Free Republic

President Gerald Ford believed he did the right thing when in 1974 he pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, of any criminality connected to the cover-up of the Watergate scandal that had forced Nixon to be the first (and to date, only) president to resign from office. Like many Americans at the time, I was furious at Ford for preempting what surely would have been an indictment for obstruction of justice and related crimes, and I was convinced there had been some secret deal to let Nixon get away with crimes that sent others in his administration to prison. Nixon should...

Phony fears about Democrats are already leading to a pre-election spike in gun sales. And now the Supreme Court is poised to strike down the insufficient gun laws we already have. Barrett is an originalist who believes the Constitution must be interpreted exactly as the Founders intended. “Her views and how she thinks about the Second Amendment are not grounded in modern day reality,” Parsons told the Daily Beast. “She doesn’t give any attention to the cause of modern-day gun violence. Looking at the intent of the framers when there were no assault weapons is very inappropriate in an age...

On Friday’s edition of “The McLaughlin Group,” The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift stated that social media companies are “reacting responsibly” to the New York Post‘s reporting on Hunter Biden and that “You don’t publish and peddle a lie so that it gains traction.”

What do you call Republicans who want 1/10th of 1% of the budget to be used to build a border wall? "Terrorists"—if you're MSNBC contributor Eleanor Clift, that is. On Ari Melber's MSNBC show this evening, Clift, praising Dem refusal to negotiate over the shutdown, said: "The Democrats are defending a principle here: that you don't negotiate with terrorists when they're holding hostages."Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

It looks like we have yet another Flying Pigs Alert. Reliably liberal Eleanor Clift has praised Donald Trump's performance at the No Labels convention yesterday. Yes, you read that right. Not only that, Clift was also surprisingly critical of Bernie Sanders at the same event. Will political wonders never cease? Of course, Clift did deliver a bit of obligatory liberal slam against Trump in the first paragraph of her Daily Beast column so let us get that out of way before proceeding to her glowing praise of The Donald:

On this week's edition of the syndicated public affairs show The McLaughlin Group, panelist Eleanor Clift argued Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's wealth could be good for her. "This is nice work if you can get it and it’s the way our society works right now," Clift said. Acknowledging Hillary Clinton "would probably be the richest president ever," Clift likened the former Secretary of State to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, saying he did great things for the "little people."

The voters are just getting to know the candidates running for president on the Republican side, and the months ahead will allow plenty of time to weigh their credentials and assess how they perform under pressure on the campaign trail. It will be a grueling experience for those who accept the challenge, and whoever emerges in the spring of 2016 joins the battle again in the fall against the Democratic standard-bearer. As the first official entry into what promises to be a crowded field, Texas Senator Ted Cruz got quite a ride from the media for his announcement this week....

I have been watching this stupid show for decades -somehow have an enduring affection for it- but it does get increasingly harder... Now hearing stalwart anti-immigrant Pat Buchanan stress the point that the French satire magazine Charlie Hedbo 'repeatedly provoked' the Kalishnikov-wielding jihadi's senseless slaughter came as a surprise to me, thus eliminating one of the few policy areas I still found myself agreement. You expect it from Eleanor Clift ('We have laws against hate crimes in this country, you know'), but I thought Pat was going to blame it on the immigration problem: once he's forgiving terrorists attacks like...

Hadn't watched the McLaughlin Group in quite some time as they had lost or jettisoned some of the more interesting panelists (and no, Jay Carney wasn't one of them!). The lineup seems to have stabilized although these poor folks are looking O-L-D...perhaps because they are. Felt bad for McLaughlin who apparently was wearing someone else's suit, so baggy was it on his frame. I'm not condemning anyone for aging or illness but it was a bit alarming. In the days before cable news and the internet, the McLaughlin Group were one of the few doses of political candor and a...

Call it the Romney strategy: The Senate Majority PAC’s early wave of attack ads has been paying off in the polls in Democrats’ closest races.When the latest round of polls in key states showed vulnerable Democratic senators holding their own and the GOP’s dream candidate, Rep. Tom Cotton, an Iraq veteran and Harvard grad, down 10 points in his race against Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor, Republicans blamed the Senate Majority PAC as the chief culprit in shifting the landscape and upending the numbers. Formed in 2011 and staffed by former aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, it has been...

A longtime political pundit under fire for claiming the American ambassador to Libya was not "murdered" in Benghazi is standing by her claim he died of smoke inhalation. "I'd like to point out that Ambassador (Chris) Stevens was not 'murdered;' he died of smoke inhalation in that safe room in that CIA installation," Eleanor Clift, a columnist at The Daily Beast, said Sunday on "The McLaughlin Group." While Clift may be technically correct in light of reports that Stevens died from smoke inhalation, she was criticized because the ambassador died as a result of a fire ignited during a terrorist...

Some people on the left have a moral and mental flexibility that would put Lilia Stepanova’s actual flexibility to shame. (Did you just google that name? Kinda cool, huh?) Eleanor Clift, columnist at the Daily Beast, is still blaming some obscure YouTube video for the terrorist attack on America’s consulate in Benghazi. But, that’s not the audacious comments that have sparked outrage. Clift, in her clinically psychopathic ways (seriously… Google the definition – I’m not making this up) declared that the American Ambassador, Chris Stevens, was not murdered… He “died of smoke inhalation”. This is like saying the people who...

Daily Beast columnist Eleanor Clift said on Sunday’s The McLaughlin Group that late U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was killed the night of the Benghazi attacks, had not been murdered but had died from “smoke inhalation.” “I’d like to point out that Ambassador Stevens was not ‘murdered,’” Clift said, using air quotes, “but died of smoke inhalation in a CIA safe room.” This did not land well. “It was a terrorist attack, Eleanor,” panelist-for-life Pat Buchanan said. “He was murdered in a terrorist attack.” Clift responded that it was an opportunistic terrorist attack inflamed by the anti-Muslim video, the blaming...

On this week's McLaughlin Group, the Daily Beast's Eleanor Clift showed an ignorance of the facts about the Benghazi terrorist attack that should disqualify her from commenting on it. Get a load of this: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO ELEANOR CLIFT: I would like to point out Ambassador Stevens was not murdered. He died of smoke inhalation in the safe room in that CIA installation. SUSAN FERRECHIO: I don't think that's a fact, Eleanor. CLIFT: I think that is a fact. FERRECHIO: I've heard a drastically different story from people who are also in the know about that. So,...

Robyn @robdetf Follow How does genius Eleanor Clift think the smoke got there to begin with? #Benghazi The elites in the mainstream media never pass up an opportunity to further embarrass themselves. Tammy Bruce ✔ @HeyTammyBruce Degree to which panicked liberals will go "Eleanor Clift: Amb Stevens Wasn't Murdered, He Died Of Smoke Inhalation" http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/05/10/eleanor_clift_ambassador_stevens_wasnt_murdered_he_died_of_smoke_inhalation.html#.U2-u5jPWcNs.twitter … Layla @Layla1951 Follow .@EleanorClift -Example of why Americans hate the mainstream media as much as they hate politicians ---lies lies lies! @HeyTammyBruce 11:22 AM - 11 May 2014 Eleanor Clift ✔ @EleanorClift Check out my voter's guide to Tuesday’s DC Primary http://thebea.st/P8mKNc via @thedailybeast...

Prepare to be appalled. This is Eleanor Clift, liberal columnist, talking about the attack in Benghazi with the panel on The McLaughlin Group on Friday. It wasn’t murder, it was SMOKE INHALATION? That is so patently absurd it’s hard to believe it’s not a parody. SMOKE. INHALATION. The poor reasoning here really requires no explanation. And that’s not the only digging she does in this hole. She goes on to suggest it really was all about a video, that Petraeus should be on trial, not Hillary, and basically sneer at the entire thing as if it was no more consequential...

On this weekend’s “The McLaughlin Group,” Daily Beast columnist Eleanor Clift laid out the same reasoning for the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi as Bill Maher had on Friday, which was to still blame the now infamous YouTube video.

Everyone proposes drinking games for the State of the Union speech. But it’s not just the president that can drive you to drink. It’s the opportunistic media elites deciding which branches of government have too much power, depending on which branches the Democrats presently control. After a lot of stalemate in 2013, the partisan media think it’s high time for the executive branch to go completely around the legislative branch. They think that now that Congress has proven itself unwilling to provide Barack Obama with the historical greatness he deserves, they should and must be driven around like roadkill. They’ll...

<p>On this weekend's broadcast of The McLaughlin Group, regular liberal panelist Eleanor Clift accused Senator Rand Paul of trying to "stir a revolt against the U.S. government."</p> <p>ELEANOR CLIFT: I'm with John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who basically said this was over the top and creating a sense that the government is really just waiting for this opportunity to drop a drone on you. But, I'll grant you the point. The ACLU put out a statement siding with Rand Paul and this is where the left and the right do meet.</p>