Free Republic

Despite the clear transcript and video evidence exonerating Trump for the hoax surrounding Charlottesville, millions of Americans still believe that the 45th President was an open, brazen racist.“Hard to Kill” is a Steven Seagal action thriller from 1990 that garnered scornful reviews, though I loved it as a then-teenager. But that phrase, hard to kill, also aptly describes the “Very Fine People” hoax surrounding Charlottesville and the lingering myth that President Trump praised bigots there.In recent days, liberal social media rabble-rouser actor Michael Rapaport stated on the Patrick Bet-David podcast that “the Charlottesville, that I ranted about, I was wrong…...

Steve Cortes joined the pro-DeSantis effort in May, but bailed out just months later. A spokesman for a super PAC supporting Ron DeSantis has left the official position, though he’s still backing the Florida Governor’s 2024 presidential bid. As first reported by Maggie Haberman, Never Back Down spokesman Steve Cortes has moved on from the political action committee, with which he linked up back in May. In an op-ed published by Newsweek, Cortes called DeSantis “the best possible option to win the presidency in 2024 and to govern as a highly capable, patriotic populist leader.” His most memorable moment may...

Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis has fired a number of his staff due to his struggling presidential campaign failing to meet fundraising goals, as well as burning through inordinate amounts of large, corporate donor cash less than two months after he announced that he was running for the Republican presidential nomination.The news came just days after National Pulse Editor-in-Chief predicted the “shake up” on The Campaign Trail podcast as well as on Twitter:[cut] Another major revelation is that just 15 percent of the DeSantis campaign’s donations came from “small-dollar donors,” compared to former president Donald Trump, who is heavily reliant...

Despite numerous pontifications to the contrary, it was always going to go this way. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the idiot professional political consultants, those enlisted by the Sea Island billionaires to try and drag the $100 bill on a fishing string through the MAGA hood, were only going to fool the first few blocks of voters; after that, people wised up. The problems are too numerous to encapsulate; however, for the sake of brevity they can be argued into three main buckets: (1) Fakery, the entire dishonest operation from the outset (triggered visibly in ’21, originating back in ’18)...

Steve Cortes, a former Trump surrogate who now is the spokesman for DeSantis' Never Back Down PAC, participated in a Twitter Spaces discussion Sunday night with the anonymous Twitter user CryptoLawyerz. 'Right now in national polling we are way behind, I'll be the first to admit that,' Cortes said. 'I believe in being blunt and honest. It's an uphill battle but clearly Donald Trump is the runaway frontrunner.' 'In the first four states which matter tremendously, polls are a lot tighter, we are still clearly down,' he said. 'We're down double digits, we have work to do.' While Cortes became...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis arrived in South Carolina on Friday on the third leg of an early-state swing after receiving news that his disastrous campaign launch saw him lose ground to frontrunner Donald Trump. A new poll shows the former president increased his lead over DeSantis by eight points since early May. The data will be a blow to DeSantis, who last week used an online interview with Twitter owner Elon Musk to enter the race. But glitches on Twitter Spaces meant the event was late starting and listeners were repeatedly kicked out of the feed. A Yahoo News/YouGov of...

Former President Donald Trump increased his lead over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to 28-points after the Florida governor officially launched his presidential campaign, a Yahoo News/YouGov found.###As Yahoo News reported:Among potential Republican primary voters — registered voters who identify as Republicans or GOP-leaning independents — Trump now leads the full field of seven declared candidates with 53%. That’s up from 48% in early May, before DeSantis threw his hat in the ring. And DeSantis now lags further behind than he did just a few weeks ago; his 25% is down from 28% in early May.Put another way, DeSantis trailed Trump...

Governor Ron DeSantis’s “Never Back Down PAC” spokesman Steve Cortes has split with the newly minted presidential candidate over the McCarthy-Biden debt deal looming over Congress.DeSantis tweeted on Sunday: “Our country is careening toward bankruptcy, and after this debt ceiling ‘deal’ it will still be careening toward bankruptcy. The deal green lights $4 trillion in new debt over the next year and a half, locks in inflated levels of spending from COVID, and keeps 98% of the Biden IRS expansion.”His view is widely shared, including by this website. But his “National Spokesman” Steve Cortes disagrees, in a strange moment of...

The SuperPac supporting Ron DeSantis called Never Back Down, has taken hundreds of millions of dollars from the Wall Street, billionaire, Sea Island, multinational corporation and hedge fund donors. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is injecting another $85 million from his leadership pac in Florida. All told it is the largest single assembly of political cash in the history of presidential campaigning, estimated value well north of $500 million.With all of that in mind, this is the best the communications team can come up with:Now, please do not misconstrue what I am saying. I am not saying these people are just...

CNN and the fake news legacy media were not the only losers last night. President Trump agreed to appear at a CNN town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday night that turned into a lopsided debate win over CNN host Kaitlan Collins. Trump gave Kaitlan a thorough thrashing. But CNN was not the only loser last night. The DeSantis team posted comments following the debate where they revealed their support for the Democrats and administrative state. The DeSantis team came out in support of” ** politically motivated prosecutions ** FBI-DOJ interference in elections ** lawfare by the FBI, DOJ, CIA,...

Do not let these transparently corrupt political grifters like Republican strategist Steve Cortes raise your blood pressure; instead, mock them mercilessly wherever and whenever you see them.Former Trump ally Steve Cortes announced today he has taken a job with the Never Back Down PAC that supports Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. As a result, he is reversing all his prior points of advocacy to endorse Ron DeSantis for 2024.[Pictured left, Cortes with fellow grifting scumbags John Cardillo and Matthew Tyrmand (the architect of the Project Veritas attack on O’Keefe) as they attend a pro-Desantis effort earlier this year.]The shallow character of...

VIDEOSteve Cortes went Judas Iscariot and endorsed Ron DeSantis for President. However, most of us know poor Steve's sad, inevitable fate. It will be much like what happened to Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV in 1077 A.D. after he was excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII and was forced to humbly appear at the gates of Canossa Castle to beg forgiveness of the Pope on his knees barefoot for three days and three nights clad only in wretched woolen garments. We can expect something similar to happen next year in 2024 when Judas Iscariot Cortes will be forced to arrive at...

. . .The elephant in the room is that McCarthy is more of the same. Whether it’s Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, or other establishment Speaker, they’re all reading from the same playbook. They talk up conservatism but lead from the left, cater to the establishment. This fake conservatism is something the Founders warned against. “Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism”. George Washington That’s McCarthy all right. But hold on. Some of our conservative heroes/heroines support Kevin. Shouldn't we trust their judgement? Not this time. Steve Cortes, (who I adore), is acting like an abused wife or in this case...

Vance went right for the political jugular with a brutal statistical smackdown of Ryan on the economy, which remains by far the most salient of this election for voters in Ohio, and indeed nationwide. Vance indicted Ryan’s long tenure in politics by pointing out that “Tim Ryan represents a congressional district that has lost 50,000 jobs just in his time in office.” On the issue of the economy, Vance also skillfully forced Ryan to own the harsh financial crisis created by Joe Biden for Americans who suffer from both a Biden recession as well as historic Biden-induced levels of inflation....

A Republican has won a mayoral race in a South Texas Hispanic Democratic bastion, sparking celebration from the GOP nationwide and alarm from some Democrats. Why it matters: Javier Villalobos' victory Saturday in Mexican American-majority McAllen, Texas, comes as some Latino Democrats say their party has been ignoring Mexican Americans in Texas, New Mexico and California as the Republican Party makes dents in areas once solidly blue. Villalobos, an attorney and former chair of the Hidalgo County GOP, beat Veronica Whitacre by about 200 votes in a nonpartisan race where Democrats have dominated for years. His victory drew praise from...

As the two fringe cable TV outlets battle for former President Donald Trump’s affections, several high-profile One America News staffers have jumped ship to Newsmax—not just in pursuit of a larger audience, insiders said, but also as a respite from OAN’s increasing extremism. Already known for its cartoonishly bonkers MAGA propagandizing, OAN in recent months has veered even further into unhinged right-wing territory. And Newsmax—which is often just as obsequiously pro-Trump in its commentary—has pulled back on its wildest election conspiracy theories while hoovering up some of OAN’s top on-air talent: news anchor Alex Salvi, correspondent Jenn Pellegrino, and reporter...

Brand new returns in Arizona validate our prior projections about the “Desert Storm” comeback of Pres Trump to win the state. Don’t believe the skeptics, ignore biased Fox News & AP — stay the course, patriots!https://t.co/0ZQd1DTmG3pic.twitter.com/wIFUSt4XKW— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) November 6, 2020

@MAGAGwen . @CortesSteve calls out Chris Wallace: “He [President Trump] had to debate not just Joe Biden, but you as well. You were not a neutral moderator!” So glad someone called this jerk out!

CNN commentator Steve Cortes met with President Donald Trump Friday after CNN benched him for dispelling the “Charlottesville hoax” that the president once called Neo-Nazis “very fine people.” Cortes was seen leaving the White House Friday afternoon, and a source familiar with the situation reported that President Trump met with the CNN contributor in solidarity. A source said that CNN benched him and prevented him from appearing on CNN for disputing the mainstream media “very fine people hoax.” The mainstream media– as well as former Vice President Joe Biden — have continued to insist that Trump referred to Neo-Nazis as...

Two more conservative commentators at CNN appear to have joined the growing club of suppressed conservative pundits, according to a report in Friday's Hollywood Reporter.  The ones who were muzzled, this time by sidelining, are Steve Cortes and Ben Ferguson. And the reason for the sidelining appears to have been due to pressure from the left. Liberals can't stand a serious opposing view. They can only stomach never-Trump Republicans that sound like Democrats, like Max Boot. See Stephen Colbert complaining to Anderson Cooper about Ken Cuccinelli's spots on CNN. "There are a few panelists that I've got to skip over," he...