Free Republic

Watch live: Sen. Lindsey Graham announces presidential bid

A super PAC backing Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is pulling no punches with the first attack ad of the 2016 GOP presidential primary, complete with fire-breathing bald eagles and slams of Sens. Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham for their stances on government surveillance. Mimicking the aggressive style of a wrestling event promo, the one-minute spot teases the Senate debate Sunday ("Sunday! Sunday!") over expiring portions of the Patriot Act as the “greatest brawl for liberty of the century." The ad, released by America's Liberty PAC, pits a photoshopped picture of Paul’s face on a bodybuilder against President Obama, “the head...

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday that he will announce his decision about whether to run for president on June 1 in his hometown of Central, S.C., but left little doubt about his intentions by saying “I’m running.” “I’m running because of what you see on television, I’m running because I think the world is falling apart, I’ve been more right than wrong on foreign policy,” he said on “CBS This Morning,” when asked if he was running because he was unimpressed with the rest of the field (and appearing to dispense with the pretense that he hasn’t decided whether to...

The daughter of America’s most famous evangelist, Billy Graham, says God is “clearly warning that His judgment is coming on America, and it’s going to be ugly.” So, Ann Graham Lotz is calling on Americans to participate in a “Mayday” time of prayer and intercession May 15-23. She hopes to “delay or soften God’s judgment that is coming on America and our world” and urge the Holy Spirit to “compel the church to repent of sin and our nation to return to faith in the living God.” Lotz’s warnings are startlingly specific. In a recent message on her website, she...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is expected to announce a presidential bid, says if the Supreme Court rules same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional, then it will be time for Republicans to move on. Graham told Boston Herald radio on Monday that society is changing and a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and woman is no longer possible. “Well, can you be for traditional marriage? Yes. Am I for traditional marriage? Yes, I believe marriage has stood the test of time between a man and a woman, ordained by God, and that’s — most societies have been organized...

[SNIP] ".........While the joke goes that every senator looks in the mirror each morning and sees a potential occupant of the Oval Office, senators do have automatic fund-raising bases and little difficulty attracting the spotlight. Still, since 1960, only two — John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Barack Obama of Illinois — have risen directly to the White House.... [SNIP] ....For now, Republican Senate colleagues are optimistic about the presidential aspirants’ ability to make it back to Washington for crucial votes, and about the party leadership’s willingness to try to work around their campaign schedules, when possible. “Remember when Obama...

Specific proposals to end the appalling violence in Syria, Yemen, and territories controlled by the Islamic State group are scarce in the nascent presidential campaign. That is about to change. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- who tells Yahoo Finance he’s “92-and-a-half percent sure” he’s running for president -- wants to send U.S. troops back to the world’s most volatile region to stamp out vicious terrorism and remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “Assad has to go,” he says in the video above. “We’re going to have to send some of our soldiers back into the Middle East.”

9/11 COVER-UP? The latest claim isn’t from conspiracy theorists--it’s from a former top US Senator. He says documents prove Saudi Arabia helped pull off the attacks, and that the FBI hid the truth. Shep has details:

An ongoing lawsuit has pried loose new records linked to a family of Sarasota Saudis who left home in a hurry just before 9/11. It was Halloween night, 2001. The horrors of 9/11 were still fresh on the the minds of Americans. At a time when everyone was on edge, the sight of a man disposing documents in a dumpster behind a Bradenton storage facility aroused suspicion. Summoned to the scene, Manatee County sheriff’s deputies confronted the man, who had a Tunisian passport. According to FBI records, authorities searched the dumpster and found “a self-printed manual on terrorism and Jihad,...

Bob is quoting Michael Moore's Material to Alan...and before that.... He asked Bob Graham about his books thesis that Bush needs to be impeached and removed from office for miss-leading the public. Then Hannity read some quotes to Bob. Then said what is wrong with that, and then Bob goes on to say that Bush should have done a comparative between the threat of al-Qaida and the threat from Iraq. Then he went on and on and said that Bush just miss-lead the People about WMDs and the ability or the lack of there of to deliver these WMDs to...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wants to keep in place an interim nuclear deal with Iran that he harshly criticized when it was unveiled in 2013. Graham, who is considering a run for president, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that current nuclear talks with Iran should be suspended, with the temporary deal remaining in effect until President Obama leaves the White House in 2017.

The storm of Islam” is coming, already with the persecution of Christians in the Middle East but it’s “going to get worse” with “persecution” in America because resident Barack Obama is “very sympathetic to Islam,” said evangelical pastor Franklin Graham... Muslims are influencing U.S. foreign policy as was evident in the way the White House “snubbed” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “[I]t’s because of the influence of Islam,” he said. “They hate Israel and they hate Christians, and so the storm is coming.” ... this isn’t just radical Islam – this is Islam. They’ve been persecuting Christians, minorities for centuries....

Senator Lindsey Graham, a possible 2016 Republican presidential contender, said the United States should put off a final nuclear agreement with Iran until after the U.S. election and said Democrat Hillary Clinton could get a better deal. The South Carolina Republican sharply criticized President Barack Obama's negotiating skills in talks to contain Iran's nuclear program. The only candidate he mentioned by name as being able to do better was the Democrats' presidential favorite. "Keep the interim deal in place. Allow a new president in 2017, Democrat or Republican, to take a crack," Graham told CBS' "Face the Nation" program. "The...

With the American electorate shifting solidly in favor of climate action over the last few years, Republican presidential candidates have a tough decision to make: Keep chasing donations from the fossil fuel industry, or follow where the science leads and form an authentically conservative plan for addressing the increasingly pressing problem of global warming. Unfortunately for the planet, it’s not looking pretty. Here’s what the leading 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls have to say about climate change:

Ted Cruz vows to repeal “every word” of Obamacare and Common Core if he becomes president. He would “abolish” the IRS, flatten the Tax Code so Americans can fill out their taxes on a postcard, and “finally, finally, finally” secure the border. To which Lindsey Graham says: not going to happen.

Graham threatens to cut funds to UN if Obama bypasses Congress on Iran sanctions...

The night before an agriculture summit in Urbandale, Iowa, Lindsey Graham seemed concerned, above all else, about his attire. The event would mark Graham's introduction to the presidential campaign stage, in front of hundreds of members of Iowa and national press, and hundreds more Iowa farmers. The quality and reception of his remarks would likely bear on the trajectory of his candidacy, should he decide to run for president. But, roughly 12 hours before he was set to speak, Graham was puzzling not over his message, but whether to wear a tie.

Lindsey Graham’s prospective presidential operation is ramping up with the hiring of a new communications director and a senior political adviser. Brittany Bramell, a former spokeswoman for House Speaker John Boehner, will spearhead communications for Security Through Strength, the PAC that is laying the groundwork for the South Carolina Republican’s long-shot bid.

Life in the White House imitated Parks and Rec recently, as the identity of a staffer who ran an anonymous Twitter account critical of the administration emerged. But the real-life plot diverged from the show when the White House staffer, Jofi Joseph, was promptly fired instead of having a warm moment with Amy Poehler. Joseph, a director in the White House's National Security Staff, ran the @NatSecWonk stream, popular in foreign policy circles for its unabashed trolling of the administration, its allies, and various other political types. "I'm a fan of Obama, but his continuing reliance and dependence upon a...

The Talk Shows March 8th, 2015 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. ; former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Lewis.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Tim Scott, R-S.C.; Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.; Benjamin Crump, lawyer for the family of Michael Brown, the unarmed black 18-year-old shot to death by a white police officer in Ferguson.THIS WEEK (ABC): Mayor James Knowles of Ferguson, Missouri;...