains and flung overboard to secure a vessel in place. But even as a figure of speech, it's a despicable concept. It refers to the notion that undocumented immigrants exploit the quintessentially American policy of birthright citizenship, which confers the status of citizen to anyone born on U.S. territory, by sneaking across the border to give birth to their children. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush recently stumbled into the...

The deficit is estimated to more than double in 10 years, which is projected to push debt held by the public up to 77 percent as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates.Despite an anticipated rise in tax collection, the CBO predicts that the government will continue to spend outside of its means. The CBO warns that later in the coming decade, growth in government spending will “outstrip” growth in the economy.According to the CBO, by the end of this year, federal revenues are expected to climb to $3.3 trillion—or 18.2 percent of...

Trump is “the best of the lot,” Duke says of GOP frontrunner GOP frontrunner Donald Trump can count on at least one die-hard fan: former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. Self described “racial realist,” Duke, praised Trump during a recent rant during his online radio show, calling the business mogul a “good salesman.” Duke, who ran unsuccessfully for president as a Democrat in 1988 and later served in the Louisiana House of Representatives, also said he liked Trump because of “the fact that he’s come out on the immigration issue,” adding, “he’s an entrepreneur and he has a...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) went out of his way to slam former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) during a Tuesday night interview. Christie brought up his presidential rival on Fox News when he was asked how GOP candidates should strike the right balance on immigration issues. "You don't need to be pandering to one way or the other. I'll tell the way you don't do it: You don't do focus-group-tested trips to the border, speak Spanish, and then criticize Asians. I mean, I don't think that's the way you do it," Christie replied. This was a direct reference...

Here's your who-said-it of the day: [W]e must remain a nation of laws. We cannot tolerate illegal immigration and we must stop it. For years […], Washington talked tough but failed to act….[O]ur borders might as well not have existed. The border was under-patrolled, and what patrols there were, were under-equipped. Drugs flowed freely. Illegal immigration was rampant. Criminal immigrants, deported after committing crimes in America, returned the very next day to commit crimes again. OK, so the headline gives it away, but that's the Democratic Party's official platform for 1996. Mirroring that year's Republican platform, which was arguably the...

Before his bombastic concert-in-the-park performance in Mobile, Donald Trump had come across chiefly as an amusing amateur whose total lack of basic political knowledge and essential reasoning ability had rendered him unwilling to do interviews that he could not phone in from the confines of his office. In Alabama, he broke out, transforming himself in the process into something else altogether. One part Alan Ginsberg, one part Jim Morrison, and one part Roderick Spode, Trump strode onto the Southern stage as might a troubled rock star. This, his insolent upper lip told the camera, was show time. All of which...

Carly Fiorina criticized Donald Trump’s plan to eliminate birth right citizenship, saying, “I do not support amending the Constitution and frankly in this regard honestly, I think Donald Trump is acting like the politicians he excoriates.” “Let’s hold a bright, shiny object out here, let’s amend the Constitution and end birth right citizenship. It is not going to happen,” Fiorina, appearing on “Morning Joe” Wednesday, continued. Mike Barnicle: Do you believe in birth right citizenship? Carly Fiorina: I think it is in our Constitution. I do not support amending the Constitution and frankly in this regard honestly, I think Donald...

When is it outrageous to amend the Constitution? Donald Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination, wants to overturn the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. Whether out of panic or sincerity, a number of other Republican candidates have joined the bandwagon. This is probably good politics for the GOP nomination and almost certainly bad politics for the general election. I am inclined against the idea as a matter of public policy, because the costs would outweigh the benefits. But I am far from convinced it is something to be outraged about. It's funny: On countless public policy...