Free Republic

One thing that sticks out to me reading the anonymous editorial in the New York Times is that it doesn't sound like a government official wrote it. The big "tell" is the use of the term "senior officials" in one form or similar at three points in the body of the editorial. Do regular people write like that? Not really but you know who does? Reporters. Think about it. How often do you see reporters using the term "senior officials" when writing on background? It is fairly frequent. In contrast how often do high level officials in the government refer...

On a week when Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation or Bob Woodward's book were seen ahead of time as the two big stories that would consume media coverage, along came an anonymous source, a senior administration official, to the New York Times with a scathing op-ed on President Trump that has Washington and the press (again) aflutter with talk of this being THE moment that changes everything. Let's first unpack who, at least in general terms, the source of the column is ... a column that includes describing the president’s leadership style as "impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective," among other...

Kavanaugh Will Kill the Constitution The legitimacy of the Supreme Court is on the line. By Paul Krugman Opinion Columnist Sept. 6, 2018 At a fundamental level, the attempt to jam Brett Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court closely resembles the way Republicans passed a tax cut last year. Once again we see a rushed, nakedly partisan process, with G.O.P. leaders withholding much of the information that’s supposed to go into congressional deliberations. Once again the outcome is all too likely to rest on pure tribalism: Unless some Republicans develop a very late case of conscience, they will vote along party...

Federal prosecutors have for months been using a grand jury to investigate former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe — an indication the probe into whether he misled officials exploring his role in a controversial media disclosure has intensified, two people familiar with the matter said. The grand jury has summoned more than one witness, the people said, and the case is ongoing. The people declined to identify those who had been called to testify. The presence of the grand jury shows prosecutors are treating the matter seriously, locking in the accounts of witnesses who might later have to testify at...

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, seizing on an explosive op-ed from an anonymous administration official, said Thursday that it's time to use constitutional powers to remove President Donald Trump office if top officials don't think he can do the job. "If senior administration officials think the President of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment," Warren told CNN. "The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the Vice President and senior officials think the President can't do his job. It does not provide that senior officials go around the President -- take...

A Hillary Clinton presidency would have been even more disruptive that the current Donald Trump administration, historian and prolific author Niall Ferguson told CNBC on Thursday. "There would have been an almost immediate impeachment process," Ferguson said in an interview with CNBC's Steve Sedgwick at the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy on Thursday. "More importantly, Trump supporters would have bought the story that the election had been rigged and you would have had Trump supporters with their pitchforks, or more likely semi-automatics, in a very ugly mood," he added. An anonymous op-ed published by The New York Times on Wednesday painted...

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) on Thursday called President Trump’s furious reaction to an anonymous administration official's op-ed disparaging him in The New York Times a “manifestation of his instability.” Pelosi said her “first thought” was that Vice President Pence penned the opinion piece, which described efforts among staffers in the Trump administration to push back against the president's instincts. Not long after the op-ed was published Wednesday afternoon, Trump tweeted “Treason?” in all caps. He later demanded the Times identify the piece's author "for National Security purposes." “The president saying it’s treason is, again, a manifestation of his...

The book, Fear: Trump in the White House, will be available September 11, 2018, but it's already creating a stir. Do you plan to read it? You can check it out from your local library, or you can purchase it. The price is #18.00 at Amazon and $19.26 at Barnes and Noble. I'm not sure if I'll read it or not. I already have many books stacked up to read.

President Trump should probably call off the hunt for the “senior official in the…..administration " who the New York Times is claiming wrote a damning op-ed for the newspaper. Apparently the “senior official” claims to be part of a group of White House staff trying to thwart the president’s agenda from within. He also claims they seriously considered trying to depose the president using the 25th amendment of the Constitution. Serious stuff. But President Trump should relax and remember it is the New York Times after all. The paper has a scandalous history of lying about the seniority of officials...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry responded Wednesday night to the explosive New York Times op-ed alleging a “quiet resistance” inside the Trump administration actively working to thwart the president’s agenda. “It scares the hell out of me,” Mr. Kerry told comedian Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show.” “First of all, there is a reassurance,” he added. “It means that for James Buchanan, he’s no longer the worst president.” A senior Trump administration official who was granted anonymity by The Times penned an op-ed Wednesday claiming to be part of a group of individuals “working diligently from within” to sabotage...

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Michael R. Caputo says he knows who it is. The strategist and WBEN contributor says a woman wrote the scathing Op-Ed piece in the New York Times that has set Washington ablaze. "I know who she is. It's a woman and I'm kind of cautious. My attorney is trying to keep me from saying her name" said Caputo. He thinks it's an administrative coup. "Whenever this person decided to write this Op-Ed, they should have stood up with the courage of their convictions and quit, but unfortunately we have a coward in the administration's senior ranks"...

Collusion? You want to see some collusion? Check out CNN’s Alisyn Camerota this morning. She expressed reluctance in outing the anonymous author of yesterday’s New York Times op-ed. Camerota gave two reasons for her reluctance: [snip] 2. “I also am uncomfortable going too far in trying to out this person who wasn’t, clearly, ready to be outed, because this person argues that they are doing important work inside the White House or inside the administration and therefore doesn’t want to be outed right now.” Let’s break this down. [snip] As to not wanting to out anonymous because “this person argues...

Wednesday on the radio, Dan Bongino subbed for LevinTV host Mark Levin and discussed a New York Times op-ed by an anonymous author. The article is purportedly by a “senior official” in the Trump administration who has “vowed to thwart” parts of Trump’s agenda. Bongino called out the unnamed author as a “coward” and a “chump” for resisting Trump, which really means resisting the American voters who put Trump in office. “When you object to the peaceful transition of power, the republic is finished,” Bongino said. “What else is left? Bongino said that the author has a duty to resign...

Earlier this month, during an interview with Politico, Bob Woodward came forward to claim he’d been threatened in an email by a “senior White House official” for daring to reveal certain details about the negotiations over the budget sequester. The White House responded by releasing the email exchange Woodward was referring to, which turned out to be nothing more than a cordial exchange between the reporter and Obama’s economic adviser, Gene Sperling, who was clearly implying nothing more than that Woodward would “regret” taking a position that would soon be shown to be false. A rather trivial scandal, but the...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson started his show Wednesday night claiming he had a “pretty good idea who wrote” the controversial anonymous New York Times op-ed and added that representatives from his show had called the White House for comment. Earlier in the day, The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed that was allegedly written by a “senior official in the Trump administration.” “We think we’ve got a pretty good idea who wrote this piece. We’ve called the White House for comment on it tonight. But until we confirm the identity, of course, we’re not going to accuse anybody...

The New York Times’ scathing anti-Donald Trump op-ed, which the paper attributed to “a senior official in the Trump administration,” has inspired a parlor game among people trying to figure out the author’s name. Some online commentators are leaning toward Vice President Mike Pence based on just one word in the piece. The unidentified author singles out the late Arizona Sen. John McCain as “a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue.” The word ― which Merriam-Webster defines as either “a star that leads or guides” or a person who “serves as an inspiration, model, or...

The New York Times op-ed page editor Jim Dao on Wednesday described the process behind publishing a bombshell op-ed from an anonymous senior administration official, telling CNN that the official contacted him “through an intermediary.” Dao said the Times also spoke directly with the individual but there are only a "very small number of people within the Times who know this person's identity.” The op-ed, published Wednesday afternoon, described coordinated efforts among Trump administration staff to counter President Trump. The Times described the anonymous author in a note as "a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known...

If the “senior official” who published an anonymous op-ed bashing President Donald Trump in the New York Times on Wednesday was hoping for accolades from the opposition, he or she must have been sorely disappointed, as the media’s leftists and Never Trumpers accused the author of cowardice for failing to take the extra step of removing Trump altogether. The author claimed to be part of the “resistance” inside the White House. But the real “resistance” wasn’t having it. Jessica Roy, an anti-Trump writer at the Los Angeles Times, attacked the author in an op-ed titled, “No, anonymous Trump official, you’re...

Secretary of Defense James Mattis is denying making the negative statements about President Donald Trump that are claimed in a new book by the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward.And he’s not leaving any room for doubt.“The contemptuous words about the president attributed to me in Woodward’s book were never uttered by me or in my presence,” Mattis said in a statement, according to Washington Examiner. “While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.”In Twitter posts Tuesday, Trump also gave his opinion on Woodward’s book, calling it “discredited”...

President Trump on Wednesday called for the New York Times to reveal the name of the anonymous administration official who wrote an op-ed article blasting him. “Does the so-called ‘Senior Administration Official’ really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!” the president wrote in a tweet posted online at about 7:45 p.m. The Times said in an explanation that went along with the op-ed — which was published Wednesday afternoon —...