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From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party's most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump's candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt over the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

Federal authorities on Thursday arrested a New Hampshire man for his role in a standoff by Nevada ranchers opposed to federal control of public lands. Gerald DeLemus, of Rochester, was named in an indictment in Nevada as a “mid-level leader” and organizer of a conspiracy to recruit, organize, train and provide support to armed men and other followers of rancher Cliven Bundy. DeLemus, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and tea party activist, last year signed on as a member of presidential candidate Donald Trump’s New Hampshire veterans coalition. A July news release posted on Trump’s website listed DeLemus as a...

UPDATE: FBI agents took custody of Delemus on 9 charges including conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S., threatening, obstructionthe Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken custody of Jerry DeLemus, a New Hampshire Tea Party activist who previously made trips to Nevada to take part in the Bundy Ranch stand-off and the federal forestry building seizure in Oregon two months ago, according to reports. DeLemus faces nine federal charges including conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, threatening a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice, attempting to impede or injure a federal law enforcement officer and...

Hypocrisy is one of the most overused words in the English language. Most people think it refers to any failure to act in accordance with one’s expressed beliefs. But that’s simply inaccurate. Failure to live up to one’s beliefs is called being a human. Being a hypocrite is when a person behaves in ways that are inconsistent with his expressed beliefs because he doesn’t actually believe the things he is saying. At the core of true hypocrisy there usually lies one motive: Power. To put it another way, when people tell you things they don’t actually believe, they are usually...

Federal agents have arrested Jerry DeLemus, a local Tea Party leader who stood with Cliven Bundy's armed resistance at his ranch in Nevada in 2014, in connection with the standoff and alleged assault. DeLemus is facing nine federal charges based on an indictment brought in Nevada, including conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, threatening a federal law enforcement officer, assault on a federal officer, obstruction of justice, attempting to impede or injure a federal law enforcement officer, interference with interstate commerce by extortion, and several firearms charges, according to court records. At a court appearance Thursday afternoon...

One of the few interesting items in the New York Times' whitewash of Hillary and Obama's illegal Libyan war is the confirmation of weapons shipments. ... The story blames the problem on Qatar aiding Jihadists and Obama's unwillingness to defy the terror oil state. But the claim that we had to arm terrorists to fight Qatar's arming of terrorists doesn't hold up too well. Furthermore we already know that US forces were told to turn a blind eye to Qatar's weapons shipments. We could have blocked them instead. ... Qatar was backing the Muslim Brotherhood. Just like Hillary and Obama.

Watching the fight unfold between President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans over who should choose the next Supreme Court justice, Michael A. Bowden got angry at what he saw at the latest affront to the first black president. And then his thoughts turned from Washington to his own state. Obama won't be on the ballot this fall, but Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Pat Toomey will - and Bowden has made defeating him in November a priority. [...] Democrats are pressuring senators in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, Illinois and Wisconsin to back down from their refusal to confirm or even consider Obama's...

So here’s Rubio ditching Cruz’s approach and trying a new one-two punch: Trump is a con artist who exploits the little guy, whatever he may say on the stump, and also he’s a giant douche. Anti-Trumpers are in raptures on Twitter over this clip, watching Rubio take it to the bully with pure gleeful scorn, and I’m not immune to it. It’s pure catharsis after a month of setbacks, a surprise rout by an army that’s been in what feels like perpetual retreat. (It’s surprisingly funny in parts too. “How do you bankrupt a casino?” made me laugh.) And Rubio’s...

Chris Christie has crashed, John Kasich is ghettoized, Scott Walker self-destructed and nobody bought the idea of Jeb Bush, and now all the king's horses and all the king's men - and Fox News - are trying to shove Marco Rubio down the throats of the Republican electorate. But they’ll never make the sale.

7 reasons Mike Pence will be the GOP nominee in 2016 Updated by Matthew Yglesias on September 30, 2014, 8:30 a.m. ET @mattyglesiasmatt@vox.com Tweet Share on Twitter (191) Share Share on Facebook (1,129) +1 LinkedIn Share on LinkedIn (15) Email Email MikePence.com Don't miss stories. Follow Vox! Early polling tells you almost nothing about presidential nomination battles, since it ends up almost exclusively telling you about name recognition. Early media buzz is similar. People like to read stories about figures they've already heard of, and it's easier to write stories about politicians you've already covered.But you don't need to be a...

In his most extensive remarks yet on the 2016 presidential race, Mitt Romney on Tuesday said he shared the feeling of many Americans that Washington has failed them and urged national leaders to take on big problems, including issues that the GOP has rarely put at the fore during the past year, such as climate change, poverty, education and income inequality.

At first things didn't look so great for Marco - Donald Trump did beat him by 22 points in the state's caucus. But on Fox News Wednesday morning, Rubio revealed that drawing roughly half of Trump's support in Nevada was actually a come-from-behind win in the expectations game. "Last time, Mitt Romney got over 50 percent, so Donald Trump actually underperformed [what] Mitt Romney did, not once but twice in this state," Rubio explained to Fox & Friends, referring to the 2008 and 2012 primary races.

Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” conservative commentator Monica Crowley said the Republican Party establishment is rooting against both Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Donald Trump to win the nomination because if either wins the presidency, she said, “the establishment is done, it’s over.”

While Donald Trump won a sweeping victory in Nevada on Tuesday night - his third victory in a row - the biggest story out of the Silver State may actually be the record-breaking turnout Republicans saw at the evening's caucus gatherings. The Nevada Republican Party reported Wednesday morning that more than 75,000 voters participated in the contest. While that might not seem like a stunning number in a state with a population of somewhere around three million, that turnout absolutely demolished the participation record from 2012, when only about 33,000 Republican voters showed up to caucus. In fact, Donald Trump...

Marco Rubio emerged from a razor-thin second-place finish in South Carolina's presidential primary on Sunday with the Republican field narrowed and his target clear: Donald Trump. -snip-Trump is long on rhetoric but short on specifics, Rubio said on CBS's "Face the Nation," challenging the front-runner, who finished 10 points ahead in South Carolina, to provide them."If you're running to be president of the United States, you can't just tell people you're going to make America great again - I think you need to begin to explain exactly how you're going to do it, policy-wise," Rubio said, referring to the Trump...

Donald Trump is walking away with one more delegate in New Hampshire than media estimates predicted, at the expense of Marco Rubio. The New Hampshire secretary of State's office released the certified GOP delegate count Monday, showing Trump with 11 delegates to the national convention. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the second-place winner, received four delegates. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz won three, while Rubio, a Florida senator, won two. That's a slight difference from The Associated Press' estimation from primary night, which had 10 delegates for Trump and three for Rubio. Rubio finished with 10.6 percent,...

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for president, the senator's staff confirmed to the Washington Examiner. Hatch is one of the highest ranking Republicans in Congress, and he is third in the line of the succession to the U.S. presidency as president pro tempore of the United States Senate. The six-term senator had previously endorsed Jeb Bush and sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. Hatch's endorsement could be interpreted as a sign of the party's governing class rallying to Rubio.

Donald Trump is "far and away the front-runner," for the GOP presidential nomination and the establishment is "living in a fantasy land," by denying that big changes are happening, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday. "Trump is tapping into something in the country that's real," Gingrich told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "If you take Trump's vote and Cruz's vote and Carson's vote -- the three outsiders -- they are once again at about 62 percent in South Carolina, and they have been consistently above 60 percent everywhere in the country. If you pull together all of the...