Free Republic

Jeb Bush, who unsuccessfully ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, told CNBC on Thursday he feels like a "fish out of water" in the current state of divisiveness in America. Asked if he'd ever consider running for president again, the 66-year-old former Florida governor said: "I don't know. I love policy. I love my country. But this political environment right now, I'm not suited for. To be honest with you. I'm a fish out of water. I can't imagine having to attack someone to make yourself look strong." In the "Squawk Box" interview, Bush said he did not...

President Donald Trump told supporters Thursday that if he is impeached "it's your fault 'cause you didn't go out to vote." "You didn't go out to vote -- that's the only way it could happen," Trump said during a rally in Billings, Montana. "I'll be the only President in history they'll say: 'What a job he's done! By the way, we're impeaching him,' " Trump said. "This election, you aren't just voting for a candidate, you are voting for which party controls Congress," the President said. "Very important thing. Very important thing." The rally in Montana -- where Trump was...

Nancy Pelosi stopped caring about what people think of her a long time ago, so she has no qualms about eating ice cream for breakfast with a stranger. Dark chocolate, two scoops, waffle cone. It’s a freezing January morning in Baltimore’s Little Italy, where Pelosi grew up in the 1950s. “You know what’s good about ice cream in this weather?” she says. “It doesn’t melt down your arm while you’re eating it.” We are sitting in an Italian café on Albemarle Street, alone save for the staff and Pelosi’s security detail, to whom she has offered coffee. The Trump era...

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant joined 15 other Republican leaders across the country in signing a brief that asks the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not protect transgender people and that employers have the right to fire them for their gender identity. #The amicus brief comes after lawyers from the Alliance Defending Freedom asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the ruling, the court decided a Michigan employer—a devout Christian—violated an employee's Title VII protections by firing her after she disclosed...

Three-in-10 Americans say they believe that President Donald Trump did something illegal regarding Russian involvement with his presidential campaign and 31% say he did something illegal regarding payments to two women to keep them from publicizing their alleged affairs before the 2016 election according to a new poll out by Gallup. A quarter of people say President Trump did something unethical when it comes to Russian meddling in the election. While those who believe he has done something illegal increased since August 2017 (up four percentage points), those who say he's done something unethical has gone down by 10 percentage...

Ever since Donald Trump's improbable political rise, many have attributed his appeal among the white, male voter base to economic anxiety. Faced with unemployment and wage stagnation, these voters elected a president who promised to fight for jobs. A study published on Wednesday in the Journal of General Internal Medicine offers an additional explanation: declining health and rising death rates in rural Republican bastions helped tilt the presidential election toward Trump. "Changes in life expectancy were an independent factor in voting choices. Reduced health prospects are an important marker of dissatisfaction, discouragement, hopelessness, and fear — sentiments that may have...

The long-shot path to killing Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination runs through the heart of the American health care system — and right into the November midterm elections. Senate Democrats prepping for this week’s marathon confirmation hearings are zeroing in on the health care views of the man who could pull the nation’s high court to the right for a generation — and determine the fate of abortion rights, the social safety net and Obamacare itself, possibly within months. Their goal: to box Kavanaugh into committing to preserve those health care pillars. Or, failing that, to get the 53-year-old appellate...

• Former Secretary of State John Kerry said on 'Face the Nation' that 2020 talk is 'a total distraction and waste of time' and he's 'not really thinking about it' • But he also didn't rule out a bid for the Democratic nomination • Also said that Trump is 'dishonest' and 'doesn't know what he's talking about' • He praised the sitting president for acting in Syria, though, and said Obama should have enforced his own 'red line' warning to Bashar al-Assad • Finally responded to Trump's slap at him for refusing the 'walk away' from the Iran nuclear pact...

Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup. Poll of the week A new Texas Senate poll came out this week showing Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke within 1 point of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. It gave new life to a familiar question: Could Texas finally flip blue? Normally, this would be the point where we lecture everyone about the dangers of putting too much stock in one poll. But this poll wasn’t even much of an outlier — it came on the heels of a few others that also show O’Rourke within a few points of Cruz. That’s an awfully close...

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton just can’t help herself from seeking the spotlight. The 2016 candidate, who was defeated by President Donald Trump, is a bitter and angry person. She still can’t get over the fact that Trump is our president and she is not. It started with her book, titled “What Happened.” What happened, Mrs. Clinton, is you were a weak candidate, ran a horrible campaign and you were defeated. There was also the matter of mishandling of classified material on a rinky-dink server. The Clintons never take responsibility for anything. Never have, never will. Mrs. Clinton blamed...

Link only due to copyright issues: https://www.pnj.com/story/news/2018/09/02/robert-muellers-wins-havent-shaken-donald-trump-voters-guestview/1158759002/

The always-on Trump campaign tested its new slogan Thursday night at another one of its loopy rallies. The mostly filled Ford Center in Evansville, Ind., seemed pleased. President Trump asked: “You ever hear this before: ‘Make America Great Again’?” They had. “You know our new slogan that we will be switching to because we are ahead of schedule to make America great again? It’s called ‘Keep America Great!’” The fair-skinned figures in candy-colored T-shirts and dark sports coats — the gung-ho crowd unfailingly known as Trump’s “base” — cheered again. Oh, the inanity. “Ahead of schedule?” Sure, bud. No wall...

At his rally on Thursday night in Indiana, President Donald Trump unleashed his usual attacks on the news media, but he also added a refrain that should set off loud, clanging alarm bells. Trump didn't simply castigate "fake news"; he also suggested the media is allied with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe - an alliance, he claimed, that is conspiring not just against Trump but also against his supporters. "Today's Democrat Party is held hostage by left-wing haters, angry mobs, deep state radicals, establishment cronies, and their fake news allies," Trump railed. "Our biggest obstacle and their greatest ally actually...

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — The White House Correspondents' Association says a volunteer member of President Donald Trump's advance team who blocked a photojournalist's camera as he tried to take a photo of a protester during a campaign rally in Indiana has been taken off the road. Olivier Knox, the association's president, says Trump's campaign told him the actions were those of an "inexperienced volunteer, who understands that he acted in error." Knox says the campaign "promises that this will not happen again."(continued)

Former VP rejects tribal politics. The president embraces it ANALYSIS | Two very different speeches by two very different politicians Thursday — made 1,600 miles apart — provide a possible preview of the next presidential campaign. Former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, went first by feting his longtime friend Sen. John McCain at a memorial service for the late Arizona Republican in Phoenix. Biden spoke about “values, fairness, honesty, dignity, respect,” and McCain’s belief in “giving hate no safe harbor.” Biden spent much of his eulogy lauding McCain’s willingness to work with Democrats and lamenting...

A shout-out from President Trump has given a boost to a long-shot hopeful in the New York Senate race. Republican Chele Farley has a decidedly uphill battle in her race against Democrat incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand. Polls conducted earlier this summer have Gillibrand, running for her second full term in the Senate, ahead of Farley by an average of 29 points. So Farley was pleased when Trump called out her name at a Utica fundraiser earlier this month. "I want to thank Shell Farley," Trump said. "Good luck.” “It was unexpected," Farley said. "But I was very happy that he talked...

A man in a Trump shirt went into the crowd of protestors and punched a man in the face, in plain sight of police officers. The man wearing the Trump shirt was arrested and has been taken from the scene. The other man has also been taken away in handcuffs. Tensions have been building outside the rally as anti-Trump protesters clash with the President’s loyal support base. Inside the rally, at the Ford Centre in Evansville Indiana, another protestor was ejected minutes after Trump started speaking. After Trump noticed the incident he said “Where the hell did you come from?”...

Editor’s note: There are many reasons why I enjoy, and appreciate, the thoughts and commentary from Mr. Bill O’Shaughnessy, chairman of Whitney Radio and WVOX 1460 AM radio. First, he is one of the lone survivors of bi-partisanship, and of telling it like it is regardless of political party. “Mr. O,” as we like to call him, is a supporter of both President Donald Trump and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He endorsed former County Executive Rob Astorino over New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson is 2013, and then endorsed George Latimer over Astorino in 2017. Mr. O is also unafraid to come...

An Illinois candidate for congress is facing backlash after comparing President Donald Trump to al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden in a recording that was posted to an online news outlet. Sean Casten, who is running for Illinois’ 6th Congressional District, made the comments during the primary in February. The audio was posted on the Washington Free Beacon’s website on Thursday. In the audio clip, Casten can be heard saying, “I don’t mean to sound overly hyperbolic in this. Trump and Osama bin Laden have a tremendous amount in common because they both figured out how to use the bully pulpit...

A new Harris Poll released this morning of more than 1,000 blue-collar Americans undermines the conventional wisdom that such workers are unsatisfied with their job and their future in their fields. A majority of the workers said they would recommend their jobs to friends and family members as something that has value and virtue in their lives and in their communities. The survey also shows 70 percent of blue-collar workers maintain a deep distrust of elected officials. The pattern: positivity for their lives and livelihoods and negativity toward national politics. The poll was commissioned by Express Employment, an Oklahoma City...