Free Republic

A group of at least six wealthy Republican donors is urging the billionaire Koch brothers to step off the sidelines of the U.S. presidential election to back Donald Trump, arguing they will want influence with the New York businessman they have harshly criticized if he wins the White House in November. The financiers, prominent members of the sprawling 700-member Koch donor network, have been making their case in emails and phone calls to Charles and David Koch ahead of their bi-annual donor seminar, which begins Saturday in Colorado, according to four donors involved in the loosely-coordinated effort and advisors representing...

<p>Scott Walker is already thinking about how to defeat Hillary Clinton. “You gotta move it from a personality race, because if it’s a personality race, you got a third Clinton term,” the Wisconsin governor told a lunchtime crowd of about 30 last Tuesday assembled at the Lakewood, N.J., home of Rich Roberts, one of his biggest financial backers. “The only way we win that election is to transform her personality to Washington versus the rest of us. Senator Clinton is all about Washington, everything about her is all about Washington.”</p>

Michael Jordan came out of the closet to support our police officers. In a statement shared via The Undefeated on Monday morning, Jordan said the following: “As a proud American, a father who lost his own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a black man, I have been deeply troubled by the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement and angered by the cowardly and hateful targeting and killing of police officers. I grieve with the families who have lost loved ones, as I know their pain all too well. “I was raised by parents who...

Info at link.

In an extraordinary public rebuke, two influential donors who were among the biggest supporters of Senator Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign excoriated Mr. Cruz on Saturday for his decision not to endorse Donald J. Trump at the Republican National Convention.

Joe -- Donald Trump’s acceptance speech last night made me want to throw up my arms and ask how this could be happening in our country -- or turn off the TV and pretend it was all a nightmare. But we don’t have that luxury, Joe. If we ignore Trump or assume for a second that we have this election in the bag, we’re risking everything. Joe, we can’t let Hillary down -- we can’t let our country down. Don’t assume someone else will do this for you -- if you don’t step up, who will? If you’re ready to...

Sheldon Adelson refused to meet with Ted Cruz after the conservative Texas senator failed to endorse Donald Trump in a controversial speech to the Republican convention, several media outlets reported. The billionaire Republican donor and his wife, Miriam, barred Cruz from the suite where they watched Cruz’s speech, which was greeted by boos, CNN first reported.

CLEVELAND -- The organization tasked with raising money to mount the Republican National Convention has asked billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson to fill a funding gap, NBC News has learned. In a letter to Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate, the Cleveland Host Committee requested a $6 million after some corporate donors decided to stay away after the controversial Donald Trump won the GOP nominating contest. The committee has raised $58 million of its $64 million goal. The letter was signed by CHC head David Gilbert.

Almost 55 months after confessing felonious conduct, Teamster money-laundering scandal figure, Jere Nash, has finally been sentenced. U.S. Dist. Judge Thomas P. Griesa (S.D.N.Y., Nixon) sentenced Nash Apr. 9 to a mere two years probation for his role in a series of schemes which lead to the embezzlement of some $885,000 from the Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters' treasury and to $538,100 in illegal campaign contributions to the failed reelection campaign of expelled IBT president Ron Carey. The sentencing appears to have been hush hush: the four N.Y.C. major dailies and the two Washington, D.C., dailies apparently did not cover the...

The AP review of Clinton's calendar — her after-the-fact, official chronology of the events of her four-year term — identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors and loyalists, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were either not recorded or listed with identifying details scrubbed. The AP found the omissions by comparing the 1,500-page document with separate planning schedules supplied to Clinton by aides in advance of each day's events. The names of at least 114 outsiders who met with Clinton were missing from her calendar, the records show...

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the State Department to produce the e-mail records of Hillary Clinton’s scheduler during her tenure as secretary of state, expanding an investigation being pursued by conservative nonprofit Citizens United into the overlap between Clinton’s official travel and her meetings with foreign Clinton Foundation donors. Citizens United is slated to receive all e-mails sent to and from Lona Valmoro, Clinton’s State Department scheduler, in the two-week periods before each of 14 international trips Clinton took during her four years in office. David Bossie, president of Citizens United, hopes to confirm suspicions that Clinton maintained an...

The AP review of Clinton's calendar — her after-the-fact, official chronology of the events of her four-year term — identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors and loyalists, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were either not recorded or listed with identifying details scrubbed. The AP found the omissions by comparing the 1,500-page document with separate planning schedules supplied to Clinton by aides in advance of each day's events. The names of at least 114 outsiders who met with Clinton were missing from her calendar, the records show.

Politics Election 2016 Several GOP Business Leaders Are Backing Clinton Democratic presidential candidate to get backing from executives, some of whom cite unease with Trump’s candidacy By Laura Meckler June 23, 2016 12:09 a.m. ET More than 50 business executives, including several longtime Republicans, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president on Thursday as her campaign seeks to capitalize on discomfort with Republican Donald Trump. They include Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president at AT&T Services Inc., and Dan Akerson, who held top positions at General Motors Co. and Nextel Communications Inc. A Clinton campaign aide provided the list. The endorsements reflect...

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump and his joint fundraising committee have raised at least $11 million since Tuesday morning, Republicans said Wednesday, a tremendously quick haul that comes amid concerns about his fundraising ability. Trump Victory, the joint fundraising account with the Republican National Committee, and Trump's official campaign raised $5 million online since Tuesday morning, when it sent one of its first fundraising pitches to its email list, according to Sean Spicer, an RNC spokesman.

The Mainstream Media and spineless Republican critics were out in force earlier this week bemoaning Donald Trump’s lack of a political fundraising operation. Team Trump shrugged off the criticism and then proceeded to initiate a fundraising effort that saw a groundswell of support from backers both great and small who quickly amassed a remarkable $11 million dollars into the coffers of Team Trump and the RNC. Much to the chagrin of the Clinton Machine and Trump’s critics, it doesn’t appear the New York billionaire will have any trouble raising campaign cash. The astonishing 48-hour $11 million mark was reported on...

2 million in 12 hours, Trump is doing matching funds, so it's 4 million.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3651291/Apple-CEO-Tim-Cook-host-fundraiser-Speaker-Paul-Ryan-week-won-t-aid-GOP-convention-distaste-Donald-Trump.html#newcomment

The Donald Trump campaign on Saturday released its first "emergency" fund-raising email, in response to an ad blitz from the Hillary Clinton campaign. "Right now we're facing an emergency goal of $100,000 to help get our ads on the air. We need your contribution by 11:59 P.M. Tonight," the email from Team Trump said. "Crooked Hillary is about to invade your TV with ads attacking Mr. Trump. But we're preparing to fight back," it reads. The email promises to release ads attacking Clinton on her role in Benghazi, the integrity of her donors and reported FBI probing of her private...

Donald Trump railed Saturday against efforts by some frustrated Republicans planning a last-ditch effort to try to thwart him from becoming the party’s nominee, threatening at one point to stop fundraising if Republicans don’t rally around him. Speaking at a theater at the Treasure Island hotel on the Las Vegas strip, Trump referred to “an insurgent group” trying to deny him delegates at the party’s July convention.

The Donald Trump campaign has sent its first "emergency" fundraising email to supporters Saturday, seeking to raise at least $100,000 by the end of the day. That request follows a multimillion dollar ad blitz launched by likely general election rival Hillary Clinton this week. "Right now we're facing an emergency goal of $100,000 to help get our ads on the air," the email said. "We need your contribution by 11:59 P.M. Tonight." "Crooked Hillary is about to invade your TV with ads attacking Mr. Trump. But we're preparing to fight back," it reads, adding that the campaign plans to attack...