Free Republic

Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American activist who recently raised an uproar for her open support of rock-throwing terrorism against Israel, has been awarded over $500,000 by the City of New York. The activist, who is a longtime ally of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and has helped him get votes, has led the Arab-American Association of New York based in Brooklyn since 2005. […] Sarsour is the daughter of Palestinian Arab immigrants. Last October she exposed her blatant anti-Israel bias during a Twitter debate with Queens Councilman Rory Lancman, who is Jewish. …

Electoral Map Is a Reality Check to Donald Trump’s Bid By JONATHAN MARTIN and NATE COHN APRIL 2, 2016 Donald J. Trump is so negatively viewed, polls suggest, that he could turn otherwise safe Republican states into tight contests. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times Donald J. Trump’s presidential candidacy has stunned the Republican Party. But if he survives a late revolt by his rivals and other leaders to become the party’s standard-bearer in the general election, the electoral map now coming into view is positively forbidding. In recent head-to-head polls with one Democrat whom Mr. Trump may...

A settlement that a federal district court approved Wednesday protects the right of pro-life pregnancy care centers in New York City to serve women without being forced to speak or post messages that are contrary to their pro-life beliefs or that direct women away from the services the centers offer. The settlement protects the centers’ constitutionally protected freedoms that were in jeopardy because of Local Law 17, an anti-pregnancy care law that the courts mostly invalidated through the ADF lawsuit Pregnancy Care Center of New York v. City of New York. An appeals court affirmed most of a district court’s...

Outwardly, Donald J. Trump called it a “unity meeting” — a closed-door session in Washington on Thursday involving his own inner circle and the Republican National Committee’s high command. Inside, however, it was more of a clearing of the air, according to three people briefed in detail on the discussion. And the candid remarks included some by Mr. Trump directed at his own team. There was plenty of tension to defuse: For months, Mr. Trump has denounced the party’s major donors, and only this week he went back on a written pledge to support whoever becomes the Republican presidential nominee...

Donald J. Trump’s presidential candidacy has stunned the Republican Party. But if he survives a late revolt by his rivals and other leaders to become the party’s standard-bearer in the general election, the electoral map now coming into view is positively forbidding. In recent head-to-head polls with one Democrat whom Mr. Trump may face in the fall, Hillary Clinton, he trails in every key state, including Florida and Ohio, despite her soaring unpopularity ratings with swing voters. In Democratic-leaning states across the Rust Belt, which Mr. Trump has vowed to return to the Republican column for the first time in...

The rules for how Republican delegates are selected — which differ in every state — could end up turning votes for one candidate into delegates who will support another candidate at the convention. ... But delegates may not personally support the candidate that voters picked. In a few states, candidates pick their delegates outright, but in most cases they have less control. Many delegates are elected by party members at local and state conventions. The candidates often conduct parallel campaigns to get their supporters named as delegates. Here are examples of the variety of methods for selecting delegates used...

The rules for how Republican delegates are selected — which differ in every state — could end up turning votes for one candidate into delegates who will support another candidate at the convention.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We hear a lot, ladies and gentlemen, about how Donald Trump -- oh, speaking of which, the New York Times is back. What did we have the New York Times yesterday that they totally didn't understand, they got wrong, they were late arriving, I can't remember what it is, but they're back. The New York Times has a story today: "How the GOP Elite Lost Its Voters to Donald Trump." And they still don't get it. You know what they think it is? The New York Times thinks that the Republican Party message of trickle-down economics, tax...

Donald Trump wants US allies to ante up if they want to continue under the “cloak of American protection,” according to his first detailed comments on his foreign-policy platform. “We’re not being reimbursed for the kind of tremendous service that we’re performing by protecting various countries,” the Republican front-runner was quoted as saying.

Ted Cruz was naming friends. Seated for an interview inside a stately Midtown Manhattan library, just south of Trump Tower, the Texas senator leaned forward in his chair, ticking off the unlikely coalition drifting his way. There was Jeb Bush, who announced his endorsement in a terse predawn news release, and Mitt Romney, who initially said his support applied only to his voting preference in Utah. Mr. Cruz had swung Mike Lee, his greatest ally in the Senate, nearly a year after his campaign began, and Mark Levin, a conservative radio host who recently made his longstanding admiration on the...

The "America First" idea that governs most of Trump's foreign policy prescriptions:

Anyone else see this as THE MAIN REASON Trump is kicking butt?

Senator Ted Cruz may have urged Donald J. Trump to leave his wife, Heidi, “the hell alone,” but there is one group that is quietly hoping Mr. Trump’s attacks on his rival’s spouse and other women will continue indefinitely: Democrats. As Hillary Clinton turns her attention to a general election campaign, Mr. Trump’s nasty skirmish with Mr. Cruz, including his warning to “spill the beans” about Mrs. Cruz, without offering specifics, and his reposting of a message that mocked her looks, have played into a crucial Democratic strategy to defeat Mr. Trump in November: to portray him as an unabashed...

After the deadly attacks in Brussels, The New York Times is bringing “Islamophobia” home to describe how this will help the Democrats with Muslim voter-registration drives. A story by reporter Alan Rappeport on Friday ended with this provocative little quote from Muslim activist Reema Ahmad: “If you’re not at the dinner table, you’re on the menu.” Republicans eat Muslims? The headline in the Times was “Feeling G.O.P. Peril, Muslims Try to Get Out Vote.”Rappeport began: American Muslims are watching in growing horror as Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz battle for the Republican presidential nomination, outdoing each other with...

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz swooped into Manhattan Wednesday and promptly hit Mayor de Blasio below the belt when he said cops who turned their backs on him were speaking for all Americans. "When heroes of NYPD stood up and turned their backs on Mayor de Blasio, they spoke not just for the men and women of New York, but for Americans all across this nation,” said Cruz at the GOP Party & Women's National Republican Club in Midtown. Cruz’s remarks escalated comments he made earlier Wednesday, when he said on “CBS This Morning” the criticism of his call to...

As the bad news out of Brussels continues to unfold today, we are reminded of some of the coverage that the city has received in the past. As I listened to the expert analysis of precisely what went so wrong there, the name of on particular segment of the city kept coming up repeatedly. The neighborhood of Molenbeek has long been known as a breeding ground for terrorists and a virtual “no go” sector for the cops, no matter what other European leaders say. CNN terrorism analysts this morning were bemoaning the fact that previous efforts to locate suspects in...

So it was with some trepidation that I tuned into SNL last night to watch my old friend Donald Trump host in an eagerly awaited and hugely hyped encounter. I make no pretence of having hugely enjoyed Trump’s campaign to date. Not because I support all the contentious things he’s said, nor because I agree with him on issues like guns, immigration or climate change. (But then I wouldn’t agree with much of what the other candidates say about many issues, nor do I agree with anything the increasingly ridiculous Dr Ben Carson says or stands for) No, the reason...

On the 16 March 2016 edition of CNN's New Day, Chris Cuomo revealed that he was wearing his father's guayabera shirt, which was "given to him by Fidel Castro as a gift." Cuomo, who was covering President Obama's visit to Cuba, underlined that "it didn't mean something to him because it came from Fidel Castro necessarily, but because it marked conversations going on decades ago that were the same as those today." The anchor summarized that for his father, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, "the concern was the freedom of the people. What is the point of this communist...

LONDON — He incensed Paris and London by saying that some of their neighborhoods were so overrun with radicals that the police were too scared to enter. He raised Scottish tempers by threatening to pull the plug on his investments there, including his luxury golf courses, if British politicians barred him from entering Britain. Now Donald J. Trump has upset the already beleaguered people of Belgium, calling its capital, Brussels, “a hellhole.” Asked by the Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo about the feasibility of his proposal to bar foreign Muslims from entering the United States, Mr. Trump argued that...

An anti-Donald Trump rally in New York City was infiltrated by brave Trump supporters. While thousands of protesters marched from Columbus Circle to Trump Tower and got into clashes with police, his supporters stuck out like a sore thumb. Among them a black man shouting, "Black people ain't got nothing against Trump. Al Sharpton don't speak for all of us."