Free Republic

Donors who once worried more about Donald Trump now see the president’s bid for a second term as the greater threat to America. Joe Biden’s threat last week to freeze arms shipments to Israel along with reports that his administration is withholding intelligence about Hamas leaders’ whereabouts has reverberated throughout U.S. politics. Now, some Never Trump donors say the Biden administration’s policy toward the Jewish state is such a betrayal they’re considering jumping on board the Trump train. Call it the rise of the Never Bidens, donors who once were more worried about Trump but now see Joe Biden’s bid...

Despite a punishing loss in New Hampshire, Nikki Haley has nearly a dozen fundraisers scheduled between now and the South Carolina primary — and insiders are now wondering how many of these shindigs will actually happen. On Jan. 30 in New York City, billionaires including Leonard Stern, Cliff Asness, Stanley Druckenmiller, Ken Langone and Henry Kravis are co-hosting an event for the former South Carolina governor. On Feb. 6, Silicon Valley mogul Tim Draper is hosting Haley in Atherton, Calif. On Feb. 15, Haley also is slated to be feted in Dallas by real estate tycoon Harlan Crow, according to...

A group of Wall Street billionaires is planning a fundraiser for GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley in New York City after the New Hampshire primary, Bloomberg News reported. Billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller, Henry Kravis, Ken Langone and Cliff Asness are reportedly planning a fundraiser for Haley on Jan. 30, according to an invitation viewed by Bloomberg. A donor speaking on the condition of anonymity told the outlet that the event is just one part of a fundraising swing slated for Haley in between the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.

FINE WINE, BEST ENJOYED AMONG FRIENDS AND DONORS?: Cliff Asness, the founding and managing partner of hedge fund AQR Capital, and Rutgers University professor Susan Feinberg may have irreconcilable differences about two $350 bottles of wine at Washington D.C.'s Bistro Bis, but they once found common ground in the campaign of President Barack Obama. Cliff Asness, and his wife Laurel, each gave Obama $2,300 during his 2008 campaign, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics. Feinberg, too, was a 2008 Obama campaign donor, giving $1,700 in support of his presidential bid. Obama was just the second federal-level candidate...

Well, we certainly lost a big one. Despite hopes I share that this November’s polls will help mitigate the damage, this giant leap towards socialized medicine is a big loss for the Republican Party, and for the American people. And I say “leap towards” socialized medicine as this bill is not nearly the Left’s end game. It’s not meant to work, it’s meant to destroy the private health insurance industry, an industry that realized this only too late. It’s meant to help bring on, through socialized medicine, further breaking of the budget, and further conditioning of the American people to...

So much for any hope that the government would uphold rules and abiding by contracts. Instead, we keep getting examples of something else – that when President Obama fails to persuade firms to follow his wishes, he does not hesitate to use threats of financial destruction. Cliff Asness, the co-founder of the $20 billion hedge fund AQR Capital Management, laid bare the latest attacks with an open letter on Wednesday: “The President screaming that the hedge funds are looking for an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout is the big lie writ large. Find me a hedge fund that has been bailed out....

Cliff Asness, whose firm manages some $20 billion of assets, has written an open letter blasting President Obama for his attack on the hedge fund industry in the wake of the Chrysler bankruptcy. As you'll recall, hedge funds, which hold approximately $1 billion in Chrysler bonds, refused the government's offer to take approximately thirty cents on the dollar. Obama accused hedge funds of holding out "for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout." These comments have enraged many in the industry but few have spoken out publicly. Asness, whose firm doesn't hold Chrysler bonds, says the industry is genuinely afraid...