Free Republic

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he stands by his outspoken criticism of fellow candidate and reality show star Donald Trump because he is worried about the country succumbing to an obsession with celebrity over substance. "My fear ... is that there are countries that do succumb to celebrity... often in the developing world, celebrities and very wealthy people will win," said Paul during a 22-minute pre-taped interview posted on the web site of NBC's "Meet the Press." "I worry about the country because I don't believe that there's any sincerity to what [Trump's] message is." "And even...

Apparently, Utah Republicans are immune to the “Trumpmentum” sweeping through the national party. A new poll conducted by Dan Jones and Associates for UtahPolicy.com shows former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush with 22% support, followed by Scott Walker with 11%, Marco Rubio with 9% and Donald Trump a distant fourth place with 8% support. The poll was conducted from July 14-21, meaning it was well before the debate aired to record ratings on Fox News. Political Science Professor at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute, Tim Chambless, says the poll shows Utah Republicans are less skeptical of the idea of a...

Republican presidential candidates. who have had to seek contributions from a handful of wealthy contributors, want to cut Social Security. Average Americans love the program; the superwealthy don’t. Something strange is happening in the Republican primary — something strange, that is, besides the Trump phenomenon. For some reason, just about all the leading candidates other than The Donald have taken a deeply unpopular position, a known political loser, on a major domestic policy issue. And it’s interesting to ask why. The issue in question is the future of Social Security, which turned 80 last week. The retirement program is, of...

OREM — Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul had one word for the Donald Trump phenomenon that seems to be sweeping the country: "Insane." Asked if he thought Trump would eventually flame out, the freshman Kentucky senator said, "We can only hope so." Paul's comments came Saturday after a raucous rally at Alder Home Security that attracted about 600 Utahns who waved red and white towels and clamored for "President Paul." He only disappointed supporters when he declined to crowd surf after his speech saying, "Maybe next time." In Utah on the last day of a five-state western campaign swing, Paul...

Orem • Rand Paul brought his message of limited government and strict observance of the U.S. Constitution to Utah Saturday. A crowd of several hundred applauded his call to stand up for all 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights — not just the one protecting gun rights. "You can't support the Second Amendment unless you protect the Fourth," the GOP presidential candidate said, referring to the constitutional prohibition against unlawful search and seizure. That applause line was the Kentucky senator's segue into his intense opposition to blanket data-gathering on U.S. citizens — a key pillar of his long-shot campaign....

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – In the heart of a Nashville area populated with immigrant families, there is a prominent message for Donald Trump on the eve of his weekend presidential campaign visit to Music City. Under the sign for the Ozment Law offices at 1214 Murfreesboro Pike, the message reads “Donald Trump, make Nashville great again. Please leave soon.” It’s a play on the Trump campaign theme of “Make America Great Again!” The sign has already gotten 70 thousand views on Facebook according to Elliott Ozment, who owns the immigration law office bearing his name. He called it a “collaborative...

The US Senate should strip a "Buy American" clause from President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, the chamber's top Republican said Monday amid anger at the restriction from US allies. "I don't think we ought to use a measure that is supposed to be timely, temporary, and targeted to set off trade wars when the entire world is experiencing a downturn in the economy," said Senator Mitch McConnell.

What if former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been pulling the wool over our eyes for years? What if, while she was secretary of state, she ran two secret wars, one in Libya and one in Syria? What if there already were wars in each of those countries, so she used those wars as covers for her own? What if President Obama gave permission for her to do this? What if the president lacks the legal authority to authorize anyone to fight secret wars? What if she obtained the consent of a dozen members of Congress from both...

The Obama administration may have provided the weapons used by some Islamist extremists to kill four Americans at the United States’ compound in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, according to a Libyan source who told Breitbart News he witnessed the attack first hand. Breitbart News’s Tera Dahl spoke to the witness who was living near the U.S. compound in Benghazi when the attack took place. Libya’s al-Qaeda-linked militia group known as the February 17th Martyrs Brigade was reportedly hired by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s State Department to provide security at the Benghazi compound, but failed to so the whole...

Republican presidential front-runner said Thursday that his plans to improve the economy for black Americans is why he is leading in the polls with black voters, though at least one recent poll disputes Trump's claim. "I lead with almost every group. including with the African-American groups," Trump told reporters at an event in Greenville, South Carolina. "I have tremendous support." Quinnipiac University released a national poll Thursday showing that while Trump is leading the Republican Party nationally, he is polling poorly with black Americans in the general election. The poll found... When asked "If the election for President were being...

Have Republicans Grown Tired of Supporting the Rule of Law? by MONA CHAREN August 28, 2015 Among a very long list of harms inflicted upon the United States by Barack Obama and his party, perhaps the worst was Caesarism. Obama relished the worship of millions in 2008. From his star turn at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he was treated not as a political candidate but as a savior. Progressives fell into a swoon, typified by Newsweek editor Evan Thomas’s 2008 comment that “I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above — above the world, he’s sort...

<p>“I identify with some things as a Democrat…I was never a Bush fan. [When] the economy crashed so horribly under George Bush, because of mistakes they made having to do with banking and lots of other things, I don’t think the Democrats would have done that.”</p>

It is tempting to dismiss the latest anti-choice salvo from Ohio lawmakers, which would criminalize abortions based on a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome, as a blatantly unconstitutional ploy that would never be enforced. That would be a mistake. The bill stands a disturbingly good chance of approval this fall by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature A similar bill passed in North Dakota in 2013 bans abortions on the grounds of fetal genetic anomalies, including Down syndrome. The law has not yet been enforced — under existing Supreme Court precedent it is hard to see how it could be — but...

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul said Tuesday that government workers who were outed by hackers as members of AshleyMadison.com - a website created to facilitate extramarital affairs - should not face punishment. Before he could register that opinion, though, he had to figure out what the heck "Ashley Madison" is. "I keep seeing that headline, but I'm terrible - I don't know what it is," he confessed to a Washington Post reporter when he was asked about the hack of the risqué website, which exposed the contact information of millions of its users. The senator asked, "So, she has done...

Trump is “the best of the lot,” Duke says of GOP frontrunner GOP frontrunner Donald Trump can count on at least one die-hard fan: former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. Self described “racial realist,” Duke, praised Trump during a recent rant during his online radio show, calling the business mogul a “good salesman.” Duke, who ran unsuccessfully for president as a Democrat in 1988 and later served in the Louisiana House of Representatives, also said he liked Trump because of “the fact that he’s come out on the immigration issue,” adding, “he’s an entrepreneur and he has a...

So now Megyn Kelly is a RINO squish intent on doing the liberal media’s dirty work. (SNIP) That Trump has been trashing her for so long, and the best her coworkers and boss can do is tweet a few cowardly lines asking him to pwease, pwease stop, Mr. Trump, pwease, suggests that Fox’s audience has sided with Trump on this one and has lost a certain amount of faith in Megyn Kelly. What Trump’s campaign has done, then, is give other candidates an excuse to blow off questions from Megyn Kelly. Considere this exchange between Kelly and Ted Cruz last...

I've always liked Ted Cruz, he is the Republican who I agree with most on the issues.  He's free market, pro-life and for a measured foreign policy (less aggressive than Marco Rubio but more aggressive than Rand Paul).  Most importantly, he would stick to his ideals despite pressure from the establishment.  He may have made some tactical errors because of that but I couldn't help but admire him for his idealism.  He has been the candidate that I would have voted for if I didn't care at all about electability.  Unfortunately, his interview last night with Megyn Kelly unmasked him...

Glad to see conservatives bringing the message to Alaska! Republicans are lucky to have a great group of candidates to pick from – and one of them is bringing his bold message and plan to "Defeat the Washington Machine" right to Anchorage! So many of us in Alaska share a libertarian streak, and Rand is sure to talk about that! I was proud to support Dr. Rand Paul in his first election to the U.S. Senate and would be there to welcome him to Alaska, but I’m in San Diego guest hosting "On Point" for One America News this week....

I'm getting pretty tired of this line and I'd like to point out how ridiculous it actually is, by way of analogy. Ever been on the highway? Ever notice all those folks going over the speed limit? (I'm one of them, by the way.) Imagine if the govt broadcast "We can't possibly pull over millions of speeders every day!" and, to top it off, make good on not doing it. I believe you'd be seeing a lot more speeders on the road. Especially if they never see anyone getting pulled over for it. Since it is actually true that there...

The birther movement has come home to roost as the Republican presidential primary heats up. snip Ted Cruz snip Marco Rubio snip Bobby Jindal snip Rick Santorum In a column published last week on the conspiracy theory website WND, author Jack Cashill noted that questions had been raised about whether four of the 17 candidates in the GOP field were really "natural born citizens" and therefore eligible to run for President.