Free Republic

And how Trump shattered the Establishment’s manufactured consent. There was a moment in the late spring of 2015 when I realized that the ground beneath our feet was shifting. During an appearance on Fox News, Charles Krauthammer was asked to predict the Republican and Democrat nominees for the 2016 election. He said rather confidently that the nominees would be “Jeb” Bush and Hillary Clinton. When asked to explain his reasoning, Dr. Krauthammer pointed out that Bush and Clinton had the money, the political infrastructure, and the backing of their respective party elites. I found his predictions unsettling — partly because...

Donald Trump took a lot of heat for implying that George W. Bush was responsible for failing to prevent 9/11. (He didn't say it outright, saying merely that it happened on Bush's watch, but I think it was clearly implied.) He said that our porous immigration system was partially responsible for the attacks. And as it turns out, Jeb Bush agrees: ....a review Jeb Bush’s 2013 book Immigration Wars reveals that Jeb Bush himself agreed with Trump’s argument and admitted that our “leaky” immigration policy was responsible for the attack. Bush wrote: In addition to the Mexican drug cartels, the...

Welcome to this week's attempt at media excellence I want to start with the "Israel Update"... The actual news stories from Israel this week as linked in the daily news summaries... "Israel 'on the brink of civil war': Gantz tries to convince"... "Moody's says Israel's economy has been weakened by 'very high political risks"... "Dozens of medical reservists said to refuse return to Gaza combat"... "Breaking with gov't, 69% percent of Israelis, 54% of coalition voters back ending war in exchange for hostages--poll"... What You Need To Know About The US Bombing Of Yemen Day After Day... Meanwhile US Congressman...

This month — March 30th — will mark 20 years since Terri Schindler Schiavo was cruelly killed, deprived of food and water for 13 days until she finally succumbed to dehydration and starvation. It was one of the most controversial bioethics issues to arise since Roe v. Wade, in what many deemed a victory for supposed “medical choice.” Now, two decades later, a pair of bioethicists is revisiting Terri’s death, and argued that while they believe killing her was the right decision, it also ended up leading to the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The Hastings Center is...

House Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that some of her Republican colleagues have told her that if Vice President Kamala Harris can defeat Donald Trump, they can get “back to our debate on the issues.” Pelosi said, “Let’s just talk about the glory of Kamala and Tim, the promise that they have put out there, the enthusiasm.” Mitchell said, “You talk about John McCain and talking to him and he gave you a heads-up he was going to vote, the key vote to save The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, so there used...

Former New Jersey governor helps launch Republicans for Harris By David Wildstein, August 04 2024 8:28 pm Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman was one of 24 Republican elected officials to endorse Democrat Kamala Harris for president on Sunday. “I was a proud Republican, but Donald Trump is unfit to lead our nation. We saw during his four years in office how he consistently chose himself, his pursuit of power, and his billionaire friends over the American people while spewing lies and spreading chaos at every turn,” said Whitman. “It’s time to move forward by electing Vice President Kamala...

VIDEOIn Stalin's time you didn't want to be the first one to stop clapping. Times have changed. Nowadays you don't want to embarrass yourself by being the first one to start clapping.

Florida is taking a strong stand against retail theft and “porch piracy.” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law a bill that would crack down on criminals participating in shoplifting rings and engaging in other types of property crime. While doing so, he took some shots at California and New York for going easy on those committing these offenses. Amid widespread retail theft occurring across the nation, state and local governments are grappling with putting a stop to these operations while others are simply responding with a shrug. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis announced...

Newsdump Alert: 143 Reported Dead In Moscow Terrorist Attack (Russia Today)... It was Rush Hudson Limbaugh III who wrote... I am attempting to bring media excellence to you and I must remember this time 19 years ago March 2005 Pope John Paul II was near his passing but in Florida Terri Schiavo... And for the Bushes and the Moderate Republicans out there Karl Rove anyone who disdains Donald J. Trump consider this... "Supporters of assisted dying need to grasp that they will almost certainly get more than they say they want.."... And remembering one of El Rushbo's most famous callers...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is moving a majority of his campaign staff to South Carolina, and will head back Wednesday night to his home state after attending two events in New Hampshire, according to a senior campaign official. On Friday, he will attend a ceremony for Florida Supreme Court Justice Meredith Sasso, who DeSantis appointed in May. He will then attend campaign events in South Carolina on Saturday and Sunday, CBS News has learned exclusively. [cut] The move to prioritize South Carolina — and essentially forgo a heavy week of campaigning in the Granite State in the week before the...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday vowed to stay in the presidential race for the “long haul” despite a poor showing in the final Iowa poll before Monday’s caucuses. “We’ve got a huge number of people that have committed to caucus, and we expect that these are the people that turn out,” DeSantis told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” before a slate of events in Iowa. “We’re in this for the long haul. We understand that you got to win a majority of the delegates. We understand that that there’s a long process here, but we’re going...

DeSantis’ campaign and super PAC have spent more than $160 million to boost him, and he spent the better part of 2023 on the road. “If I could have one thing change, I wish Trump hadn’t been indicted on any of this stuff,” he told the Christian Broadcasting Network last week. “It sucked out a lot of oxygen.” “He tried to ‘out-Trump’ Trump among Trump supporters instead of going for the ‘maybe Trump/move on from Trump’ voters, and it was a fatal strategic choice,” Cullen said. Polling shows that his numbers were strongest before he actively began campaigning for president...

Boxed in by a base enamored with Trump that has instinctively rallied to the former president’s defense, DeSantis has struggled for months to match the hype that followed his landslide 2022 reelection. Ryan Tyson, DeSantis’ longtime pollster and one of his closest advisers, has privately said to multiple people that they are now at the point in the campaign where they need to “make the patient comfortable,” a phrase evoking hospice care. Others have spoken of a coming period of reputation management, both for the governor and themselves, after a slow-motion implosion of the relationship between the campaign and an...

Jeff Roe, a top strategist for the main super PAC supporting Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, announced his resignation from the group late Saturday — the latest in a string of departures from the organization.The pro-DeSantis group, Never Back Down, has been enveloped in turmoil in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, it fired three of its top officials, including the super PAC’s chief executive officer. The board chairman, former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, also left, as did the organization’s president, Chris Jankowski.Republican strategist Phil Cox, a longtime DeSantis ally and adviser, has stepped in to help steer the PAC in...

The top strategist for the embattled super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ' campaign for the White House resigned Saturday night in the latest sign of trouble for the GOP hopeful less than one month before voting begins with Iowa’s kickoff caucuses. Jeff Roe, the top adviser to Never Back Down, is the latest senior staffer to exit Never Back Down, which has been the largest outside group supporting DeSantis’ candidacy. The Associated Press reported earlier this week on growing concern among some within DeSantis’ operation that interactions between his campaign and his network of outside groups were blurring...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he expects that if former president Donald Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, were to lose the first Republican voting contests, in Iowa and New Hampshire, he won't accept the results. "He will say it's stolen no matter what. He will try to delegitimize the results. He did that against Ted Cruz in 2016," DeSantis said, referring to Cruz's victory in the Iowa caucuses. "I don't think there's been a single time he's ever been in competition for something, where he didn't get it, where he has accepted [it]," DeSantis added. "I think that...

DEVELOPING🚨: Ron DeSantis has asked Bob VanderPlaats, Steve Deace, and Kim Reynolds to go on the campaign trail with him in New Hampshire after results of a Monmouth University poll came out showing him in fifth place.

Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham or seemingly any prime time host would be fine with the Florida Governor. Gov. Ron DeSantis deserves credit for consistency, calling on yet another Fox News host to help shore up his presidential campaign by hosting a debate. “If you want to do other debates, Nikki Haley and me, I’m in. Donald Trump and me, I’m in. So just say the word. You’ve shown that you can do it in a way that I think really helps the voter. So I’m game, just let me know,” DeSantis told Sean Hannity. DeSantis benefited late last month from...

Ron DeSantis asked Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday to arrange a head-to-head debate that would allow the Florida governor to take on former President Trump. “Well, Sean, I don’t think we’ve spoken since that debate, and the reaction that I’ve gotten has been incredible in terms of obviously being able to show that freedom works, and the California model’s a failure, what that means for the country,” DeSantis said. DeSantis praised Hannity’s moderating skills and suggested he hold additional debates with either of his top competitors in the presidential primary

Former President George W. Bush intends to vote in the 2024 presidential election, but he might write in the name of his brother, Jeb Bush — or his late Scottish terrier, Barney. Though joking, Bush echoed a concern many Americans cite about two of the prospective candidates: their age. “I predict that most Americans think we’re too damn old at the top,” Bush, 77, said. “I’m too old to be president. I know what it takes to be president, and I’m younger than Biden and Trump.” Bush is about four years younger than current President Joe Biden and about one...