Free Republic

Jonah Goldberg is leaving National Review in the coming months to start a new conservative media company with Steve Hayes, who was editor-in-chief of The Weekly Standard when its owner shut it down in December. Details: Goldberg and Hayes tell me they plan a reporting-driven, Trump-skeptical company that will begin with newsletters as soon as this summer, then add a website in September, and perhaps ultimately a print magazine. •Hayes, the likely CEO, and Goldberg, likely the editor-in-chief, are the founders. •Hayes tells me about the startup, which doesn’t have a name now: "We believe there’s a great appetite on...

Ann Coulter has been loathed by the American Left for many years. Her works were known for their incisive analyses and cutting critiques of the American Left–every Democratic Party leader, from Bill Clinton to Nancy Pelosi has felt the burn of her invective. In 2016, she was one of the first major voices in the media to announce her support for Donald J. Trump’s presidential candidacy. Since his election, she has increased her already-sizable wealth considerably, thanks to her close association with President Trump’s brand. A year ago, she published a book entitled In Trump We Trust and the last...

With Donald Trump’s proclamation of a phony national emergency in response to a phony invasion on our southern border, the country has entered a genuine constitutional crisis. Military funds have been diverted under emergency presidential authority only twice before in our history: by Bush 41 after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and by Bush 43 following 9/11. Never before has a president run roughshod over Congress in this manner, abusing statutorily granted emergency powers for an obviously pretextual and nakedly political purpose, and thereby usurping Congress’s constitutionally allotted power of the purse.

I was in India last week, researching India's Big Problem, which is that whenever young men feel cold in the morning, they start an open wood fire, right there in the street, right there in the city.  No wonder that Google reports weather conditions as "smoke" throughout the subcontinent.  Such a thing would not, could not, happen in the land of white supremacy.  No, siree. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the occasion[.] ... But, on balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions last month, is evidence that the president has not risen to...

Sen. James Lankford will occasionally take issue with President Donald Trump’s tactics and rhetoric. But he’s not sure what Mitt Romney was thinking with his biting condemnation of the president before he was even sworn into office. “It kind of felt like the same thing Trump does to everybody, Romney does to Trump. Smack you, and then want to negotiate,” said Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma. “It is funny to me that while he was complaining about President Trump’s personal attacks, he was personally attacking President Trump. I don’t know if he sees the irony in it.”

n a recent op-ed for The Post, “The president shapes the public character of the nation. Trump’s character falls short,” Mitt Romney made the same mistake that many Republicans did in 2012 — a mistake that cost him the White House. With his attempted character assassination of the president, a fellow Republican, Romney put self-interest ahead of the larger national interest: conservative Republican governance. The op-ed brought to mind 2012, when many Republicans chose to divide the party by continually bashing each other. Romney eventually discovered that many discouraged GOP voters decided to stay home on Election Day.

What's with Mitt Romney, the newly minted Republican senator from the great red state of Utah? Mitt hadn't even been sworn in yet and he put his name on a New Year's Day op-ed column in the Washington Post bearing the headline "Mitt Romney: The president shapes the public character of the nation. Trump's character falls short." Then Mitt showed up on CNN to repeat his complaint that after two years the president of his party has "not risen to the mantle of the office." Sorry he feels that way, but if moderate Mitt really cared about the GOP he...

Two days before he was sworn in as Utah's junior U.S. senator, Mitt Romney published an op-ed in The Washington Post, publicly broadcasting, once again, his disapproval of President Donald Trump. Disappointing, but not surprising. Something seems to compel those in the never-Trump crowd not only to perpetually obsess over Trump but also to constantly remind us of their profound distaste for him -- lest it escape our top-of-mind awareness. A few things popped out at me when I read Romney's piece -- apart from his flagrant hypocrisy in reigniting his public relations campaign against Trump after abandoning it when...

Okay, was I shocked that Mitt Romney came out with his January 1st OPED in the Washington Post bashing the President? No…I just thought it would have been a few weeks before he went all Jeff Flake 2.0 against the President. Geez Mitt, we don’t need any more surrender monkeys! So Mitt, how do you want us to remember you, Mitt “Benedict Arnold” Romney or Mitt “Neville Chamberlain” Romney…Because right now, most real Americans that watched you run and fail for president don’t see this as your brightest moment, they see this as your bitter sour grapes moment, face...

Decepticon caucus senator-elect Mitt Romney (U-DC) appears on CNN to outline why he stands in opposition to President Donald Trump. Understanding the unspoken background color here is important. The Decepticon Caucus in the senate is comprised of senators who represent the interests of Wall Street; and every principle of finance and commerce that intersects with Wall Street’s multinational interests. In essence the Decepticon Caucus is the defensive force protecting the global financial elite; ie. “The Big Club”. U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue is the mechanism used by Wall Street multinational banks, corporations and billionaire influence agents to pay...

In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Senator-elect Mitt Romney (R-UT) expounds on his controversial op-ed that attacked President Trump. "What I did in my op-ed was not just talk about the president and my relationship with him and how we’ll work together, but also I laid out my perspectives and priorities on a very broad basis on everything from trade to China to our allies around the world, immigration and so forth," Romney said. Romney told Tapper while he is "not looking for the next election," he has not decided who will endorse in 2020. "I haven’t decided who...

It is not that all of the president’s policies have been misguided. He was right to align U.S. corporate taxes with those of global competitors, to strip out excessive regulations, to crack down on China’s unfair trade practices, to reform criminal justice and to appoint conservative judges. These are policies mainstream Republicans have promoted for years. I boldfaced “promoted” because Romney has unwittingly provided the devastating argument against his style of Republicanism. Yes, it is quite true that nearly all Republican presidential candidates—and presidents—have promoted tax reform, lower regulation, getting tough with China, and appointing better judges (and add in...

The senator-elect wouldn’t say why he didn’t have a problem when Trump was falsely accusing Barack Obama of being born in Africa. Sen.-elect Mitt Romney (R-Utah) may have criticized Donald Trump in a Washington Post op-ed, but he apparently didn’t have a problem accepting the president’s endorsement during last year’s Senate race. During a CNN interview on Wednesday, Jake Tapper pressed the onetime Republican presidential candidate on whether that was a mistake. Tapper pointed to a Twitter message from 2016 ― two years before Romney accepted the president’s endorsement in 2018 ― in which Romney seemed to reject the idea...

Sen.-elect Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Wednesday that he hasn't decided whether to endorse President Trump in the 2020 election, but ruled out mounting a primary challenge himself. "I haven’t decided who I’m going to endorse in 2020. I’m going to see what the alternatives are," Romney said in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper. "I think it’s early to make that decision, and I want to see what the alternatives are," he continued. "I pointed out there are places [Trump and I] agree on a whole series of policy fronts, but there are places that I think the president can,...

President Trump’s 2020 campaign manager on Tuesday fired back after Sen.-elect Mitt Romney (R-Utah) wrote a searing op-ed criticizing the president's character. In a tweet, Trump's 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale invoked Romney’s failed 2012 presidential bid, accusing the incoming senator of lacking the ability "to save this nation." “The truth is @MittRomney lacked the ability to save this nation. @realDonaldTrump has saved it,” Parscale wrote on Twitter. “Jealously is a drink best served warm and Romney just proved it. So sad, I wish everyone had the courage @realDonaldTrump had.” Parscale’s reaction came shortly after Romney penned a Washington Post...

Days before he officially becomes a U.S. senator, Mitt Romney took to the Washington Post to fire a shot across President Trump’s bow, saying Mr. Trump had made a “deep descent” in December and is hurting the national character. In an op-ed column published online Tuesday evening, Mr. Romney, now a Republican senator-elect for Utah, came down hardest on recent moves in foreign policy and Cabinet positions related to that. “After he became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the...

Sen.-elect Mitt Romney(R-Utah) (R-Utah) on Wednesday condemned President Trump's and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's latest comments about journalist Jamal Khashoggi's killing, calling them "inconsistent" with the U.S. national interest. "The President's and Secretary of State's Khashoggi statements to date are inconsistent with an enduring foreign policy, with our national interest, with basic human rights, and with American greatness," Romney said in a statement. "Sanctions do not necessarily require ending the alliance; they do demand real and painful consequence," he added.

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,...

Two-term Republican Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, is winning the 4th Congressional District for the first time since Election Day after an updated vote count in Utah County pushed her narrowly over Democratic challenger and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams. Love is currently ahead by 419 votes, reversing Thursday’s 1,002-vote lead for McAdams, who has spent the past week in Washington going to House orientation meetings and appearing in the freshman class photo with new lawmakers from across the country. ... McAdams had briefly expanded his lead Friday after Salt Lake County updated its vote totals. But those gains were...

This campaign has been quite the ride. Thank you, Utah. pic.twitter.com/2vTxInB7by— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) November 7, 2018