Free Republic

The chief group backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid made a $2.75 million cash infusion to a pop-up super PAC right around the time that group spent millions attacking former President Donald Trump The payments from the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down to Win It Back PAC — a group linked to Club for Growth — were revealed in the latter group’s filings with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday. Win It Back PAC spent more than $6.4 million on digital and TV ads over the summer opposing Trump’s candidacy. It also funded a field program and text messaging.

Podcaster Dan Bongino blasted House members Friday for not producing a speaker after 17 days. "PICK A SPEAKER ALREADY YOU CHILDISH NITWITS!" Bongino wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has failed in three elections for speaker as of Friday. The previous two elections happened back to back on Thursday. Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted when eight Republicans voted to oust him along with the rest of the Democratic members. "McCarthy, of all people, was just on the floor nominating Jordan, which makes these whining crybaby wussbags in Congress look even...

Top officials with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign made the case to a gathering of top donors opposed to Donald Trump on Friday that rival GOP candidate Nikki Haley could not defeat the former president in a head-to-head matchup. If they wanted to stop Trump, they argued, the Florida governor remained their best bet. In another presentation made to the same group, Haley’s team argued the opposite. DeSantis’ campaign had flatlined, they insisted, pointing to data that showed that the former UN ambassador was ascendent and, therefore, the logical choice for the anti-Trump crowd. Haley’s team, according to a person familiar...

It is important, VERY IMPORTANT, to remember the Club for Growth (CfG) is the Ron DeSantis career financial vehicle. Ever since his first steps into Congress, CfG has been the primary financial sponsor for the now Florida Governor. There is no moment in the political career of DeSantis where CfG does not exist.While the DeSantis SuperPAC Never Back Down is the mechanics of the DeSantis election strategy, CfG is the well invested advising side, and David McIntosh has been the source of DeSantis’ career guidance for a decade. That’s how intrinsically connected Club for Growth is to Ron and Casey...

One of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s top D.C. fundraisers is a highly paid lobbyist for Big Pharma firm Moderna, and is advertising $1,000 tickets for access to DeSantis at his firm’s office a few blocks from the White House.The Daily Mail broke the story of lobbyist Marc Lampkin, one of the hosts of a DeSantis fundraiser in the swamp, on June 23rd.Lampkin has lobbied for Moderna since February 2021, and worryingly has also represented AbbVie – which makes puberty blocker Lupron targeted at “transgender” children – as well as the Chinese Communist Party-linked Fujian Jinhua – a semi-conductor manufacturer sanctioned...

A lobbyist for vaccine manufacturer Moderna and for the maker of a leading puberty blocker given to transgender children is holding a fundraising event for Ron DeSantis in Washington D.C. this month. It puts the Florida governor in an awkward position as he tries to ride anti-vaxxer sentiment and his record restricting gender-affirming treatment all the way to the White House. The controversy stems from an event to be held at the offices of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, D.C.'s biggest federal lobbying firm, on June 23. DeSantis supporters can buy a place with a $1,000 donation, according to an invitation...

Elections are supposed to be about the future, but Donald Trump is stuck in the past. He is dead set on running for president in 2024 by campaigning on the very worst part of his record. In his much-hyped return to the mainstream media, a CNN town hall on May 11, Trump doubled down on his claims that millions of fraudulent votes were the cause of his defeat in 2020. He said he had no regrets about his behavior before and during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, and that he does not owe Mike Pence an apology for...

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has come under fire after making changes to his personal Twitter account in preparation for a reported presidential bid announcement this week. Previously known on Twitter as @GovRonDeSantisFL, the governor’s new handle now reads @GovRonDeSantis. The decision to drop the “FL” from his handle has been interpreted by some as an act of distancing himself from the state that propelled him into the national spotlight. Critics argue that by removing the “FL,” DeSantis is effectively signaling that he views Florida as a means to an end and has little intention of continuing his service as governor...

Victory Insights found the Florida Governor holding a lead in November. But that's gone now. Gov. Ron DeSantis handily won re-election last cycle. But a new poll shows he may lose his home state in a GOP Primary for President against Donald Trump. Victory Insights, a polling firm with a presence in Naples, found Trump beating DeSantis both within a wide field and in a head-to-head matchup. Among likely GOP Primary voters, Trump comes out on top in a crowded field with almost 43% of the vote, while DeSantis lands at just under 35%. Author and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy pulls...

Ron DeSantis may be missing his moment. A number of the Florida governor’s donors and allies are worried his recent stumbles suggest he may not be ready for a brutal fight against Donald Trump. Some feel DeSantis needs to accelerate his timeline to run for the GOP presidential nomination and begin directly confronting Trump if he's to have any chance of thwarting the former president’s momentum. Others believe DeSantis should sidestep Trump altogether and wait until 2028 to run. “They liked him — many of them might even support him,” the person who was at the event said of DeSantis....

Buddy of mine bought a table for the Lincoln Reagan Dinner at the George R. Brown convention center. I almost blew it off as I'm so sick of FNC giving RD airtime and banning DJT, but decided to do a little due diligence. He spoke for 30 minutes without a teleprompter. Good delivery, lots of red meat, pretty fired up. Crowd of 800 or so pretty laid back. Lots of pretty GOP women I have to say. Not a single mention of Ukraine, which I see as the defining difference between RD and DJT. Ron's going to fall in line...

Cruz, Pence, Sununu make their cases to top GOP donors at a major 2024 cattle call [cut] Asked if he’ll stay take sides and back a candidate in the GOP presidential primaries, Cruz told Fox News "they’ll be plenty of time for that. I suspect we’ll have several more people get in the race and I’m confident it will be wild and wooly. I suspect they’ll be some insults, some nicknames." Former Vice President Mike Pence, who’s seriously mulling a White House run, also addressed the donors on Friday. "Republicans and conservatives cannot abandon our commitment to fiscal responsibility and...

“The View” co-host Sara Haines commended prominent Republicans who backed out of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) during Friday’s panel. A handful of prominent Republicans opted to speak at alternatives to CPAC rather than attend the major conservative conference, where Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are among the many GOP members scheduled to speak throughout the weekend. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin backed out and will speak at an event held by Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative organization reportedly at odds with Trump. Haines viewed...

Lisa Olson-Marshke walked into Donald Trump’s office here and pulled up a seat behind his desk. On one side was a red “Make America Great Again” hat, along with a gold-wrapped chocolate bar that proclaimed, “Trump was right!” “It sort of felt like being there,” Ms. Olson-Marshke said of the mock Oval Office at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual four-day gathering that the former president will headline on Saturday as he accelerates his 2024 comeback campaign. “I’m so excited,” said the 57-year-old from Michigan. “We need him back.” Throughout the gathering, people have lined up for pictures at...

I have some genuine questions and I have no malice against Ron DeSantis or his supporters but a few things trouble me about him! He has the tacit support of the Bushes. I know they want anyone but Trump but as one Freeper put it: Will he blow kisses back? What does having their support mean? Does it mean Karl Rove becomes an advisor? Campaign cash, staff and what not? Think about it. It's not just some throw away endorsement by them it comes with serious muscle, donors, etc. He's also visiting Texas instead of CPAC. Will he be hanging...

Pillow tycoon turned conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell raged against Florida governor Ron DeSantis at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, calling the popular conservative a “Trojan Horse.” “Now I’ll tell you what Ron DeSantis — and he’s got money behind him — did he do anything for Disney? Remember that was the big thing, you’re gonna go after Disney,” began Lindell. “He did nothing, they got everything they wanted, everything — look it up!” “The media is covering up for Ron DeSantis. He is a Trojan Horse, he is the Trojan Horse,” shouted Lindell on the convention center floor....

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence will be skipping CPAC 2023 this year as President Donald Trump delivers the keynote speech. DeSantis and Pence will avoid the uncomfortable results of the grassroots straw poll outcome, which – given the nature of their political interests – could potentially be embarrassing for the people who are organizing their ‘stop Trump’ campaign. After spending the weekend with billionaire donors and republicans molded purchased by the Sea Island (Big Club) influence, DeSantis will be traveling the country promoting his Rupert Murdoch funded book with stops in Texas and California. The...

Indeed, as DeSantis moves toward a White House run, it is becoming increasingly clear that the 44-year-old Republican governor will manage his presidential aspirations in his own way, on his own timeline, with or without allies in national GOP leadership or relationships with the press. “DeSantis has, in his style and the actions he’s taken as governor, shown a willingness to fight the traditional powers that be, the establishment,” said David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, an influential conservative group based in Washington. McIntosh described DeSantis’ style as “refreshing” and suggested the GOP is ready to move on...

S.477 - A bill to authorize the President to use military force for the purpose of securing and defending Taiwan against armed attack, and for other purposes.

We have a deep archived series of articles on Nikki Haley [SEE HERE] specifically because she is the most transparently manipulative and simultaneously predictable, conniving political entity in Republican politics. Yes, she’s worse than Monkey Pox.Reminder, Nikki Haley in February 2021: …”“I don’t think [Trump’s] going to be in the picture,” she said, matter-of-factly. “I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.” […] “We need to acknowledge he let us down,” she said. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that...