Free Republic

You can’t make it up—there’s a 25 percent or so chance that an unhinged demagogue will be America’s next commander in chief. A few years ago I started noodling on a novel that I hoped would expose the fault lines that seemed to be splitting our politics. My thought was to take reality and push it to the edge both for comic affect and to offer up a cautionary tale of where our politics might be headed. I finished the book in the summer of 2015 and I was a little worried that I had gone too far. How believable...

Earlier this morning, The Donald Trump campaign called for an emergency meeting in order to discuss the future. A few things happened: Corey Lewandowski was fired from the campaign, and another man was brought on.

Blue Creek Academy was an abusive hell on earth, former students say—and the principal who ran it is now heading up a new Bible school in another state. Jacob* dressed himself in a camouflage jacket and a matching beanie on the summer morning he ran away into the West Virginia hills. At 14 years old, he was one of the youngest, smallest, and longest-attending students at Blue Creek Academy, a religious reform school for boys from which he was desperate to escape. Blue Creek Academy was made up of an old schoolhouse and several cabins situated on a remote campground...

It seemed like an outpouring of veteran anger against Donald Trump: over a dozen former service members protesting outside Trump Tower. But the reality was more complicated. The protest was actually a coordinated effort, led in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign, to embarrass her Republican rival for his failed efforts to raise money for veterans. It only looked like a grassroots demonstration. A spokesman for the demonstrators insisted they had no affiliation with any campaign. Later he said the protesters had reached out to the Clinton campaign for press contacts, but that’s all. Then the activist finally admitted that,...

Before he died May 4 from complications stemming from pancreatic cancer and a stroke, former GOP Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah asked his wife, Joyce, and son, Jim, if there were any Muslims in his hospital. If so, he wanted to "go up to every single one of them to thank them for being in this country, and apologize to them on behalf of the Republican Party for Donald Trump." Joyce and Jim Bennett shared this story with The Daily Beast, as well as other tales involving his disgust with "Donald Trump's xenophobia" and proposal to ban Muslims from...

The American military is warning residents of ISIS’s Syrian capital to leave the city—suggesting that an offensive on Raqqa was imminent, two Pentagon officials told the Daily Beast. In the past day, residents of Raqqa have posted photos of the warnings on Twitter, saying they were airdropped on leaflets by the U.S.-led coalition. The defense officials were the first to confirm that the coalition had indeed issued the warnings.

Has there ever been a president cooler than Obama? That's the question that Newsweek, an ostensible "news" magazine, asked last week via Twitter. The tweet featured a picture of the president slapping hands with his friend and political supporter, the rapper Jay Z. It's hard to argue with Newsweek on this one. Obama is cool -- though that alone doesn't make him a great president. When it comes to leaders, coolness and greatness might actually be mutually exclusive. Cool people aren't usually substantive and frequently lack the moral courage to do the right thing when the right thing isn't cool...

Sympathy and money for the Rhodens dried up as soon as it was revealed they were selling marijuana. Even worse, most have ignored victim Hannah Gilley and her own family. PIKETON, Ohio — A family murdered for no apparent reason evokes a lot of sympathy from a community. Unless that family was dealing drugs. Drugs are so prevalent in this rural swath of the country that highway signs provide drivers with a number to report impaired—not drunk—drivers. So less than a week after this community rallied to support the families of the eight people shot to death in their beds...

Now that the 2016 presidential election season is in full swing, which candidate(s) are people in the adult industry supporting? Every election year is a nail-biter for pornographers, who are wracked with worry over potential persecution from the next presidential administration. Demonizing the porn industry under the guise of protecting the public’s morality is an old politician’s trick. Charge XXX producers with obscenity, collect fines and put a dent in the debauchery. “Obscene” porn is illegal but not all porn is obscene. Content that was considered extreme 15 years ago might be closer to the norm now. In the late...

It wouldn’t be a Republican primary without charges of foul play levelled at Ted Cruz. And New York is no exception. A few hours before polls closed in the Empire State, John Kasich’s strategist John Weaver tweeted that the Texan was responsible for misleading robocalls—which falsely claimed that New York’s Democratic governor had endorsed Kasich.

Lawyers object to any attempt to ask Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, and others about how information was handled—and are dead set against Clinton testifying. Lawyers for the State Department want to limit the types of questions that a watchdog group can ask former aides to Hillary Clinton, and potentially the former secretary of state herself, about her creation and use of a private email system while she was in office. The department asked a federal judge Tuesday night to grant “limited discovery” to Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that wants to depose some of Clinton’s closest associates and staffers....

<p>CNN and Daily Beast contributor Dean Obeidallah told a Twitter user to “go fuck yourself” after he was asked to apologise for spreading a false story about “far right” activists and a hit and run attack on a Muslim woman in Molenbeek in Brussels.</p>

Glenn Beck has been one of Ted Cruz’s most high profile surrogates—but Beck’s support could become a little less desirable when he heads to court this summer for allegedly defaming a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing…… One of Ted Cruz’s most prominent supporters could be headed to court soon to defend his Islamophobic falsehoods about a victim of terrorism. “…But come this summer, it’s Beck who could face judgement. The radio talker currently faces a defamation lawsuit—because he doubled and tripled down on charges that a victim of a terrorist attack was actually the real terrorist. “… previously unnoticed...

As the inevitability of a Donald Trump nomination grows, many Republicans are moving to the acceptance stage of grief. Trump’s unfavorability ratings are historic for a presumptive nominee. Some reputable polls have him as high as 60 percent negative, many others have him losing by double digits to Hillary Clinton. Retention of the Senate, already an uphill climb in an election year swelling with vulnerable Republican incumbents, is an equally dim prospect. Not all conservatives have given up the ship. The presumptive Democratic nominee is a hair away from federal indictment. The presumptive Republican nominee is a reality-TV lunatic who...

In the summer before I went to NYMA I spent quite a bit of time at the beach with Donald. He had set up a large tent on the beach in front of his family’s cabana. There, along with one of his sisters and his younger brother, Robert, we played cards and gabbed away the days. He told me a little about the military school. The place he described seemed to me dark, violent, and comfortless. He talked as if he loved it. That fall, as one of what the cadets called “New Guys,” I entered a closed society where...

The Daily Beast's foreign correspondent, Christopher Dickey, didn't pull any punches when asked what most Europeans think of GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and their recent statements about NATO and dealing with ISIS. After playing footage of former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and Sec. of State John Kerry responding to Trump's assertion that the United States should rework our relationship with NATO, along with Ted Cruz and his constant threats to use carpet bombing to deal with ISIS, here's how Dickey responded to Chris Jansing's request for comment. JANSING: What's the concern that you're hearing Chris,...

My friends at the AIPAC conference are shocked, shocked that so many fellow attendees gave Donald Trump an ovation last night. Just like my Republican friends are shocked that so many fellow Republicans have voted for him. Why the surprise, though? Is it at all surprising that a rightward-tilting, nationalistic, often-anti-Muslim pep rally of 18,000 people (many paid to be there by a handful of billionaires) would applaud a rightward-tilting, nationalistic, often-anti-Muslim leader of pep rallies? The weirdest shock of all, though, came from AIPAC itself, whose leader apologized this morning for Trump’s having insulted President Obama. Choking back tears,...

“Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation,” the reporter at the center of the controversy at the conservative site told BuzzFeed News, the week after Trump’s campaign manager allegedly grabbed her. Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields and editor-at-large Ben Shapiro are resigning from the company over the site’s handling of Donald Trump’s campaign manager’s alleged assault on Fields, BuzzFeed News has learned. Fields and Shapiro informed Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon of their decision Sunday night. “Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation,” Fields said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed...

My title. Fields told FOX she was "Violated" by the Trump camp "This is disgusting," Shapiro said. "No news outlet would stand for it." Breitbart News has not commented on the resignations. The Fields incident came a week after a Time magazine photographer was thrown to the floor by a Secret Service agent at another Trump rally and amid escalating concerns over the rhetoric used by the Republican frontrunner. Trump has come under mounting criticism — from Democrats and from Republican rivals — for failing to fully denounce violent incidents at his events and for creating a climate where such...

“Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation,” the reporter at the center of the controversy at the conservative site told BuzzFeed News, the week after Trump’s campaign manager allegedly grabbed her. Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields and editor-at-large Ben Shapiro are resigning from the company over the site’s handling of Donald Trump’s campaign manager’s alleged assault on Fields, BuzzFeed News has learned...