Free Republic

Former Bush 43 adviser Karl Rove said Monday on FNC’s “The Story” that former President Donald Trump needs to “move on” from claiming he won the 2020 presidential election. Sunday at CPAC in Maryland, Trump said, “We are never going back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush.” Anchor Martha MacCallum said, “President Trump went after you at one point, went after other Republicans and said, you know, that’s not the direction we’re going anymore. We’re moving hard on America first, and this is the last battle. Everyone knows it. The country could be lost forever.”...

We are only 20 months away from the next Presidential election, and at this stage, the Republican party should be starting to whittle down its field of contenders. Yet here we are with most of the people expected to run still sitting it out, silent. It’s true that Nikki Haley has started her campaign, as have a few outriders like Vivek Ramaswamy, to whom I wish much luck. But the serving or former officials who should have started their campaigns by now are still sitting it out. Leaving the ground open for Trump to do stunts like his Ohio trip...

Roy Moore is the Steve Bannon project in a nutshell. For the former Trump operative, the Alabama Senate candidate’s tattered credibility is a feature, not a bug. If Moore had well-considered political and legal views, good judgment and a sterling reputation, he’d almost by definition be part of the establishment that Bannon so loathes. Since Moore has none of those things, he’s nearly an ideal representative of the Bannon insurgency. Events in Alabama make it clear that Bannon’s dime-store Leninism — burn everything down, including perhaps the Republican Senate majority — comes at a considerable cost. In this project, the...