Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is waging a quiet campaign to keep his caucus from getting a whole lot Trumpier after the midterms. "He wants people who he knows are team players, people who are interested in solutions," said a GOP senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering fellow Republicans. "There are a lot of people who are running for office these days who have different agendas." In Alaska's Senate race, McConnell is backing incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski, who voted to convict former President Donald Trump on impeachment charges last year. She faces a Trump-backed...

Peter Schweizer on Life, Liberty and Levin: "money that Hunter Biden connected overseas, directly benefited not only Hunter Biden, but Joe Biden himself"

Governors, traditionally insulated from national politics, are one of the last bastions of Republican elected leaders able to maneuver around former President Donald Trump. But maybe not for long. Trump is stepping up his involvement in gubernatorial primaries, looking to make an example of critics in his own party and elevate allies ahead of a potential 2024 presidential run — just as some elected before the former president's takeover of the GOP are hitting their term limits. The result could be unelectable candidates in otherwise winnable races and the purging of some of the few Republican elected leaders who didn't...

Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson said Friday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that the Republican Party was building a “dystopian, bizarre authoritarian police state.” When asked about a proposal by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to create a police force to investigate election fraud, Wilson said, “Look, if Ron DeSantis forms his own election police force, he needs to start in the Villages, a Republican hotbed, where the only cases of voter fraud in the 2020 election in Florida came from. They were all Republicans. They were all Trump supporters. But I’m going to promise you if he does get his way...

The past and current master of the GOP sees a future threat arising. [cut] “It was a mistake to ever embrace Donald Trump, and now we want to be the party of Adam Kinzinger.” [cut] Would DeSantis be audacious enough to run against Trump in 2024? The case against waiting is that it’s extremely unlikely that the governor can maintain his exalted status in the party until 2028. On the other hand, the case against running in 2024 is that it involves the enormous risk of encountering the business end of the Trump buzz saw, which could change DeSantis’s image...

It appears that most Americans are not hoping to see a President Biden versus former President Donald Trump rematch in the 2024 election. Only 28% of Americans questioned in an AP/NORC national survey conducted over the past week say they want Biden to seek a second term in the White House in the 2024 election. And that includes just 48% of Democrats. Trump doesn’t seem to fare any better. According to the poll, just 27% of Americans would like the former president to seek a return to the White House in 2024. But Trump did fare slightly better with his...

Lawmakers want to honor the memory of President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara by putting their faces on a coin. Senator Susan Collins of Maine introduced a bill authorizing the U.S. Treasury to mint one dollar coins featuring the former president and first lady.

The dramatic exit last Friday by Rep. John Katko (R-NY), who announced he would not run for reelection, may have shocked liberals but was no surprise to Trump supporters. One by one, the Republicans who voted for the second impeachment or who publicly blamed Trump for the Jan. 6th rally at the Capitol are leaving public office. Katko was the third to prematurely retire among the impeachers, and the most significant due to his seniority and otherwise bright future. He was in line to become chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee after the predicted takeover of the House by...

Bill Clinton used to say that all elections are about the future. It's true. Voters want to know what candidates will do in office -- how they will fix problems -- and if they can be trusted to handle the unexpected developments the future brings. But now, in Washington, we have significant elements of both major parties obsessed with the past. One party wants to make the upcoming midterm elections about the 2020 presidential election, and the other party wants to make the elections about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. It's a crazy situation. Start with the Democrats, the party...

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.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a once-loyal member of Donald Trump's court, is refusing to bend a knee to the former president and says backing him in the 2024 election 'is too much to ask' after Trump publicly attacked his character, according to a report. Trump reportedly said the popular governor has 'no personal charisma' and a 'dull personality' as rumors swirl the ex-president is angry DeSantis hasn't declined to challenge him for the GOP presidential nomination. DeSantis, however, has told his inner circle that Trump's 'expectation that he bend the knee is asking too much,' the New York Times reported....

Former President Donald Trump kicked off his rally in Arizona on Saturday night by reciting what has become a litany of claims about the 2020 election.“The fake news and the lamestream media … they refused to talk about it,” Trump said of his election claims. “They say, ‘well it is unsubstantiated and the big lie. ‘The big lie.’ The big lie is a lot of bulls**t. That’s what it is.”Whenever speaking in public, Trump never misses an opportunity to skewer the “fake media” and their unwavering faith in Joe Biden’s election victory. But some in the Republican Party wish Trump...

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) said on Sunday that the Biden administration has not reached out to him to discuss voting rights legislation, as the White House works to pass two key Democrat-backed bills. NBC's "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd questioned Romney on attempts to unify the country, noting that there appears to be only a few Republicans willing to work with the Biden administration, with Romney among them.

Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, believes his party is at a crossroads as the 2022 midterm elections approach. And he says Republican voters need to choose between believing in disproven election fraud conspiracy theories and forging ahead with new leadership that will push the party toward a better place. “We're either gonna placate and play populism one on one and try to live 10 seconds at a time, or we're gonna put genuine leadership on display,” Duncan, who describes himself as a lifelong conservative, told Yahoo News, scoffing at the notion that the loudest GOP voices are its...

Those remarks weren’t just vintage Trump braggadocio. They’re likely also smart politics, as they provide an opening to win back some suburban voters that fled from him toward Biden in 2020. Sixty-seven percent of suburban residents were vaccinated as of August, according to a late summer NBC News poll. That was below the 79 percent of urban residents who got the vaccine, but well above the 52 percent of rural residents, where support for Trump runs deep. Even Biden gave credit to the Trump administration for the development of the Covid vaccine and for getting a booster shot.It’s unclear that...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham sent GOP Leader Mitch McConnell a very clear message Wednesday night: Get on board with Donald Trump or get out. Asked by Fox's Sean Hannity about the "swampiness" of the Kentucky senator, Graham answered this way: "Elections are about the future. If you want to be a Republican leader in the House or the Senate, you have to have a working relationship with Donald Trump. Can Senator McConnell effectively work with the leader of the Republican party, Donald Trump? He is the most consequential Republican since Ronald Reagan. It's his nomination if he wants it....

Well, I’ve taken it, I’ve had the booster. Many politicians–I watched a couple of politicians be interviewed and one of the questions was, ‘Did you get the booster?’ – because they had the vaccine – and they’re answering like–in other words, the answer is ‘yes’ but they don’t want to say it. Because they’re gutless. You gotta say it – whether you had it or not. Say it. But the fact is that I think the vaccines saved tens of millions throughout the world. I’ve had absolutely no side-effects.”

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized politicians who refuse to say whether they’ve received a Covid booster shot. In an interview with far-right cable channel One America News, Trump said he received the booster and has seen politicians get asked in interviews whether they’ve also gotten a third shot. “They don’t want to say it because they’re gutless,” Trump said. “You gotta say it, whether you had it or not. Say it. But the fact is that I think the vaccines saved tens of millions throughout the world. I’ve had absolutely no side effects.” Trump said that...