Free Republic

Tech entrepreneur Scott Banister has long been an ally to the liberty movement. The angel investor, IronPort founder, and PayPal board member donated $3 million to a Rand Paul supporting Super PAC, and has been a vocal supporter of the libertarian Republican. Now that Rand Paul is out of the presidential race, Banister has thrown his support behind Ted Cruz. Cruz is a self-described constitutional conservative who earned the endorsements of both Rand and Ron Paul in his 2012 Texas Senate race. Scott Banister Our best chance for a constitutional presidency is now @tedcruz. #LibertariansForCruz Cruz's relationship with the Pauls...

Published on Feb 4, 2016 February 4, 2016 - Donald Trump Anderson Cooper FULL Interview CNN Q&A Category News & Politics License Standard YouTube License

(CNN)--How much does Lindsey Graham dislike Ted Cruz? Count the ways. On the question of foreign policy, the Texas senator is "just as wrong as Obama, if not worse," Graham told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday. "In Ted Cruz's world, dictators do very well," he continued, comparing his colleague's foreign policy to that of Ron Paul, the former congressman, Republican presidential candidate and long-time leading libertarian. Asked why his fellow senators are reputed to have such a distaste for Cruz, Graham accused the winner of the Iowa GOP caucuses of being an "opportunist" to his core -- one who "gets...

He’s a brilliant orator with a sharp legal mind. But his expression unsettles me. I know my reaction is visceral and automatic, but as a neurologist it is my business to notice things out of the ordinary and probe them. The Senator’s atypical expressions leave me uneasy. Skill in reading faces is so fundamental to our species that 54 facial muscles orchestrate its endless nuances, which others read like a book just as we read them. Only some of these many facial muscles are under voluntary control, which is one reason it is so hard to maintain a poker face...

Veterans have come out against Sarah Palin after she said in a speech on Wednesday that PTSD caused her son Track’s alleged domestic abuse ‘As a combat vet, EXTREMELY disgusted by #SarahPalin blaming PTSD 4 domestic abuse,’ wrote one man on Twitter Another said: ‘Speaking as a combat vet who literally slept in the same barracks as Track Palin, his mother is wrong and her son is not a victim’ Paul Rieckhoff, who heads Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, also criticized Palin for blaming the incident on President Obama Brandon Friedman, former digital media director for the Department of...

...Forget Trump and consider instead Trump’s constituencies. They are weary of being lectured that they deserve presidential rebuke for their supposed Islamophobia because they are angry about the terrorist killings of Americans. The middle classes are exhausted from being sermonized that they do not “pay their fair share,” when their state and federal tax bite is nearly 50 percent — especially when half the population pays no income tax, and massive federal entitlements have done little to address the pathologies of the underclasses. The contractor and the insurance salesman are furious at being scolded that “they didn’t build” their businesses,...

Rich Lowry of National Review magazine is seriously taken to task by four Fox women commentators Smith, Faulkner, Colby, Camerota, and Tantaros about his undeniable bias against Trump, his lack of logic, and called out in a lie... To the three minute video link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei6f5F4zIvo

(CNN)--I think I may be suffering from dangerously high levels of candidate exposure. Since the first Republican presidential candidate debate in August, I've interviewed the potential nominees almost 150 times in total, and I probably spoke with them about 100 times before that debate took place. I've also been a panelist on two CNN-Salem Media Group hosted debates. By the end of Friday, after the Trump-less debate on Fox News, I'll have added a couple more interviews. Next week a few more. And I'll be back on the stage with whomever is still standing on February 25 and March 10...

Via the Free Beacon, we've reached the stage of Trumpmania where the same media that used to routinely predict that every new Trump "gaffe" would finish him off now heralds everything Trump does as carefully calculated Machiavellian genius. Trump has convinced them to their bones, not without reason, that everything they thought they knew about presidential politics is wrong and every move he makes is right. Case in point: Skipping the debate four days before Iowans caucus is genius. Why? Because Trump's a genius and he thinks it's a good idea, even though there are lots of really obvious perils...

As Donald Trump continues his pundit-defying dominance of the national polls, with early primaries just days away, the once-unthinkable has become all too thinkable: Could Trump actually pull this off? Could he become president? I'm going to stake out a firm answer: no. Absent extreme and unlikely circumstances*, Trump will never be president. Jack Shafer argues that Trump's success so far is a "black swan" event, an unpredictable and unrepeatable concatenation of improbable circumstances. That sounds about right. But just because some political rules and conventions have been violated doesn't mean they've all vanished. Just because Trump makes no sense...

Presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) continues to rack up the endorsements, picking up four more in the past 24 hours. They include Dr. Chuck Harding and Pastor Michael Creed, leaders of a Christian ministry committed to the education, engagement and encouragement of the nation, particularly among Independent Baptists. Also, he's been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Eddie Calvo, the governor of Guam....

Vice President Joe Biden told fellow Democrats on Thursday that they should see it as “a gift from the Lord” if Republicans nominate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas or billionaire businessman Donald Trump for president in 2016. “We may be given a gift from the Lord in the presidential race here,” Biden told lawmakers attending the annual House of Representatives Democratic conference, held this year in Baltimore. “I don’t know who to root for more: Cruz? Or what’s that guy’s name, he’s having a fundraiser for veterans tonight, I’m told,” said the vice president. Trump has announced he will snub...

DML Unfiltered | Trump backing out of Fox Debate-- brilliant or bust? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWjqw0FpmNU&index=6&list=PLanUqPajptu5HpcNiSqLgWpeK4M-waBpC

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders are energizing grassroots voters as the first balloting of the 2016 presidential race draws near. Yet the three maverick contenders are also alarming political operatives over the damage each could wreak on their own parties' House candidates this November. The worry is that each man's take-no-prisoners appeals would alienate moderate voters in the two to three dozen competitive House races expected in seats from Florida to California, often in the suburbs. While it seems unlikely Republicans will lose House control, some in the GOP envision a serious dent in their...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/01/27/donald-trump-ted-cruz-republican-establishment-calculations-column/79407410/

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been under investigation by the FBI for several months, and former U.S. House Majority leader Tom DeLay said Monday that the FBI is "ready to indict" her for using a private email server to conduct government business. During an interview on "The Steve Malzberg Show," DeLay, a Republican from Texas, said he has friends in the FBI who tell him "they're ready to indict" the former Secretary of State. "They're ready to recommend an indictment and they also say that if the attorney general does not indict, they're going public," DeLay said. Clinton's use...

Fox News has issued a statement responding to Donald Trump‘s conduct on social media, calling The Donald out for his timidity with what can only be described as trolling of the highest order. Trump has said that he might not attend Fox News’s GOP debate this Thursday because, he says, co-moderator Megyn Kelly isn’t “fair” to him. He took his grievances to Twitter and Instagram Tuesday afternoon, asking fans, “Should I do the GOP debate?” Fox News responded in a statement given to Mediaite, saying: We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to...

Published on Jan 26, 2016 Michael Moore appeared on "The Kelly File" tonight to discuss a wide variety of topics with Megyn Kelly.

Donald Trump’s decision to skip the next debate marked yet another unexpected twist in his presidential campaign but probably a very smart political decision. Trump’s conflict with Fox News started after Trump began bashing moderator Megyn Kelly, whose questions in the first GOP debate he said were unfair. But it quickly turned into the entire network mocking him. When Trump polled his Twitter followers about whether he should participate, Fox News put out a news release mocking him: “We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet...

Party officials and strategists believe that if Trump wins Iowa, Rubio's path to the nomination is clearer. To many out­side ob­serv­ers, the wave of seasoned Re­pub­lic­an of­fi­cials and strategists sound­ing in­creas­ingly com­fort­able with Don­ald Trump as the GOP's pres­id­en­tial nom­in­ee is a sign of sur­render. Wheth­er it's Iowa Gov. Terry Bran­stad root­ing for Ted Cruz to lose the Iowa caucuses or Or­rin Hatch "com­ing around a little bit" on Trump's can­did­acy or the paucity of money spent at­tack­ing Trump on the air­waves, it feels like of­fi­cial Wash­ing­ton has sided with Trump over Cruz. In real­ity, many are try­ing to sal­vage...