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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has hired former Trump campaign press aide Erin Perrine as his new communications director. Perrine, who served as director of press communications for former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, confirmed the appointment in a post on Twitter.

Emerald Robinson Latin cross @EmeraldRobinson Just remember that @RichLowry & @guypbenson and plenty of other unpopular NeverTrumpers targeting Lin Wood this week were targeting Jenna Ellis & others on Trump's legal team for their "wild allegations" of election fraud last week. That's why @politico & @foxnews pays them. 4:26 PM · Dec 3, 2020·Twitter Web App

WASHINGTON — After I interviewed Nancy Pelosi a few weeks ago, The HuffPost huffed that we were Dreaded Elites because we were eating chocolates and — horror of horrors — the speaker had on some good pumps. Then this week, lefty Twitter erected a digital guillotine because I had a book party for my friend Carl Hulse, The Times’s authority on Capitol Hill for decades, attended by family, journalists, Hill denizens and a smattering of lawmakers, including Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Susan Collins. I, the daughter of a D.C. cop, and Carl, the son of an Illinois plumber, were hilariously...

Laura Ingraham, a Fox News host, apologized under pressure on Thursday for taunting a survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., as three companies confirmed they would pull advertising from her show. The dispute began Wednesday when Ms. Ingraham shared an article about the student, David Hogg, 17, getting rejected from some of the colleges to which he had applied and accused him of whining about it. In response, Mr. Hogg, who has rapidly become a prominent advocate for gun-control policies, called on Ms. Ingraham’s advertisers to boycott her show. Three of the companies, TripAdvisor, Wayfair and Nutrish, said...

What the heck is Tucker smoking? He claimed that “Trump” fired McCabe? Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on the recommendation of the FBI IG.

Reaction to the video of Donald Trump using explicit language and apparently describing himself forcing himself on women continues to roll in. And it is not good for the GOP nominee. Prominent Republicans are calling on him to drop out and elected officials are running from him and fast. See the full list of Republicans calling on Trump to step down at the bottom on this post. The candidate isn't backing down, telling the Washington Post's Robert Costa in an interview today, "I'd never withdraw. I've never withdrawn in my life." The Post reports, Trump called from his home in...

I'll keep this vanity short ... Mods: please feel free to pull it if it's inappropriate.Why have so many here on FR turned on Ted Cruz in such a vicious way? We cheered when we first heard about Ted taking on the establishment in TX to win the primary in the race to fill Kay Bailey Hutchison's vacated Senate seat, in a bad year for the GOPWe cheered again when Ted exhorted us to 'Stand With Rand' when he offered public support for Rand Paul's filibuster over the NDAAOnce more, we cheered when he stood on the Senate floor and...

Republicans in Washington are coming to grips with the increasing likelihood that Donald Trumpwill be their presidential nominee. It's a scenario few would have taken seriously last summer, when Trump jumped into the race against what Republicans believed was their strongest presidential field in decades. But the real estate mogul has nearly vanquished them all, winning three out of the first four contests by double-digit margins while leaving his closest remaining rivals -- Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) -- in the dust. With surveys putting him ahead in most of the states set to vote in next...

Via BuzzFeed, here's Santorum springboarding off of Craig Robinson's post yesterday dismissing Cruz as a "false prophet of social conservatism." Apparently you can't be a truly strong social conservative if you're a federalist on "values" issues. "Donald Trump has never been a social conservative up until the last few months, and Ted Cruz takes the position, very much a 10th Amendment, states rights, which is, you know, very much Rand Paul, Ron Paul position," Santorum said... "If people want to do drugs in Colorado, it's fine with him," said Santorum. "If people want have different kind of marriages, it's fine...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday criticized a recently released House Republican report that concludes no intelligence lapses in connection with the fatal Benghazi attacks, saying congressional investigators did a “lousy job.” “I think the report is full of crap,” Graham, a Republican, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Assembly member Claudia Tenney said Wednesday she may challenge U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna in a GOP primary, but quickly toned down the talk after sharply criticizing him on a radio interview here. “I’m doing my due diligence and I will be coming out with a decision in a few days,” she said in a brief interview during a break in the Assembly session. She declined further comment. But speaking on an Albany radio station one hour earlier, Tenney, R-101, sounded like a candidate and was sharply critical of Hanna, a Barneveld business owner who is seeking a third term representing...

Imagine watching the man marching in front of you taken out by snipers. Scott Walker must know the feeling, having seen what the media did to Chris Christie.Bridgegate did its work. Last December we read this:"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are in a dead heat in a hypothetical 2016 presidential matchup with the recently reelected governor leading by 1 point in a new poll.""Christie leads Clinton 42 percent to 41 percent in a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday. Christie’s 1-point lead is the same as Quinnipiac’s poll in November, but a far cry from...

Republicans in the Senate want to restore veterans benefits to the Paul Ryan – Patty Murray Budget plan. Harry Reid is blocking the amendment so Republicans are blaming Harry Reid for cutting veterans benefits. That is intellectually dishonest of the GOP. Paul Ryan, a Republican, drafted the plan with Patty Murray, a Democrat. House Republicans overwhelming approved the plan before it even made it to Harry Reid for a vote. The Republicans could have restored the cuts themselves in the House. Instead, they voted for the plan with the cuts to veterans benefits and went home. Were Harry Reid...

Social conservative activists are threatening to walk away from Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker after his running mate, former state representative Karyn E. Polito, reversed her position this week, endorsing gay marriage. The Baker campaign, looking to placate social conservatives, said late Thursday that Polito considers same sex unions to be accepted law. But the campaign would not make Polito available to be interviewed about her position. According to a GOP insider, in choosing Polito, Baker strategists insisted that she soften her opposition to gay marriage if she were to join the ticket. The compromise — which would blunt some...

Former senior aides to Mitt Romney have hit back at the 'craven hypocrites' in the Republican party who just days before the election were clamouring for jobs in a Romney administration and are now belittling him. 'There were one or two well-known figures who were late committing to support him, were the most eager to curry favour when it looked like we would win and are now out there trashing the governor. (snip) But the other senior adviser, who declined to be named when criticising senior Republicans, singled out Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Newt Gingrich as among those...

Rep Steve King (R-Iowa) jumped into the "legitimate rape" fray Tuesday by telling a local reporter that he doesn't personally know of any victims of statutory rape or incest who became pregnant from the attacks. The reporter asked King about a bill he put forward last year that would have barred federal Medicaid funds from going towards abortions except when the life of the mother is in danger or in the case of "forcible rape." (The current law just makes an exception for "rape," without the forcible part.) The new terminology would most likely prevent people who become pregnant from...

A spokesperson for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has advised that the former Massachusetts governor disagrees with the Boy Scout’s current policy prohibiting open homosexuals from serving as members and leaders. According to The Associated Press, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul told the news outlet in an email that Romney still stands by his beliefs that homosexual men should be able to serve in the organization. She specifically noted that Romney had outlined his views in 1994 during a political debate, and that his stance has not changed. “I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what...

Love is always being able to tell liberals I told you so. Ok, I don’t know if it’s love exactly, but man it sure does feel good.A few weeks ago, after West Virginia’s Democrat governor and US Senator both refused to endorse Obama for reelection in 2012, I wrote:Scores of Democrats running for reelection will defect from Obama before the campaign is done. And scores of Democrat voters will reject him too. Why? The same reason voters will likely vote to kick Obama out of the White House: self-interest, if not outright self-defense.      Democrat Governor Earl Ray Tomblin of West...

Many Pennsylvanians think the former senator's beliefs are too extreme for the presidency. WASHINGTON — Rick Santorum may be a mystery, a bit of an anomaly, to most American voters, but Pennsylvanians have known him a long time. And six years ago they overwhelmingly chose to sever ties. Now Santorum has re-emerged as a serious contender in the Republican presidential primary, and Pennsylvania voters have mixed feelings about his return. At best, most find him honest about his beliefs. At worst, half say those beliefs are too extreme for the presidency. Just 13 percent feel strongly that Santorum could beat...

When did the GOP go from being merely stupid to downright suicidal? In the final scene of Thelma & Louise, when Detective Hal Slocumb realizes that the two desperate demoiselles are about to drive off the edge of the Grand Canyon, he runs after them in a futile attempt to stop their senseless suicide. When I first watched that scene, twenty years ago, my primary emotion involved the tragic loss of that '66 Thunderbird. Now I think I finally understand the impotent despair the film's screenwriter, Callie Khouri, was attempting to convey when she sent Slocumb on his hopeless sprint....