Free Republic

Steve Deace Meltdown re Trump Steve Deace, syndicated radio host and Scottie Nell Hughes, the chief political correspondent for USA Radio Networks discuss whether former Speaker of the House John Boehner’s remarks about Ted Cruz crossed a line. Plus Indiana becomes the next, and possibly the last battleground for some candidates, in the race for the White House.

After five primaries on April 26, the Republican candidates only have the Indiana primary next week. The primary takes place Tuesday, May 3 and has 57 delegates at stake. According to FiveThirtyEight, 30 delegates are awarded in winner-take-all fashion to the candidate with the most votes statewide. The remaining 27 delegates are split among nine congressional districts with each district getting three delegates. A candidate will be awarded three delegates for each congressional district he wins. Ted Cruz will try to cut into Donald Trump’s lead. Early polling data shows Trump with a narrow lead on Cruz in Indiana. Trump...

The survey of likely GOP voters statewide in Indiana shows a statistical toss-up for the Republican Party nomination for President between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, with Trump holding a 37% to 35% edge. John Kasich wins the support of 16% of voters, with 11% saying they are yet unsure for whom they will vote. Trump wins among moderate primary voters with 39%, compared to 37% for Kasich and 18% for Cruz. Among those who consider themselves establishment conservatives – which comprised 55% of the poll sample – Trump wins 36% support and Cruz won 34% support. Among those who...

Randy Levine knows a thing or two about fair play — and the president of the New York Yankees baseball club tells Newsmax TV it will be three strikes and out for the Republican Party if it attempts to stop Donald Trump from becoming the GOP presidential nominee. "I think if that happens it would really be the end of the Republican Party. You would have so many disenfranchised and disaffected voters out there that it would just be very, very hard to put it all back together," Levine said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show." "He by far has...

Thursday, while speaking with MSNBC’s Luke Russert, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s strategist, Paul Manafort, said Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97% ’s (R-TX) candidacy is in a “coffin,” and he just hasn’t realized it yet. Manafort said, “Last Tuesday was the nail in the coffin, Indiana is when he realizes he’s inside it.”

ABC News has updated its estimate of the current delegate totals in the Republican presidential primary, putting Donald Trump closer to the nomination than first thought after Tuesday night’s sweep of five states.

In the space of just 7 minutes here on Thursday, Ted Cruz reminded fellow Republicans that he has few friends in the party. First he tangled with former House speaker John A. Boehner, a longtime foe who so dislikes Cruz that he labeled him “Lucifer in the flesh.” Then Cruz undercut another Republican, fellow presidential candidate John Kasich, who had entered into an alliance with him to stop GOP front-runner Donald Trump. “There is no alliance,” Cruz told reporters on Thursday, acting as if a pact announced by his own campaign days before had never happened. Minutes later, Kasich strategist...

I’m glad he said this because the only proper way for this campaign to end is with Kasich deciding, out of pure pique, to compete hard in Indiana and try to spoil Cruz’s last chance there even though Kasich needs a brokered convention as much as Cruz does. It’d be a perfect microcosm of the wider party’s impotence and strategic idiocy all year long in failing to stop Trump. Burn it all down, John. Cleanse it with fire. “I recognize that the media is all eager to talk about an alliance. There is no alliance,” Mr. Cruz said. “Kasich and...

On Wednesday night, former House Speaker John Boehner bluntly called GOP candidate Ted Cruz “Lucifer in the flesh.” When asked for his opinion about the Texas senator, Boehner said, “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.” It turns out that the Satanic Temple agrees with Boehner’s sentiments — but they said there’s no way Cruz is the living incarnate of Satan. When asked by the Friendly Atheist, Satanic Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves bashed Cruz.

For someone just passing by, they might not have even known a presidential candidate was in Downtown Fort Wayne... “I guess I was just expecting to see some spillover, maybe people waiting to get in,” she said. “It seems to be pretty quiet...” “I was surprised how few people there were,” Joseph Romary said. Valerie Reynolds said she was surprised half the room was empty. It holds about 2,250 people. “I mean it’s a big room,” she said...

Good Grief – Lyin’ Ted Cruz Now Denies He and Team Kasich Had any Alliance – Kasich Calls Cruz A Liar… Posted on April 28, 2016 by sundance Wow, talk about affirming a solidifying public opinion. Despite official campaign documents outlining their combined effort, Senator Ted Cruz now tries to say there was no alliance between Team Cruz and Team Kasich. A gobsmacked Team Kasich responds [via Twitter]: John Weaver ‎@JWGOP I can't stand liars. 11:57 AM - 28 Apr 2016

Cruz also told reporters gathered in Fort Wayne, Indiana that he’d only met Boehner “two or three times.” Which, in terms of actual numbers, may or may not be true, but the depth of these meetings was far greater than Cruz’s statements suggested. That’s because he worked as Boehner’s attorney during the Ohio representative’s federal lawsuit against Washington representative Jim McDermott in 1998.

The panic level in the Cruz campaign has hit Titanic levels — as in Ted’s about to hit the iceberg. His clumsy alliance with John Kasich over the weekend was embarrassing enough and now naming Carly Fiorina as a running mate is wishful thinking. Can’t Cruz count? Donald Trump has 987 delegates to Ted’s 562, as of today. The tally to win the GOP nomination on the first ballot is 1,237. By the time the Trump jet lands in Cleveland for the July 18 convention, the race will be long over. Cruz is grabbing for any headline he can...

A new poll of Republican voters in Oregon finds that Donald Trump has a double-digit lead in the state’s May 17 primary, while Ted Cruz is second despite pulling out of the state. The poll by the Portland-based Hoffman Research Group shows 43 percent support Trump. Twenty-six percent favor Cruz and 17 percent back John Kasich. It is the first public poll of the Republican presidential race in Oregon this year. Cruz has agreed not to campaign in Oregon and New Mexico in exchange for Kasich pulling out of Indiana. The two are trying to prevent Trump from getting a...

Former House Speaker John Boehner ripped into Sen. Ted Cruz in a memorable fashion during a Wednesday appearance, prompting Cruz to say he "doesn't know" Boehner. "I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life," Boehner said, dubbing Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh." But a closer look at their history reveals the two weren't always enemies. In fact, long before Boehner saw Cruz as Lucifer, the 2016 Republican presidential candidate was actually his lawyer.

Cruz allies and people close to the campaign describe a budding sense of gloom, with internal polls diving as Trump mounted even stronger than expected showings in his native northeast. In Indiana, which Cruz backers once believed they were favored to win after his strong defeat of Trump in Wisconsin, Cruz's numbers have fallen precipitously: Once leading, Cruz now trails in the state by eight to 10 points, according to a person who has seen the numbers, with Trump over the 40% mark. Cruz's campaign did not respond when asked about those figures...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump holds a double-digit lead over his competitors in Oregon, according to a new poll by Portland-based Hoffman Research Group. Trump has 43 percent support in the poll, followed by Ted Cruz with 26 percent and John Kasich with just 17 percent support. Cruz and Kasich announced last weekend a joint effort to deny Trump the nomination. As part of the strategy, Kasich would clear a path for Cruz in the Indiana primary and Cruz would back down in Oregon and New Mexico. But both candidates have walked away from the arrangement since their campaigns' announcement....

Donald Trump may be the only Republican presidential candidate who can realistically hit the magic 1,237 number for the majority of delegates, but according to a senior Republican National Committee official that does not mean he will become the GOP presidential nominee. "Even if Trump reaches the magic number of 1,237 the media and RNC are touting, that does not mean Trump is automatically the nominee," Haugland said. "The votes earned during the primary process are only estimates and are not legal convention votes. The only official votes to nominate a candidate are those that are cast from the convention...

[Snip] Two weeks ago, the North American Law Center warned Ted Cruz to step out of the presidential primary race or they would be forced to release damaging information on his citizenship status. He didn’t, so late yesterday, they did. Fortunately, it is not a lengthy analysis, nor is it complex. The only two official documents that Senator Cruz has not sealed – that is hidden from public view – are: 1. His Canadian Birth Certificate Here is the actual document. This shows he in a natural born citizen of Canada, born on Dec. 22, 1970. 2. His Renunciation of...

The axe fell once again on Glenn Beck’s crumbling media empire Thursday as employees in the New York and Washington offices of The Blaze, Beck’s multi-media online operation, along with business staffers in Los Angeles and the documentary unit in Columbus, Ohio, were told their jobs are on the chopping block, according to multiple sources who spoke The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity.