Free Republic

Dr. Ben Carson confirmed five people on presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s list of potential vice presidential running mates in a recent interview. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 VP running mate to John McCain, was one of the five Carson said was on the list. The rest are all former 2016 GOP presidential candidates: Trump’s closest competitor Sen. Ted Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Marco Rubio, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. (Read more at source)

On Tuesday at the Hudson Institute, Senator Marco Rubio reported about his recent trip to Qatar, Iraq, and Turkey to discuss the importance of American engagement in the Middle East and the consequences America would encounter if it pulled out: "If we are not engaged in the world, the price we pay will be much higher in the long run than the price we pay to be engaged." Senator Rubio explained why America has a serious interest in what happens in the Middle East: "Whenever there are vacuums of instability... that vacuum is filled with radicals... We do not want...

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is slamming Jeb Bush for refusing to back him, saying he isn't a "man of honor." Trump criticized his 2016 primary rival for breaking the pledge he signed last year vowing to support the eventual Republican nominee. “Jeb Bush dishonored his pledge. I mean he dishonored his pledge,” Trump said on the "Mike Gallagher Show" on Wednesday, as first reported by BuzzFeed News. “He signed a pledge, and, if you remember, they all wanted me to sign it, so I signed it. But that pledge is a guarantee, there’s no outs. It doesn’t say,...

Asked if he can support Trump, former Marco Rubio backer Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina answered: “Oh yeah.” “The country is better off having a Republican in the White House than having a Democrat in the White House,” Scott said. “I’m certain that the center-right construct is better for our country than the far liberal left that we have to contend with. So if you compare the right to left in this campaign it’s very clear that we are in a far better position” supporting Republicans and Trump. Still, Scott shot speculation from the Capitol Hill press that he...

(Trump) used the term "lightweight" to describe Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., once in the presidential race, and suggested former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another former rival, was still licking his wounds from the vicious campaign. The party's 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, Trump said, "blew the election" that year and never even thanked Trump for his work on Romney's behalf. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 nominee, said it would take a lot for him to ever stand on stage next to Trump, even though McCain has agreed to support the party's nominee.

First off I don't believe waiting for the convention to announce the choice makes much sense. Way too much work to be done to wait around. Putting personal opinion aside the best candidate for VP is Rubio. A few reasons here. First choosing a black VP to swing the black vote. We have past experience on this, Mike Steele when he ran as senator and more recent with Bernie and Hillary. Even though our hearts would like to see the black vote swing it is entrenched and continues to vote Hillary. The risk to benefit is not a good one...

We made it a point to tune into Joy Reid's debut this morning in the MSNBC slot formerly occupied by Melissa Harris-Perry. For anyone who imagined Reid might be more fair-and-balanced than MH-P: fuggedaboutit. After an all-liberal opening panel blamed Bernie Sanders for failing to adequately address the concerns of African-Americans, the remainder of the show was one, long, hate-Trump fest. Mac Stipanovich, a Florida lobbyist who in the past worked on one of Jeb's gubernatorial campaigns, was the token representative of the GOP. As the headline indicates, he was Joy Reid's kind of Republican. Stipanovich called Trump a "fascist"...

In a Facebook post, Bush announced that he could not in good conscience vote for Donald Trump, saying Trump has not demonstrated the “temperament or strength of character” needed to lead the United States. In doing so, Bush became the latest member of his family to publicly refuse to back the real estate magnate. He also is the second former presidential candidate, along with Lindsey Graham, to break the pledge all the candidates made,

I congratulate Donald Trump on securing his place as the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee. There is no doubt that he successfully tapped into the deep sense of anger and frustration so many Americans around the country rightfully feel today. The tremendous anger of the current U.S. electorate – whether Republican, Democrat or independent – is a result of people fearful about the future, concerned with the direction of our country and tremendously frustrated by the abject failure and inability of leaders in Washington, D.C. to make anything better. American voters have made it clear that Washington is broken, but I’m...

<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said Wednesday she supports Republican Donald Trump "100 percent" and offered her enthusiastic endorsement of the New York billionaire in his bid for the presidency.</p> <p>The two-term governor, who had been mum on her pick for president, said her priority is to elect a conservative, pro-business Republican who is strong on national defense, and that she believes Trump is that candidate.</p>

Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would consider making Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) his running mate. “I respect Ted,” he told host Bill O’Reilly on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor." "He was a very strong competitor. He really competed hard and tough." “He’s certainly a capable guy,” the presumptive GOP presidential nominee added. "It’s something we can think about.” Trump defeated Cruz in Tuesday’s Indiana GOP presidential primary, making him the presumptive nominee. Cruz suspended his Oval Office bid shortly afterward, saying that his results in the Hoosier State “foreclose” his path to the Republican presidential nomination. Trump on...

First the reason the time now to pick Rubio is to beat Hillary to the punch with picking an hispanic. Second reason why. It locks up almost all of the southern states. Rubio did well in Virginia and will also help in Nevada. This leaves Ohio for Trump to win. It also helps him compete in Minnesota and New Mexico. This will allow Trump to put resources in the some of the Northeast states making Hillary compete in states they would not normally compete in. Some argue for a women to cancel out the woman card or a black American....

Mark Levin gave a stern warning to both Donald Trump over his recent attacks on Ben Carson and Marco Rubio for trying to smear Ted Cruz on the Gang of 8 immigration bill, telling them both that their attacks are unacceptable to him. He told Trump that if he continued these reckless personal assaults on Carson, he’d have to affirmatively oppose him. He pretty much said the same to Rubio, pointing out that he simply can’t accept Rubio’s smear attacks on Ted Cruz and that it was his decision to support the Gang of 8 and he would have to...

Donald Trump is the catalyst who could force a decisive break between Miami-Dade County’s influential Cuban-American voters and the Republican Party, a new poll has found. Local Cuban Americans dislike Trump so much — and are increasingly so accepting of renewed U.S.-Cuba ties pushed by Democratic President Barack Obama — that Trump’s likely presidential nomination might accentuate the voters’ political shift away from the GOP, according to the survey shared with the Miami Herald and conducted by Dario Moreno, a Coral Gables pollster and a Florida International University associate politics professor...

Politico reported today on a Florida poll conducted for a business group in the state that shows Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump by 13 points and Ted Cruz by nine. Why is that important? Because if Clinton wins Florida and carries the 19 states (plus D.C.) that have voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in each of the last six elections, she will be the 45th president. It's that simple. Politico reported today on a Florida poll conducted for a business group in the state that shows Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump by 13 points and Ted Cruz by nine....

Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) has run a brilliant campaign, and if it were not for Donald Trump, he'd probably be on the verge of wrapping up the Republican nomination by now. The Texas firebrand knew long before others that the party's primary schedule and delegate allocation rules played to his advantage, not to an establishment candidate like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. From his arrival in the Senate, Cruz has bent the political space-time continuum around himself by demonstrating GOP leaders' inability to govern effectively or deliver on their promises to conservatives.

Marco Rubio won’t be endorsing Ted Cruz during the Republican presidential primary, but he’s likely to back the Texas senator at a contested convention — if it gets that far… Rubio has already helped Cruz by renting him his fundraising list, calling him “the only conservative left in the race,” withdrawing his name from the primary ballot in select states so as not to siphon votes from Cruz and petitioning to hang on to some of the 171 delegates he won to keep them from going to Donald Trump… “Marco wants Donald to lose. If he thought his endorsement would...

Indianapolis (CNN)South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is predicting "another 9/11" if Donald Trump is elected president. In an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" Graham said the Republican Party is in the midst of a "civil war" and called Trump's foreign policy positions dangerous. He pointed to former House Speaker John Boehner's comments about his friendly relationship with Trump, and Boehner's dismissal of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's chief Republican presidential rival, as "Lucifer in the flesh."

Obama and Clinton's shameful betrayal of Israel in this sordid affair seems set to be targeted by Trump. Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech has created expectations that he will match Marco Rubio’s pledge to stand by the commitments made by President Bush to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Bush’s letter dated 14 April 2004. Rubio made his unequivocal pledge on 3 December 2015 at the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Forum during his unsuccessful race to secure the Republican Party’s endorsement as its Presidential nominee:

Which begs the question: Who is he going to pick as his vice presidential nominee? The short answer: No one knows. Trump relishes being unpredictable so trying to game out how this most unconventional of politicians will make his mind up is a bit of a guessing game. Add to that the fact that Trump's inner circle remains, largely, devoid of establishment types and you quickly get into a situation where the people talking don't know much and the people who do know aren't talking.