Free Republic

After months of poring over every bit of polling data, of pressing friends and colleagues for insights, of closely watching debate performances and television interviews, the last piece of wisdom I was given about this election came from a fortune cookie.Yesterday, I stumbled upon one on my kitchen counter—sitting alone, neglected, and unopened. I opened it, only to find the most inviting of advice: “It’s time to take a break.”A break! How wonderful the thought. How appropriate a message for Election Day—the moment where our exhaustion turns to anxiety as we wait for results to come in.But this is no...

Political commentator Bill Kristol said Friday on CNN’s “OutFront” that former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), is “weird” and out of the mainstream. Kristol said, “Normally the VP pick doesn’t matter much. The vice presidential pick doesn’t matter much. But Vance is so out of the mainstream, so weird, so self-consciously, so.” He continued, “You know, normally the scandals and we’ve been through this so many times about someone who’s picked this quote, scandal is something someone said 15 years ago or some law enforcement brush, 25 five years ago when they were in college or...

Former GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley slammed an anti-Trump political group Tuesday over its use of her name to back Dem Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. The former South Carolina governor and ex-United Nations ambassador disavowed any connection to the political action committee known as “Haley Voters for Harris,” blasting the group as “deceptive and wrong” for trying to convince her supporters to cast ballots for the veep in November. “Kamala Harris and I are total opposites on every issue,” Haley said in a statement. “Any attempt to use my name to support her or her agenda...

I voted for Haley against Trump in the Virginia primary. I am now for Harris. So I am a Haley voter for Harris. Am I not allowed to say that? Do I not have a right to associate with others saying that? It is sad that Trump-supporting Haley has also become anti-free speech Haley.

Never Trumper Bill Kristol called on President Joe Biden to step aside as the Democrat presidential nominee in 2024, saying he was “not up to four more years” and “very unlikely” to defeat former President Donald Trump. He posted on X on Tuesday: 1. Trump should not be president again. 2. Joe Biden is not up to four more years, and is therefore very unlikely to defeat Trump. 3. Biden should step aside, and Democrats should nominate a candidate who can defeat Trump. If this is “elitist,” then common sense is elitist. 1. Trump should not be president again. 2....

A group called Republicans for the Rule of Law launched a $2 million ad campaign Friday pushing back on former President Trump’s claim that he has absolute immunity from being prosecuted for his actions surrounding the 2020 presidential election. The advertisements feature 25 conservatives explaining why they favor the rule of law over absolute immunity. According to a press release from the group, the ad campaign will be focused in 12 states where “the immunity argument has been least available,” including Alabama and Texas, and states that “are directly impacted by these arguments,” including Georgia and Pennsylvania. The ads will...

A new article out from Politico reveals that a select group of lawyers and legal pundits have been working behind the scenes to quash a Trump second term using the media. They've been sharing narratives, honing points, and working together to "intellectually stress-test the arguments facing Trump on his journey through the American legal system." The names of those who have been at these meetings are all too familiar and their tactics mirror those undertaken in 2020 to manipulate media to sway the presidential election in Biden's favor. A group began meeting weekly in 2022, every Friday, on Zoom calls...

Too obvious perhaps to need saying: Republicans don’t have a problem with non-citizens voting, since there are no non-citizens voting. Republicans have a problem with black and brown citizens voting.

Never Trumper Bill Kristol lamented the bad optics for Democrats as President Joe Biden chose to go to a multi-million dollar fundraiser in New York City hosted by Hollywood celebrities while former President Donald Trump attended a wake for a young New York City police officer killed on duty. “An unfortunate day politically for the Democrats,” Kristol posted on X.

The article below (except the author's note) is from 2018. Author's Note: Originally published to great acclaim in the American Spectator on 6/29/18, my essay provoked a furious response from the GOP’s “intellectual” class and led to a serious of articles from both sides of the political spectrum including: Jonathan Chait, Michael Gerson, Michael Doran, Mark Bauerlein, and Jonah Goldberg of course. After my article appeared, the Weekly Standard shut down, the National Review kicked out Jonah Goldberg (who now works at CNN) and David French (who now works at the New York Times). As for Bill Kristol, he went...

Bill Kristol, a former Republican who left the party over its embrace of Donald Trump, has endorsed Nikki Haley one day before the Iowa caucus kicks off. “I’m an ex-Republican. But if I were an Iowan, I’d be crossing back over to vote for Haley Monday. Voting against Trump in Republican caucuses and primaries is the most effective way—and a legal and legitimate way—to oppose Trump this winter and spring.

Sixteen former DC officials and “legal experts” submitted a brief to the US Court of Appeals in President Trump’s immunity appeal, arguing against immunity for ex-presidents in criminal cases. The list of attorneys includes former Bushies, turncoat Bill Kristol, Ty Cobb, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, a Mike Pence advisor, and unhinged nutcase George Conway. Here are the so-called “principled Republican” experts who are sh*tting on Trump today:

Never Trump leader Bill Kristol expressed “alarm” Tuesday at a new poll showing former President Donald Trump with a significant edge over President Joe Biden on voter enthusiasm. The poll, conducted by USA Today/Suffolk University, also showed Trump and Biden tied at 41 percent support each. Kristol posted on X: New poll: Biden and Trump tied 41%-41%. “Though they’re tied, Trump has a significant advantage over Biden when it comes to voter enthusiasm.” I am alarmed. New poll: Biden and Trump tied 41%-41%. "Though they're tied, Trump has a significant advantage over Biden when it comes to voter enthusiasm." I...

“Republicans for Ukraine,” a group led by Never Trump pundit Bill Kristol, plans to campaign in California ahead of the second GOP primary debate, to be held Sep. 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. The Los Angeles Daily News reported Tuesday: When Republican presidential candidates descend on Southern California next week for a debate and a state party convention, a new conservative group wants to ensure one specific topic is still top of mind: support for Ukraine.

The Twitter Files reveal that one of the most common news sources of the Trump era was a scam, making ordinary American political conversations look like Russian spywork ... Ambitious media frauds Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair crippled the reputations of the New Republic and New York Times, respectively, by slipping years of invented news stories into their pages. Thanks to the Twitter Files, we can welcome a new member to their infamous club: Hamilton 68. If one goes by volume alone, this oft-cited neoliberal think-tank that spawned hundreds of fraudulent headlines and TV news segments may go down as...

A left-wing think tank erroneously claiming to track Russian online activity was responsible for thousands of bogus stories asserting the nation’s influence in US politics, according to the latest batch of Twitter Files. The Hamilton 68 “dashboard” was the brainchild of former FBI special agent and MSNBC contributor Clint Watts and operated under the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a think tank founded in 2017 — shortly after former President Trump took office. The ASD Advisory Council included such figures as top Clinton ally John Podesta, Obama-era acting CIA Director Michael Morell, former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, and former...

Crown Prince Abdullah is coming to America with threats and bluster. Is Saudi Arabia with us or the terrorists? ON THE EVE of his meeting with President Bush today, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia warned of "a strategic debacle" that could result in the Saudis employing "the oil weapon" against the United States and demanding that U.S. forces leave their bases in the Kingdom. Although the ostensible cause for these threats is the Bush administration's support for Israel's actions against Palestinian terrorists, the Saudi ruling family clearly has been unnerved by the president's commitment to win the larger war...

A conservative political action committee is about to unleash a flurry of ads targeting six House Republicans who objected to certifying the Presidential election in January. Among the house members being targeted in the ads are Alabama Republican Representative Mo Brooks, and Northwest Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz. The Republican Accountability Project says among their goals with the ad campaign is to work to unseat those who have tried to overturn a legitimate election and supported impunity for political violence, and to push back against lies and conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud and “rigged” elections. The ad targeting Mo Brooks...

Before getting to the key points… remember: In March of 2016 an exclusive list of top tech executives, billionaires, donors and influence agents gathered at a secretive meeting with key leaders of the Washington DC UniParty. The meeting was to discuss their plans to avoid, eliminate and/or destroy the candidacy of Donald Trump. The meeting took place at the exclusive enclave in Sea Island Georgia. Since the gathering all of the attendees have operated to either: (a) openly oppose the administration of President Trump; or, (b) carried a stealth agenda to hide their opposition. Today Senator Tim Scott, a Sea...

Neocon and rabid anti-Trumper Bill Kristol has been getting torched on social media for comparing President Joe Biden’s dangerous call for a regime change in Russia to former President Ronald Reagan’s iconic “tear down this wall” speech. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said of Russian leader Vladimir Putin during his speech in Poland. While world leaders criticized the president’s remarks, with French President Emanuel Macron saying it could lead to a breakdown in peace negotiations, Bill Kristol hailed it as a historic moment on par with Reagan. Kristol was joined by several other pro-Biden figures...