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Trump will meet with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan at 9am this morning. All the networks will be covering live remarks made by both men following the meeting. The URL above links to the various video postings on this meeting thus far, (amazing how much coverage all ready), so Freepers will need to find their own source, (FOX, NBC, ABC, CNN, etc). Please post a good live thread when it surfaces here, and also commentary. As always, it will be interesting how our take here on Free Republic will be.

Heard a talking head on Fox talking about Trump and Ryan trying to come to terms over the Ryan/McConnell legislative agenda. Does anyone have a list of the legislative goals of the Ryan/McConnell legislative agenda?

Cameron Lancaster Senate Republicans blocked a slate of President Obama's lower court nominees Tuesday. Democratic Sens. Mazie Hirono (Hawaii),Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Ben Cardin (Md.) asked for consent four times to bring up a total of 11 judicial nominations Tuesday, arguing that the pace of confirmation votes has created a backlog. "The judicial confirmation process has been at a crawl for years. Now it has come to a functional standstill," said Schumer, who is expected to be the next Senate Democratic leader. The Senate's top Republicans teamed up to block the Democratic efforts. Majority LeaderMitch McConnell objected to requests...

Paul Manafort is the new head of Donald Trump’s campaign. A longtime Washington insider and heavy duty lobbyist for third world dictators, Manafort appeared this morning on Fox News Sunday and inadvertently let slip some revealing truths. MANAFORT: …What we’re trying to do right now is work with the Mitch McConnells who we didn’t depose in Kentucky even though he won the election and we worked with him to put a unity slate together. We’re trying to bring the party together. That’s what —WALLACE: Wait, because I think this is interesting. You’re saying that you’re working with the Senate majority...

The recent spat in the Senate reminds me of Russia. On any given day it is hard to tell whether Russia is being run by an authoritarian or an outright dictator. Vladimir Putin fools few into believing Russia is a constitutional republic led by a freely elected President. Instead, Putin has changed the rules and exploited every loophole to defy his constitution to remain in power. In America, we believe in term limits; our commander-in-chief is only permitted to rule for two four-year terms. Term limits prevent any one person from accumulating too much destructive power; in fact, term limits...

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), a GOP Senate hopeful, has said he's not supporting Mitch McConnell (Ky.) as the leader of Senate Republicans. “I have declined to endorse McConnell for reelection, and let’s be honest — if he lets a liberal justice onto the Supreme Court, he’s not going to be the majority leader. We know that, that’s not going to fly,” DeSantis told attendees at an April 10 forum sponsored by the Republican Liberty Caucus of Central East Florida, according to footage obtained by The Hill.

PARTY LEADERSHIP RECOMMENDING AVOID OHIO CONVENTION... Somewhat quietly, though not without some water-cooler discussion, the Republican Party Leadership is warning membership to stay away from the upcoming Cleveland Ohio convention. The media is describing the issue as centering around those elected politicians who may want to avoid the potential for divisive controversy. However, if you look at the actual landscape, and then look at the political ideology of those who are openly saying they are staying away, what you’ll notice is the RINO caucus, the ‘Decepticons’, are the most cautious. If you spend some time digging through the professional GOPe...

"Ain't gonna happen." This one probably requires a bit of a memory refresher. Last July, Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor and revealed publicly the sort of thing that traditionally U.S. senators keep to themselves: In a private meeting, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had looked Cruz in the face and lied to him about whether a sneaky back-room deal had been cut to re-authorize the Export-Import Bank. McConnell had insisted three times to Cruz’s face, “There is no deal, there is no deal, there is no deal.” That was a lie. Hardly an earth-shaking development. McConnell lies all the...

<p>Ted Cruz said Thursday he will not apologize to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for accusing him of lying last year, despite suggestions from Senate colleagues it would help them unite behind his campaign.</p> <p>"That ain't gonna happen," Cruz told CNN's Dana Bash in an interview that aired on "Erin Burnett OutFront." "And if the Washington lobbyists want to see that happen, they can hold their breath a long, long time. My focus is on the American people and uniting Republicans behind shared values and a shared vision." Cruz has presented himself as the candidate best poised to unite the Republican Party against Hillary Clinton in November. But he has struggled with his own colleagues in the Senate, winning limited support from Republican senators.</p>

Rep. Marlin Stutzman is a member of the anti-leadership House Freedom Caucus, a conservative in the mold of Ted Cruz and a three-term Indiana congressman who voted against John Boehner as speaker. Now, he wants a promotion to the Senate -- and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies want to stop that. Privately, McConnell has made clear to his confidantes that he wants to bolster the candidacy of Stutzman's chief GOP rival, Rep. Todd Young, and push him over-the-top in the May 3 primary, according to sources familiar with the conversations. Publicly, McConnell's super PAC has made Indiana the...

As President Obama makes another pitch for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is warning Americans not to fall for the media’s characterization of Judge Garland as a “moderate.” “I’m sure he’ll repeatedly claim that his nominee is ‘moderate,’” Mr. McConnell said of the president, who is holding an event for Judge Garland at the University of Chicago law school. “Not that he means it. It’s just a useful piece of spin that’s been dutifully echoed across the expanse of the Left and in the media for years.” The previous Supreme Court nominees of...

Forty-three Republican senators on Monday joined the legal challenge to President Barack Obama’s actions on immigration, arguing that the president overstepped his constitutional authority in unilaterally expanding programs for immigrants. The White House has countered that Obama had no choice after comprehensive legislation that passed the Senate in 2013 stalled in the GOP-led House. The senators, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case of United States v. Texas. A lawsuit from 26 states, led by Texas, challenges Obama’s actions, with the Supreme Court set to hear arguments later this month and possibly rule...

Truncated Title. Full Title: Mitch McConnell’s Attorney PAC ‘Stand For Truth’, Sending Money To Ted Cruz PAC ‘Keep The Promise III’ The amount of money Washington DC is spending to attack Donald Trump and support Senator Ted Cruz is astounding. They’re not even trying to hide the money flow much any more. We previously shared how Mitch McConnell’s attorney, Eric Lycan was heading a PAC called “Stand For Truth”. That PAC was spending money attacking Donald Trump and Supporting Ted Cruz in Jan/Feb, in Iowa and on National Radio Shows

America needs a leader who will stand for what is right, even if he’s the only one standing. The following is a summary of a particular fight between the Senate leadership and Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, taken from Cruz’s book, “A Time For Truth.” At a usually jocular Senate Republican lunch in February of 2014, Senators were turning purple and yelling at Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for refusing to go along with a scheme to raise the debt ceiling. Under Boehner’s leadership, 28 Republicans had joined with 193 Democrats to cut the legs out from under the 199...

The conservative Judicial Crisis Network, which plans to spend at least $2 million on an advertising campaign to oppose Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination, says the nominee “has a very liberal view of gun rights.” JCN chief counsel Carrie Severino said in a blog post that Judge Merrick’s record on the bench since 1997 “leads to the conclusion that he would vote to reverse one of Justice Scalia’s most important opinions, D.C. vs. Heller, which affirmed that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to keep and bear arms.” In 2007, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled against the...

The icy relationship between Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress may be starting to thaw. Both House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Tuesday discussed having positive phone conversations with Trump after weeks of refusing to even mention the business mogul by name. In both cases, Trump picked up the phone first. "Donald Trump called this morning and we had a good conversation," McConnell told reporters Tuesday. "I appreciated his call."

Three prominent Republican men are using their influence to help Hillary win in 2016, and they deserve our shaming. Far more traitors than these three foxes are hiding behind the wall of anonymity. But these three are particularly powerful and set the tone for others. “Listen, there are Republicans in Washington who are privately saying that [they would vote for Hillary]. Maybe some don’t publicly say it,” Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier told TheWrap last week. Strong and energetic conservative messages helped Republicans win big in the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections. Moderate flip-floppers helped the GOP lose...

The combined votes of Donald J. Trump & Ted Cruz wipe out the Kentucky Republican Establishment losers, Mitch McConnell & Rand Paul in a landslide defeat. So much for these two turncoats & Mitt Romney the "The King of GOP Establishment losers". - Donald Trump - 36% - 82,493 votes - Ted Cruz - 32% - 72,503 votes - Totals - 68% - 154,996 votes

On Tuesday night as return after return came in and Marco Rubio failed to break through, many establishment Republicans grew angrier that John Kasich was still in the race. One of them was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has become increasingly frustrated with Kasich behind closed doors, three sources told BuzzFeed News. In the coming days, McConnell will be urged to more aggressively try behind the scenes to push Kasich out, sources say. One of McConnell’s closest allies, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, is still backing Kasich. McConnell has become frustrated with establishment Republicans’ inability to rally behind a...

There were no signs of a breakthrough as President Obama met Tuesday with Senate Republican leaders pledging to block anyone he nominates to the Supreme Court. Senate Majority Leader (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) both sat down with the president in the Oval Office. “They were adamant. They said ‘no, we’re not going to do this at all,’ ” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said after the meeting. “All we want them to do is to fulfill their constitutional duty, and at this stage, they are deciding not to do that,” he added. “They’re going to...