Free Republic

The coach for the Republican congressional baseball team asked President Trump to attend the annual game on Thursday, the anniversary of last year's shooting that wounded Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and several others. "I asked him to come, I guess it was last week, I was over at the Oval Office. He said, 'I'll be there,'" Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) told The Associated Press. Last June, a gunman attacked GOP lawmakers as they practiced for the annual charity game. Scalise was badly wounded and underwent multiple surgeries as part of his recovery.

Tuesday brought another set of primaries across the country — in Maine, South Carolina, Nevada, North Dakota and Virginia — and another set of surprises. Here are the night's winners and losers. Winners President Trump: It's overly simplistic to say that South Carolina GOP congressman Mark Sanford lost his primary Tuesday because of Trump. But Trump was definitely a factor in making Sanford the second House Republican in 2018 to lose a primary. The president sent off this remarkably caustic tweet on Tuesday afternoon, as voters in South Carolina were getting off work and going to vote.

Mark Sanford blew up his marriage and became a national laughingstock when he sneaked off his job as South Carolina governor for a tryst with his Argentine lover. After he forsook his presidential ambitions and spent time in political purgatory, voters forgave Sanford’s trespass and, in 2013, elected him their representative in Congress. But on Tuesday, Sanford was tossed from office by his Republican constituents for committing a far graver sin: criticizing President Trump. With his bulldozing personality, Trump has transformed the GOP from a party of anti-communist cold warriors to one that coos over North Korea’s communist dictator, from...

Donald Trump erased all doubts about who owns the Republican Party on Tuesday night as several Trump-backed candidates swept to victory in GOP primaries. Primaries were held in Maine, South Carolina, Virginia, Nevada, and North Dakota.  Po-Trump candidates win crucial races.  The most notable among Trump's victories occurred in South Carolina, where former governor and current GOP incumbent Congressman Mark Sanford, a bitter critic of the president, went down to defeat. CBS: In the most dramatic result in primaries across five states Tuesday, Sanford was the second incumbent House Republican to lose a primary this year – and the latest victim of...

Republican businessman John Cox, who stunned the political world last week by placing second in the California primary and securing a spot on the November ballot, said Monday that President Donald Trump will campaign for him in California. The Los Angeles Times reports: Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox said Monday that President Trump would travel to California to campaign for him in his bid to defeat Democrat Gavin Newsom in the November general election. “Gavin Newsom is going to make this race all about President Trump. Well, you know what, I welcome it,” Cox told GOP supporters at a hotel...

House Republican leaders will bring a pair of immigration bills to the floor next week, sinking a push from reform-minded centrists to force votes on bipartisan Dreamer bills opposed by GOP leadership.The House will vote on a conservative immigration bill authored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and a more moderate compromise measure that is still being put together after weeks of closed-door negotiations facilitated by Republican leaders. “Members across the Republican Conference have negotiated directly and in good faith with each other for several weeks, and as a result, the House will consider two bills next week that...

House Republicans were scrambling Tuesday evening to hammer out an 11th-hour immigration deal that protects so-called Dreamers and averts a potentially damaging partisan fight on a highly divisive issue less than five months before the midterms elections. Leaders of the conservative Freedom Caucus said they were bringing to their members a new legislative offer from centrist Republicans, and that they would provide a response to GOP leadership by the end of the night.“I don’t have a deal in hand; I have a proposal in hand,” Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said as he left the House floor to meet...

<p>CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A garbage-truck driver who drove into the path of an Amtrak train carrying Republican members of Congress, resulting in a wreck that left a co-worker dead, has been indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and being under the influence.</p>

The Congressional GOP, in its finite wisdom, has taken a look at the Democrats blowing their Blue Wave and decided that the smart play to exploit their unexpected (and undeserved) improving prospects by embracing the exact opposite of what the militant Normals sent them to Washington to do because…because they are establishment Republicans and stupid is what they do.These geniuses have considered all the possible ways to use the limited legislative time available to implement a conservative agenda and decided that the big legislative priority during the ramp-up to the midterms must be handing citizenship to a bunch of future...

Mitt Romney is mapping out plans to become a major player in the Senate — positioning himself to be the spokesman of a listless Republican Party establishment that’s been steamrolled by President Donald Trump. The failed presidential candidate turned Utah Senate hopeful has made it clear to senior party officials that he intends to make a splash with his all-but-certain arrival on Capitol Hill next year, according to nearly a dozen senators, major party donors and confidants who’ve spoken with him.

Lopez said he couldn’t really find any policies he didn’t like [about Trump] — “I think he’s doing a great job,” Lopez said about Trump — but said he would like to see a different approach to NAFTA and dealing with Canada and Mexico.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) took a jab at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday, saying he was "not so sure" about McCain's remarks on Saturday that a majority of Americans favor free trade. "I'm not so sure John's right about where America is on trade," Graham told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week." "The [Sen.] Bernie Sanders [I-Vt.] element of the Democratic Party doesn't stand for free trade. Hillary Clinton said she would get out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership if she had become president. There is a movement in our party that Trump's seized that got him the nomination, and...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took a jab at President Trump on Saturday after threatening to impose new tariffs on Canada and pulling his endorsement of a joint communique signed with other Group of Seven (G-7) members at this weekend's summit. “To our allies: bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization & supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values,” McCain tweeted late Saturday. “Americans stand with you, even if our president doesn’t,” the senator added. Ect...

June 1st has come and passed. Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. Under Arizona law, if John McCain had vacated office before June 1st ("vacated" meaning "died"), there would be a special election in November to replace him. But having passed this June deadline, if McCain resigns he can be replaced by an appointee of the governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, a conservative Republican, and this appointee will serve until 2020. The problem is, McCain hasn't resigned. McCain has been so ill that he hasn't been seen in the Senate for months. He has missed countless votes. Arizona is...

The results in Tuesday's primaries in eight states are an early indication that President Trump's "America First" agenda and accomplishments are winning the support of the American people. This is good news for Republicans running in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. The Trump agenda of economic growth, job creation, border security, and peace through strength abroad is causing voters to seriously consider the consequences of supporting candidates who carry the Democratic mantle of tax hikes, protecting sanctuary cities, and the hyper-partisan and baseless impeachment witch hunt. In California, it will be hard for Democrats to point to evidence that a...

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, both Republicans, broke with President Donald Trump on Wednesday over allegations spies infiltrated his 2016 campaign, saying they agree with GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy that the FBI did "exactly" what it should have done over its handling of a confidential source. The declarations by the leading Republicans are the latest indications that Trump lacks any evidence to back up his claims of a major political scandal he calls "spygate" -- since those lawmakers were among a select group briefed on the classified intelligence at issue. The only Republican briefed on...

After nine months of empty promises to help young undocumented immigrants, House Republicans are facing a make-or-break moment on Thursday.Retiring Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will pitch a long-awaited compromise immigration plan to rank-and-file Republicans in the Capitol basement. The meeting is one of the biggest of the Congress for House Republicans, and it could get heated. The immigration discussion represents a last-ditch effort to head off a nasty intraparty, election-year clash that leaders have warned could determine whether the GOP keeps control of the House in November. But it may be too little, too late. Even some Ryan allies are...

Well, the big blue wave didn't turn out quite like Democrats thought it would. The press is reporting they avoided panic, given that most of their candidates secured spots on the top-two on the November midterm ballot. Whoop dee doo. That's not a blue wave, and it's certainly not victory. Instead, what we really saw were signs of Republican strength in a state written off as solid blue, with bigger-than-expected margins for the GOP that all the Trump-haters out there in the establishment could forecast. We also saw a significant rejection of Democratic Party organizational favorites, which is a sign...

Democrats on Tuesday added to their list of special election wins in Republican districts since President Trump took office, picking up a Missouri state Senate district in suburban Kansas City. State Rep. Lauren Arthur (D) bested state Rep. Kevin Corlew (R) in Missouri's 17th district, which covers parts of Clay County north of Kansas City. The district favored Trump over Hillary Clinton by a 49 percent to 45 percent margin in 2016. At the same time, the district favored Democrat Jason Kander, who narrowly lost to Sen. Roy Blunt (R) that year. The seat came open when the previous incumbent,...

The Republican Party is Donald Trump's party. If there were any doubts about this, recent polling - which shows the president with near record levels of backing from Republican voters - confirms the fact. According to a recent Gallup Poll, Mr Trump's support among members of his own party at the 500-day mark of his presidency sits at 87%, second only to George W Bush's 96%, which came nine months after the September 11 World Trade Center attacks. A handful of other presidents since the survey started after World War II - George HW Bush, John F Kennedy, Dwight D...