Free Republic

BOMBSHELL! Newly Released Emails Reveal Obama Admin’s Reaction to Benghazi April 29, 2014 By Greg Campbell Emails obtained by Judicial Watch have revealed that the top priority after the Benghazi terrorist attack was not national security nor was it ensuring a proper investigation into who orchestrated an attack on our consulate that left four Americans dead. No, the priority of top advisors in the earliest days after the Benghazi attack was ensuring that President Obama “looked good” prior the 2012 election. As part of a Freedom of Information Lawsuit, the Obama Administration released nearly 100 pages of documents to Judicial...

If the GOP doesn’t put together a sensible immigration policy it will lose the 2016 presidential election. When President Obama beat Mitt Romney in 2012, with the former Massachusetts governor attracting only 27% of the Hispanic vote with his self-deportation argument, Republicans across the map decided they must develop an immigration-reform policy with an outreach approach to minority groups. According to the Republican National Committee, the days of harsh language and punitive legislation must end. In its place, the GOP must reconstruct the Ronald Reagan/Jack Kemp “big tent” theory of politics, where there is plenty of room for all groups...

Hillary Clinton is moving so quickly to the left that it’s hard to keep up. Her aides are telling the New York Times she wants to “topple” the One Percent, she’s pledging solidarity with union bosses over lunch meetings at Mario Batali restaurants in Midtown, she supports a constitutional amendment to suppress political speech, she’s down with a right to same-sex marriage, she’s ambivalent over the Keystone Pipeline and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, she’s calling for an end to the “era of mass incarceration,” she wants to go “further” than President Obama’s illegal executive amnesty. It’s called pandering, but the press...

Mitt Romney, who earlier this year decided against a third presidential bid after briefly flirting with a run, will jump back into the national political scene next month when he hosts GOP presidential hopefuls and some of the party’s biggest donors in Utah. Romney’s 2015 E2 Summit will take place June 11-13 in Deer Valley, a ski resort east of Salt Lake City, according to an invitation obtained Thursday by The Washington Post. Confirmed speakers from the likely 2016 Republican field include Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and...

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is holding what will amount to his fourth annual political summit, according to a report in The Washington Post. The summer affair is Romney’s fourth annual summit. The events began as a way for him to personally connect with the power brokers and financiers backing his political operation. The theme of this year’s gathering is the “strength and future of American leadership.” It appears Jeb Bush is opting out and, for whatever reason, GOP hopefuls Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) 93% and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 96% are not among those on the current attendee...

CNN reports that, while speaking to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Ted Cruz took a swipe at Mitt Romney’s infamous “47 percent” remark. Cruz reframed the conversation, taking the opportunity to connect the remark to the Hispanic vote: “The media repeatedly said the reason Mitt Romney got clobbered in the Hispanic community was because of immigration…the data don’t bear that out…” “What the polling data showed is actually Hispanic voters agree with Mitt Romney on a great many issues. Where he got clobbered was ‘cares about somebody like me.’ Where he got clobbered was the 47 percent–you...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus cautioned GOP faithful on Friday that they won't recapture the White House if the party gets too obsessed with choosing its nominee while Democrats continue to outpace Republicans on campaign tactics. "We have become a candidate-crazy party to the detriment of all the mechanics," Priebus told hundreds of GOP donors and activists at a South Carolina party dinner. Describing the 2012 nomination fight as a "total disaster" and a "traveling circus," Priebus said the Republican National Committee has learned its lesson....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Already creating distance from the last nominee of his party, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz took aim at Mitt Romney's infamous "47%" remark that created a firestorm of controversy during the 2012 campaign. Speaking about the Latino vote and the economy to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Texas senator bluntly critiqued on Wednesday Romney's personal assessment that as a candidate he didn't need to worry about that part of the vote because they were government-dependent and would reelect the president in 2012. "Where he got clobbered was 47%," he said. "I think Romney is a good man...

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is putting a lot of emphasis on Iowa in his presidential campaign, is continuing to notch endorsements from some well-known activists in the state. Former Secretary of State Matt Schultz told the Quad-City Times on Wednesday he is endorsing Cruz for president. "I’m looking for somebody who’s going to stand up and fight for our country, and he gives me hope we can turn things around," said Schultz, who is now the Madison County Attorney. "He's not going to back down from a fight." In a letter to two dozen members of the Cruz...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker executed an "Olympics-quality flip-flop" on immigration on Monday in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck, according to a former aide to the 2016 Republican presidential prospect. The ex-staffer, Liz Mair, commented on Twitter: Sad to see the full, Olympics-quality flip-flop by a former boss today. I guess some people think they can do what Romney did in 08 + win. ... Walker has said he previously supports opening a pathway to residency for immigrants who came here illegally - a position that resonates with the country's growing Hispanic electorate but has less support among...

Ted Cruz is raising money for his presidential campaign at a significantly faster rate than Mitt Romney did four years ago, eclipsing the early total raised by the former Massachusetts governor who went on to win the Republican nomination in 2012. The conservative Texas senator, who is seeking to unite the Republicans’ tea party wing behind his White House run, raised $4.3 million during the final days of March – his first full week after declaring as a candidate for president. Cruz proved particularly popular with small donors, raising more in his first week from contributors giving $200 or less...

Republicans are readying a familiar template: The out-of-touch plutocrat who lives in a world of private planes, chauffeured vehicles and million-dollar homes. Forget about the Arkansas days, the small-bore scandals, her health care plan, and most everything else from the 1990s. A consensus is forming within the Republican Party that the plan of attack against Hillary Clinton should be of a more recent vintage, rooted in her accumulation of wealth and designed to frame her as removed from the concerns of average Americans. With close to 20 announced and prospective GOP 2016 candidates, there’s no singular, unified messaging effort yet....

Yesterday Ed shared the news that the community of political experts was rather gobsmacked to find out that PACs associated with Texas Senator Ted Cruz had brought in a “record haul” in no time flat following his campaign announcement. While it would be lovely to pretend that money in politics doesn’t mean all that much and what really counts is grassroots support and a solid message, that’s simply not true. Does anyone really think Mitt Romney would have survived the 2012 fight without the mountains of cash behind him, both internally and through associated PACs? That’s a doubtful proposition at...

Emily Benavides, who served as national Hispanic press secretary for Mitt Romney’s campaign will lead Hispanic media for the eventual Jeb Bush campaign for president, BuzzFeed News has learned.

After all the upsets and buzzer-beaters, Mitt Romney remains in his element as a member of the March Madness 1 percent.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) DAVID WEBB, GUEST HOST: It is battle for the White House as anticipation builds and more Republican candidates throw their hat into the ring. Many are wondering how this presidential election will be different from the past years. But no matter which Republicans run, my next guest says liberals -- get that, liberals -- should not be able to moderate any of the primary debates. Come on, Ann Coulter, the author, columnist, and liberals, really, shouldn't be allowed to moderate? Shouldn't we go into the fire? ANN COULTER, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: I didn't know that's what we were talking...

The notable thing about Culture War 4.0 is its consistent rejection of tolerance in favor of government enforced morality. Remember your Muad’Dib: “When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.”  - Ben Domenech, The Federalist  Ed Driscoll succinctly summarizes the emergence of the new liberal fascism in his recent post, and provides an example: REID: I don’t regret that at all. The Koch brothers — no one would help me. They...

Have you seen it? The outgoing Senate minority leader Harry Reid, whose pitiful lie about being severely beaten in a vicious attack by an elastic exercise band continues largely unchallenged by our lugubrious mainstream media, said in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash that he had no regrets about another pitiful lie he told back in 2012. Asked whether he felt any regret for defaming then-Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012 by accusing him of tax evasion, in no less a venue than the floor of the U.S. Senate where he would be immune from suit, Reid’s answer was haughty...

These events from the first quarter could change the entire race.Ascertaining the magnitude of any political development can be a head-spinning task. A candidate surges in a poll? Bah. Horse-race numbers donÂ’t matter this early. A scandal erupts in Washington? Sigh. Real people in Dubuque, Iowa, arenÂ’t paying attention. Or they donÂ’t care. During the first three months of the year, there have been countless events in the preliminary stage of the 2016 race for the White House. Some gobble up a few hours of cable television news and then evaporate; others fester for days or weeks, propelled by unanswered...

Harry Reid, D-Nev. has no regrets about his 2012 claims that then presidential candidate Mitt Romney paid no taxes for 10 years. The outgoing Senate Minority Leader even bragged to CNN that the comments, which had been described as McCarthyism, helped keep Romney from winning the election. "They can call it whatever they want. Romney didn't win did he?" Reid said ... when Reid directly accused Romney of being a tax dodge, he did so from the safety of the Senate floor. Outside the protection of legislative immunity, Romney was only possibly a tax dodge. Not only does Reid not...