Free Republic

-snip- One "Amigo" is in the Bush camp -- and another is being courted. Sen. Lindsey Graham endorsed Jeb Bush this past week, calling him best-prepared among the Republican candidates to be commander in chief. Graham's own presidential campaign didn't get very far, but Bush is hoping his endorsement helps in the senator's home state of South Carolina. And now, the former Florida governor is trying to enlist Graham's help in winning another high profile endorsement: that of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. McCain, of course, was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, and traveled often with Graham and then-Sen. Joseph...

LITTLETON, N.H. — Former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) was in his element Saturday — giving hugs, posing for pictures and shaking hands beside an oversized picnic pavilion at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post here in Littleton. He was asking Granite Staters for their votes in the first-in-the-nation primary. But this time, not for himself. “Lindsey Graham, he’s my man!” McCain declared with a chuckle,...

Meghan McCain ‏@MeghanMcCain 21m21 minutes ago First day as a nationally syndicated radio host and an official @FoxNews contributor. Today was one for the books! 🇺🇸

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio says Donald Trump's comment that Sen. John McCain is not a war hero should disqualify him from the 2016 presidential race. "It's not just absurd, it's offensive. It's ridiculous. And I do think it's a disqualifier as commander-in-chief," Rubio said in an interview Sunday with CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union." The Florida senator was the latest Republican White House contender to hit Trump after the real estate mogul said Saturday that McCain "is not a war hero" because he was captured and held prisoner in Vietnam. "He is a war hero because he...

The Senate on Tuesday reaffirmed a ban against torturing detainees and moved ahead on a more than $600 billion defense policy bill that is entangled in a broader fight in Congress about caps on Pentagon and non-military spending. The Senate overwhelmingly voted 78 to 21 to approve an amendment that bolsters current law and makes the U.S. Army Field Manual on interrogations the standard for all interrogations conducted by the U.S. government. It also gives the International Committee of the Red Cross access to every detainee held by the U.S. The vote comes just months after the Senate intelligence committee...

The Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF) has launched an effort to defeat Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), bashing him for failing to uphold the principles of a “true conservative” just hours after he announced his intention to run for reelection. “There are few Republicans who have betrayed our conservative principles more than John McCain,” SCF President Ken Cuccinelli said in an email to supporters Tuesday of the party's 2008 nominee for president. “John McCain lost his way a long time ago and it's time to replace him with a strong conservative leader who will support and defend the Constitution.” Cuccinelli’s email links...

Syria has complained to the United Nations (UN) about several officials who, it claims, entered the country without visas in violation of its sovereignty. These include Republican Senator John McCain, former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and former U.S. diplomat Peter Galbraith, according to Reuters. Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the 15-member Security Council to pressure governments to take "the necessary measures against their nationals who enter Syrian territory illegally." "Such actions are a blatant violation of Syria's sovereignty and of the resolutions of the Security Council concerning Syria," Ja'afari wrote in a...

Sen. John McCain suggested Sunday that President Obama should nominate an Ebola czar to lead the nation’s response to the deadly virus. “From spending time here in Arizona, my constituents are not comforted. There has to be more reassurance given to them,” the Arizona Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham is thinking about running for president. Graham told The Weekly Standard in a lengthy interview that he isn’t crazy about other potential Republican candidates’ positions, and that he’s been encouraged by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to consider entering the race for the GOP presidential nomination. “I’ve strongly encouraged him to give it a look,” McCain told the Standard. “I think Lindsey has vast and deep experience on these issues that very few others have. I happen to like a lot of these guys—I like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie. Ted Cruz has gone out of...

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro claimed on Monday that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was behind the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, AFP reports. Castro’s claims were made in a column published in Cuban media in which he lashed out at the United States and Europe and accused them of war-mongering. He also compared the NATO military alliance’s representatives to the Nazi SS. Castro also attacked U.S. Senator John McCain over United States policy in the Middle East, calling him “Israel’s most unconditional ally.” He singled out McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, saying he had supported Israel’s Mossad intelligence...

The United States has expressed alarm over prison terms handed down against three Vietnamese democracy activists for obstructing traffic. Human rights groups have described the charges used to convict Bui Thi Minh Hang, Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh and Nguyen Van Minh to 3 years, 2 years and 2½ years respectively on Tuesday as “bogus.” …

U.S. Sen. John McCain said Friday in Vietnam that it’s time for the United States to ease the ban on selling lethal arms to the communist country, saying it has progressed on human rights. McCain told reporters in Hanoi that the easing should happen gradually, but he hoped it could begin as early as next month. “It should be limited at first to those defensive capabilities such as coast guard and maritime systems that are purely for external security,” he said.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that while the majority of people in his state approve of his support for comprehensive immigration reform which includes a pathway to citizenship, those who oppose it have dubbed him “Amnesty John.” “The 30 percent view [illegal immigration] as the compelling and only and most emotional issue to them,” McCain said. “They’re the ones who come to my town hall meetings and call me Amnesty John.” McCain was one of the “Gang of Eight” in the Senate to sponsor the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Bill, or S.744. The Senate passed the...

John McCain isn’t concerned with the legality of the prisoner swap designed to release Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from Afghanistan — but he opposes the deal all the same. McCain also said he supports the drive from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to hold a hearing on Bergdahl — but lamented that it might not accomplish much. “It’s worthy of a hearing,” McCain said. “But, it’s done.”

Obama waited too long to help the Syrian FSA against the monstrous Assad regime. When some sort of intervention was talked about: (bombing, indirect support, arms, etc) it was TOO late to help, and it would most likely have helped (either directly or indirectly) terroristic elements and possibly Al Qaeda elements which had taken the lead in Syria against Assad. NO WAY ON DOING THAT. PERIOD. And, once again, it is too late to help the Ukrainians against the thug Putin. (strike one against helping them). And as long as the Ukrainian gov't hasn't ran Svoboda and Right Sector and...

Former US presidential candidate Senator John McCain and Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner are among the nine Americans banned from Russia under sanctions imposed by Moscow. Russia announced sanctions against US officials in retaliation against US visa bans and asset freezes. White House Correspondent for CQ Roll Call Steven Dennis tweeted the full list of Americans who have been banned by Russia:

Sen. John McCain blasted the "timidity" of the Obama administration’s sanctions on Russian officials Monday, saying that the White House needs a "fundamental reassessment" of the relationship between the United States and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "This president’s response – I don’t know how it could have been weaker, besides doing nothing," McCain said during an appearance on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports. The Arizona Republican said that Putin is likely "encouraged by the absolute timidity" of the U.S. reaction to Russia's incursion into Crimea. "I don’t know when the president and his advisers are going to wake up to what...

President Obama promised Friday there would be “costs” if Russia moved troops into Ukraine, but he didn’t specify what those costs might be. Sen. John McCain has several suggestions for Obama, including the sanctioning of high-level Russian officials; restarting missile defense plans in Eastern Europe; and bringing Georgia, a former Soviet republic, into NATO. McCain said he plans to push from the Congressional side, he told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview Saturday evening. McCain wants the administration to expand its threat to pull out of the G8 Summit in Sochi scheduled for June. That limited move is unlikely...

ByMARSHALL COHEN February 24, 2014 John McCain: I Hope Jan Brewer Vetoes Gay Bill Arizona's two Republican senators have urged their governor to veto a controversial measure that gives businesses in the state the right to refuse service to gays based on religious beliefs. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake offered Gov. Jan Brewer, R-Ariz., some unsolicited advice on Twitter. McCain on Monday echoed a tweet posted Saturday by Flake that addressed the issue directly: "I hope Governor Brewer will veto #SB1062," the tweets read. Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled state House and Senate approved the legislation last week. Brewer, a...

A growing group of Ted Cruz’s Republican Senate colleagues are infuriated with his tactics. So frustrated was Arizona Senator John McCain with the latest, forcing fellow Republicans to take a politically risky vote on lifting the debt ceiling, that yesterday he tweeted a Wall Street Journal editorial accusing the Texas lawmaker of instigating “needless drama that helps to explain why Republicans remain a minority.” Yet there’s not much McCain, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell or other Republicans can do to change Cruz’s behavior. “In this day and age, there are no tools available to a leader to punish a member...