Free Republic

Gavin Newsom wasn’t born rich, but he was born connected — and those alliances have paid handsome dividends throughout his career. A coterie of San Francisco’s wealthiest families has backed him at every step of his political rise, which in November could lead next to his election as governor of California. San Francisco society’s “first families” — whose names grace museum galleries, charity ball invitations and hospital wards — settled on Newsom, 50, as their favored candidate two decades ago, said Willie Brown, former state Assembly speaker and former mayor of the city.

“We’re doing a great job,” said President Trump yesterday in a surprise endorsement of his own success. “The poll numbers are through the roof. Our poll numbers are great. And guess what? Nobody is going to come close to beating me in 2020 because of what we’ve done.” Though Trump can always be counted on to testify to his unblemished record of winning, it was odd he chose to focus on poll numbers right at the moment, because one place they are not going is “through the roof.” In fact, Trump’s numbers are dropping to near the lowest point of...

It’s day two of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. Democrats are still annoying. The protesters are still unhinged. And everyone on the Left cannot seem to grasp what is reality: Brett Kavanaugh is going to be confirmed. Conservatives will have a 5-4 majority on the Court. You’ve lost. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) performed a great show, wanting to release confidential documents relating to racial profiling during Kavanaugh’s time in the Bush administration. He said he was willing to be expelled for releasing this document, which by the way, was already cleared for release by the committee and the Bush team....

First lady Melania gave a rare outspoken criticism Thursday by calling out the White House official who attacked President Trump anonymously in print, accusing the person of subversion. Her statement addressed the anonymous writer of the New York Times op-ed directly: “You are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.” She criticized the media’s use of anonymous sources. “If a person is bold enough to accuse people of negative actions, they have a responsibility to publicly stand by their words and people have the right to be able to defend themselves,” Mrs. Trump said in...

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...

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...

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"...

Twentieth Century Fox was just days away from locking picture on “The Predator” when an urgent note came in: Delete the scene featuring Steven Wilder Striegel. Striegel, 47, didn’t have a big role in his longtime friend Shane Black’s reboot of the sci-fi thriller — just a three-page scene shared with actress Olivia Munn. But last month, Munn learned that Striegel is a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty in 2010 after facing allegations that he attempted to lure a 14-year-old female into a sexual relationship via the internet. When Munn shared the information with Fox on Aug. 15, studio...

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...

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...

The always-on Trump campaign tested its new slogan Thursday night at another one of its loopy rallies. The mostly filled Ford Center in Evansville, Ind., seemed pleased. President Trump asked: “You ever hear this before: ‘Make America Great Again’?” They had. “You know our new slogan that we will be switching to because we are ahead of schedule to make America great again? It’s called ‘Keep America Great!’” The fair-skinned figures in candy-colored T-shirts and dark sports coats — the gung-ho crowd unfailingly known as Trump’s “base” — cheered again. Oh, the inanity. “Ahead of schedule?” Sure, bud. No wall...