Free Republic

Donald Trump Jr. said Thursday on Newsmax TV’s “Wake Up America” that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson was “certainly” a contender to be picked as his father’s vice presidential running mate. Anchor Rob Finnerty asked, “So Trump has already said that he’s picked his VP, but he can’t tell us. Back in 2016 de didn’t pick somebody that was running for president. He chose Mike Pence, who at the time was not a candidate for president. Could you see your father running with Ron DeSantis?” Trump said, “You know, I would do whatever I could to make sure it...

GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie blasted his primary opponent Vivek Ramaswamy on Sunday, labeling him as not a “serious contender.” “No. What he’s become is someone who, you know, likes to get interviewed on TV. But no, I don’t think he’s a serious contender,” Christie said when asked by Fox News’ “Media Buzz” host Howard Kurtz if Ramaswamy was a “serious contender.”

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie denounced former President Donald Trump in a speech Thursday night and said the GOP must rid itself of him and his cult of personality. Christie, in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., did not mention Trump’s name. But there was no question about who he was referring to as he described the Republican Party being dragged into a moment of “peril.” He also directly confronted Trump’s insistence that he somehow won the 2020 election — a baseless conspiracy theory the former president and his allies have been promulgating...

A man wanted for his role in an alleged $35 million Ponzi scheme was arrested Monday after evading FBI agents by swimming into California’s largest reservoir using an underwater “sea scooter,” federal prosecutors said. Matthew Piercey spent nearly 30 minutes in frigid Lake Shasta using the Yamaha 350Li submersible device before he eventually resurfaced and was handcuffed, the Sacramento Bee reported. It wasn't immediately known if the 44-year-old has an attorney. Agents later learned Piercey had a sea scooter, a motorized device that pulls users underwater at speeds of about 4 miles per hour, the newspaper said.

Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei has requested political asylum in Germany after being forced to throw a match to avoid having to face an Israeli opponent. Israeli judoka Sagi Muki made history Wednesday when he became the first Israeli to win the gold medal at the the Judo World Championship finals in Japan, defeating Belgian opponent Matthias Casse. Mollaei had received a phone call from his mother in Iran instructing him to throw his match against Georgian Judoka Matthias Casse so that he would not have to face Muki in the semi-finals. Moallei, who has criticized his country's policy of refusing...

Jim Webb may be considering trying to become the next Ralph Nader by running as an independent. Webb has been pretty active on social media, going after both President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for their policies. He’s tapping into the populist anger that those who are turned off by both Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz might have, but Webb is probably counting on their support too. Ben Brody at Bloomberg Politics Webb is going to hop back into the presidential fray. Since dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination, Webb has continued to maintain his...

It might be time to stop laughing at Herman Cain. His presidential campaign, once considered a vanity project designed to sell copies of his new book, continues to chug along the tracks, refusing to be derailed by scandal or the lack of a well-organized staff. Cain has a lead in a handful of national polls over the heavily favored Mitt Romney — and some political observers believe a once-unthinkable path to the Republican nomination could emerge for the charismatic former pizza CEO.

Is Herman Cain a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination? It’s a question no one in the pundit world was asking until the past week. Cain has never held public office. When he ran for the Senate in Georgia in 2004, he lost the primary by a 52 percent to 26 percent margin. He has zero experience in foreign or defense policy, where presidents have the most leeway to set policy. When questioned about the Middle East earlier this year, he clearly had no idea what the “right of return” is. His solid performance in the Fox News/Google debate...

The question is not a political one. Your correspondent has arrived at NPR's studios in midtown Manhattan, there to squeeze in an interview with former Arkansas governor and current presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. He is in the studio, but he arrived alone, and the slightly flummoxed receptionist asks everyone who comes through the door if he's one of Mike's people. None of them are. A week ago, Mike Huckabee was having trouble getting potential donors to return his calls. After coming in a surprise second in the Iowa straw poll last weekend, the former Arkansas governor is on a media...

"The rap on Mitt Romney is that he's scripted,safe, skin-deep.But if you saw your dad endure what his did, you might watch what you say,too. There, you said it.There's no taking it back. Maybe the regret formed in your mind even before the last syllable of the Godforsaken comment had left your lips. Maybe you thought nothing of it until 12 hours later, when a voice woke you out of your REM rebound, demanding to know,"What in the hell were you thinking?"Either way, it was too late. We've all said something at some point in our lives that we desperately...

Season two of The Contender starts tonight. ESPN Classic 10:00PM EST

NEW YORK - Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), the Delaware Democrat who has already expressed interest in running for president in 2008, has taken another step that signals a White House candidacy: He's writing a book. "Biden, in writing his first book, will tell the story of his remarkable 30-year career in the United States Senate — from journeyman days as a 29-year old Senator too young to be sworn in, to his rise to become one of the most powerful Democrats," publisher Random House said Thursday in a statement. Biden's planned book follows in the tradition of...

The suicide of a promising boxer in West Philadelphia has raised a number of questions with few, if any, definitive answers. The memorial to Najai Turpin continues to grow as well as the list of questions as to how this could have happened. Family and friends are only left to speculate as to why 23-year-old boxer Najai Turpin might have killed himself. His network debut on the reality show "The Contender" was just weeks away: his ticket out of obscurity to realize his dream. According to his girlfriend, he shot himself while the two sat in his car in front...

The coming economic crisis. Unemployment. Health care for the poor. The almost 1,500 dead soldiers. The almost 100,000 dead Iraqis. Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher. The Christian Conservative takeover of our nation. The missing 9 billion. The missing weapons of mass destruction. The impending invasion of Iran, and Syria. The total failure to protect us on 9-11.

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

Many on the left, most visibly Presidential contender John Kerry, often claim that the "coalition of the willing" is weak and that participation from the international community has been minimal if anything. Opponents of President Bush use such claims in order to discredit the legitimacy of this noble endeavor for freedom. It may not be such a bad idea to look at the state of our coalition, not in an effort to attack President Bush, but rather to conduct a healthy reassessment and critique of the coalition and our allies. Several weeks ago, Michael Rubin returned from the Coalition Provisional...