Free Republic

... Trump is the most gratuitously nasty public figure that this country has seen in living memory. He is the very definition of a bully: at every opportunity to kick someone when he's down, Trump takes it, while shamelessly trumpeting his own dominance. Long after former Texas governor Rick Perry had withdrawn from the primary race, Trump was still sneering at Perry's glasses and intelligence during campaign rallies and gloating about how he had forced Perry's withdrawal. New York governor George Pataki held out longer in the campaign, but he was never a threat to Trump. Yet nearly every Trump...

“I don’t like to analyze myself because I might not like what I see.” — Donald Trump, in an interview for Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success, by business journalist Michael D’Antonio. “Trump was willing to say and do almost anything to satisfy his craving for attention. But he also possessed a sixth sense that kept him from going too far.” — D’Antonio’s conclusion to the book. One often-underappreciated virtue of U.S. presidential campaigns is that their extreme length makes it very difficult to conceal what makes a candidate tick. (Barack Obama in 2008 was an exception,...

Donald Trump pulled no punches as he slammed Ben Carson Thursday morning for questioning his faith. But Carson won't fight back. Instead, the retired neurosurgeon apologized for firing what the billionaire front-runner perceived as the first shot when Carson on Wednesday called the depth of the two contenders' faith "probably the biggest" difference between them. "I would like to say to him that the intention was not to talk to him, but about what motivates me," Carson told The Washington Post. "If he took that as a personal attack on him, I apologize, it was certainly not the intent." Trump...

Here is, word for word, in context, what Donald Trump said Tuesday about admitting Muslim refugees from the Middle East: Bill O'Reilly: You know thousands will come to the United States. Now do you object to migrants who are getting out of the Middle East and North Africa coming to the USA? Trump: I hate the concept of it but on a humanitarian basis with what's happening you have to. Here is, word for word in context, what Donald Trump said on Wednesday about admitting Muslim refugees from the Middle East: Hannity: Should we allow any of them [Muslim...

Last night Donald Trump was clear on the BillO show that even though he didn’t like the idea, that America has a responsibility to accept Syrian migrants here on a humanitarian basis. But tonight he’s done a complete 180 and now says America has too many problems to take in migrants from this crisis in the Middle East. VIDEO at Link.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is now tearing into one of the rivals he long declined to criticize: retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. In a CNN interview on Thursday, the real-estate magnate attacked Carson's religiosity, persona, qualifications for the presidency, views on abortion — and even his medical record. "He was a doctor, perhaps an OK doctor, by the way. You should check that out too. We're not talking about a great [doctor]. He was an OK doctor," Trump said. As a doctor, Carson drew national attention at John Hopkins "by conducting a succession of operations that had never been performed...

I’m not telling you these polls are correct, just like I didn’t tell you yesterday that that bombshell Morning Consult survey showing Trump rising to 32 percent after the debate was correct. We’re tracking all of the polls this week to see what the consensus says, as that’ll be a reasonably good indicator of where the race really stands right now.The good news for Trump fans via Rasmussen: He’s still leading the field. The bad news: For the first time since the start of Trumpmania, he’s losing ground rather than gaining it. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey...

SACRAMENTO— A state board on Thursday granted 14 rape victims who had been working as prostitutes the right to be compensated, the first such action since it reversed its policy on the issue last year. The California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board took the action on behalf of women whose claims had previously been denied. The victims' next step is to submit the amount of compensation they are seeking. The decision follows a vote by the board in December to eliminate a policy that banned compensation for those who were attacked while working as prostitutes. The new rules allow...