Free Republic

Via Joel Pollak, a stumper from an event in South Carolina. What’s the politic answer to give here if you’re a modern right-thinking “kill ’em up to the moment of crowning” liberal? Clearly the answer Beto wants to give, the one that’s consonant with left-wing thinking, is “No, your life had no meaning until you were born.” But that’s a tough thing to say to someone’s face when he’s asking about his own life specifically. The less abstract and more concrete questions about abortion get, the more uncomfortable they are. So no, O’Rourke won’t say that. “Of course I don’t...

Self-help author Marianne Williamson was the most searched Democrat candidate during the second Democrat debate on Tuesday, according to Google Trends. Williamson beat out top candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Williamson was also the top-searched candidate in 49 of 50 states, excluding Montana, where its governor, Steve Bullock, ranked higher. Williamson captivated viewers with her meandering and unconventional responses and phrases such as “dark psychic force” and “emotional turbulence.” At the last debate, she won attention for saying her plan to defeat President Trump was to “harness love.” She won some of...

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton called out Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Sunday evening for using an anti-Jewish stereotype when she alleged that members of Congress had been paid to support Israel. Omar began by tweeting “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” in response to a comment by left-wing Israel critic Glenn Greenwald in which he lamented that Congress in general, and Republicans in particular, supported Israel. At no point did Omar acknowledge that what she had said was in any way antisemitic or offensive. Chelsea Clinton’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, is Jewish.

There are increasing doubts about claims that the suspect in Wednesday’s mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was tied to a white supremacist group, the Republic of Florida (ROF). The Tallahassee Democrat quoted local law enforcement officials as saying they had no evidence linking Cruz to the ROF: Local law enforcement sources have not found a connection between accused Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz and a Tallahassee-based paramilitary group. Leon County law enforcement sources told the Tallahassee Democrat that they could not find information linking Cruz, 19, to the Republic of Florida Militia, as...

In an interview with MSNBC, Breitbart senior editor Joel Pollak has made clear that Donald Trump can't take his website's support for granted. "If he pulls an Arnold Schwarzenegger and tries to reinvent himself as a liberal, he will see that support erode very, very quickly, and he will struggle politically, I think, to make the case for reelection in 2020," Pollak made the comments after it was announced that former (and now current) Breitbart.com chief Steve Bannon was removed from his position as Trump's Chief Strategist. [VIDEO] There can be little doubt that Pollak is right. From old-school conservatives...

The accusation that President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with the Russians, and that he is trying to cover it up, looks increasingly like a classic Russian disinformation campaign — one designed to bring down the only president since the Cold War who has actually been willing to confront Russia in any meaningful way. It is an article of faith on the left that Russia wanted Trump to win the election because Vladimir Putin anticipated a more pliant approach, signaled by Trump’s explicit desire to negotiate a better relationship. But the Russians may just as well have preferred Hillary Clinton,...

Breitbart senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak ordered staffers in an internal chatroom to stop defending Michelle Fields, the staffer who was allegedly manhandled by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.The internal Breitbart Slack chats, which were obtained by BuzzFeed News, put on display the tension between those at Breitbart who want to act like a publisher — defending their reporter and finding the truth — and those entangled in politics.“STOP tweeting about the story. Stop speculating about the story,” Pollak told staffers in one message, and reminded them that “you were given explicit instructions.”“You may wish to defend your colleague, and that...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich seized second place in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday evening, in a race Donald Trump had dominated since the fall. But others had also spent time in the second place slot behind Trump, including former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina after her strong undercard debate performance in September; and Dr. Ben Carson, who was in second for much of the autumn, but finished in last place on Tuesday evening. What happened? A look at the RealClearPolitics averages allows us to pinpoint the exact moment when Carson began to fade, never to recover: Nov. 13, 2015....

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) may be “closest to Obama in his view on foreign policy,” as Dr. Charles Krauthammer put it on Tuesday, but he is facing stiff competition from Jeb Bush in that category. The former Florida governor praised Obama’s initial negotiating efforts with Iran on Tuesday, telling an audience in Denver that “we need to give him credit” for “bringing other people along and making it tougher.” The puzzling statement suggests the influence of James A. Baker III on the Bush campaign. Baker, a former Secretary of State, was the co-chair of the Iraq Study Group in 2006,...

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) was forced to apologize on Tuesday, after attacking a political opponent for being an "Orthodox Jew" at a radical leftist J Street conference. At the conference, Schakowsky negatively painted Joel Pollak, her opponent in 2010 elections, by highlighting the fact that he is a religious Jew - a choice of words that the crowd responded to by booing Pollak. In her comments, she criticized Pollak for being a "Jewish, Orthodox, Tea Party Republican." The remarks can be seen in the following video, with the specific reference to Pollak starting at 52 seconds in.

Breitbart News editor Joel Pollak told The Daily Caller that he thinks Attorney General Eric Holder should resign over, among other things, the Department of Justice’s collusion with left-wing advocacy group Media Matters to discredit him. Emails TheDC obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and published Tuesday show DOJ Office of Public Affairs director Tracy Schmaler, Holder’s top press defender, and Media Matters staffers working together to attack reporters covering DOJ scandals. “On the one hand, it’s a badge of honor,” Pollak said of being one of the targets of the collusion. “The cool conservatives make the Obama...

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) told a gathering of anti-war activists in Los Angeles on March 12 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was misleading the public about Israel’s willingness to confront Iran alone, and that he had privately assured President Barack Obama that Israel would not go to war without U.S. backing. The week before, Netanyahu had used a visit to Washington to convey the message that Israel was prepared to act alone if necessary. That message was necessary, given the Obama administration's record of wavering on Iran, and its public attempts to dissuade Israel

A Wikipedia article devoted to Critical Race Theory, a controversial legal theory crafted to respond to the alleged role of “white supremacy” in American law, was placed on a temporary editing lockdown over the weekend after bloggers determined that CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien had relied on Wikipedia’s introductory definition of the theory — verbatim — during on an-air debate. A second lock was placed on the article Monday to protect it from politically biased editors who adjusted it following O’Brien’s gaffe. The flurry began after Breitbart.com editor Joel Pollak made a guest appearance on O’Brien’s show to explain a video...

I hadn’t planned on posting more of the Morning Jolt today, but the video from Obama’s Harvard days seems to be the big story of the morning. It becomes the big story when CNN’s morning program features an old sitcom-actor-turned-pundit Jay Thomas suggesting that Breitbart.com editor-in-chief Joel Pollak is a racist for making a point about Barack Obama’s support for a proponent of “critical race theory” during his days at Harvard Law School. Unbeknownst to Thomas, Pollak’s wife is black. Breitbart.com also has footage of Prof. Charles Ogletree showing the 1991 video of Obama to an audience and saying with...

Soledad O'Brien demonstrated one of the most egregious and embarrassing cases of media bias I've ever seen this morning after arguing with Harvard Law grad Joel Pollak about race at Harvard and Critical Race Theory. O'Brien got so over her head, she leaned upon a panelist who reverted to race card as his argument.

When he unveiled the Derrick Bell video on Hannity last night, Breitbart.com's Joel Pollak labored to explain why the late professor was so offensive. Derrick Bell got into serious trouble when he wrote an essay, a fictional story, called Space Traders, positing that Americans, white Americans would sell black Americans to space aliens in order to pay out the national debt and that Jews would stand by and let it happen. This is a kind of background Derrick Bell had. This is true. "Space Traders" was actually turned into a short film, as part of the 1994 black sci-fi anthology...

Joel Pollak was there to question US Representative Barney Frank, who had just finished a speech on financial regulatory reform. Pollak’s query was provocative, but hardly impolite: “How much responsibility, if any, do you have for the financial crisis?’’ Frank, the powerful chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, pushed back hard, lambasting Pollak for asking an “accusatory’’ question, dismissing his arguments as “totally wrong,’’ and asserting that he was part of a “right-wing attack on liberals.’’

Alan Dershowitz, the long time Professor of Law at Harvard University, and a self-avowed liberal Democrat, took his time before he found a Republican he considered worth supporting -- just under 72 years to be exact. But on Wednesday in Chicago, Dershowitz endorsed his former law student, Joel Pollak, the Republican candidate for Congress in Illinois' 9th district. Dershowitz, who has taught U.S. Senators, Governors, and Congressmen, described Pollak as the single most promising political talent he has ever met. Dershowitz has for many years, been a passionate and dedicated supporter of Israel, and he has fought the growing sentiment...

Barney Frank wants credit for putting out a fire that he helped to start. President Obama has declared an era of responsibility. But to Democrats responsibility means blaming Republicans for everything that goes wrong. Aside from the President himself, perhaps no Democrat is more eager to lay blame at the doorstep of conservatives than Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. I bore witness to Frank's song and dance routine during a talk he recently gave at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. A video of the forum can be found here. (http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/articles/forum-frank-apr09) It is worth...