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Glenn Beck used to talk about harboring respect for Marco Rubio, but now that Rubio has basically thrown in with Donald Trump, Beck tore into Rubio yesterday over what he deemed as a betrayal. Rubio has indicated in various Twitter spats over the past week that he’s behind Trump by default because there are no other good options to take down Hillary Clinton. But that’s not good enough for Beck. He wrote, “Can you have any credibility when you said one thing on the campaign trail and then the opposite after. Were you lying to us then or now Marco?”

Bob Dole encouraged fellow Republicans Saturday to back Donald Trump and suggested the presumptive GOP nominee select Newt Gingrich as his running mate. In an interview with CNN's Ana Cabrera, Dole -- the 1996 Republican nominee who said he spoke with Trump last week -- also suggested Trump apologize to Arizona Sen. John McCain and New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez for disparaging comments he's made about them in the past. "I have been a Republican all my life," said Dole, who endorsed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at one point during the 2016 primary fight but has since backed Trump....

Donald Trump’s best ally in winning over skeptical Republicans is turning out to be Hillary Clinton. Having overcome a multimillion-dollar “Never Trump” campaign aimed at blocking him from the Republican nomination, he’s now benefiting from a wave of GOP donors, party leaders, voters and conservative groups that are uniting under a new banner: “Never Hillary.” “Nothing unites Republicans better than a Clinton,” says Scott Reed, a political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who has advised previous GOP campaigns. While Reed says there remain “many unknowns” about Trump, he adds that “the knowns about Hillary are very powerful motivators...

Link OnlyUltimate source for this is Bloomberg (via Capital Report - Minnesota).

Former House Speaker and potential/rumored pick for Trump running mate, Newt Gingrich, speaks with Fox News Channel's Maria Bartiromo about his general election predictions. He forecasts that by November, the race will no longer be close, and that Trump will win by "a suprisingly big number" like Ronald Reagan did in 1980. NEWT GINGRICH: I don't think these polls signal a close race by November. I think if you look at the trend line, it signals that Trump will probably consolodate support while Hillary Clinton continues to stagnate. And the odds are pretty good Trump will win just like Reagan...

Senior Hamas politburo official Mahmoud al-Zahar reignited the war of words between his terrorist organization and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, which have long been bitter rivals. Hamas and Fatah have remained violently divided despite the unity deal sealed by Abbas in April 2014 when he torpedoed the US-led peace talks. In recent days - even as Egypt is leading talks in Cairo to try and unify the Palestinian factions - al-Zahar upped the ante on Hamas-Fatah tensions by slamming Fatah founder and arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat for being a "coward" and fleeing a battle with Israel, before...

The Never Trump moment is over. While a small group of Republicans has wrung its hands raw over the choice between the GOP’s nominee and Hillary Clinton, the party’s firmament – social and intellectual conservatives, the lobbyist and donor class, powerful operatives and outside groups – is increasingly getting in line behind Donald Trump. Never mind that many of them complain about his bombastic and unpredictable political style. The thawing has slowly but surely begun - and it’s visible everywhere -- from mega-donors like Foster Friess rallying Republican governors to Trump, to Mitt Romney’s allies agreeing to raise money for...

An overwhelming majority of Republican voters say their party’s leaders should get behind Donald J. Trump, even as he enters the general election saddled with toxic favorability ratings among the broader electorate, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer reacted to the list put forth by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of who he is considering to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court should he be elected president.

Mitt Romney ends recruiting efforts for an independent candidate By Eric Bradner and Jim Acosta, CNN Updated 3:01 PM ET, Wed May 18, 2016 Washington (CNN)Mitt Romney won't launch a third-party presidential campaign of his own and has stopped trying to recruit somebody else to do it. The 2012 Republican nominee had attempted to recruit a challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But prospects like Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said no, and Romney is now dropping his efforts, a source familiar with Romney's thinking told CNN. The news was first reported by Yahoo News.

House Speaker Paul Ryan has no issue with a national NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll released Tuesday that indicates that more Republican and Republican-leaning voters trust Donald Trump to lead the party than Ryan. “I hope it’s Donald Trump. He’s getting the nomination,” Ryan told reporters Tuesday in a clip aired by MSNBC. “He’s wrapping up the nomination.” Donald Trump has a lot to learn from Paul Ryan — and Ryan has a lot to learn from Trump. Nearly six in 10 Republicans and leaners said they trusted Trump, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, more to lead the GOP, compared to 39...

The likelihood of Donald Trump being the GOP nominee is apparently causing some people in the #NeverTrump camp to become #OkayTrump. Jazz looked at this earlier today, specifically mentioning how the idea of Hillary Clinton as president appears to be causing much of the angst within the Republican Party. He isn’t the only one to notice this, as National Review (the ones who put out the “Against Trump” issue just months ago) contributing editor Deroy Murdock also jumped into the #OkayTrump crowd. I tried. In print, on air, online, and in person, I urged GOP primary voters to send to...

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions sought Saturday to convince Texas Republicans that Donald Trump is the conservative leader needed to change Washington. “The American people are not happy,” the Alabama Republican told delegates at the state GOP convention in Dallas. “They are looking for something different.” Session said Trump would properly overhaul the nation’s immigration system and secure the southern border. “He’s going to build a wall to ensure that,” Sessions said. Sessions said Trump, as president, would appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court, reverse bad trade deals and rebuild the military. “Donald Trump believes in a strong national defense,”...

Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan concluded their highly anticipated meeting Thursday amid signals that the Republican Party will work to piece itself together after a fractious primary. "While we were honest about our few differences, we recognize that there are also many important areas of common ground," Trump and Ryan said in a joint statement. "We will be having additional discussions, but remain confident there's a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall, and we are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal."

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continued her attacks against House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, saying his highly publicized meeting Thursday with presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., made her “ill.” “Trump has a pow-wow with unsupportive GOPe [establishment] House leader Paul Ryan today,” Ms. Palin, a surrogate for Mr. Trump, wrote on Facebook about 11 a.m. Thursday. “Anticipate Ryan, after following crucifiers of our conservative frontrunner and all of his early supporters, to now position himself as the leader of those politico wussies to the cool kids’ table. Typical politics. Makes me ill. [Mr. Trump] can’t capitulate....

Speaker Paul Ryan spoke with reporters after his first meeting with Donald Trump on Thursday morning... Speaker Paul Ryan gushes over Trump: His personality, I thought he had a very good personality. He’s a very warm and genuine person. I met him like 30 seconds in 2012. So we really don’t know each other. And we started to get to know each other. So, I actually had a very pleasant exchange with him...

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Trump will meet with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan at 9am this morning. All the networks will be covering live remarks made by both men following the meeting. The URL above links to the various video postings on this meeting thus far, (amazing how much coverage all ready), so Freepers will need to find their own source, (FOX, NBC, ABC, CNN, etc). Please post a good live thread when it surfaces here, and also commentary. As always, it will be interesting how our take here on Free Republic will be.

Donald Trump and Republican Party leaders are confronting an uncomfortable new reality: They may not like each other, but they may need each other. That's forcing an awkward reckoning on both sides as GOP lawmakers struggle to make peace .... Trump's team seeks to bulk up its unconventional campaign with the party's organizational prowess. ... Trump's bare-bones campaign has glaring deficiencies the RNC is uniquely positioned to address.... has largely ignored collecting information on voters ... dispatched very few staff to battleground states ... no steps to build a fundraising network. Trump told The Associated Press ... he would not...

Facing a steep challenge as he prepares to meet with Republican leaders about uniting their splintering party, Donald J. Trump on Monday struck a more conciliatory tone about House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. And Mr. Ryan appeared to reciprocate, saying he would step down from his position as chairman of the Republican National Convention in July if that is what the party’s presumptive nominee requests.