Free Republic

NASHVILLE, TENN — President Donald Trump is returning to the road, rallying supporters to recapture the enthusiasm of his campaign and reassuring them about his tumultuous early days in the White House. It's a welcome distraction for a president whose first months in office have been dominated by self-inflicted controversy and roadblocks, courtesy of federal courts and a divided Congress. "We have done far more, I think maybe more than anybody's done in this office in 50 days, that I can tell you,'' Trump said to cheers from thousands of supporters at a campaign rally in Nashville, Tennessee....

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) is criticizing the Democratic rebuttal speech to President Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress, calling it "a mistake" to have chosen former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. "You're asking about thinking, and that didn't happen," Cleaver said Wednesday when questioned on MSNBC about the diner-set rebuttal speech. "Look, the governor did a fabulous job in terms of healthcare when he was in Kentucky ... but I would love to have had [Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián] Castro as giving the response or somebody like [Rep.] Cedric Richmond from New Orleans," Cleaver said....

The Democrat giving the response to President Trump’s congressional address Tuesday seemed to have forgotten what party he was representing — when he inexplicably called himself a Republican during his address. “I’m a proud Democrat, but first and foremost, I’m a proud Republican, and Democrat, and mostly, American,” former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said via telecast from a diner in his home state. It was not clear why Beshear called himself a “proud Republican,” but the small group of supporters surrounding him did not seem to balk as he flip-flopped affiliations.

Republican President Donald Trump’s first month in office is the sort of beginning that any other Republican president may have had, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday. “As I look at what we might have expected from a President Mitt Romney or a President Marco Rubio, or a President Jeb Bush at the beginning of their tenures in office, I can’t see much difference between what President Trump is doing and what they would have done,” McConnell, R-Ky. told a Capitol news conference. Trump’s chaotic first month has included an appeals court rejection of his travel ban on citizens...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made his strongest statement yet in favor of his party's presidential nominee, telling supporters in his home state that "we need a new president, Donald Trump, to be the most powerful Republican in America." McConnell, who has warned repeatedly that Republicans could lose control of the Senate this year, has been silent on Trump in recent weeks as he has come under fire for his statements about women and his claims that the election is rigged against him...

In 2012, voters in Elliott County, Kentucky, came close to breaking a streak that, at the time, had lasted 136 years. Elliott County was formed in 1869, and since its first presidential election, in 1872, it had voted for the Democratic nominee every time — the longest span of any U.S. county. President Obama — like the previous Democratic candidates for president — won Elliott County in 2012, extending its streak. But the margin by which he won — 2.5 percentage points — made it, by far, the closest presidential election the county had ever seen, and the first time...

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.

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...

Former Texas Republican Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul confirmed in an interview with the Fox Business Network that he will not be supporting Donald Trump for United States president. He said in jest that he’s waiting for Trump to become a libertarian. When asked if there’s anything that Trump could say that would help change his mind, Paul replied that he wouldn’t know what to believe since “he’s all over the map.” The entire four-minute interview is embedded below: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) This is different from his son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who said he will support the GOP nominee,...

It was another disastrous night for Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton lost nearly a quarter of a million votes tonight in Kentucky compared to her 2008 victory. Hillary won the Kentucky primary in 2008 with 459,511 votes. On Tuesday night Hillary pulled ahead of Bernie Sanders in Kentucky in the final minutes. With 99% of precincts reporting— Hillary has 212,549 votes to Bernie’s 210,626 votes.

Ted Cruz’s team knew that Donald Trump would run away with his native New York Tuesday. And they expect he’ll win the lion’s share of delegates at stake next week when a slate of northeastern states votes. So they’ve spent the last two weeks looking ahead, quietly laying the groundwork for a kitchen-sink campaign in a state they can’t afford to let Trump win: Indiana. The Hoosier State doesn’t vote until May 3, and Cruz certainly isn’t ignoring the contests in between. He spent time this week in both Maryland and Pennsylvania, the two states his campaign is confident will...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/10/06/editorial-ted-cruz-wrong-syrian-refugees/73486846/

Northern Kentucky Republicans will send supporters of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to the national convention in July. A group of 126 Republicans on Saturday from the 20 counties of Northern Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District gathered in the theater of Boone County High School to choose their three delegates and three alternates for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland for July. People at the convention seemed to either support Donald Trump or Cruz. Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s name never came up. Cruz won the Fourth District in the March 5 GOP caucus but came in second to Donald Trump statewide. Two...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2016/04/02/nky-delegates-support-cruz/82526228/

Jeb Bush will enter 2016 with plenty of advantages, but the first-in-the-West nominating contest likely won’t be one of them. Nevada lawmakers this week opted against changing the state’s presidential caucus to a primary, a decision that runs counter to the wishes of Bush, Marco Rubio, and other GOP establishment-types who had hoped a switch would give them a better chance at posting a momentum-building victory there. Caucuses require a good deal more effort and patience from voters than primaries, and as a result the contests tend to favor candidates that have built a network of highly motivated activists. That...

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- At the start, of course, he was a joke -- a rich man playing politics, dismissed by friend and foe. But he stayed in it. His numbers climbed. And at a certain point, he wasn't funny anymore. He is Matt Bevin, the governor of Kentucky, and his election last fall may say more about the current state of Republican politics than anything happening in New Hampshire this week. Bevin has been called "The Donald Trump of Kentucky." But he's more of an amalgam really: a mix of Trump, Ted Cruz and something all his own. His success...

Tech entrepreneur Scott Banister has long been an ally to the liberty movement. The angel investor, IronPort founder, and PayPal board member donated $3 million to a Rand Paul supporting Super PAC, and has been a vocal supporter of the libertarian Republican. Now that Rand Paul is out of the presidential race, Banister has thrown his support behind Ted Cruz. Cruz is a self-described constitutional conservative who earned the endorsements of both Rand and Ron Paul in his 2012 Texas Senate race. Scott Banister Our best chance for a constitutional presidency is now @tedcruz. #LibertariansForCruz Cruz's relationship with the Pauls...

The other day, Steve Hayes had this piece up at the Weekly Standard. In it, he noted that Cruz was running a video positing himself as the heir to the Ron Paul Revolution. You'd never even know Rand was running. Rand Paul, after all, was the fusion candidate who was going to bring libertarians and conservatives together along for a ride against the left. It has not happened. Rand Paul's campaign has imploded. And now, if you scroll down in this article towards the end you will find this blurb: "Former Georgia congressman and Libertarian candidate for president Bob Barr...

In Winterset, Iowa, Monday night, attendees at a Ted Cruz town hall sat through a 10-minute video of Ron Paul 2012 supporters talking about how they're now backing the Texas senator's presidential campaign. It's part of Mr. Cruz's effort, having consolidated support from the state's social conservatives, also to win over libertarian-minded supporters from Mr. Paul, who placed second in Iowa's presidential caucuses in 2008 and third in 2012. Ron Paul's son has something to say about that. "I don't think that Ron Paul supporters are very excited about making the sand glow in the Middle East," Kentucky Sen. Rand...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's personality could be a hinderance to his campaign, fellow GOP presidential contender Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said on Sunday. During an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Paul criticized Cruz's handling of disagreements with leadership -- referencing the time Cruz called Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a liar from the Senate floor. Paul said that unlike Cruz, he is able to keep his arguments with leadership to a professional level. "I've given 10-hour speeches, 13-hour speeches without calling anybody names, but talking about the history of our country, the importance of the Bill of Rights, the importance...