Free Republic

The price of entry for the 2020 presidential primary is ferocious opposition to the president. The Democratic base is so roiled and enraged after only two weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency that a take-no-prisoners posture toward the White House is emerging as the price of entry for the 2020 primary. An election that could have focused on economic inequality and the excesses of Wall Street — the issues that animate the left’s leading tribunes, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — is already shaping up as a contest about the intensity of the resistance to Trump. “In almost 20 years of...

We're just over two weeks into the Donald Trump administration. So far, the President of the United States has: lied about the size of his inauguration crowd, summoned the director of the National Park Service and pressured him to produce photographs to prove that the attendance was less than sparsely attended, reportedly threatened to send troops into Mexico to take care of 'bad hombres' and hung up on the Australian prime minister. In between, he's gagged scientists at federal agencies from communicating with the public, signed an executive order barring refugees from Muslim-majority country that has been celebrated by jihadist...

A quote that caught my eye from RCP’s analysis of the inevitable confirmation of Neil Gorsuch. The potential political downside could be much greater for the Democratic Party with Gorsuch than it ultimately was for the GOP with Garland — leaving reason to doubt that Democrats would fully obstruct the nominee rather than seek a more favorable fight elsewhere. “I think it’s likely he’ll be confirmed,” said one Democratic Senate campaign operative, “and there will be a larger fight on the next one.” His credentials are impeccable and his character, by seemingly all accounts, is perfectly suited to the job....

Beware anyone who tells you that there is an obvious play for Senate Democrats in handling Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court. There is no such play. There is barely any play at all. It is an awful situation, because being in the minority is awful, and if they botch their next move, it could be more awful still. The most viscerally satisfying play for Senate Democrats would be to disengage completely. As Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer put it, “I encourage my Senate colleagues to give Neil Gorsuch the same courtesy Senate Republicans gave Merrick Garland.” But it...

As House Democrats learned that a federal program countering “violent extremism” was likely to be reframed to target “Islamic extremism,” many were gathering for an unofficial forum on “Trump’s Un-American Muslim and Refugee Ban.” Sponsored by the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), the forum gathered Muslim witnesses and State Department veterans for a 110-minute series of speeches against the president’s executive orders on refugees and travel from seven majority-Muslim nations. “For decades, we have granted safe haven to families fleeing persecution and violence,” said Conyers, who frequently holds “alternative” hearings when Democrats are in...

CNN anchor Jake Tapper and chief political correspondent Dana Bash will moderate a Town Hall Debate with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Texas Senator Ted Cruz on the future of Obamacare at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7. President Donald Trump has made repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act one of his top priorities while Congressional Democrats are opposed. Sanders, an opponent of repealing Obamacare, and Cruz, a supporter of the President’s healthcare agenda, will join Tapper and Bash to debate the fate of former President Barack Obama's signature legislation and the GOP’s approach to healthcare....

If the last week has shown us anything, it’s that Donald Trump has power, but he doesn’t have much of a mandate yet. We need to keep it that way – and be wary of the bad political leadership and strategy that can help him build one. November’s election is a powerful reminder that the Clinton establishment’s mix of socially inclusive rhetoric and neoliberal economics is a weak response to xenophobic populism. An anti-Trump resistance movement must be broad, but it must direct its anger and energy not just at the enemy in the White House, but the failed leadership...

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Tuesday tweeted that she is thinking about Khizr Khan, the father of a U.S. Army captain who was killed in Iraq, and an Iraqi interpreter who can reportedly no longer come to the United States due to President Trump’s latest executive order.(TWEET-AT-LINK) The tweet comes three days after Trump signed an executive order imposing a 90-day ban on citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries entering the United States. The Khizr Khan and his wife, Ghazala, are from Pakistan, which is not included on Trump's list. The order also calls for a 120-day ban...

While the majority of New Yorkers supported Hillary Clinton in this election—making Donald Trump the first president who is loathed in his hometown—there was of course one outlier borough. Trump garnered over 57 percent of votes on Staten Island, where residents called him their "Molotov cocktail." As one voter told us back in November, "They don't care what he says, or what he does, they just believe in his heart." But surely after Trump's disastrous first days in the White House—in which he instituted a discriminatory Muslim travel ban (and yes, that is the right terminology), fired the acting Attorney...

On Tuesday's broadcast of MSNBC's Morning Joe, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said Democrats must take advantage of "public outcry against the [Trump] administration]." Kaine said Democrats must fight back in Congress, the courts, and in the streets. "What we've got to do is fight in Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets, fight online, fight at the ballot box, and now there's the momentum to be able to do this," Kaine said to Democrats. "And we're not afraid of the popular outcry, we're energized by it and that's going to help us do our job and do it...

Oh the hand-wringing, the outrage, the overuse of the word “chaos,” plus endless shrill talking points. The news media, the Democratic Party and Hollywood have stumbled upon reality at last: President Trump is in the White House, taking care of business full speed ahead — just as he said he would. Livid news organizations, operatives, strategists and movie stars are almost incandescent with rage, as America looks on. The phenomenon will intensify Tuesday when Mr. Trump reveals his nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, likely setting off a whole new round of strategic, carefully crafted narratives that suggest the nation...

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Monday that President Trump was wrong to issue an executive order temporarily banning immigrants from Muslim-majority countries because American citizens are the real terrorism threat in the U.S. "The real threat here so far is home-grown, American terrorists, and not people from these seven countries," Nadler said on CNN. Trump on Friday issued an order suspending immigration from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The 90-day ban is meant to give federal agencies time to review the information they need to verify the identity of immigrants seeking to enter the United States. It...

A poll taken late last week shows that a majority of likely voters approve of President Trump’s temporary halt to refugees and visitors from seven Middle Eastern and African countries. Via Rasmussen: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters favor a temporary ban on refugees from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen until the federal government approves its ability to screen out potential terrorists form coming here. Thirty-three percent (33%) are opposed, while 10% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Similarly, 56% favor a temporary block...

It’s up against some stiff competition, but there’s a runaway front-runner in the “wrongest idea of 2016” derby. It’s the aphorism, once fashionable on the morning-talk show circuit, that the media mistakenly took Donald Trump “literally but not seriously,” when they should have taken him “seriously but not literally,” as Trump’s supporters did. If the idea is that the media should have taken Trump more seriously, then I’d emphatically agree. But it turns out that they probably ought to have taken him literally too. It’s been an exceptionally busy first 10 days in office for President Trump, culminating in an...

<p>Democrats will seek to quickly pass legislation on Monday night to rescind President Trump’s travel ban from certain countries — a likely futile attempt they’re poised to use to justify prolonging consideration of several top Cabinet nominees.</p> <p>Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Monday morning that he will be asking Senate Republicans to immediately consider legislation to rescind Trump’s executive order signed Friday night that caused confusion at major airports nationwide and set off a wave of global reaction — including a petition banning Trump from entering the United Kingdom and a limit on visas to Americans entering Iran.</p>

THE WALL WILL PAY FOR ITSELF. The estimated cost to complete the Border Wall is $15 to $25 billion. If we have a trade deficit with Mexico, by all means, let’s address that inequity on its own merits, but with the legendary negotiating skills of Donald Trump, we can easily reduce that outrageous $60 billion deficit by half, and that, in itself, would go a long way to pay for the wall. The annual costs of illegal immigration at the federal, state and local level is estimated to be about $113 billion. This figure includes education, medical, law enforcement and...

Chelsea Manning was convicted of leaking classified information (up to 700,000 documents) obtained while serving as an Army intelligence analyst that included diplomatic cables and troop locations, to the Wiki-Leaks website . House Speaker Paul Ryan described President Obama’s move as “outrageous” and “a dangerous precedent that those who compromise our national security won’t be held accountable for their crimes,” and that “Manning’s treachery put American lives at stake and exposed some of our most sensitive secrets. We are a nation of laws and the laws need to be upheld. What Chelsea Manning did was treasonous and the commutation by...

Chelsea Clinton attended a massive protest against President Trump’s immigration ban in New York City on Sunday afternoon. Chelsea, the daughter of Trump’s democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, and former President Bill Clinton, tweeted from the protest. “#NewYork #NoBanNoWall,” she wrote alongside a photo of the protest, which included one sign with her mother's “Love trumps hate” slogan from the 2016 campaign....

President Trump’s decision to shake up his National Security Council by removing a prominent military leader in favor of political adviser Steve Bannon is worrisome and a “radical departure,” Sen. John McCain said Sunday. Trump signed executive action Saturday adding Bannon, who headed the alt-right Breitbart web site before joining the campaign, to his core security council while removing the Director of National Intelligence and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs. “The appointment of Mr. Bannon is something which is a radical departure from any National Security Council in history,” McCain (R-Ariz.) told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “The role...

HOUSTON — Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who in 2007 became the first Muslim member of Congress, said in an interview Saturday that opponents of President Trump’s executive orders on immigration and refugees should oppose them in the streets. “It’s time for people to get active, to get involved, to vote and to organize,” said Ellison, who was in Houston to campaign for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “Trump must be stopped, and people power is what we have at our disposal to make him stop. We need mass rallies. We need them all over the country. We need them...