Free Republic

Republican Kentucky senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that ISIS “exists and grew stronger” because of hawks in the Republican Party. (VIDEO: Megyn Kelly And Rand Paul Get In Heated Debate Over Patriot Act) HOST JOE SCARBOROUGH: Lindsey Graham would say, ISIS exists because of people like Rand Paul who said, ‘Let’s not go into Syria.” What do you say to Lindsey? PAUL: I would say it’s exactly the opposite. ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave articles indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by...

Mark Levin addresses the talk about the type of candidate that the United States needs if we are going to have any chance of extricating ourselves from the overwhelming destruction of the Obama regime. He says it doesn’t really matter to him what the current employment of the individual that would assume the office of President of the United States. What matters are that person’s values, their vision and their leadership ability.He sees an agenda to restore the Republic, respect for the American people, stop ruling by the administrative state and regulation and the infamous pen and phone. He notes...

The GOP is falling apart. How else to explain the wide variance of positions within the Republican Party on basic issues ranging from same-sex marriage to immigration to tax policy? For years, GOP bigwigs have explained that the Republican Party can only succeed if it expands and evolves, embracing as many views as possible. There’s only one problem: that simply doesn’t work. While the Democratic Party has moved toward leftist purity in which Hillary Clinton’s policy positions are virtually indistinguishable from socialist Bernie Sanders’, the Republican Party has become to political positions what COEXIST bumper stickers are to religion –...

It may only be mid-May, but we are already at the midway point of the 2016 Iowa caucus cycle. Six months from now the campaigns will be set, almost every key activist will be spoken for, and then it will be up to the candidates to close the sale in the final 60-90 days.Two distinct things have happened since we last updated our Iowa caucus odds on March 9. First, candidates are now officially entering the race. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina have all declared their candidacies. Rick Perry and Rick Santorum...

Critics of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership are unlikely to be silenced by an analysis of the flood of money it took to push the pact over its latest hurdle A decade in the making, the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is reaching its climax and as Congress hotly debates the biggest trade deal in a generation, its backers have turned on the cash spigot in the hopes of getting it passed.“We’re very much in the endgame,” US trade representative Michael Froman told reporters over the weekend at a meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on the resort island of...

The Washington Times reported on Monday that a district court has refused to halt part of President Obama’s immigration program that allows spouses of legal guest workers from seeking employment in the United States. Federal District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ruled that a claim by a group of technology workers that they were being displaced by foreign workers was “highly speculative.” The Obama administration has also refused to consider what seems to be a growing problem for American high-tech workers who are finding themselves out of a job in favor of cheaper foreign guest workers under the H-1B visa system....

My husband and I attended a small meeting in 2011 when Sen. Ted Cruz was running for his U. S. Senate seat.  As a retired classroom teacher, my plan was to explain to Cruz how the Obama administration planned to take over the public schools of America through the Common Core Standards Initiative (CCSI).  Thinking Cruz would be just like so many other politicians who have been asleep about CCSI while it has been sweeping over our country since 2009, I started in on my explanation.  Almost immediately Ted Cruz began to agree with me vociferously and quickly let all...

By itself, making money shouldn't be an issue for Bill and Hillary Clinton; after all, so many of our past presidents have been wealthy. By itself, Bill Clinton having a shell LLC wouldn't be an issue either. But when you add the two together, you see that the Clintons have a Mitt Romney problem on their hands -- wealth and "otherness" that voters might not be able to relate to, especially when the likes of Bernie Sanders are campaigning against wealth. Of course, there's one BIG difference between Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney: Romney wanted to cut taxes for the...

... Mrs. Clinton lacks some of the extraordinary gifts for connection and empathy that her husband possesses, and the round-table events that have characterized her early campaign can feel stage-managed. But even these settings are producing revealing moments, as Mrs. Clinton finds herself far from the world of international diplomacy and scrambling to re-educate herself about the nation she hopes to lead. A lot has changed since Mrs. Clinton left domestic politics to become the secretary of state: Student debt has ballooned, access to credit has tightened, and the cause of income inequality has taken on a forceful momentum. Ever...

There is a stunning lack of racial diversity among the pre-screened “everyday Americans” at Hillary Clinton’s campaign events, a Free Beacon analysis found. Clinton plans to meet with minority women small business owners in South Carolina on Wednesday, but the roundtable events she has hosted since announcing for president on April 12 have been, for the most part, excruciatingly white. These photos, according to our analysis, speak for themselves: Roundtable Discussion at Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (April 14, 2015)Analysis: WhiteInteraction with Everyday Americans at the Tremont Grille, Marshalltown, Iowa (April 15, 2015) Analysis: Profoundly White [SNIP -...

The National Spelling Bee preliminary round is being held today, and its officials are confronting the racism that has accompanied it in recent years. Indian American children have won the spelling bee for seven straight years and 11 of the last 15. Paige Kimble, the Bee’s director, addressed the question last week, partly because of the racially charged tweets that have grown to accompany the spelling bee. “We certainly followed the coverage last year,” Kimble said, “and we are aware of Twitter posts that are not nice, that indicate that we have a long way to go as a country...

Two weeks ago, conservatives were calling for George Stephanopoulos to recuse himself from all coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign, on the grounds that the ABC News anchor had failed to inform viewers of his financial donations to the Clinton Foundation. Three days after that controversy broke, Stephanopoulos hosted an exclusive interview with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Then, on Wednesday, he landed an even bigger exclusive: Rick Santorum, the former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, would be announcing his bid for the presidency. Stephanopoulos also landed the first interview with Santorum, which will take place this afternoon. The McConnell...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said Wednesday that Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) belief that Republicans are partially responsible for the emergence of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorists should disqualify him from being president. “This is a perfect example of why Senator Paul is unsuited to be Commander-in-Chief,” Jindal said in a statement. “We have men and women in the military who are in the field trying to fight ISIS right now, and Senator Paul is taking the weakest, most liberal Democrat position.” “It's one thing for Senator Paul to take an outlandish position as a Senator at...

Numbers USA has issued immigration report cards for the major presidential candidates.

In a campaign event last week, Republican presidential frontrunner Jeb Bush exhibited Stage 2 climate denial. Unfortunately, denial of human-caused global warming may be a prerequisite for any viable Republican presidential candidate. Conservative and Tea Party Republicans are the one group of American voters among whom Stage 2 climate denial is the majority position, but they’re also the group that most reliably votes in GOP primary elections. Nevertheless, the scientific evidence supporting human-caused global warming is just as strong as the evidence linking smoking and lung cancer. Last year, the IPCC stated with 95% confidence that humans are the main...

Rick Santorum, the former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, will announce today that he will seek the GOP nomination for president in 2016, ABC News has learned. ABC News' Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos will sit down for an exclusive interview with Santorum this afternoon. Santorum, 57, is set to reveal his presidential intentions at an event today in Cabot, Pa., near his childhood home. It will be his second run for the White House, almost four years after he won primaries and caucuses in 11 states and finished second to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican...

It has been said that politics makes strange bedfellows. Well, there is no finer example of that statement than the recent votes on the Trade Promotion Authority. Free trade has long been advanced by conservatives who understand the need to expand our markets beyond our borders. On the other side stands the democrats and the radical left who fear competition and doubt AmericaÂ’s exceptionalism. Yesterday, the Senate cleared the 60 vote hurdle to bring the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) up for a vote. I for one, welcome President Obama to the side of common sense solutions, to help solve the...

Since there is so much confusion about the recent trade bills and the similar titles of the proposed legislation, I am going to do my best to explain the difference between TPA (Trade Promotion Authority, which is a Congressional Act) and TPP (Trans-pacific Partnership, which is a multi-national agreement). I will also provide a brief explanation between U.S. Treaties, and Congressional-Executive Acts which is the basis of confusion over the recent vote on TPA. Before explaining TPA, it is helpful to understand the difference between a U.S.Treaty and a Congressional-Executive Act. Throughout our history America has entered into many...

Democrats are rooting for Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) to win the Republican presidential nomination, and Jeb Bush is the 2016 candidate they fear the most, according to a survey conducted by The Hill.In interviews with more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers, former members and strategists, The Hill asked questions to gauge what Democrats think of the large Republican field. ADVERTISEMENT Democrats think Cruz, a conservative firebrand, would alienate independent voters, propel liberals to the polls and give their party the best shot at picking up congressional seats in next year’s elections. Bush, they say, would be the much tougher opponent, because...

Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation have been hit with a racketeering lawsuit in Florida court. The lawsuit, filed by Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, includes a legal request to have the Florida judge seize the private server on which Hillary Clinton and her aides hosted their emails while she served as secretary of state. Klayman has filed dozens of lawsuits against the Clintons and other prominent politicians. The racketeering, influenced and corrupt organizations, or RICO, case alleges the former first couple and their family philanthropy traded political favors for donations or generous speaking fees for Bill Clinton...