Free Republic

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has taken his most significant step yet in exploring a White House bid, launching a national political organization that’s a popular tool for prospective presidential candidates testing the waters. The governor first confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday that he had formed the "Live Free or Die" committee (borrowed from his state’s nickname), a 501(c)(4) organization where politicians can raise unlimited funds. The donations don't have to be disclosed, and prospective candidates often use these political nonprofits as a way to gauge interest from donors.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s recent political revitalization hasn’t stopped some Democrats in competitive midterm races from treating him like an in-law: always welcome but seldom wanted. Democratic candidates are tiptoeing around his official visits, making case-by-case decisions about whether to appear with him. They're also speaking out against him on certain issues. One campaign outright said it wasn't interested in a Biden visit, while a veteran House Democrat told voters she is “fighting back” against the president. Democrats are walking a tightrope in characterizing their ties to Biden, which might seem counterintuitive considering the streak of legislative victories that...

TAMPA, Fla. -- Before a friendly audience of conservative moms, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday excoriated political opponents of wanting to “sexualize” children and warp kids’ understanding of race and history. The charged campaign rhetoric in remarks to the Moms for Liberty group was usual fare for DeSantis — and a major reason why he’s in the top tier of potential GOP presidential candidates who now sits on an unprecedented $130 million war chest. But the political backdrop was as atypical as unexpected: The day before his speech, one of the national teacher unions that opposes him released a...

At one recent rally, some of Trump's supporters said Putin should have free rein, while others advocated sending in U.S. troops. ...COMMERCE, Ga. — As former President Donald Trump tries to refine his message about Russia's war against Ukraine, his base is splintered over the question of America's engagement in Eastern Europe. "It's not our business," Peggy Bright, 57, said shortly before Trump spoke to an unusually restless and muted crowd here Saturday night... ...Alina Roberts, a Trump voter who was born in Latvia and lives in Atlanta, said at Saturday's rally that Putin cannot be stopped without direct U.S....

They are a distinct minority in their own party and, for that matter, their country: Republican holdouts amid an ever-widening consensus that Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine poses a mortal threat to American interests.A far right wing of the Republican Party tightly bound to former President Donald Trump is fighting to push the GOP toward the “America First” isolationism that underpinned his 2016 presidential bid.For the first time since Trump’s rise, his party is pushing back.That much was clear from the House vote Thursday on a bill ending normal trade relations with Russia as punishment for attacking Ukraine. A total...

WASHINGTON — It is rare that a president can show he is living up to the mantle of "leader of the free world" — and even less common for him to do so against the backdrop of his main political rival praising an autocrat. But that's what President Joe Biden did during his first State of the Union address, highlighting how he has led the Western world in defending Ukraine against Russia's invasion. "Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is waging a quiet campaign to keep his caucus from getting a whole lot Trumpier after the midterms. "He wants people who he knows are team players, people who are interested in solutions," said a GOP senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering fellow Republicans. "There are a lot of people who are running for office these days who have different agendas." In Alaska's Senate race, McConnell is backing incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski, who voted to convict former President Donald Trump on impeachment charges last year. She faces a Trump-backed...

Former President Donald Trump has discontinued his short-lived blog. "It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have [been] and are working on,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said in confirming the decision to scrap "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump." The news was first reported by CNBC. The move comes as Trump is set to return to the campaign trail in an effort to help Republicans win control of the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms as he considers whether to mount a third presidential campaign. "He’s pretty consistently said that he’ll make a decision after the...

Former President Barack Obama reportedly said the former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg couldn’t win the presidency because “he’s gay” and “short,” according to a new book on the 2020 presidential election. Obama expressed confidence in former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren during an October 2019 meeting with elite black donors in New York City, The Hill’s Amie Parnes and NBC’s Jonathan Allen described in the new book “Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency.” During the same meeting, the former president also joked about Buttigieg, citing his age, sexuality, and height, as reasons why he could not win the...

Coronavirus infection rates are spiking to new highs in several metropolitan areas and smaller communities across the country, according to undisclosed data the White House's pandemic task force is using to track rates of infection, which was obtained by NBC News. The data in a May 7 coronavirus task force report are at odds with President Donald Trump's declaration Monday that "all throughout the country, the numbers are coming down rapidly." The 10 top areas recorded surges of 72.4 percent or greater over a seven-day period compared to the previous week, according to a set of tables produced for the...

WASHINGTON - More than two months into what President Donald Trump calls a "war" against COVID-19, his administration's efforts to combat the deadly disease, along with its disastrous effects on the U.S. economy, are often creating more problems than they solve. Bidding wars for life-saving equipment, a power struggle between Trump's son-in-law and the vice president, political gamesmanship, the centralization of authority and decentralization of accountability, and the creation of new government programs while standing bureaucracies are ignored, have all contributed to chaos within the political, economic and health care systems. Banks haven't been able to process loan applications for...

If he had done nothing at all, President Donald Trump said Tuesday, the American death toll from the coronavirus would be geometrically higher than the low six-figure count he now expects. In other words, it could have been worse. Looking like he'd been visited by the ghosts of hometown past and election future, Trump deviated from his typically ebullient, brash and optimistic style to deliver a somber message much more in line with that of his leading scientists. In doing so, a president who played down the threat of the virus for weeks, mocked critics who urged him to take...

Analysis: Two of the nation's most powerful executives are exhibiting nearly opposite leadership styles, policy instincts and public relations strategies. One day, President Donald Trump told Americans that he bore no share of the blame for testing missteps that have increased the devastation wrought by coronavirus. "I don't take responsibility at all," he said. A few days later, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo welcomed accountability for the extraordinary measures his state has put in place to stop the spread of the virus, including the closure of "nonessential" businesses beginning at 8 p.m. Sunday. "If someone wants to blame someone, blame...

No, the Des Moines Register Poll did not kill itself. – The leaders in the Democrat Party are now in full-blown panic as The Commie closes in on a win in Iowa. So panicked, in fact, that they almost certainly spiked the final Des Moines Register poll – a tradition for 76 years running – that was to be released on Sunday. The narrative being pushed by the corrupt news media is that the Register, and its co-sponsor, CNN (because of course it’s CNN) decided to scrap the poll because one of the people conducting the poll consistently mispronounced the...

Chris Heinz and Hunter Biden were friends in business together, each cashing-in on the influence held by their fathers’ John Kerry and Joe Biden. Considering the likelihood Joe Biden was only running for President in order to: (1) shield himself from scrutiny, and (2) establish the cornerstone of the impeachment effort; it makes complete sense for John Kerry to be the participating campaign handler. With Biden’s impeachment usefulness now exhausted by DC engineers, there’s no reason to prop-up his candidacy. He’s dropping like a proverbial rock. However the risk to Biden and Kerry still exists (see Lindsey Graham interview today),...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry — one of Joe Biden's highest-profile endorsers — was overheard Sunday on the phone at a Des Moines hotel explaining what he would have to do to enter the presidential race amid "the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party — down whole." Sitting in the lobby restaurant of the Renaissance Savery hotel, Kerry was overheard by an NBC News analyst saying "maybe I'm f---ing deluding myself here" and explaining that in order to run, he'd have to step down from the board of Bank of America and give up his ability...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Former Secretary of State John Kerry — one of Joe Biden's highest-profile endorsers — was overheard Sunday on the phone at a Des Moines hotel explaining what he would have to do to enter the presidential race amid "the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party — down whole." Sitting in the lobby restaurant of the Renaissance Savery hotel, Kerry was overheard by an NBC News analyst saying "maybe I'm f---ing deluding myself here" and explaining that in order to run, he'd have to step down from the board of Bank of America and...

The lesson of this impeachment so far for President Donald Trump and his successors is that there are major strategic and tactical advantages to simply refusing to send witnesses and documents to Congress. Not only has the president benefited from blocking the evidence itself, but his defenders have argued - compellingly in the minds of some observers - that the House Democrats' case against him on both articles of impeachment is weaker because they did not wait to see if courts would compel testimony and the production of documents at issue. But it's not clear that the president, who has...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's defense failed him at the opening of his Senate impeachment trial on Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had one job. He just had to collect 51 votes for the trial rules he had written, in close consultation with White House officials, to deliver Trump an acquittal quickly, quietly and with as few surprises as possible. He couldn't do it. Fellow Republicans balked at his plan so late in the game — moments before the start of the trial — that he had to order up handwritten changes sought by Democrats just to secure...

Analysis: Yet, as Democrats move toward a pre-Christmas vote, they still find a wall of Republican loyalists at President Donald Trump’s side. President Donald Trump presented little in the way of defense in the opening phase of his impeachment proceedings. He refused to give Congress documents. He ordered subordinates to defy subpoenas. And he issued blanket proclamations of his innocence, over Twitter and in exchanges with reporters, without testifying under oath on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, as Democrats moved one step closer to a House floor vote on impeachment that they expect to hold before Christmas, a string of current and...