Free Republic

President Trump announced Sunday afternoon that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen "will be leaving her position" after 16 months in the job. Trump also announced that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan will replace Nielsen as acting secretary, tweeting: "I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!" ... Nielsen's departure is the latest staffing shakeup in the department, which was founded to combat terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. On Friday, Trump confirmed he had withdrawn the nomination of acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Ron Vitiello to become the permanent head...

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) posted "An Open Letter to Trump Supporters" on his official Facebook page that outlined exactly why he will not be supporting Donald Trump this November if he were to be the nominee. He urged conservatives to find a third option to support if Trump were to land the party's nomination.(Emphasis added) My current answer for who I would support in a hypothetical matchup between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton is: Neither of them. I sincerely hope we select one of the other GOP candidates, but if Donald Trump ends up as the GOP nominee, conservatives will...

Ted Cruz has made a deep cut into Donald Trump's advantage in South Carolina, according to a new poll released on Friday.The survey of likely Republican primary voters, conducted by Marist for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, suggests a sudden tightening GOP race only a day before Saturday's potentially pivotal contest — and after weeks when it seemed Trump would romp in the first-in-the-South primary.Story Continued BelowWhile Trump leads Cruz 28 percent to 23 percent, his edge is barely outside the margin of error, in stark contrast to polls released in recent days that showed him with a...

During Thursday’s CNN Townhall event, when pressed by moderator Anderson Cooper on the “benefits” of the ObamaCare mandate, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump said, “Well, I like the mandate.” He then went on to blast ObamaCare as a “disaster” and President Obama as a liar. Trump made clear that he is not for single payer healthcare and wants to allow private insurers to compete across state lines. Trump is, however, in favor of taking care “of those who cannot take care of themselves.” We do not want “people dying on the streets,” Trump said.

In an NBC/WSJ poll released today, Ted Cruz leads Donald Trump by two points nationally. Cruz has 28 percent to Trump’s 26 percent. Rubio is third with 17 percent, followed by Kasich at 11, Carson at 10, and Bush in last place at 4 percent. “The results from the poll -- conducted after Trump's victory in New Hampshire, as well as after Saturday's GOP debate in South Carolina -- are a significant reversal from last month, when Trump held a 13-point lead over Cruz, 33 percent to 20 percent.” Donald Trump has polled first in 31 consecutive national polls since...

Pro-Jeb Bush Super PAC Right to Rise has conducted an internal poll in SC that finds Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in an extremely tight race. The results list Trump at 26 percent, and Cruz at 24 percent, with Bush and Marco Rubio coming in a distant third and fourth with 12 and 11 percent respectively, according to a report by Politico. Right to Rise polling is now being conducted by South Carolina veteran political strategist Richard Quinn. In the Politico report Quinn states: "This is clearly a tight, volatile race that could produce most any result over the next...

Who's to blame for the rumor that Ben Carson was suspending his campaign after the Iowa caucus? Was it CNN which accurately reported that Ben Carson was returning to Florida after the caucus, wouldn't go to New Hampshire or South Carolina, would go to the Washington prayer breakfast, would be speaking at 9:15 regardless of the caucus results, and speculated that a serious Presidential candidate wouldn't act this way? Was it the CNN tweet: "After the #IAcaucus, @RealBenCarson plans to take a break from campaigning." Was it the Marco Rubio campaign that "was pushing the narrative hard" that Carson was...

Please listen to Donald Trump describe his New York Values to Tim Russert and explain how they may differ from Iowa values.