Free Republic

After attending a fundraiser for John McCain’s Senate re-election — a campaign in which McCain is locked in a tight race with conservative primary challenger Kelli Ward — Kristol mused on Twitter if McCain would run as an independent candidate in the presidential election. But while Kristol was just speculating, McCain added intrigue to the Stop Trump movement with his surprise announcement that the delegates should be free to vote their conscience at the upcoming Republican Convention

The Republican elites are not going down without a fight. Donald Trump shattered the GOP primary record this year by more than a million votes. He was running against 16 challengers – another record. But that won’t stop the GOP elites from trying to steal the nomination. The Weekly Standard today called on delegates to steal the nomination from Donald Trump at the Republican Convention this month.The traitors would rather see Hillary win than support Donald Trump.Bill Kristol at The Weekly Standard reported: This election cycle hasn’t been kind to Republican big shots. Their favorite presidential candidates—Jeb Bush, Scott Walker...

If for some reason, though, Kristol and Will believe Trump poses such a unique threat to America and to the Republican party’s legacy, then one final and admittedly simple point should have put them at ease long ago. Trump is not running for dictator, but instead for President of a country with a strong system of separation of powers and checks and balances in place. The Republican party that Will foolishly and haphazardly abandoned will, at all times, be in Congress to reign in any of Trump’s outlandish proposals. Therefore, all “Never-Trumpers” should take a deep breath and realize that...

So I just stopped by the Corner blog at National Review Online to see their reaction to Trump's speech today. To my surprise, there wasn't a single post commenting on it. The NR writers spent the day posting about Brexit, and about Rubio's senate run, and about a picture of Trump they don't like. But not a word about Trump's speech. If that isn't proof that Trump hit a home run today, I don't know what is.

A third party presidential campaign effort that has been working to recruit an alternative to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton says over a dozen possible candidates have been in contact about a possible run just days after the effort was officially launched. "Better for America” was set up to ensure a third party candidate will be on the ballot in all fifty states. John Kingston, a Boston-based conservative donor who bundled for Mitt Romney, is bankrolling the group, and stresses this new effort is bipartisan. The group has been in touch with both independents and Democrats -- “senators, governors, congressman,...

A conservative donor who has been scouring Republican ranks for a third-party candidate is pressing ahead with a group to get on the ballot in dozens of states. The candidate will come once the group sees that the ballot access is possible. The donor, John Kingston, a bundler and ally of Mitt Romney, said he will bankroll a ballot-access project to create a path for someone to run as another option. The effort is being called Better for America. The idea is “to do a proof of concept for everybody,” Mr. Kingston said. “It exists, there is a pathway, there...

Bill Kristol says that the Orlando terrorist attack “helps” Donald Trump “if he uses it wisely” because Obama has been unwilling to be “serious” about the threat. Appearing on NewmaxTV with Steve Malzberg on Monday, Kristol, an ardent “NeverTrumper” said that in light of the Orlando terrorist attack, “I suspect an event like this may end up helping Trump just because people will say, ‘Look, one side is kind of oblivious to the threat or just doesn’t want to see it because of political correctness.'”(continued)

unday on ABC’s “This Week,” Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol commented on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s chances in the general election and said that he was “afraid” presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could win.

Realville, as Rush often says, is where he lives. That’s a place without blinkers or rose-colored glasses. That’s actually where we all live, though some of us prefer to deny it. That is, until reality bites. Then our wishful thinking or willful ignorance dashes upon the hard rock of unforgiving reality. The crackup always smarts. Thus is the case with the 2016 presidential election. There’s Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In other words, there’s Column A and Column B. That’s the choice. Column C is fairyland. Come November, tens of millions of voters will flock to the polls to choose...

Glenn Beck: Why Do Conservative Pundits Support Trump? Glenn Beck wants to stage a conservative intervention. The former Fox News host and prominent conservative commentator is confounded that so many Republican voters are attracted to Donald Trump. And Beck is particularly bewildered by the conservative pundits who are hooked on the bombastic real estate mogul. "Why are big name 'conservatives' supporting him?" Beck asked wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday. Beck went on to name names, calling out some of Trump's biggest boosters in conservative media: Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. "I am not talking...

The Weekly Standard published “An Open Letter to Mitt Romney” on Tuesday night, begging the former Republican presidential nominee to launch a third-party bid. “[T]hese are extraordinary times, and your nation still has need of your service. I respectfully implore you to run for president as an independent candidate in 2016,” Jay Cost wrote. Cost slams presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s “Nixonian paranoia” of “enemies” and calls her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump, “a sympathizer with the nativist ‘alt-right.’ ” “They do not see Americans as Americans,” the letter continues. “They see each of us as potential allies or foes,...

The conservative Weekly Standard’s editor Bill Kristol’s failed third-party candidate, David French, is now claiming presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign intimidated him not to run — but won’t provide evidence to support his allegation. French, with little to no name recognition, is a staff writer for the conservative National Review and was tapped by Kristol to run as a third-party candidate to stop Trump in the general election. French said on Tuesday during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Trump “unlocked something terrible in this country.”

‏@BillKristol Bill Kristol Retweeted David Marcus Why wait till January? Select him as Vice Presidential nominee. Clinton-Curiel 2016

In a hilariously absurd post, the #nevertrump fanatic David French declined to be the nominee of Bill Kristol’s new political party. French is prone to drama so this is pretty standard stuff from him. I take some pride in having spotted him as a loony-tune a long time ago. I could just tell he was, in the mold of Glenn Beck, one of those guys who careens from one cause to the next, always overdoing it in a quest for grace. In a better age, these sorts were turned into missionaries and shipped off to Africa. That said, I’m a...

Neoconservative #NeverTrumper Bill Kristol’s fantasy of an independent “white knight” candidate appearing in the nick of time to save him, his cohorts at The Weekly Standard, and the three people left in America who read that magazine from the nefarious wiles of Donald Trump came crashing down this weekend. David French, the National Review writer, lawyer, and Iraq War vet hand-picked by Kristol — in what will surely go down as one of the most anticlimactic announcements in U.S. political history — to be that #NeverTrump white knight has unequivocally rejected the honor. “After days of prayer, reflection, and serious...

Here is a sentence I never thought I’d type: After days of prayer, reflection, and serious study of the possibilities, I am not going to run as an independent candidate for president of the United States. I gave it serious thought — as a pretty darn obscure lawyer, writer, and veteran — only because we live in historic times. Never before have both parties failed so spectacularly, producing two dishonest, deceitful candidates who should be disqualified from running for town council, much less leader of the free world.

Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus quickly put down efforts by Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol to launch an independent bid for president from National Review columnist David French on Thursday morning.

While Donald Trump has called on the GOP to become a “worker’s party”— a development Sen. Jeff Sessions called for two years ago, ironically, in the pages of the National Review— French has defended the idea that white working-class communities “deserve to die.”

The "Never Trump" movement died on Tuesday night. That's when the loose affiliation of Republican pundits and conservative thinkers, banded together by their shared distaste for Donald Trump as the GOP nominee, leaked the news to Bloomberg that conservative lawyer David French was the secret third party candidate they have been working to recruit into the 2016 race as an alternative to the real estate mogul. The French news ended days of frantic speculation set off by a tweet -- yes, this is the world we now live in -- by Weekly Standard editor and "Never Trump" leader Bill Kristol....

Never-Trumper Bill Kristol Is Eyeing This Conservative Lawyer For a Third-Party Run May. 31, 2016 5:35pm Tré Goins-Phillips Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, a prominent leader seeking to block Donald Trump from becoming president, is working to recruit conservative attorney David French, according to two Republicans familiar with the Never-Trumper’s efforts. French, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, is a constitutional lawyer, the author of several books and the recipient of the Bronze Star, according to his biography at National Review, where he serves as a staff writer. French lives in Columbia, Tenn., with his wife, Nancy, and three children.