Free Republic

I have no idea how 2024 will ultimately play out for Republicans, but I believe if anyone is going to eclipse or defeat Trump, it will be someone like DeSantis who has learned from Trump and could critique him from the right. I wrote about this for Politico today. Ron DeSantis Knows the Formula to Defeat Donald Trump

Things keep changing. A few months ago I thought Trump would not run. Then I thought he would run. Now, I don’t think so once again. And one of the tells is the subtle shot he took at DeSantis over vaccines. The fact is that Trump, if he runs, is not a shoo-in. And this could be an epic battle for the chance to beat Kamala Harris like a drum in 2024. And, at least according to people like you who took my most recent Twitter poll, Trump is not a shoo-in. He’s dropped to just one-third support from nearly...

U.S.—Fans of former president Donald J. Trump are chomping at the bit to once again vote for the guy who fast-tracked vaccines and appointed Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Coronavirus Task Force. "Trump was by far our greatest president. Even better than James Madison!" said local deplorable Nathan Nebulous. "Everything was great under Trump until that deadly virus changed the face of the entire earth overnight and ruined everything. But he was so good at owning the libs!" Sean Hannity, a popular conservative pundit, announced his continued support of Trump on his radio program. "Sure, the vaccines don't seem to...

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is predicting the end of Donald Trump’s hegemony in the GOP, saying the former president “is done.” “Trump is done,” Coulter, a onetime Trump booster turned critic, wrote in an email to The New York Times. “You guys should stop obsessing over him.”

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the most vociferous NeverTrumpers on the right and the highest-profile GOP representative to vote for former President Donald Trump’s impeachment last year, is one of only two Republicans selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to sit on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, incursion at the Capitol. The committee members are currently seeking to obtain the cooperation of GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who they say communicated with then-President Trump on the day of the violence. Jordan is refusing to cooperate, and with good reason: He knows a rigged game when...

With the turn of the calendar to 2022, Republicans are not only looking to the 2022 midterm elections but to the prospect of Donald Trump running in 2024. Trump is hugely popular with the party’s base and that popularity freezes the plans of other possible candidates for the 2024 nomination. Trump’s hold on that nomination is brittle, however, because of his age. On election day in 2024 Donald Trump will be 78 years old. That is one year older than Ronald Reagan’s age when he left office in 1988. Looking at the 2024 contest from the other side of the...

All things considered, 2021 was a good year for Republicans. In 2022 will the GOP build on its 2021 successes, or allow itself to be dragged back to 2020? The answer is right in front of our eyes. This year has been a disaster for the Democrats largely because they refused to move forward, electing instead to remain mired in the past and fighting yesterday’s battles. If Republicans take the same course in 2022, they will likely reap the same disappointing harvest. The events of last January 6 at the U.S. Capitol will predictably be a focal point for Democrat...

Fireworks erupted on Fox News Tuesday night after Geraldo Rivera directly implicated former President Donald Trump of inciting riots at the United States Capitol building.Host Sean Hannity began by asking Rivera why Congress was only investigating the Capitol riot and not the assorted riots that took place in response to the murder of George Floyd last year.Rivera replied that those riots were not an attack on the American republic and system of government the way that this one was.“This was a riot that was unleashed, incited, and inspired by the president of the United States, which targeted the heart of...

As cable television broadcast the scenes of Trump supporters breaking past police lines and even smashing their way into the Capitol on January 6, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., texted Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff: “He’s got to condemn this sh** ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough.” A little later, Don Jr. texted again: “We need an Oval office address. He [then-president Trump] has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.” It’s that last statement that reveals the whole truth of January 6 for Trump’s supporters. Donald Trump’s...

Former President Donald Trump was full of praise for terrorist-supporting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a recent interview — while claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not want to reach a peace deal. Axios’ Barak Ravid, who conducted the interview with Trump for a new book about Trump’s peace efforts, reported Monday:

Former President Donald Trump expressed admiration for predecessor Barack Obama at a ticketed Florida event Saturday, after spending years slamming the Democrat. Speaking at the kickoff of his four-date “History Tour” with Bill O’Reilly at an arena in Sunrise, Florida, the Republican said of Obama, “I liked him,” while also calling him “smart and sharp,” according to The Sun Sentinel.

Donald Trump’s greatest accomplishment as president may not have been the policies he enacted or the justices he appointed. Instead, as important as those accomplishments were and are, it is possible that the most important thing he did as president was to say to the political world, “I will not play your games. I am the champion of the people, not a member of the good old boys club.” But now that he has broken the mold, thrown out the old rule book, and forged a new path of leadership, it will be best in 2024 for another conservative leader...

If you are on the political right, you might view TV commentators like Chris Cuomo or Rachel Maddow as “the enemy.” In the same way, many on the political left view commentators like Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity as “the enemy.” It is no surprise, therefore, that many are on the right are gloating over CNN’s firing of Chris Cuomo, just as many on the left gloated when Bill O’Reilly had to leave Fox. But the Book of Proverbs has something to say about this, stating “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your...

'If he wanted to run, that's OK with me. I think we'd win by a lot.' Former President Donald Trump continues to say Gov. Ron DeSantis won’t run against him in 2024 and can’t beat him if he does, while reminding voters DeSantis wouldn’t be Governor without Trump’s endorsement. During an interview with South Florida radio host Brian Mudd, Trump offered his latest in a series of statements essentially claiming he made the Governor and DeSantis knows better than to run against him in 2024. “I do think if I run, he won’t,” Trump said. “I know they try and...

@EWErickson David Perdue was unable to beat a spectacularly unaccomplished Jon Ossoff. Why does he think he can beat Stacey Abrams? Clip...

How total is Michael Steele's transformation from RNC chairman to Democrat sycophant? On today's Morning Joe, Steele, an MSNBC analyst and member of the disgraced Lincoln Project, slurred Republican judicial appointees while expressing his preference for Democrat nominees. Steele was commenting on Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana telling Biden judicial nominee Dale Ho that he found him, based on his social media attacks on Republicans and conservatives, to be an "angry" man. Said Steele: "Did Senator Kennedy take a look at some of the nominations that Donald Trump put before? There were people he voted for who never appeared...

Real-estate magnate and presidential candidate Donald Trump blasted another one of his critics early Sunday morning. Trump said the reigning Miss Universe pageant winner, Colombia's Paulina Vega, was a "hypocrite" for criticizing him without giving up her award. "Miss Universe, Paulina Vega, criticized me for telling the truth about illegal immigration, but then said she would keep the crown-Hypocrite," Trump, who helps run the pageant, tweeted at roughly 5 a.m. According to the Associated Press, Vega said last Thursday that Trump's controversial comments about Mexico were "hurtful and unfair" but she had no intention of giving up her crown "because...

To be clear, though, from the outset, this article is not about me. It is about the question of what it means to be a conservative. I simply use myself as an example. My question for consideration is this. If you have voted exclusively Republican for decades (including voting for Trump in 2016 and 2020), you are a staunch, Bible-based moral conservative on marriage and family issues, and you have consistently spoken out against the leftwing, Democratic agenda, how do you then become a “closet liberal”? According to one commenter (with reference to me): “This writer is a closet liberal....

Ana Navarro told her co-hosts Thursday on ABC’s “The View” that she believes because only two House Republicans voted to censure Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) that shows the party is “broken to the core” after the presidency of Donald Trump. In a speech on the House floor, Gosar said, “If I must join Alexander Hamilton, the first person attempted to be censured by this House, so be it. It is done.

Even worse, the poll shows that registered voters prefer Republicans over Democrats in congressional races by 10 points. If the midterm elections were held today, the result would be a GOP landslide. Given how extremist and authoritarian the Republican Party has become...that is deep cause for concern.