Free Republic

Former Texas Republican Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul confirmed in an interview with the Fox Business Network that he will not be supporting Donald Trump for United States president. He said in jest that he’s waiting for Trump to become a libertarian. When asked if there’s anything that Trump could say that would help change his mind, Paul replied that he wouldn’t know what to believe since “he’s all over the map.” The entire four-minute interview is embedded below: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) This is different from his son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who said he will support the GOP nominee,...

Per Twitter "Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate--an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance." -Bill Kristol Who is it, Mittens? This absolutely disgusts me. This fool is going to cost us the election because he and some bitter Cruz supporters didn't get their way. He knows it will split the vote and we won't win. A few things: 1)He wants to cause enough of a vote split where no candidate has the 270. Ok. Let's say he does that. He will literally be usurping the will of all...

Orlando, Florida (CNN)Libertarians on Sunday selected a presidential ticket headed by former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who lit into presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on immigration and a range of other issues. At the party convention in Orlando, Florida, Johnson got his preferred running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, in a weekend gathering that drew sharp contrasts with the major party candidates -- Trump and Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee. Johnson described the real estate mogul's immigration policies as "just racist," particularly the Republican's call to deport 11 million undocumented people currently in the country. Libertarian activists...

Neoconservative political operative Bill Kristol announced Sunday that an independent candidate will enter the presidential race to challenge both Donald Trump and the Democratic Party nominee. Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, has been trying for months to find a third-party challenger since his preferred candidates lost in the Republican primaries to Trump. Now, just weeks after meeting with Mitt Romney to talk about a third-party run, Kristol hinted Sunday that his plot is coming to fruition.

Jill Stein, who is seeking the Green Party nomination for President, said that President Obama should apologize during his trip to Hiroshima for the use of nuclear weapons against Japan by pledging nuclear disarmament. Dr. Stein also urged Obama to listen to the testimony of the survivors of the nuclear attack, who have dedicated their lives to the elimination of nuclear weapons so that no one else should ever experience the hell on earth they survived. "The existence of nuclear weapons threatens the survival of humanity. I pledge to eliminate all such weapons as an urgent priority," stated Stein. Despite...

ORLANDO, Fla. — It was supposed to be a stroke of genius: Gary Johnson, the 2012 Libertarian nominee for president and the party’s leading contender in 2016, announced that William Weld, the two-term former Republican governor of Massachusetts, would serve as his running mate. The idea was clear and appealing. The pair would comprise a powerful two-governor ticket just as the leading Democratic and Republican contenders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, rate as historically unpopular. The hope was they could emerge as a true third-party alternative. But here in the corridors of the Rosen Centre Hotel and Resort at the...

Gary Johnson, the likely Libertarian candidate for president, is blasting Donald Trump's policy on immigration as "insanity," and positioned himself as a helping hand to those who came here illegally. Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, is expected to emerge this weekend as the Libertarian standard-bearer. "Is my door going to be knocked down because I'm going to get checked for papers?" Johnson said while praising undocumented immigrants who are leaders in their communities. "We're going to now come in and knock down doors and they're going to be deported? It'd be like putting them on the...

The assumption is that someone whose label is “Libertarian” has libertarian values and would promote them in office. In the case of Johnson, that notion is absurd. When Johnson took the tiller in New Mexico in 1995, the budget stood at $4.397 billion. When he left in 2003, it had grown to $7.721, an increase of 7.29 percent a year. Of the eleven governors who filed to run for president this year (two Democrats, Johnson, and eight Republicans), only one had a worse record on spending growth.... On civil liberties as with fiscal issues, Johnson’s record is less libertarian than...

Presidential Libertarian candidate, Austin Petersen appeared on Glenn Beck‘s show today, scoring major points with the host and his viewers. The show will be aired in its entirety later today on The Blaze, but according to a status update on Austin Petersen’s Facebook page, Glenn Beck has already given Petersen a glowing endorsement. Just after noon today, the post thanked Beck for his support.

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist David Koch has pledged “tens of millions of dollars” to help bankroll the campaign of Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, according to a source within Johnson’s campaign. Koch’s money will be made available should Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, secure his second consecutive Libertarian Party presidential nomination, the source said. The Libertarians will select their presidential ticket during the party’s national convention later this month in Orlando.

#NeverTrump withers. If #NeverTrump was on a stretcher, its doctor would be saying “call it” and looking up at the clock right about now. When Cruz left the race it seemed like the movement might have legs, but whatever life it once held has been steadily bleeding out ever since. As Trump gets stronger (and polls better) the odds that #NeverTrumpers could achieve their goals have all but collapsed. Now, one of #NeverTrump’s top dogs is wandering away from the effort. Mitt Romney - a man who knows a thing or two about suspending campaigns - has decided it’s time...

Mitt Romney ends recruiting efforts for an independent candidate By Eric Bradner and Jim Acosta, CNN Updated 3:01 PM ET, Wed May 18, 2016 Washington (CNN)Mitt Romney won't launch a third-party presidential campaign of his own and has stopped trying to recruit somebody else to do it. The 2012 Republican nominee had attempted to recruit a challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But prospects like Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said no, and Romney is now dropping his efforts, a source familiar with Romney's thinking told CNN. The news was first reported by Yahoo News.

This is the craziest presidential election I’ve ever seen. Voters on both sides of the aisle are rebelling against their party establishment. Donald Trump who has never before run for office is the presumptive GOP nominee. And Bernie Sanders, a 74-year old Socialist, continues to give Hillary a run for her money, generating 100% of the enthusiasm on the Democrat side. There’s something else brand new about this election – the role of last election’s loser. I thought the role of a Presidential election loser that doesn’t hold any other elective office is to slither away into hiding somewhere and...

Watch the full exclusive interview with Ohio Gov. John Kasich on "Anderson Cooper 360" at 8 p.m. ET on CNN. John Kasich said Monday that he would not mount a third party bid for the White House, putting an end to budding hopes that the former Republican presidential candidate would reenter the race. "I'm not gonna do that," the Ohio governor told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview, his first since leaving the race. "I gave it my best where I am. I just think running third party doesn't feel right. I think it's not constructive." Kasich acknowledged that...

Boehner's scenario: Clinton may drop out, clear way for Biden The Daily Briefing By John T. Bennett CQ-Roll Call • Sunday May 15, 2016 8:53 PM Vice President Joe Biden and former House Speaker John Boehner share a moment as they take the stage for the University of Notre Dame commencement ceremony. Both were on hand Sunday to receive the Laetare Medal. Out with Hillary Clinton. In with Vice President Joe Biden. At least that’s what former House Speaker John A. Boehner thinks could happen should federal prosecutors opt to slap criminal charges on the former secretary of state over...

A group of anti-Donald Trump Republicans is trying to lure Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire businessman Mark Cuban into the presidential race as a third-party candidate, according to a published report.

Mitt Romney made an unsuccessful effort to recruit Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse as a third-party presidential candidate to challenge Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, a source with knowledge of the efforts confirmed to CNN Sunday. Sasse, the freshman Republican, has emerged as one of Trump's foremost critics from the right. Romney and Sasse have talked, the source said, and Romney encouraged Sasse to seriously consider a run... But Sasse is refusing to enter the race... At the Nebraska GOP convention, Sasse was rebuked through a resolution that was overwhelmingly approved by Republicans there who argued that his position would only...

Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus declared Sunday the anti-Donald Trump Republicans' effort to launch a third-party bid for the White House is a "suicide mission." In an interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation," Priebus — days after a closed-door sit-down with the GOP presumptive presidential nominee — warns against a third-party attempt at "blowing everything up." "It's a suicide mission because you're not only changing and throwing out eight years of the White House" but also jeopardizing the course of the Supreme Court, he replied. "We could have up to three justices change over in the next eight...

The head of the Republican National Committee denounced efforts to draft an independent candidate to run against Donald Trump as a "suicide mission" that could "wreck" the United States for generations. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus did not mince words as he urged party figures laying the groundwork for a third-party bid to suspend their work. "They can try to hijack another party and get on the ballot, but, look, it's a suicide mission for our country because what it means is that you're throwing down not just eight years of the White House but potentially 100 years on the Supreme...

A band of exasperated Republicans — including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a handful of veteran consultants and members of the conservative intelligentsia — is actively plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who could keep Donald Trump from the White House. These GOP figures are commissioning private polling, lining up major funding sources­ and courting potential contenders, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republicans involved in the discussions. The effort has been sporadic all spring but has intensified significantly in the 10 days since Trump effectively locked up the Republican nomination. Those involved concede that an independent...