Free Republic

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Sunday slammed Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) and the House Freedom Caucus for "holding the House hostage" and blocking Republicans from electing a successor to outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who wants to resign at the end of the month. Hewitt said on NBC's "Meet The Press" that he hopes Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — who has said he doesn't want to be Speaker — will change his mind. Hewitt then criticized Brat, who was on the roundtable, and the conservative House Freedom Caucus for giving Ryan a tepid response. "There's like 15 of you...

Presidential candidate and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) is furious about Fox News' rules for the first GOP primary debate. In a Fox News interview on Friday, Graham blasted the right-leaning network's "dumb" rules, which will limit the participants to 10 candidates polling the best in an average of the five most recent national polls. "I think that this is a dumb way to weed out the field," Graham declared. Many critics say the August 6 debate's rules harm the candidates campaigning in the early voting states and elevate those who have been getting those most national TV exposure or...

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room Monday afternoon and when Wolf Blitzer asked him to explain his statement that compared Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to a “carnival barker,” the Republican congressman opted not to walk back his comments but instead take about a dozen steps forward. “We need intelligent debate in the country. Ted Cruz may be an intelligent person, but he doesn’t carry out an intelligent debate,” King said. “He oversimplifies, he exaggerates and he basically led the Republican Party over the cliff in the fall of 2013. He has shown no qualifications, no legislation...