Free Republic

David Daleiden is not a reporter. His grossly misleading, politically irresponsible videos purporting to implicate Planned Parenthood in illegal behavior make that clear. It's an insult to responsible journalism. The only question Attorney General Kamala Harris needs to answer for her investigators' raid of Daleiden's home Tuesday is: What took her so long?

In her Wednesday column for the New York Daily News, S.E. Cupp delivers a hard blow of realization to the conservative base waking up this morning in blissful denial after a Ted Cruz victory in Wisconsin over likely nominee Donald Trump. Despite the decisive win in the Badger State for the Texas Senator, writes Cupp, the prospect of a Trump nomination is no longer the stuff of fantasy; instead, a real, “…look at the numbers makes it more than likely that Trump will win the nomination outright — no contested convention, no last-minute saviors.” It is an idea that the...

No excerpt. This needs to be read in its entirety.

My former colleagues on the New York Daily News editorial board sat down with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on April 1 for an illuminating interview. The more I read the transcript, the more it became clear that the candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination doesn’t know much beyond his standard stump speech about breaking up the banks and how he had the good judgment to vote against the Iraq War in 2002. 1. Breaking up the banks 2. The legal implications of breaking up a financial institution 3. Prosecuting Wall Street executives for the financial collapse of 2008 4. Handling...

For Americans of nearly every race, gender, political persuasion and location, disdain for Donald Trump runs deep, saddling the Republican front-runner with unprecedented unpopularity as he tries to overcome recent campaign setbacks. Seven in 10 people, including close to half of Republican voters, have an unfavorable view of Trump, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. It's an opinion shared by majorities of men and women; young and old; conservatives, moderates and liberals; and whites, Hispanics and blacks — a devastatingly broad indictment of the billionaire businessman. Even in the South, a region where Trump has won GOP primaries decisively,...

MEXICO CITY — The rise of Donald Trump and the anti-immigrant wave he is riding in his presidential primary campaign have alarmed the Mexican government so much that it has reshuffled top diplomats and, according to officials, adopted a new strategy — to defend the image of Mexicans abroad. Trump has consistently targeted the United States’ southern neighbor, calling Mexican border-crossers “rapists” and criminals and threatening to cut off the money they send home to their families unless Mexico pays for a border wall. But for months, the Mexican government has opted to remain quiet, with a few high-profile exceptions,...

They tend to share some particular traits. At Knozen, the personality site that I founded, we ask millions of personality questions each month of our more than 1 million users. Given the grip the Trump phenomenon has exerted on the American attention span, we wanted to see the personality differences (and similarities) between those who said they were and were not likely to vote Trump. Digging into the specific answers of more than 4,000 users, we found five differences and some similarities between Trump supporters and non-supporters. The specific results are indicated in bold below and are based on responses...

So much of America's future is at stake in the 2016 presidential election. But let's focus for a moment on just one area--energy and the environment--where the Obama administration has made startling progress.... Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, arguably President Obama's best Cabinet appointment, has been leading a quiet revolution in clean-energy technology. Innovation is transforming this industry, costs are plummeting and entrepreneurs are devising radical new systems that create American jobs--in addition to protecting the planet.... Here's a suggestion for any fact-based, technology-respecting candidate in either party: Promise that, if elected, you'll try to persuade Moniz to remain in place.......

The Odds Rise of a Democratic Victory William A. Galston While all eyes have been turned toward the dramatic nominating contests in both political parties, the fundamentals that will shape the general-election contest have been shifting toward the Democrats. Candidates seeking to succeed a two-term incumbent of their own party face an uphill battle. All other things being equal, political scientists find, such candidates can expect to fall short of the incumbents’ re-election vote share by at least 4 percentage points. Applied to the 2012 results, this metric would yield a 47% share for this year’s Democratic nominee. On the...

Even Trump’s most trusted advisors didn’t expect him to fare this well ” the goal was to get The Donald to poll in double digits and come in second in delegate count. That was it. The Trump camp would have been satisfied to see him polling at 12% and taking second place to a candidate who might hold 50%. His candidacy was a protest candidacy. I don’t think even Trump thought he would get this far. And I don’t even know that he wanted to, which is perhaps the scariest prospect of all. He certainly was never prepared or equipped...

Donald Trump missed a chance early in the presidential race to make inroads with independent female voters, but now the damage is done and analysts say the Republican front-runner likely can’t make amends with women he repulsed by spewing insults and sexist remarks. Republican presidential candidates have suffered a gender gap for decades, but Mr. Trump turned the gap into an abyss, which polls show will doom him to a sweeping loss in a general election matchup against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. The real estate mogul fared worse than his two Republican rivals in theoretical matchups against Mrs. Clinton, largely...

As president, Donald Trump would sell off $16 trillion worth of U.S. government assets in order to fulfill his pledge to eliminate the national debt in eight years, senior adviser with the campaign Barry Bennett said. "The United States government owns more real estate than anybody else, more land than anybody else, more energy than anybody else," Bennett told Chris Jansing Sunday on MSNBC. "We can get rid of government buildings we're not using, we can extract the energy from government lands, we can do all kinds of things to extract value from the assets that we hold." In a...

Donald Trump said in an interview that economic conditions are so perilous that the country is headed for a “very massive recession” and that “it’s a terrible time right now” to invest in the stock market, embracing a distinctly gloomy view of the economy that counters mainstream economic forecasts. The New York billionaire dismissed concern that his comments — which are exceedingly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a major party front-runner — could potentially affect financial markets. Over the course of the discussion, the candidate made clear that he would govern in the same nontraditional way that he has campaigned,...

Fact Checker Trump’s Nonsensical Claim He Can Eliminate $19 Trillion In Debt In Eight Years Donald Trump, in an interview with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa In a revealing interview, Trump predicts a ‘massive recession’ but intends to eliminate the national debt in 8 years By Glenn Kessler April 2 The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa sat down with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Here's how the interview went. Donald Trump: “We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt.” Bob Woodward: “How long would that take?” Trump: “I think I could do it fairly quickly,...

On Friday's Wolf show on CNN, during a discussion of whether Republicans can stay united after a divisive presidential convention, CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson recalled complaints by some Republicans that Ted Cruz "might not even be that much better" than Donald Trump as a nominee. She and CNN's Gloria Borger were then amused over "Lose with Cruz" as a possible campaign slogan for the GOP after Henderson suggested Republicans would prefer to have Cruz lose the general election as the nominee rather than have Trump heading the ticket.

"I think we’re sitting on an economic bubble. A financial bubble... We’re not at 5 percent unemployment. We’re at a number that’s probably into the 20s if you look at the real number. That was a number that was devised, statistically devised to make politicians – and in particular presidents – look good. And I wouldn’t be getting the kind of massive crowds that I’m getting if the number was a real number." "I’m talking about a bubble where you go into a very massive recession. Hopefully not worse than that, but a very massive recession. Look, we have money...

Donald Trump said in an interview that economic conditions are so perilous that the country is headed for a “very massive recession” and that “it’s a terrible time right now” to invest in the stock market, embracing a distinctly gloomy view of the economy that counters mainstream economic forecasts. The New York billionaire dismissed concern that his comments — which are exceedingly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a major party front-runner — could potentially affect financial markets.

The new map, as you will see, does not show a close and competitive general election. The Republicans now find themselves in a deep hole. Yes, more than seven long months remain until the election, and all kinds of unexpected twists and turns can occur. Sure, we don’t know the shape of the economy or terrorism, or the precise job approval rating of President Obama in the autumn, or the gaffes and scandals that may yet unfold on our way to the ballot box. But goshdarnit, there’s finally a pause in the non-stop primary calendar, and we’re going to take...

Electoral Map Is a Reality Check to Donald Trump’s Bid By JONATHAN MARTIN and NATE COHN APRIL 2, 2016 Donald J. Trump is so negatively viewed, polls suggest, that he could turn otherwise safe Republican states into tight contests. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times Donald J. Trump’s presidential candidacy has stunned the Republican Party. But if he survives a late revolt by his rivals and other leaders to become the party’s standard-bearer in the general election, the electoral map now coming into view is positively forbidding. In recent head-to-head polls with one Democrat whom Mr. Trump may...

Outwardly, Donald J. Trump called it a “unity meeting” — a closed-door session in Washington on Thursday involving his own inner circle and the Republican National Committee’s high command. Inside, however, it was more of a clearing of the air, according to three people briefed in detail on the discussion. And the candid remarks included some by Mr. Trump directed at his own team. There was plenty of tension to defuse: For months, Mr. Trump has denounced the party’s major donors, and only this week he went back on a written pledge to support whoever becomes the Republican presidential nominee...