Free Republic

Watching John Kasich on Jake Tapper’s CNN show this morning reminded of just how much I can’t stand this vain, nasty piece of work. Kasich portrayed conservatives as anti-immigrant bigots. In contrast, Kasich painted moderates as “people who are objective, these are people who are rational, and these are people who seek the truth.” [snip] Kasich also painted himself as the savior of the Republican party, saying “I can bring [the GOP] back. That’s what I’m going to do.” Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

President Trump is privately rejecting the growing consensus among Republican leaders that they may lose the House and possibly the Senate in November, leaving party officials and the president’s advisers nervous that he does not grasp the gravity of the threat they face in the midterm elections. Congressional and party leaders and even some Trump aides are concerned that the president’s boundless self-assurance about politics will cause him to ignore or undermine their midterm strategy. In battleground states like Arizona, Florida and Nevada, Mr. Trump’s proclivity to be a loose cannon could endanger the Republican incumbents and challengers who are...

Click here to => watch 2 minute video

Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks suggested in a radio interview that Republicans are retiring en masse because of assassination fears. . . . . But Brooks said while there were multiple factors that contributed to a slew of Republicans leaving the House, he suggested fears of violence was a major one. “One of the things that’s concerning me is the assassination risk may become a factor,” he said. . . . . “Notice a trend here?” he said. “I have a congressman who is a friend here who has a three-year old daughter whose daughter was threatened with murder.” He also...

The pro-mass immigration GOP megadonor billionaire Koch brothers are threatening Republicans running midterm campaigns, saying they want to see an amnesty for millions of illegal aliens passed or they will “closely evaluate” their aiding and funding of certain candidates. The Koch brothers represent a number of organizations that purport to be conservative and libertarian-leaning, including Freedom Partners, the LIBRE Initiative, Americans for Prosperity, and Generation Opportunity. The billionaires’ businesses include Matador Cattle Company, Koch Pipeline, and Guardian Industries. In an interview with The Hill, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips said the pro-amnesty, pro-mass immigration Koch networks would “closely evaluate”...

On March 9, 2010, Democratic Party speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Pelosi's infamous words referred to the 2,300-page Affordable Care Act, now more commonly known as "Obamacare." Democratic leadership, anticipating voter backlash, rushed to cram their controversial health care bill through Congress before the 2010 midterm election. Democrats were in such a hurry to send the bill to President Barack Obama, they didn't have time to read it. Obama signed his "legacy bill" on March 23, 2010. Eight months later, Democrats paid...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress are moving forward with a plan to vote before the 2018 midterm elections on a bill to make permanent the temporary individual tax cuts in their recent tax overhaul. It is not yet clear, however, if the plan would pick up support from Democrats, whose votes would be needed to pass legislation in the Senate. The Republican tax law, approved in December without Democratic support, permanently cut the top corporate rate to 21 percent from 35 percent and created a permanent deduction for pass-through businesses. It created lower rates and new...

I'm just not understanding: is it possible that the President is going to be impeached?

CBS host Gayle King told outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) she felt "very excluded" when looking at a photo of Ryan, President Donald Trump and other top Republicans because they were all white men. Ryan, who announced Wednesday he would retire from Congress at the end of his current term, met Trump at the White House and posed for a "thumbs-up" photo with him, Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R., Texas), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R.,...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t break much news when he acknowledged that Republicans are facing the possibility of a major wave election threatening their congressional majorities. But his public statement was an unmistakable sign that he considers the GOP’s Senate majority, once seen as untouchable because of the historically favorable map, under serious threat as President Trump’s political troubles worsen. Leading GOP Senate strategists now worry that Democrats won’t necessarily need a perfect storm to net the two seats necessary to win back a majority—just enough lackluster GOP campaigns and a little bad luck along the way. And while...

Few Republicans in Washington are willing to go head-to-head with President Trump, but there is one band of GOP members willing to stand up to the leader of their own party: lawmakers who have announced their retirements. While it’s not uncommon for members to feel far more liberated on their way out the door, it has taken on a whole new meaning in the Trump era, where lawmakers are confronted daily by a never-ending stream of White House controversies.

Few Republicans in Washington are willing to go head-to-head with President Trump, but there is one band of GOP members willing to stand up to the leader of their own party: lawmakers who have announced their retirements. While it’s not uncommon for members to feel far more liberated on their way out the door, it has taken on a whole new meaning in the Trump era, where lawmakers are confronted daily by a never-ending stream of White House controversies. The GOP’s retirement caucus has provided some of the most biting commentary on the president in recent months, with Rep. Ryan...

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey aroused controversy after labeling a Medium article “great” that claimed there’s no “bipartisan way forward” in the United States and that the country is engaged in a “fundamental conflict between two worldviews that must be resolved in short order.” Dorsey shared the Medium article on his personal Twitter account Thursday night, with the accompanying acclaim that it was a “great read.” Author and media consultant Peter Leyden and political commentator Ruy Teixeira argued in the article titled “The Great Lesson of California in America’s New Civil War” that America is already in the midst of a second major...

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Thursday she shares incoming national security adviser John Bolton’s disdain for the world body and believes the two will work well together. Bolton, who was U.S. envoy to the United Nations for President George W. Bush, will become President Donald Trump’s national security adviser on Monday. He once said it would make no difference if 10 floors were knocked off the U.N. headquarters in New York. “I know John Bolton well. I have gotten advice from him, I have talked to him. I know his disdain for the U.N. I...

As of now, according to the Federal Elections Commission, the Democratic National Committee is in debt to the tune of $6,271,605.47. For the period between 2017-2018, total individual contributions to the DNC were $61,939,222.68, and its total cash on hand is $10,093,347.47. That is not good news for the party trying to rally momentum for a big “blue wave” this November.

...when receiving the “Freedom Award” from producer/writer Norman Lear’s collectivist “People for the American Way” organization, Parker and Stone must have sensed that the leftie group really didn’t understand “freedom” or their long-standing devotion to mixing satire with their love of liberty. So, in their inimitable in-your-face-yet-kind-hearted style, they asked conservative/libertarian talk show host Larry Elder to introduce them at the event! And when Parker and Stone accepted the award, they got to the stage, stood before the microphone, and in classic fashion, kindly informed the statists they were Republicans. As Elder explained on Twitter: “After they graciously accepted, they...

WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is a favorite target for Republican candidates and groups to tie to their opponents and paint them as out of touch, elitist, or excessively liberal — but her fundraising prowess still proves to be a massive benefit to Democrats. While Pelosi has remained adamant that she will stay on as leader and shrugged off the handful of Democratic candidates across the US who have distanced themselves from her, the possibility that she would step down to assume a purely fundraising role is a prospect that terrifies Republicans. Though Pelosi has been the subject...

Some days, the Republican Party seems on the verge of splitting up. Its congressional majorities couldn't produce a health care bill and passed an omnibus spending bill its president regretted signing. Prominent never-Trumpers call for the creation of a new political party. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who carried seven counties outside his home state in the 2016 Republican primaries, hints at a 2020 independent candidacy. In special elections, Republican candidates fail to win percentages above President Donald Trump's approval ratings, which nationally is at 42 percent. That makes Republicans fear and Democrats hope that Democrats will capture the House of...

Democrats' triumph in a House special election in Pennsylvania gives them hope for big gains in November's midterm elections. But the party still faces a tough path toward winning two other House special elections set for later this year. Democrat Conor Lamb scored a narrow of win in Pennsylvania's 18th District, which Republicans recently dominated. With fewer than 1,000 votes separating the candidates, Republican Rick Saccone conceded to Lamb on Wednesday, more than a week after the election. Ex-GOP Rep. Tim Murphy represented the area for more than a decade, and President Donald Trump carried it by about 20 percentage...

This week, Congress appropriated $1.3 trillion in spending to fund the federal government for the next six months. Despite threatening to veto the measure, President Trump signed it "for national security reasons." Minority Leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) claimed victory. "We got more out of this bill than we did when we had the majority and Obama was president," Pelosi boasted. "The GOP's inability to unite on a program they could all support meant that Republican leaders had to buy Democrats to get enough votes to pass the thing. And those votes didn't come cheap....