Free Republic

Regardless of what the United States does to enforce its gun laws or improve mental health care, people are always going to slip through the cracks, Donald Trump said Friday, a day after a gunman killed nine and injured seven at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. "First of all, you have very strong laws on the books, but you're always going to have problems. We have millions and millions of people, we have millions and millions of sick people all over the world. It can happen all over the world and it does happen all over the world, by...

Perhaps nobody on the planet knows more about intelligence protocol than Edward Snowden. If Snowden says it's "completely ridiculous" to believe that Clinton's emails were safe, then yes, it's fair to include his viewpoint in any critique of Hillary Clinton's latest controversy. In addition, since I believe Senator Bernie Sanders is desperately needed at this point in U.S. history, and electing Clinton or a Republican would essentially be nominating the same president on war and foreign policy, it's important to address relevant analysis of the email controversy. There seems to be a bizarre paradigm of thought among some Democrats that...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is calling for "sensible gun-control legislation" in the wake of a mass shooting Thursday at a community college in Oregon. "We need a comprehensive approach. We need sensible gun-control legislation which prevents guns from being used by people who should not have them," Sanders said in a statement. "We must greatly expand and improve our mental health capabilities so individuals and families can get the psychological help then need when they need it." Sanders released his remarks after a gunman opened fire at Umpqua Community College on Thursday morning, killing 10 people. The Vermont senator, who...

“I’m not a masochist,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood. “Right now, I’m leading every poll, in most cases big. . . If that changed, if I was like some of these people at 1 percent or 2 percent, there’s no reason to move forward . . . If I tank, sure, I go back to business. Why wouldn’t I?” For now, Trump sees nothing but blue skies. He continues to draw large crowds with his bombastic, anti-immigrant rhetoric and promises to renew America’s greatness. Campaign funding is no problem for the deep-pocketed real estate magnate who...

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907. 'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else...

Update at 6:33 p.m.: Former Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis touted Hillary Clinton’s experience and grit, while castigating Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as “not fit to lead” during a coffee klatsch for Clinton in Austin Wednesday evening. Speaking to about 40 people, Davis endorsed the former secretary of state’s presidential bid. “Hillary has demonstrated for many years her exemplary ability to lead in the face of real challenges,” she said. “We need someone like that.” Davis said that as the nation’s first female president, Clinton would “hopefully knit this Congress back together” and promote an agenda of “things that...

Mitt Romney long ago ruled out a presidential run in 2016, but he is hardly retired from politics. As he answered questions from college students for an hour on Wednesday, it became clear that Romney is a keen if not obsessive observer of the campaign’s twists and turns and has strong ideas on what the Republican Party and its eventual nominee must do to win back the White House. “The Democrats have done a great job characterizing my party as the party of the rich,” Romney said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.” He added: “Rich people have gotten...

The Libertarian Party conducted a poll a few months back in order to better understand the religious demographic of party members. A result which surely shocked many was the stereotype-shattering data the Libertarian Party got back. Of the 19,428 votes caste, around 50% of those who participated came back as Christian. ArenÂ’t libertarians just a bunch of atheist? Well, only 42% of Libertarian voters identified as Atheists. This is incredibly exciting! This is an opportunity to not only expand the message of limited government, free markets, and individual liberty, but on a personal level, to expand the Gospel of Christ...

Twitter feuds, hero bashing, insulting not one but two ethnic groups, ad hominem personal attacks on opponents, nose-to-nose confrontations, just one scandal after another—these aren’t from episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians—they’re from the “Trump Saga.” At the outset of the campaign, Trump insulted anyone and everyone: from calling undocumented immigrants “killers” and “rapists” to insulting venerated war hero John McCain. He then moved on to TV host Megyn Kelly, radio host Erick Erickson, Univision reporter Jorge Ramos, the pope, Carly Fiorina and the Fox News Channel. Democrats and Republicans alike didn’t take Trump too seriously when he entered...

A lot of Republicans are hoping Donald Trump will go away, and here’s why he won’t: The Thirders aren’t going away, either. Understand, the Thirders aren’t a lot of us — just a third — but being the life force of the Republican Party, they are enough to run it. That’s a takeaway from the announced retirement of Speaker John Boehner. He is conceding the House to the forces of GOP wackery. We used to know the Thirders as Birthers, but we’ve come to see that they have, um, diversified. The term “Thirders” is my own. It came from polls...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)In the Senate, Ted Cruz stood with Rand Paul. On the campaign trail, he's stomping all over him. Cruz on Tuesday unveiled a coalition of libertarian supporters that is chock full of activists who backed Paul's father, Ron Paul, in the two previous Republican presidential primaries. Cruz very unsubtly moved to stamp out the competition for this voting bloc with a campaign video that features this group recalling their fondness for Ron Paul and discussing how Cruz embodies his libertarian ethos. Libertarian Republicans were supposed to form the bulwark of Rand Paul's 2016 campaign. "There are a lot of things...

While Carly Fiorina has unquestionable debate skills, the more I research her background, the more troubled I become. While it's clear that she is -- politically speaking -- somewhere to the left of Jeb Bush on policy, it is her business record that is most alarming. Let me start with a little history lesson and a company called Lernout & Houspie. Founded in 1987 by two Belgians, L&H went public in 1995 on NASDAQ and operated from U.S. headquarters in Burlington, MA. Specializing in voice recognition software, L&H rode the tech boom to a peak market valuation of $10 billion....

This interview is amazing.As the Bernie Sanders campaign surges, the socialist senator continues to bring the national conversation back from the right after 30 years of bellicose class war rhetoric. In the clip below, he shames those (including Jeb Bush) who would cut taxes for the rich while stripping Social Security. Sanders states clearly that every other industrialized country invests in their own citizens and children and it’s high time that we followed suit. While Sanders is heavily-criticized for identifying as a democratic socialist, he embraces the label. Sanders says countries that abide by the principles of democratic socialism, like...

Paul and McConnell have support each other. Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday said fellow Republican presidential candidate Ted. Cruz is “done for” in the Senate. “Ted has chosen to make this really personal and chosen to call people dishonest in leadership and call them names, which really goes against the decorum and also against the rules of the Senate, and as a consequence, he can’t get anything done legislatively,” Paul told Fox News Radio. “He is pretty much done for and stifled and it’s really because of personal relationships, or lack of personal relationships, and it is a problem.” Paul,...

While Breitbart News has been reporting for months that Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)’s speakership was in jeopardy, the Washington media was stunned on Friday with the historic announcement of Boehner’s resignation. The anti-leadership sentiment seems to be growing as the Washington Times is now reporting that a top Republican party official, Louisiana GOP Chairman Roger Villere, has called for Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)’s resignation. The populist, anti-establishment groundswell could spell trouble for the presidential campaign of donor-class darling Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)—who has twice fearlessly ignored voters and risked his political career to advance the goals of...

It’s not just Trump. Cruz, Carson, others—it’s a festival of hate out there. And it’s only going to get worse, and worse.It appears that the GOP has traded in its dog whistle for a bullhorn when it comes to bigotry in the 2016 race for president. It’s as if the Republican presidential candidates are regressing to a time long gone. There was a time decades ago that conservatives, and even Democrats like George Wallace, could and would openly demonize minorities in the most vile terms to attract white voters. But soon they realized the need to be subtler because times...

2016 GOP presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul (R-KS) called into Kilmeade & Friends and talked about Senator Ted Cruz being rebuffed on the senate floor by republicans who failed to allow him a roll call vote, John Boehner stepping down as Speaker of the House, why he feels it’s important to be present for votes on the senate floor, defunding Planned Parenthood, why he thinks Scott Walker dropped out of the race as well as news coming out of the UN on Syria and Russia. Listen here: (AUDIO-AT-LINK)Senator Ted Cruz being snubbed with not one republican granting him the procedural...

via The Iowa Statesman. Republican presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz today named former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr the National Chair of the “Liberty Leaders for Cruz” coalition. The campaign also released a video of eight leaders in the Liberty movement who are actively working for the Cruz campaign, featuring their personal stories of why they supported Ron Paul, and why in 2016, they support Ted Cruz for President. Additional coverage at Reason. – Fmr. Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) was the Libertarian nominee for President in 2008, winning on the sixth ballot at a divided and fractured convention. After a...

Why, god? Why? Don't look now–I mean it. Don't look, for the love of god!–but the Republicans in the United States Senate just guaranteed Ted Cruz's presidential campaign a huge boost among those anonymous hayshaking Bible-bangers who are the only Republicans who matter to that effort. And the way you know that is the fact that, in response, Ted Cruz got up on the floor of the Senate and brought the temple down on his head.​ After the Senate voted to end debate on a resolution to fund the government, Cruz tried to procedural move to bring up one that...

Is Carly Fiorina a liberal chameleon wearing conservative colors? And if she is, will it give Clinton what she needs to win the White House? Carly Fiorina, candidate for the Republican party’s nomination for president, has enjoyed quite a bounce in the polls since the most recent Republican debate. Ironically, however, Fiorina’s policy positions more closely mimic those of Democrats than those of Republicans. Fiorina will not be able to draw a distinct line between her and the Democrat candidate, which will lead to a repeat of 2008 and 2012 when millions of conservatives chose not to vote and a...