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Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC) said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday that fellow candidate Donald Trump has tapped into the "dark side" of the GOP. Graham was explaining how his rival has managed to dominate the Republican presidential race, polling as high as 35 percent depending on the survey. Graham said the support still represented a minority of the GOP. “Twenty-five percent of our party that probably thinks Obama was born in Kenya or wants to believe that. There’s 25 percent of our party wants him to be a Muslim because they hate him so much,"...

Attending Congressman Jeff Duncan's 5th. annual Faith and Values BBQ/fund raiser this evening.Scheduled speakers include: Dr. Ben Carson, Scott Walker, and my personal favourite; Sen. Ted Cruz. I more than likely will not receive any one-on-one time with these gentlemen but if given the chance to ask any or all of these a question, I respectfully ask my much more learned FReeper colleges what best and poignant question(s) to ask?

Both presidential nomination contests having been scrambled by recent events — the FBI taking control of Hillary Clinton's private email server and a raucous, roiling GOP debate — the third edition of the Racing Form is herewith rushed into print. Legal disclaimer: This column is for betting purposes only. What follows is analysis — scrubbed, as thoroughly as a Clinton server, of advocacy. (Unless I simply can't resist.) Hillary Clinton: Ever since her disastrous book-launch performance, I've thought her both (1) a weak candidate and (2) the inevitable Democratic nominee. No longer. She has fallen from her 95-percent barring-an-act-of-God perch....

Today, Sen. Ted Cruz announced the addition of a new Millennial Director to his South Carolina campaign efforts. “I understand the crucial role Millennials will play in the 2016 presidential election,” Cruz said in a statement. In 2008, Millennials voted for Obama by a ratio of 2 to 1 – the largest margin within any group since 1972. President Obama’s popularity among young people decreased in 2012, however, he still won the under-30 age group by 24 points over Mitt Romney (60 percent to Romney’s 36 percent). Recognizing Millennials could prove important for the GOP candidates in the upcoming election....

The Rick Perry campaign took another blow it absolutely did not need. Late Monday, National Journal reported that the former Texas governor's campaign has stopped paying its South Carolina staff. By Monday night, there were reports that all paid Perry staff had been taken off the payroll, and that the campaign's top brass gave staff the green light to apply for other jobs. "Pay is only one reason people do this," Katon Dawson, the governor's South Carolina state director, told the National Journal. He told The Washington Post that "money is extremely tight" and that everyone "moved to volunteer status,"...

ATLANTA -- Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) avoided the RedState Gathering this weekend. While Republican presidential rivals like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee faced down questions about Donald Trump in Atlanta, Paul was touring South Carolina, holding meet-and-greets and dropping into a "Pints for Liberty" happy hour. But in Goose Creek, S.C., Paul unloaded on Trump, recapitulating the arguments he'd made throughout Thursday night's presidential debate, saying conservatives were "kidding themselves" if they fell for Trump's brand of anti-establishment politics. "I can't imagine Donald Trump even knowing what a tea party is," Paul said, referring to...

As the 2016 presidential primary approaches, another candidate’s campaign is making a stop in York County. Heidi Cruz, wife of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, will be speaking at the Clover-Lake Wylie Republican Women on Monday, Aug. 17. Supporters of the Texas conservative can have coffee with the candidate’s wife at 11 a.m. the River Hills Marina Club at River Hills Plantation. The event is free and open to the public, both men and women. The senator’s spouse has a long public career of her own. Mrs. Cruz worked as a policy aide on George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, then...

CALLING ALL SOUTH CAROLINA FREEPERS: The "low-information" voters do NOT determine the winners of Primaries like they do General Elections. Lindsey Graham and the GOP Establishment will get "down and dirty" in the SC Primary. And, I know he won his Senate Primary in 2014, against some light-weights that no one had ever heard of, but, Graham, and the GOP Establishment, have never come up against men like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. All you SC FReepers need to get organized now. Help Trump and Cruz defeat Lindsey Graham in his home state. What a slap in the face that...

(AUDIO-AT-LINK)U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of many recent targets of fellow presidential hopeful Donald Trump, took the opportunity to swing back at Trump during an appearance on Boston Herald Radio’s “Morning Meeting” show. “I see (the GOP) getting killed if he is the nominee,” the South Carolina Republican said. “We are not going to elect a man president of the United States who has said the things he’s said about John McCain, who believes that most illegal immigrants are drug dealers and rapists, who has openly espoused the fact that he thinks the president of the United States was born...

If there's a small silver lining for the Republican Party in the bonanza of insanity that is Donald Trump's candidacy, it's this: He's single-handedly managed to make the rest of the GOP field look downright reasonable by comparison. There's less talk of a "clown car" primary when the main attraction is the ringmaster of his own circus. Each day, Trump seems to reach new heights of absurdity, offensiveness, and popularity among Republican poll respondents. On Tuesday, he called fellow candidate Lindsey Graham an "idiot" and handed out the South Carolina senator's cellphone number — a response to Graham referring to...

In a poll conducted from July 17th to July 20th, support for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump hasn’t taken a hit despite Trump’s comments about Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Saturday, July 18th, while attending the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa. A recent Morning Consult poll reveals Trump leads all of the GOP contenders, with 22 percent of the vote. This places Trump seven percentage points ahead of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who held 15 percent of the vote. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker came in third place with 12 percent of the vote. According to the poll, Dr. Ben...

Sen. Lindsey Graham thinks real-estate mogul Donald Trump is a “jackass” and his comments about Sen. John McCain were the beginning of the end of his candidacy. “He’s bringing his name down and he’s not helping the process and he shouldn’t be commander in chief,” Graham said. The South Carolina senator was speaking on CNN’s “Out Front” on Monday, responding to Trump’s Saturday comment that McCain was not an American hero because he was taken prisoner by North Vietnamese forces. “He’s not a war hero,” said Trump. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Bernie Sanders told veterans in Iowa Friday that unlike some other politicians, he doesn't pay lip service to their concerns. "It is very easy to raise the flag at a troop deployment, it is very easy for a politician to give a moving speech on Veterans Day," Sanders said. "But it is very hard to go down that long road with the men and women who served and make sure that they continue to get all the benefits, all the healthcare, that they are entitled to for the rest of their lives." The Vermont senator told...

Here's Rick Perry on Donald Trump: Rick Perry ✔ ‎@GovernorPerry .@realDonaldTrump-ism not conservatism but a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense https://t.co/C5aPaaA13p12:03 PM - 16 Jul 2015 The statement that Perry links to in that tweet goes on to savage Trump's "fundamental misunderstanding of border security" and note: "Mr. Trump has done nothing to prove that he is the president America needs.” Them's fighting words -- or at least that's what Perry and his team have to hope. The reality of the 2016 race for second-tier-and-below candidates like Perry is that Trump is soaking up lots and lots of the...

If you had to vote in your state primary/caucus today, knowing what you know now about the various declared and probable candidates, who would you vote for? Why? Who would you like to see as the running mate for your preferred candidate? If you could help staff your candidates cabinet and other top appointments, who would you choose? If you could recommend different congressional leaders than we have now, who would they be? And who would you like to see on the Supreme Court and why? And finally, feel free to donate to Free Republic.

Donald Trump “fired up the crazies” in his state when he held a rally in Phoenix last weekend, Arizona Sen. John McCain said in a recent interview. During that appearance (and others last weekend), Trump was joined by the father of Jamiel Shaw, who was killed by an undocumented immigrant. Trump has tapped into “some anger” in the state over the conditions at the border, McCain told The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza in an article published Thursday. “It’s very bad,” the Republican senator said. “This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful to me,” McCain said. “Because...

Joining a growing group of presidential candidates for president, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham called out Donald Trump for incendiary statements about immigrants and Mexicans he made and has repeated ever since his announcement for the GOP nomination in June. Graham called the real estate mogul and television personality a "wrecking ball" for the Republican Party, one who threatens its future with Hispanic voters. For that reason, Graham is calling on the party to push back....

Donald Trump’s statements on immigrants are going to kill the Republican Party, fellow candidate Lindsey Graham says. “Well, I think he said something that has brought people who are frustrated about our immigration system to light, but he also said it in a way that’s going to kill my party,” Graham said in an interview with CNN on Friday. “I would prefer that Donald Trump bring his economic genius and his talents to the table in a more constructive way,” he added, noting the billionaire’s charity efforts with military veterans and their families. Trump’s comments, Graham said, reinforce a narrative...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including whether presidential candidate Donald Trump is hurting the Republican party, the historic removal of the Confederate flag from South Carolina’s state house and whether Sen. Bernie Sanders’ momentum poses a viable challenge to Hillary Clinton.(AUDIO-AT-LINK) TRANSCRIPT JUDY WOODRUFF: And to the analysis of Brooks and Dionne. That’s New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. Mark Shields is away. Welcome to you both. E.J. DIONNE: Good to be with you. JUDY WOODRUFF: So, let’s...

Five reasons why Bush should pick Haley.The likes of Gov. Bobby Jindal, Dr. Ben Carson and Sen. Ted Cruz may seem like the face of diversity in the Republican Party; a Brown, Black and Latino all vying for a GOP nomination to run for president is a powerful enough symbol of the changing times in America. But in reality Jindal, Cruz and Carson are odd balls in the GOP, terribly out of sync with what America wants in an all-encompassing leader. They have already been ‘certified’ as ideologues who could lead the country on the dangerous path of divisiveness and...