Free Republic

Those vying for the White House responded to the terrorist attack in Orlando with empathy, accusations, policy prescriptions and one call to not "politicize" the tragedy. Omar Mateen, a New York-born 29-year-old security guard, killed 50 and wounded 50 more at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando early this morning. He called 911 during the rampage and swore allegiance to ISIS. Hillary Clinton postponed a Wednesday event in Green Bay, Wis. -- her first scheduled with President Obama -- due to the attack on the LGBT nightclub in Florida, her campaign said. “This was an act of terror. Law enforcement and...

Top Donald Trump surrogate Sen. Jeff Sessions on Sunday called for tougher screenings of Muslims coming into the United States in the wake of the mass shooting at a gay Orlando nightclub. “It certainly looks like another one of the extremist attacks, Islamic extremism,” Sessions (R-Ala.) told Fox News Sunday. “There’s just within the wonderful group of Islamic people, a certain group of radicals and it’s been there for a long time and it seems to be growing. We have to accept that fact.” Sessions said the attack, that left “approximately” 50 people dead and 53 wounded will mean “further...

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz issued a statement Sunday regarding the gay nightclub shooting in Orlando. Ted Cruz’s statement: “Our nation is at war. From 9/11 to the Boston Marathon, from Fort Hood to Chattanooga, from San Bernardino to last night’s horrific attack in Orlando, radical Islamic terrorism has declared jihad on America,” Sen. Cruz said. “Early reports indicate the Orlando terrorist had pledged his allegiance to ISIS, and he had previously been investigated by the FBI. And yet, as with the prior attacks, we were not able to act to stop this act of vicious terrorism that has now murdered...

Or will this year's presidential elections repeat the 2000 Republican upset? I rushed to finish Hillary Clinton's book, Hard Choices, this week, expecting her to clinch the Democratic Party nomination for president. She did, but I am evermore ambivalent about her and her chances of winning. Many factors will prove decisive in the November elections, but Clinton continues to suffer from the same shortcomings that cost her the 2008 Democratic Party primaries. This is particularly important because in the public mind, the contrast can't be starker between the same packaged Clinton and the unrestrained Republican nominee Donald Trump. She won...

During an interview on Meet The Press, Sen. Bernie Sanders reacted to the horrific mass shooting in Orlando by calling for automatic weapons not to be sold in the US. During an interview on Meet The Press, Sen. Bernie Sanders reacted to the horrific mass shooting in Orlando by calling for automatic weapons not to be sold in the US. Video: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) Sanders was asked by Chuck Todd for his reaction to the attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL, and he said, “It’s horrific. It’s unthinkable, and just hopes go out to those who were shot that they...

‘Given that it is becoming clear that the motive is Islamist-jihadist,’ says Michael Oren, ‘this will greatly strengthen’ GOP candidate The mass killing at a gay nightclub in Florida by Omar Mateen, 30, a US citizen born to Afghan parents, will benefit GOP candidate Donald Trump in the run-up to the presidential elections, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States said. “If the motive for this mass killing had been hatred for the LGBT community, this would have played to Hillary Clinton’s benefit,” said Michael Oren, who is now a member of Knesset from the center-right Kulanu party....

There is no politician in recent memory who seems more a product of her handlers than Hillary Clinton. But her handlers in 2008 did hardly anything for her, and now you wonder if the reinforcements she’s brought in this time are doing any better, or giving her better advice. Because all she continues to do is serve this whole thing up for Donald Trump. The other day she said that she was going to ask Bill Clinton to help her with the economy. She did this in a political season when Trump has sold himself two ways, apart from walls...

Donald Trump is calling on Hillary Clinton “to replace her support for increased refugee admissions… with a new job program for our inner cities.” Clinton “wants a 500% increase in Syrian refugees to come into our country,” Trump said at Friday’s Faith and Freedom Summit. Clinton’s plan to resettle 65,000 Syrian migrants would cost U.S. taxpayers over $42 billion over the course of the migrants’ lifetimes, based on projections from Heritage Foundation scholar Robert Rector. Trump said that rather than using taxpayer funds to import foreign migrants from terror-prone regions, Clinton should instead use the funds to help struggling Americans...

Contrary to those in the media and elsewhere who claimed he was “far more accepting” on LGBT issues than other GOP candidates, Donald Trump is proving that he very much will be a force against LGBT equality if elected president. And he’s doing it in a more insidious, under-the-radar way than any previous GOP presidential nominee. Though he rarely raises his positions against LGBT rights on the campaign trail, Trump is making pacts with anti-LGBT forces. Today, Trump spoke at the Road to the Majority summit in Washington, an event attended by Christian right activists and sponsored by the Faith...

Donald Trump, under pressure to do damage control over his comments about a Mexican-American judge, has added to his "make America great again" slogan. "You know, I have the theme ‘make America great again,’ and I've added a couple of things," he said at a Friday rally in Richmond, Va. "Right now I’m adding make America great again — I’m adding 'for everyone,' because it’s really going to be for everyone. It's not going to be for a group of people, it’s going to be for everyone. It’s true." Pulling a talking point from Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders , Trump...

Building a wall is one of Donald Trump's big applause lines. But why? Some research surveys suggest that many Trump followers aren’t so much anti-Hispanic as they are worried about the perceived effect of immigration on their culture and pocketbooks. Donald Trump’s supporters have negative views about immigrants, particularly those who entered the United States illegally. That’s not a news flash. Mr. Trump’s vow to build a wall along the southern border – financed by Mexico – remains one of his biggest rally applause lines. But what, specifically, is behind this anger? Is there anything about undocumented immigration that even...

Donald Trump has promised to build a wall along the southern border. He’s referred to Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals. He's attacked the Republican Hispanic governor of New Mexico. He’s done much to alienate Latino voters since entering the presidential race, yet according to some polls he’s running ahead of 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney among them. Trump and his surrogates frequently cite online NBC News/SurveyMonkey polls that have Trump winning just under a third of the Hispanic vote, more than Romney’s 27-percent performance against President Barack Obama. But other polling shows Trump well below historical benchmarks for winning...

Privileged. Childish. Stupid. Human tire fire. These are just a few of the fun labels being ascribed — by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders and of Sec. Hillary Clinton alike — to Sanders supporters who won't back Clinton in November. Most Sanders fans will probably do so, in the end (with no shortage of ambivalence, as evidenced by Wednesday's trending hashtag #GirlIGuessImWithHer) but those of us not prepared to fall in line have our reasons. Calling us names dismisses that fact, and it certainly doesn't address those reasons. The prevailing argument for voting for Clinton in the general election is...

f Donald Trump's presidential campaign were functional, this would be Economy Week for Team Trump. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee and his surrogates would be wielding the disappointing May jobs report as a cudgel to bash the lackluster "Obama-Clinton" recovery. After all, polls say jobs and the economy remain voters' biggest concern. And it's an issue in which Trump has a big lead over Clinton. A new Gallup poll gives the famed businessman a 10-point edge on "the economy" and a seven-point lead on "employment and jobs." But Trump isn't talking about the economy. Instead, he's attacking the Mexican heritage...

Hillary Clinton’s speech Tuesday reveling in her historic title as the first woman to clinch a major political party’s presidential nomination drew praise from an unlikely source Wednesday: a Republican who has endorsed Donald Trump. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich described the reality star’s toned down, teleprompter speech Tuesday as “very fine” but cast Clinton’s remarks as a “spectacular speech” that was “very effective.” “Let me first say that I thought Hillary Clinton’s speech last night was very effective,” Gingrich said Wednesday via Facebook live. “No conservative, no Republican should assume that she’s gonna be a pushover.” After apologizing for...

At a press conference held in Mexico City, the Binational Coalition Against Donald Trump provided details on how Mexican civil immigrant-support organisations on both sides of the border are preparing to tackle the threats they see linked to Donald Trump's presidential candidacy as the Republican representative. The Coalition centres on making up for a perceived lack of action by authorities on matters important to immigrants and their families in both the United States and Mexico. It consists of a collective of primarily migrant- and migration-centred civil organisations brought together in the Mexican capital by the Binational Aztlán Migrants Organisation; Aztlán...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell takes pride in his reputation as a great compromiser. But the Republican leader won’t concede on one point: He refuses to let conservatives fight the White House for lower spending levels. McConnell, R-Ky., outlined his political roadmap for government spending on Tuesday, sketching out the routes he sees available: an omnibus package, individual appropriations bills, or a government shutdown.

Ted Cruz’s first Senate speech since he dropped his presidential bid led to a testy exchange with an old nemesis, the GOP’s 2008 nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain. McCain called Cruz a “wacko bird” early in the Texan’s tenure. He recently swatted away as ridiculous the idea that he might welcome Cruz’s support in his own re-election campaign. And on Tuesday, McCain accused Cruz of looking for a pretext to distance himself from a bipartisan defense bill that McCain has worked on for months and of which he was proud, and said he’d be much more open to Cruz’s ideas...

‏@BillKristol Bill Kristol Retweeted David Marcus Why wait till January? Select him as Vice Presidential nominee. Clinton-Curiel 2016

LOUISVILLE — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, will soon be filing stand-alone legislation to end the practice of registering for the Selective Service. The bill titled ‘The Muhammad Ali Voluntary Service Act’ will be presented to Congress in honor of the famed boxer who refused to serve in the Vietnam War. On April, 28 1967 the heavy weight champion was stripped of his title for refusing to be inducted in the United States Army. Ali, a Muslim and conscientious objector, was convicted of draft evasion — a conviction that would later be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. “One thing...