Free Republic

There’s a language fight brewing with the LGBT lobby over the new trilateral agreement, and — what a surprise — it looks like far-left Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is behind it. The Hill reports that a group of 38 GOP lawmakers has sent a letter to President Trump over proposed trade deal language meant to prevent sex discrimination. The problem is that the language equates “sexual orientation and gender identity” (SOGI) with sex. “A trade agreement is no place for the adoption of social policy,” congressmen explained in a the letter dated November 16. “It is especially inappropriate and...

The election is over. Let the infighting begin.  For me it began Wednesday morning just after I awoke. I had spent the prior evening covering Republican senatorial candidate Bob Hugin's loss to Democratic incumbent Bob Menendez and didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m.After fortifying myself with some strong coffee, I checked my phone. There was a voicemail from the most prominent conservative Republican in the state Senate, Mike Doherty of Warren County.  Doherty was upset at the comments in my election-night column from the most prominent moderate Republican in the Assembly, minority leader Jon Bramnick.Bramnick had pinned the blame...

Utah Sen.-elect Mitt Romney signaled he may focus on climate change when he's sworn in in January. In a brief interview with E&E News yesterday, the former Republican presidential nominee said he sees climate change as a "critical area." ....snip Last year, Romney told college students in St. Louis that he was "concerned about the anti-scientific attitude" expressed by some of his Republican colleagues and that he was convinced humanity has played a part in global warming (Climatewire, Oct. 3). "I happen to believe that there is climate change, and I think humans contribute to it in a substantial way,...

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican fixture in California who represented Orange County for 15 terms, has lost his bid for re-election. His defeat underlines the party’s setbacks in a part of the state that was long a symbol of its political dominance. The Associated Press called the race on Saturday, with Harley Rouda receiving 52 percent of the vote to Mr. Rohrabacher’s 48 percent. Mr. Rouda, 56, is a former Republican turned Democrat who became a symbol of the Democratic efforts to win back Congress this year. Mr. Rohrabacher, 71, was viewed as particularly vulnerable because he defended Russia in...

Failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney wrote in a blog post this week that President Donald Trump’s vilification of the media is unprecedented, stating he vehemently disagrees with labeling the press “the enemy of the people.”

Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele called President Donald Trump’s proposal to end birthright citizenship via executive order engaging “in stupid at a level that we have never seen before.” Steele said, “It is better from Trump’s perspective to have a base that is angry and mad at someone other than him. It is sort of the 1950s racism that has been reintroduced into the body politic, and he is thriving on that. So, you know, a great jobs number, and wages going up, and tax cuts, and Supreme Court appointment s appointments,...

A Republican lobbyist’s plan to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller by smearing him with sexual harassment allegations fell apart Thursday when the lobbyist failed to produce the woman. Jack Burkman, a GOP activist and lobbyist, had scheduled a Thursday press conference in Arlington, Virginia, to produce a woman he said was going to disclose sexual misconduct allegations against Mr. Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Bob Hugin on President Trump's immigration policy and his Senatorial campaign.

Speaker Ryan: ‘You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order’ House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday broke with President Donald Trump on whether an executive order could deny a constitutional guarantee of citizenship to babies born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents. But despite Ryan's stern rebuttal to the president, the idea of limiting birthright citizenship still has significant cache among congressional Republicans, even if they aren't quite sure how to undo a constitutional guarantee stemming from the 14th Amendment. Trump told Axios in an interview released Tuesday that the White House counsel had advised him that there was...

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) said he believed conservatives have embraced “tribal identity politics,” in the style of leftist community organizer Saul Alinsky. Host John Dickerson asked, “You’ve seen some President Trump’s rallies, do those rallies accentuate the things that unite us or are they — do they do something very successful in politics which is sow division in the country? Do you see that happening at his rallies? Ryan said, “Sometimes, yeah...

We’ve nearly won the battle for the Republican Party, having kicked out most of the grifters, weasels, weenies, and dorks of Conservative, Inc. They spent decades dunning us for donations while conserving not very much at all, so we elected Donald Trump and remade the GOP. Now there’s no place left for them, and they’re pouting on the Lido Deck among the unsold cruise cabins, sipping Zima and muttering about how ungrateful we are. As I explain in my hilarious and obnoxious new book, Militant Normals: How Regular Americans Are Rebelling Against the Elite to Reclaim Our Democracy, the sissy...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) said President Donald Trump’s compliment of Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) for assaulting a reporter last May was “not OK.” Sasse said, “I believe the First Amendment is the beating heart of the American experiment. We need to have a president who celebrates the First Amendment and not pretends that beating up a reporter is OK. What you hear from Nebraskans who also tune out most of the rallies is that there’s a short-term, long-term thing going on and feel that the president’s rhetoric is short-term playful. I don’t think...

A leader of the "Never Trump" movement has no plans to let President Trump run for re-election without first facing a primary opponent. Bill Kristol told CNBC in an interview published Friday that his nonprofit Defending Democracy Together is seeking a Republican to challenge Trump in 2020. "People aren't going to say they will run against Trump unless they have the infrastructure, but I've been trying to persuade people that it may not be that difficult,” he said.

A Republican who’s among President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics in the Senate says he “regularly” considers leaving his party and becoming an independent. That’s what Nebraska’s Ben Sasse writes on Twitter in response to a commenter who said she believed changing her Democratic affiliation to “no-party” would be “part of the solution.” She then asked the first-term senator whether he might follow suit. His response: “yep — regularly consider it (except the ‘from Dem’ part)” …

House Speaker Paul Ryan is rejecting President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the Justice Department shouldn’t prosecute two GOP congressmen because it will hurt the party’s election prospects in November. Ryan tells reporters Wednesday, “Justice is blind. Justice should be blind.” The Wisconsin Republican says political party should have no impact on how the department works. […] Ryan adds that “the process is working its way as it should.” …

Tuesday Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters on Capitol Hill that he had “total confidence,” in his former U.S. Senate colleague Attorney General Jeff Sessions. McConnell said, “I have total confidence in the attorney general. I think he ought to stay exactly where he is.”

The Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday voted to pass an appropriations bill funding the Department of Health and Human Services that—if adopted by the House and signed by President Trump—will not only permit the continued federal funding of Planned Parenthood but will also allow the continued federal funding of scientific research that creates “humanized mice” using organs taken from aborted babies. After some maneuvering on Thursday afternoon, the leadership allowed a floor vote on an amendment offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R.-Ky.) that would have prohibited all federal funding of Planned Parenthood. That amendment was only brought up for a vote...

Bill Kristol, the former editor-in-chief of The Weekly Standard, is considering challenging President Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primary. Kristol, who is consistently one of the most vocal anti-Trump Republicans, has been considering a run for months, a source familiar with Kristol’s thinking told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Kristol, who remains an editor-at-large for the Standard, said he has no plans to run but declined to rule it out when asked by TheDCNF. “No plans to run. But I’m randomly in Boston today, and happen to have had lunch with someone who does a lot of work in...

As the editors of The Weekly Standard suggested last week, Congress could pass a resolution of censure for the president’s conduct and his subsequent comments. Congress can also take steps with concrete consequences: • Pass legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia in the event of any future attacks on our democratic process. Dare President Trump to veto it. Override him if he does. • Hold hearings that would include in-depth testimony from the national security team on the Russian attacks, putting the case on the record (again), while putting pressure on members of the administration to correct the president’s comments....

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is saying that more members of the Republican Party need to be willing to stand up to President Trump. “It’s been pretty lonely out here," Kasich told The Guardian in an interview published on Friday, alluding to how he is one of the few members of the GOP to consistently criticize the president. “Not that I mind walking a lonely road, I’ve done it most of my career, but always would be good if you had more people who are willing to stand up and say that’s the wrong direction,” Kasich added.