Free Republic

Phil Murphy, the Democratic front-runner in the 2017 race to replace Gov. Chris Christie, picked up the endorsements of New Jersey's Democratic U.S. Senators on Monday and vowed to disobey orders from a President Donald Trump that would violate the constitution or are "un-American." Murphy appeared at his campaign headquarters in downtown Newark to tout the endorsements of U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez. "I will not take orders from an Administration that are unconstitutional or un-American," Murphy vowed.

Marco Rubio's lead over Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy in Florida's Senate race has collapsed in the last two months, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday.

Donald Trump's national political director, Jim Murphy, said Thursday he is stepping back from the Republican nominee's campaign. "I have not resigned but for personal reasons have had to take a step back from the campaign," Murphy said, as first reported by Politico. Murphy was brought on to the campaign in June and is a close friend of Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The Senate Democrats’ campaign arm is pulling the remaining money for TV advertising out of the Florida Senate race with three weeks until Election Day. This week, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) canceled its remaining ad reservations in support of Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.), a DSCC official confirmed. The move was first reported by the Miami Herald. Earlier this year, the DSCC reserved $10 million to help Murphy, who faces an uphill battle against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). The committee has previously shifted money out of the state to invest more heavily in late-breaking Senate races, such as in...

"Hey @realDonaldTrump, if you keep suggesting your supporters kill @HillaryClinton, someone will listen. The blood will be on your hands," Murphy tweeted Saturday morning. Trump said Friday night at a campaign rally that Clinton’s Secret Service detail should have their guns taken away to "see what happens to her." "I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons," he said. "Take their guns away. She doesn’t want guns … let's see what happens to her. Take their guns away, OK? It'd be very dangerous." Democrats have reacted angrily to Trump’s comment, calling it an incitement of violence.

Marco Rubio is running far ahead with total primary votes cast (2%) in Senate Primary. Rubio is now the GOP Senate nominee in Florida!!! He is amassing huge vote count ahead of his possible Democrat opponent Democrat, Pat Murphy. The Trump effect is helping Rubio come up with a landslide win over alll candidates Democrat, Republican, or otherwise!!! Florida will go to Trump, big time!!!

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) says Donald Trump's controversial line about "Second Amendment people" qualifies as an assassination threat against Hillary Clinton. [Snip] Murphy was addressing a remark Trump made earlier Tuesday about what kind of Supreme Court justices Clinton would appoint as president. "Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment," he said. "By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know," Trump added. Other Democrats joined Murphy in condemning Trump's remarks.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) says in a new interview that it's important for top Democrats to have the right opinions on gun control. "This has become a litmus test issue for leadership in the Democratic Party," he told Politico's Glenn Thrush. "I mean, if you want to be a leader in the Democratic Party, I think this presidential election has proven that you have to be right on the issue of guns."

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, one of those who believe that we are just one sensible gun restriction and loophole closing away from the lion not considering the lamb dinner, thinks Orlando was the fault of those wascally Wepublicans he says want to sell guns to bad guys like the Islamic State. As the Washington Post reports: The leader of last week’s 15-hour Senate filibuster to force action on guns said Monday that Democrats need to make gun control an “integral” part of their national security policy as they try to build a political movement to rival the National Rifle Association.

DEVELOPING: The first two votes in a series of four dueling gun control measures in the Senate were defeated Monday evening in the first proposed legislation in the wake of the Orlando terror attack.

Could U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy's rapid political ascent land him on a presidential ticket in November? A report in USA Today Monday listed Murphy as among those who would be interested in the vice presidential spot alongside former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. A Murphy spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. "Some progressives would also offset a weakness of Clinton — who will be 69 by Election Day — that she can’t compensate for with her résumé: her age. Murphy is 42," reads the story by Heidi M Przybyla, the paper's senior...

One Bush bundler told CNN's Dana Bash that when it came to Murphy, "strong knives are out." "He made minimum of $14 million," the bundler said, requesting anonymity to speak freely about campaign strategy. The details of Murphy's compensation package at Right to Rise are not publicly known.

This is just the bloodletting the Republican Party needs Democrats have spent years raging about the rise of super PACs and the millionaires and billionaires who fund them. Maybe they should start laughing instead, because the largest super PAC in history may come to be best known for taking down the Republican candidate who may have had the best chance to win in 2016. On Thursday, we learned that 35 percent of the money spent so far by the super PAC supporting Jeb Bush has been used to target the candidacy of his fellow Floridian, Marco Rubio. According to Jeremy...

A senator who spent New Year's Eve tweeting every shooting that had multiple victims in 2015 is at the White House today to help President Obama craft his gun-control executive order. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) -- who tweeted as the San Bernardino terrorist attack unfolded, "Your 'thoughts' should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your 'prayers' should be for forgiveness if you do nothing - again" -- told MSNBC today that he didn't know what Obama had planned, but he's sure it will be legal. "My belief is that he is well within his powers, the executive,...

Everybody’s calling him a hero. I say zero. Note to Daniel Murphy: don’t hate me because I want to get to first base with Matt Harvey. So while the entire city has come down with a raging case of Mets fever, I’m just raging. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to catch this bug whole-hog and jump on the big blue-and-orange bandwagon. This baseball stuff — especially the Mets’ playoff run — is great immersive theater. Fans wearing wacky wigs inspired by Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, the Samson-tressed pitchers? Yes, please. Grown men and women in team jerseys and...

Same youtube link here

If Marco Rubio fulfills expectations and announces Monday that he is running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and not re-election to the Senate, Florida's chief financial officer and a Democratic congressman will become the leading candidates to replace him. Republican CFO Jeff Atwater would be the immediate favorite to replace Rubio after dominant wins in two statewide campaigns. Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy is not nearly as well-known. But he is seen as a moderate who can win crossover votes after defeating incumbent Republican Rep. Allen West in 2012 despite West's massive fundraising and national tea party support. The...

The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, has allowed the President to conduct counterterrorism operations overseas. Long derided as overbroad (yet still used by President Obama to justify questionable foreign decisions) by opponents, two Democrats now want to repeal it. As the Associated Press reported: Sens. Ben Cardin of Maryland and Chris Murphy of Connecticut say Congress never intended to authorize a perpetual war when it passed the legislation more than a decade ago. They introduced a bill Friday and said the president and Congress should...

The Talk Shows October 19th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health; Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman; Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., head of the Democratic National Committee; Tim Murphy, R-Pa.; and Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Fauci; Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Fauci; Richard Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association; Dr. Robert...

If there is one nightmare common to all U.S. senators, it’s the possibility of an unexpected upset by an underdog challenger come Election Day. Not only do they lose their seat, but the shock of defeat becomes one of the most notable parts of their biography. This November, no one wants to be the Senate’s Eric Cantor. For my money, one of the most jaw-dropping Senate results in modern history occurred exactly 50 years ago. It’s barely remembered even by the political community, but it shouldn’t be forgotten. This old race teaches enduring lessons about politics, and in 2014 we’ll...