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Ryan Fournier @RyanAFournier Yesterday I put up a tweet alleging that Mark Meadows wore a wire in the White House during the last stretch. I’ve spoke with some of my sources again, and now it seems that information was wrong and incorrect. In fact, two of them retracted their statements on the matter entirely. I apologize for putting something out without it not being 100% accurate. That’s on me and I’ll do better next time. I also apologize to Congressman Meadows, and his staff for having to field questions on the issue. There seems to be some dark forces behind...

BREAKING: North Korea has released all U.S. detainees at the request of President Trump.

This is a note to Clinton Democrats—a desperate plea, actually. Your candidate staged a winning convention in Philadelphia: big stars, tight messaging, and a compelling case against her rival, Donald Trump. The Republican nominee followed up by smearing a war hero’s family, revealing his ignorance about Russia’s incursions into Ukraine, denying a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he had previously claimed, and failing to quell suspicions that his team changed the GOP platform to protect Putin’s interests. Hillary Clinton may be rising in the polls as a result, which is good news for people like me across the...

National Journal Senior Political Columnist Ron Fournier argued that Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s explanation for her emails and private server “was wrong in at least three points” and that “she’s got to know all three of those things are wrong” during the Fox News Channel’s coverage of the Democratic presidential debate.

Ron Fournier is a columnist for National Journal and a cable news mainstay who served as the Associated Press' Washington bureau chief for years. In his new opinion-based role, he's worked to carve out a niche as a 'pox on both houses' purveyor of common sense, a detector of BS, a practitioner of intellectual honesty, and Chief of the Civility Police.  In that last capacity, Fournier expended much indignant energy denouncing Rudy Giuliani's acerbic commentary about President Obama's patriotism -- wrongly asserting that Obama would never say such nasty things about his political opponents.  Regardless of that particular blind spot, Fournier would likely tell you that he feels...

In a Monday National Journal column about how many Democrats are allegedly saying they have "quit" on Obama — claims I find quite hollow, given that no one asserting this has yet had the guts to go on the record — Ron Fournier quotes "a senior White House official" with a head-shaking take on the Veterans Administration scandal. Specifically, "Questioning why the Veterans Affairs Department hadn´t been overhauled months ago as promised by Obama (actually that was seven years ago, plus six other times, Ron — Ed.), a senior White House official conceded privately to me, ´We don´t do the

It's getting difficult and slinking toward impossible to defend the Affordable Care Act. The latest blow to Democratic candidates, liberal activists, and naïve columnists like me came Monday from the White House, which announced yet another delay in the Obamacare implementation. For the second time in a year, certain businesses were given more time before being forced to offer health insurance to most of their full-time workers. Employers with 50 to 99 workers were given until 2016 to comply, two years longer than required by law. During a yearlong grace period, larger companies will be required to insure fewer employees...

At a White House press briefing on May 1, Barack Obama spokesman Jay Carney attempted to frame new reporting on the Benghazi attacks as old news by noting that the attacks had taken place "a long time ago."  Just ten days have passed since he uttered that infelicitous phrase. But it feels like a long time ago.National Journal’s Ron Fournier takes a close look at the Obama administration’s unraveling spin in a piece today headlined: “Scrubbing the Truth from Benghazi.”

Caught playing politics with tragedy, what's next for the Obama administration and GOP investigators?“These changes don’t resolve all of my issues or those of my building’s leadership.” With that sentence, one in a series of emails and draft “talking points” leaked to Jonathan Karl of ABC News, the Obama administration was caught playing politics with Benghazi. Summaries of White House and State Department emails -- some of which were first published by Stephen F. Hayes of the Weekly Standard -- also contradict the White House version of events that led to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice misleading the public about the cause...

“I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it,” Rep. Scott Rigell of Virginia griped over lunch last month at the GOP-run Capitol Hill Club. “All I did was agree to fly aboard Air Force One and talk to the president and for that I got …” “Hammered,” said Chris Connelly, chief of staff to the Republican lawmaker. “Hammered,” repeated Rigell. “Hammered by my own people.” Before we could finish our conversation about the dangers of moderation in modern-day politics, Rigell’s cell phone vibrated on the white-clothed table. “It’s Rand Paul,” he said, jumping up from his chair to take a...

...Platform is clear: "Faithful to the 'self-evident' truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children." ... opponents of the fundamental Human Right to Life of our youngest neighbors in the first home of the human race control much of the media. So, this heroic action by the Republican Platform Committee is reported in...

...They were standing up for free speech and against political correctness. They were applauding with their purchase the courage shown by the owners of this restaurant. They did not back down in the face of forceful, even hateful, opposition from those who, while claiming to be tolerant have become so intolerant of those who do not agree with them. ...What occurred on August 1, 2012 ...holds great promise for the coming election. The real people of America, the salt of the earth, have had 'ENOUGH!" They came in in cars and on foot to Chick-Fil-A restaurants everywhere. The reports of...

"Angry Newt" took the night off. In a striking role reversal, Newt Gingrich looked more like a firefly than a firebrand in a high-stakes debate Monday night, while rival Mitt Romney called the surging former House Speaker a disgraced, influence-peddling, Washington insider. Somebody must have awakened the cool-and-nonchalant Romney out of his debate slumber and told him the GOP nomination was slipping away. Gingrich stunned the political world -- and frightened much of the GOP establishment -- with a landslide victory in South Carolina on Saturday night that erased Romney's lead in national and Florida polls. SNIP Gingrich's stunning South...

...He could have had his substantial properties restored if he had just sworn that oath, others would say, in order to provide material safety for his beloved family. Instead, this man who loved life, loved his family, loved his career and properly loved the world and all of its goods, loved the Lord first and would not compromise the Truth. He was an ordinary Christian who shows us ordinary Christians the way to living a unity of life in the midst of the creeping darkness and distractions of our own age. He held in harmony his vocation as the father...

“Untruths have consequences,” the title of the story begins, a statement that could have been used to describe the first year of the Obama administration, the Democratic plummet in the polls, or the elections in New Jersey, Virginia, or Massachusetts. Sadly, though, the author, Ron Fournier, uses his platform to discuss the “distortions” of conservative leaders, lamenting the fact that the conservative request for government to hold to the Founding Principles and stick to the job for which it was created seems to somehow create a cynicism about government. >>Conservatives leapt to their feet when Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney...

Any young journalist covering a presidential campaign is likely to have read Timothy Crouse's classic book on the 1972 election, "The Boys on the Bus." In the first chapter, the author describes the pecking order of print journalists. At the top of the food chain are the wire-service reporters, particularly the reporters from the Associated Press, the oldest of news organizations -- those hard-bitten, vigilant correspondents who set the agenda for everybody else. "Wire stories are usually bland, dry and overly cautious," Crouse wrote. "There is always an inverse proportion between the number of persons a reporter reaches and the...

On Wednesday I received a personal copy of my friend Doug Kmiec’s latest book entitled “Can a Catholic Support Him?” The book is subtitled “Asking the Big Question about Barrack Obama”. I appreciate being mentioned in his Acknowledgement of the book with these words “Deacon Keith Fournier’s writing and editing of Catholic Online is courageous and wise”. So, I write this review to be faithful, to a friendship I value, to the claim in the acknowledgment of this book and to the truth. Doug asks the wrong question. The proper question is not “can” but “should”. The word “can” addresses...

The popular, if controvesial, liberal activist group MoveOn.org today targeted an email campaign at Associated Press executives and the AP Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier after what it termed yet another Fournier attack on Barack Obama. Fournier's article on Obama's selection of Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate gained wide linkage at the Drudge Report, Hot Air and numerous other conservative sites, while it was panned on liberal blogs such as DailyKos and Talking Points Memo. The MoveOn rallying cry to its members included the following. The full Fournier article follows after that. "Today, the Associated Press (whose articles...

In the late 19th century, crusading journalists helped identify and correct some of the worst problems American society faced at that time. Newspapers like The New York Times and the New York World and journals like Harper's Weekly and Cosmopolitan (a very different kind of magazine than it is today) led campaigns that exposed and helped eliminate problems ranging from the sale of patent medicines to corruption in city government. Newspaper and magazine sales soared - and publishers knew a good thing when they saw it. If stories exposing evil sold papers - why, give the public what it wants;...

Ron Fournier says he regards Sandy Johnson, his predecessor as head of The Associated Press’s Washington bureau, as “a mentor.” Johnson, though, regards Fournier, who replaced her in a hard-feelings shake-up in May, as a threat to one of the most influential institutions in American journalism. “I loved the Washington bureau,” said Johnson, who left the AP after losing the prestigious position. “I just hope he doesn’t destroy it.” There’s more to her vinegary remark than just the aftertaste of a sour parting. Fournier is a main engine in a high-stakes experiment at the 162-year old wire to move from...