Free Republic

To the Republicans in Washington who have habitually let down the American people, who is public enemy number one -- the Ayatollah Khomeini, Vladimir Putin, President Obama? No, Ted Cruz. To the liberal media that apparently believes in a socialist utopia, who threatens to spoil their self-destructive fantasy? ISIS, Russia, Iran? No, Ted Cruz. In the wake of the CNN debate, is there any wonder now why moderator Jake Tapper avoided and interrupted Ted Cruz all night? Even establishment supporters like Bill O’Reilly and Karl Rove acknowledge that Ted Cruz should be receiving more time during the debates. Cruz...

Here’s my 10-minute summary of the CNN Republican debate (which should have been renamed the CNN-Pssst-did-you-hear-that-nasty-thing-one-Republican-said-about-another-Republican debate):The Winners: Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina were the two standouts in Wednesday’s debate.Rubio brought an appealing mix of the common touch and tough talk on foreign policy to the debate stage. Unlike some other candidates, he didn’t seem like he was elbowing his way into the debate, so it “felt” like he was a featured speaker. He sounded like the grownup in the room when he tussled with Trump on foreign policy. Trump grimaced and rolled his eyes, but offered no substantive...

  SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The Princeton debate champion largely stayed out of this one. Much like his posture in the previous August debate, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz avoided the verbal combat that took place among Republican candidates on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library debate stage on Wednesday night. The central figure in the debate and the presidential campaign — Donald Trump — was on the receiving end of almost constant critiques, jabs and dress-downs from his rivals on the stage. Cruz's clear insistence that he will not alienate Trump meant that in this context, he was left on...

CNN’s Republican debate on September 16th will be conducted with dignity and gravitas by questioners like Hugh Hewitt and Jake Tapper, who will treat the candidates with a level of respect and courtesy that many of them just don’t deserve. They have to. I don’t. On behalf of all infuriated conservatives, I demand the right to interrogate the candidates myself. I get to ask a question and a follow-up, and here are the rules. First, answer the damn question. It insults me when you think I’ll somehow forget what I asked, so bewitching is your oratory. Second, answer, then stop talking....

The conservative radio host accused of asking Donald Trump “gotcha” questions in an interview this week has denied the charges, saying he has no favorites and will ask “hard questions” of all candidates later this month when he acts as a questioner in the second Republican primary debate. “I don’t do gotcha questions,” Hugh Hewitt told CNN on Sunday, adding that Trump had had a “great interview” in which he had been “very sophisticated” and “almost Nixonian” in other answers. In the interview, broadcast on Thursday, Trump confused Iran’s Quds force with the Kurds and said he would know the...

Sarah Palin appeared on CNN this morning and defended Donald Trump after his less-than-stellar interview with Hugh Hewitt.Trump’s foreign policy-focused interview was pretty widely panned for The Donald’s loose grasp on the issues. On State of the Union this morning, Tapper asked Palin if she thought Trump got “gotcha” questions.Palin said, “I’d rather have a president who is tough and puts America first than can win a game of Trivial Pursuit.”She added that the public doesn’t “give a flying flip” which specific leaders are overseeing specific regions anyway. Palin suggested a good metric to judge candidates by might be...

Sarah Palin knows the position she wants in a Donald Trump administration: Energy secretary. "I think a lot about the Department of Energy, because energy is my baby: oil and gas and minerals, those things that God has dumped on this part of the Earth for mankind's use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations," she told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday on "State of the Union." But Palin, the GOP's 2008 vice presidential nominee, might be the first potential cabinet member to openly speak about dissolving their office.

<p>Look forward to joining @JakeTapper on @CNNSotu this Sunday from Alaska! We'll discuss what @POTUS missed during his visit to the "Last Frontier"!</p>

WASHINGTON (CNN) —Sarah Palin knows the position she wants in a Donald Trump administration: Energy secretary. "I think a lot about the Department of Energy, because energy is my baby: oil and gas and minerals, those things that God has dumped on this part of the Earth for mankind's use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations," she told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday on "State of the Union." But Palin, the GOP's 2008 vice presidential nominee, might be the first potential cabinet member to openly speak about dissolving their office.

Sarah Palin appeared on CNN this morning and defended Donald Trump after his less-than-stellar interview with Hugh Hewitt. Trump’s foreign policy-focused interview was pretty widely panned for The Donald’s loose grasp on the issues. On State of the Union this morning, Tapper asked Palin if she thought Trump got “gotcha” questions. Palin said, “I’d rather have a president who is tough and puts America first than can win a game of Trivial Pursuit.” She added that the public doesn’t “give a flying flip” which specific leaders are overseeing specific regions anyway. Palin suggested a good metric to judge candidates by...

Sarah Palin appeared on CNN this morning and defended Donald Trump after his less-than-stellar interview with Hugh Hewitt. Trump’s foreign policy-focused interview was pretty widely panned for The Donald’s loose grasp on the issues. On State of the Union this morning, Tapper asked Palin if she thought Trump got “gotcha” questions. Palin said, “I’d rather have a president who is tough and puts America first than can win a game of Trivial Pursuit.”

As Kyle Drennen pointed out yesterday, the major networks almost completely avoided any coverage of dissidents when reporting on the American flag being raised at the newly-reopened U.S. embassy in Havana. However, there was one report at CNN that stood out in sharp contrast to their reticence to criticize the Castro regime. That was the report by Jake Tapper on The Lead in which he provided an in-depth interview with one of the leading Cuban dissidents.

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan is inviting 16 Republican presidential candidates to participate in the CNN/Reagan Library presidential debate on September 16. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, who participated in the debate of lower-tier candidates last week, has not yet been invited. Candidates must achieve an average of at least 1% of support in three recognized national polls before September 10 to be included in the debate, as well as meeting other criteria. The top 10 contenders who made it into the primetime Fox News/Facebook debate last week - Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted...

(CNN)Carly Fiorina said Donald Trump's comments about Megyn Kelly "were completely inappropriate and offensive" and were clearly meant to imply the Fox News host's tough questions were a result of menstruation. "Women understood that comment. And yes, it is offensive," Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard executive, said in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper aired Sunday on "State of the Union." (snip) "I started out as a secretary. And as I made my way up in the business world, a male-dominated business world, I've had lots of men imply that, um -- I was unfit for decision-making because maybe I was...

Peter denied Jesus three times but Hillary Clinton appears to have a much more difficult task; she is going to have to deny herself at least 45 times. Last Friday, Hillary Clinton's spokesperson, Karen Finney, appeared on CNN's The Lead and exasperated Jake Tapper by continuing to avoid avoid answering the important question as to whether her boss still supports or opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bill in Congress. Not a smart move in the long run because yesterday Tapper struck back by listing in detail, with her own quotes, 45 times that Hillary pushed the trade bill over the years....

In a public rebuke to President Barack Obama, top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi on Friday swung against legislation aimed at making it easier for the president and his successor to negotiate free trade deals. The California Democrat said lawmakers should “slow this down” in hopes of getting stronger protections for U.S. workers and the environment in potential trade pacts, including one with Pacific nations. Pelosi made her position known just prior to separate House votes to reject aid to displaced workers and to give Obama the “fast track” trade negotiating authority he is seeking. “We need to slow this ‘fast...

Could you just give me a straight answer? Like a simple yes or no? Please don't try to squirm your way out of it. You still won't answer? Aggghhh! Aggghhh! AGGGGHHHHHHH!!!! One could forgive Jake Tapper if he felt like channeling his inner Sam Kinison on CNN's The Lead today while he was trying to get a simple answer from Hillary Clinton spokeswoman, Karen Finney, on the subject of Hillary's position on the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) trade bill in Congress. Tapper's very visible exasperation with Finney's nonanswers were  completely understandable as she continued her evasive shuffle on the topic all through...

The official Democratic Party Twitter account, @TheDemocrats, is being slammed by a media figure who himself has a history as a Democrat operative. Jake Tapper of CNN has, by almost all accounts, worked hard (harder than George Stephanopoulos by the evidence) to be fair toward Republicans, despite having once worked as press secretary for Chelsea Clinton’s mother-in-law Majorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, when she was a liberal Democrat member of the House of Representatives. Of course, Tapper did appear on the Clinton Foundation website as a speaker at an event, only to have that mention go poof! and disappear in the wake of...

Linky only. Shazzam!

CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin had choice words for President Obama last night when she appeared on “The Lead” with Jake Tapper. ...“Both Mayor Rawlings-Blake and President Obama, today, using the word “thug,”” Tapper said after showing a clip of Mayor Rawlings-Blake speaking. “Sunny, you take issue that?” “I do,” Hostin responded. “It’s not a word, certainly, that I’m comfortable with. It’s not a word that I use. I think that we can all agree that that word, that term has been racialized, and I think what I saw during the riots was, I saw a lot of crimes being...