Free Republic

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla) revealed why he decidednot to wait until 2028— or when former President Trump was out of the picture— to run for the GOP nomination. Outkick host Tomi Lahren asked DeSantis about voters who argued the governor should have waited for his "turn" to run in 2028 rather than 2024 against Trump, rejecting the idea that anyone is entitled to a turn at running for president. "First of all, in America, we don't have turns. People can run if they believe they have something to offer the country. I can tell you as somebody that's worn the...

Ukrainian forces can retake the strategic southern city of Kherson from Russian troops, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday, in what would be a major defeat for Russia in its invasion of its neighbor. Austin's remarks coincided with a Russian-installed official in Kherson region saying Moscow was likely to pull its troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River, signaling a significant retreat, if confirmed. Ukraine said it was still fighting in the area and was wary of the occupying Russian forces setting a trap. Austin did not answer a question about whether Russian forces were preparing...

Biden’s handlers, as hyper-partisan and self-serving as ever,have been reluctant to admit it up to now, but the Washington Free Beacon reported Wednesday that “the Trump administration’s Iran envoy is facing ‘serious and credible’ threats to his safety, according to a non-public assessment produced this month by the State Department.” This news “was delivered to Congress amid a campaign of public death threats by Iran aimed at former president Donald Trump and top administration officials.” Why is all this happening? Because of the weakness of Joe Biden and his Potemkin presidency. The State Department noted that a “specific threat...

Appearing Wednesday on Fox News Channel, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said he would “absolutely” support former President Donald Trump if he is the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2024.

Beto O'Rourke 'Vanity Fair' profile mocked for stories about ex-girlfriends, bookshelves and his 'near-mythical experience Beto O’Rourke is officially in the 2020 presidential race, but early polling suggests his Vanity Fair profile isn’t going over well. O’Rourke, who announced to his supporters Thursday morning he was tossing his hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination, was the star of a fawning, 8,600-word opus published by the prestigious magazine on Wednesday. The wide-ranging interview is the cover story of the latest edition of the magazine, with the 46-year-old boldly declaring he was "just born to do this". The Vanity Fair...

BREAKING: @BetoORourke announces he’s running for President #Election2020 #fox44tx @KWKTFOX44

Donald Trump said Friday that he believes the laws regulating abortion should stay as they are, but he doesn't disagree with the proposition that abortion is murder. The GOP frontrunner lit a fresh controversy this week with his shifting responses to a question on abortion policy. He said during an MSNBC town hall on Tuesday that he'd like to see the practice banned, and that women who undergo it should face "some form of punishment." But he quickly backtracked, explaining in a statement that while he believes it should be banned, the punishment should be levied on abortion providers, not...

Joe Scarborough has denied having it in for Marco Rubio. But on today's Morning Joe, he went on an anti-Rubio rant so protracted that one segment wasn't enough to contain it. Scarborough first called Rubio the "Republican Obama," who's been marketed like a "bag of potato chips," and the "emptiest suit" in the campaign. After a commercial break, Scarborough hectored Rick Santorum, who has just endorsed Rubio, repeatedly challenging him to name Rubio's accomplishments. By all means, let's carefully examine the record of all candidates. But for Scarborough to deny that, for whatever reason, he has a grudge against Rubio...

Ben Carson has surged into the lead of the Republican presidential race, getting support from 29 percent of GOP primary voters, according to a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. That's the highest percentage any GOP candidate has obtained so far in the survey. Carson's 29 percent is followed by Donald Trump at 23 percent, Marco Rubio at 11 percent, Ted Cruz at 10 percent and Jeb Bush at 8 percent. These findings are similar to a New York Times/CBS poll released last week, which also showed Carson in first place in the national GOP contest.

A giant black curtain was draped to hide half an arena of empty seats during an Obama campaign appearance Sunday in Philadelphia. “A long way, for the president, from 2008 when he had Greek columns, and adoring crowds,” said Fox News White House reporter Ed Henry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-HApkKm1MQ Meanwhile, there was pandemonium in the hall during an appearance earlier in Bridgeport, Connecticut as immigration activists heckled the president. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Mn1RPw4Nc

President Barack Obama on Friday blamed dysfunction in Congress on a Republican Party he said is captive to an ideologically rigid, unproductive and cynical faction, urging like-minded Democrats to show up for November's midterm elections. Addressing Democratic donors at a fundraiser in Rhode Island and another in New York, Obama said Republicans had realized that blocking all progress led Americans to become cynical about government. Republicans consider that "a pretty good thing" because they don't believe in government to begin with, Obama said. "It doesn't have to be that way," Obama said during a barbecue in Purchase, New York. "There...

President Obama on Friday said social media and the nightly news are partly to blame for the sense that “the world is falling apart.” "I can see why a lot of folks are troubled," Obama told a group of donors gathered at a Democratic National Committee barbecue in Purchase, N.Y.

All through the "I don't have a strategy" speech, it was also, "I have no sense of how to dress appropriately to the seriousness of my duty." Did anyone else notice that natty, cream-colored suit? It made me think of the tropics, of a vacation in Panama. Barack, the girl from Ipanema. I don't believe I have ever seen another president dressed in that manner, like a soot suit, or something from the seventies...

On Thursday, President Obama held a press conference in which he humiliated himself entirely on the question of America’s handling of the terror group ISIS. Explaining that he had to consult Congress and check the pulse of Americans, Obama stated, “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We don’t have a strategy yet.” Which begs the question: what the hell does this guy do for a living? ISIS has been on the move since April 2013, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced that ISIS was moving into Iraq as well as Syria. On June 29, 2014, ISIS announced...

On Monday, the funeral of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was shot under disputed circumstances by Officer Darren Wilson, took place. Slated attendees included Snoop Dogg, Governor Jay Nixon (D-MO), Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), P. Diddy, Spike Lee, Jesse Jackson, and giving the eulogy, Al Sharpton. The White House has also sent three aides to the funeral: Broderick Johnson of My Brother’s Keeper Task Force; Marlon Marshall, deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; and Heather Foster, adviser for the Office of Public Engagement. Which begs the question: why would the Obama administration send not one but three...

...The nation’s intellectual elites made a big vanity purchase in 2008 and the damage from that purchase cannot wholly be undone. Peggy Noonan herself endorsed Barack Obama in 2008. She then wrote glowingly of him: "He climbed steep stairs, born off the continent with no father to guide, a dreamy, abandoning mother, mixed race, no connections. He rose with guts and gifts. He is steady, calm...." That collective purchase is going to leave a mark....History is funny in that way. It doesn’t let one off the hook. Kids a hundred years hence are going to learn that this generation screwed...

I had occasion to rewatch this speech today before I went on “The O’Reilly Factor.” Given Dec. 14, 2011 at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, its contents are gut-wrenching. 1. This one, in which Obama concedes that you’d take post-surge 2011 Iraq over pretty much any other major country in the Middle East post Arab Spring and Obama presidency:“It’s harder to end a war than begin one. Indeed, everything that American troops have done in Iraq -– all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering -– all of it has...

As fresh word arrives of Islamic militants continuing their full-speed assault on Baghdad and executing thousands along the way, President Obama rushed back to Washington Monday to convene national security advisers on a path forward. Well, actually, that's not true. The commander-in-chief did not rush back at all from his long weekend getaway in southern California. He arrived in Palm Springs' sunshine Friday. Saturday he spoke at the University of California-Irvine graduation. He, of course, did a Democrat fundraiser, a feature of almost every trip nowadays. And then the president played golf, lots of golf. On Sunday he also phoned...

Talk show host and military veteran Montel Williams went after President Barack Obama on Wednesday for not using his West Point speech as an opportunity to apologize to members of the U.S. military for having “dropped the ball on the veterans’ health.” “The president just promised $5 billion for terrorists around the world?! At West Point?!” Williams said angrily. “Where he could have used the day to say, ‘I’m sorry for the pain that I’ve caused you, the families, and I’m gonna fix it today!’” Williams then called for a “#VASurge” campaign to make sure there is enough funding to...

President Obama’s foreign policy is a disaster. He cruised along for awhile, but then the rest of the world figured him out and started taking matters into their own hands, for which the Devil has made ample use. And now, as everyone can see, we’re in deep doodoo in every corner of the globe. Here’s why: 1. Obama never cared about foreign policy The president came into office with one thing in mind: To “fundamentally transform” the United States into a a kind of Northern Cuba where he could “spread the wealth around” to the poor from the rich, the...