Free Republic

HOUSTON, Texas - Presidential candidate Ted Cruz today responded to demands from liberal politicians including Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio to apologize for his criticisms of the liberal progressive values embraced by the New York elites.Ted Cruz on the Sean Hannity Show January 15, 2016 (Video)Cruz’s comments from the Sean Hannity Show are below, followed by a full statement.Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio have all demanded an apology. I’m happy to apologize:I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers who have been let down by liberal politicians in that state.I apologize to the...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo believes that pro-life activists, along with anti-gay activists and supporters of the Second Amendment, are not welcome in his state. During a radio interview on Friday, Cuomo pointed out that Republicans were in the midst of a schism, where conservatives worked against moderate Republicans. "Their problem is not me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves," he said. "Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that's who they are and they're the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of...

Dr. Manning explains that the people of Harlem are starting to look at Donald Trump.(7 Jan. 2016)

e Rev. Al Sharpton thinks Donald Trump has run a “great” media campaign in his bid for the White House — and believes the Republican is like a white version of his pal Don King. Sharpton, in a wide-ranging interview with the Daily News editorial board Thursday, said he’d probably get in trouble for saying it, but admitted that the similarities between the boxing promoter and the real estate tycoon are striking. "My definition of Donald Trump is that if Don King had been born white, he'd be Donald Trump," Sharpton said.

The city has agreed to more stringent regulations on anti-terror cops in ­order to settle two federal lawsuits that claimed the NYPD violated constitutional rights by spying on Muslims. The city will pay $2,033,416 in legal fees to the plaintiffs, but no monetary damages, and will add another layer of review to a committee that monitors its intelligence gathering. The NYPD will also remove a 92-page report, “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” from its Web site.

NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) - New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio has submitted a resolution to the city's police pension fund, urging it to consider exiting investments in companies that manufacture assault weapons for civilians, the mayor's office said on Thursday.

Raising the bar for other cities throughout the country, New York City announced "strong" and "bold" protections for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. The new legal guidance, issued Dec. 21 by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, came as part of an expansion of the city's 2002 Human Rights Law, which protects against discrimination in a range of categories. The updated policy specifically protects transgender and gender non-conforming individuals from discrimination in areas of employment, public accommodation, and housing.

Cuomo’s homelessness order deepened the chill between him and Mayor de Blasio Sunday, with the mayor’s office charging Cuomo lacks the power to impose the mandate. "We support the intent of the Executive Order, but to forcibly remove all homeless individuals in freezing weather, as the Governor has ordered, will require him to pass state law," de Blasio spokeswoman Karen Hinton said as Cuomo inked the order requiring people to go to shelters when temperatures are below 32 degrees. "This Executive Order adds no legal or financial resources to New York City's programs to assist the homeless, and merely requires...

New York is reaping the whirlwind of sky-high cigarette taxes with a wave of smuggling decimating the state’s revenue. New York raised taxes on cigarettes to $4.35 in 2010 from $2.75. In total, cigarette taxes have increased by 190 percent since 2006. The sharp rise has resulted in a raft of unintended consequences which are dealing a significant blow to the state’s finances. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reports New York’s revenue from cigarette taxes has plunged by $400 million over the past five years.

No doubt you, too, spent the holidays relishing the humiliation of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the overrated and obnoxious Democratic Party hack who, finally, is teetering on the brink of political oblivion. How the former ballet dancer and Sarah Lawrence alumnus parlayed ambition and drive and the ability to scream like a lunatic into high office and a fortune of more than $10 million is one of the remarkable political stories of our time. "Emanuel has succeeded in almost every professional endeavor he has undertaken," Ryan Lizza wrote approvingly in 2009. Spoke too soon. How bad is Rahm Emanuel? He...

What's more sexist: Donald Trump saying "schlonged" to describe the way Hillary Clinton lost in 2008, or Hillary herself orchestrating a campaign to discredit and destroy women, including Monica Lewinsky, whose "bimbo eruptions" threatened Bill and Hillary's hold on power? According to Al Sharpton on today's Morning Joe, Trump's offense is the graver. Sharpton suggests that Hillary's attack on Monica Lewinsky should be understood as a woman "dealing with someone who was in an indiscretion with her husband." Sharpton thus paints a picture of poor Hillary, the wronged woman, fighting her rival for the affections of her husband. As Trump...

Yesterday I called Al Sharpton's call for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's resignation over a police shooting the “perfect Obama-era scandal.” It showcases Obama’s hometown, home of some of the country’s strictest gun-control laws, plagued by 2,937 shootings in the past year, about 350 more than the previous year; an entirely-Democrat controlled political system that engages in cover-ups and a culture of unaccountability; a microcosm of African-Americans, the most loyal demographic to the Democratic Party, feeling victimized and disregarded by leaders they eagerly elected and reelected. Elitism, double-standards, runaway state power, incendiary agitation, racial tensions - it's all here. Now we...

It's Spitz-ville: Disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer and his girlfriend, 33, break up - two years after affair ended his marriage It was an affair said to have cost Eliot Spitzer his marriage and his girlfriend her political spin job. But after two years together it appears that the disgraced former New York governor and partner Lis Smith have gone their separate ways, NY Daily News reports. Smith had just joined Bill de Blasio's team and was widely considered to be the likely candidate for the mayor's press secretary when pictures of emerged of then-married Spitzer sneaking into...

NEW YORK - A "credible threat" has been lodged against New York City, days ahead of Christmas and during an especially busy time of the year when tourists flock to the Big Apple, law enforcement sources told PIX11 News Tuesday. Top NYPD brass including Commissioner William Bratton held an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss the threat and their response to it, sources said. Few details were released about the nature of the threat. A federal law enforcement source said the threat is not specific and could take place in several major U.S. cities. All New York City police officers received...

From last night's speech to the New England Police Benevolent Association, which voted to endorse him. Rarely can you tell whether a new Trump policy idea was gamed out beforehand or just something he came up with on the fly while in front of a mic, and this is no exception. His advisor, Dan Scavino, tweeted it out after Trump said it, though, so if it wasn't official campaign policy before, I guess it is now. Is it worth critiquing this? Krauthammer’s ready to give up on arguing against Trump policies, partly because they're all obviously political panders rather than...

A former state Senate leader and his son were convicted Friday of federal extortion charges, marking the second time in a month that one of Albany's most powerful politicians was run out office following a case that put the state capital's political culture on trial. The prosecution of Republican Dean Skelos, 67, and his 33-year-old son, Adam, cast a harsh light on politics-as-usual, much like the one against former Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was convicted of bribery on Nov. 30. ...

Congressman Chris Gibson of New York is calling for an investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration after learning hundreds of millions of dollars in loans went to Health Republic, an insurance co-op that lasted only two years, and which caused 215,000 New Yorkers to lose their insurance. Health Republic was founded in 2013 with $265 Million in federal loans. It soon became one of the largest health insurance cooperatives in the United States. Now it is no more after New York regulators discovered massive deficits in Health Republic's books. Originally ordered to close by December 31, regulators had to bump...

The principal of DeWitt Clinton HS, a struggling Bronx school in Mayor de Blasio's multimillion-dollar Renewal program, changed students failing grades to passing without teachers knowledge or consent, insiders told The Post. In one case, Santiago Taveras gave a senior who received a "no show" in a global-history class a 75 and changed her failing 55 grade in gym to a minimum passing 65, records show. She then got a credit for each class, which she did not deserve, several staffers charged. He thinks he is God and can do whatever he wants. ... Taveras changed a students failing 55...

Americans increasingly support free speech as a concept but make lots of exceptions. A new Pew Research poll found that 40 percent of Millennials (ages 18 to 34) believe the government should be able to prevent people from making offensive statements about minority groups. New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, certainly agree. Often rivals, they teamed up to remove a set of controversial subway ads advertising a new Amazon series that depicts an alternate history in which the Nazis and the Japanese won World War II and divided control of America between...

Mayor de Blasio said his son Dante has been active in protests over racial issues at Yale — and they both agree the school should drop the name of a prominent defender of slavery. Dante, a freshman, is assigned to Yale’s Calhoun College, named for John C. Calhoun, a U.S. vice president and South Carolina senator who vehemently backed slavery as a “positive good” for the nation. “He’s very concerned, and he certainly notes the fact that the college he’s in, Calhoun College, is named for someone it shouldn’t be named for,” de Blasio told reporters Monday. “ That’s quite...