Free Republic

President Biden doesn't believe his bad poll numbers, and neither do many of his closest advisers, according to people familiar with the matter. Why it matters: The dismissiveness of the poor polling is sincere, not public spin, according to Democrats who have spoken privately with the president and his team. That bedrock belief has informed Biden's largely steady-as-she-goes campaign — even as many Democrats outside the White House are agitating for the campaign to change direction, given that Biden is polling well behind where he was four years ago. The public polling simply doesn't reflect the president's support, they say....

If Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House in November, NATO may fall apart, a recent wargame found. As a presidential candidate, Trump has threatened to quit NATO unless European allies contribute more, and should he carry it out Europe may decide to go it alone on defense, the game suggests. "A US policy of frustrating NATO has the potential to cause the alliance to collapse, with the EU as a candidate for eventually replacing NATO's ultimate function — defending Europe from Russia," wrote Finley Grimble, the British defense expert who designed and ran the game. The...

MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill said Monday on “Deadline” that there were so many weird things about the supporters and rallygoers of former President Donald Trump. McCaskill said, “Yeah, and there are so many things that are weird about the people who have this undying loyalty to Donald Trump. There is two categories. There’s the category of the cowardly Republicans who are afraid not to be for Donald Trump publicly, even though behind his back, they think he’s a horrible person, a horrible leader, and a horrible, horrible president. Then there’s the bucket of people who really believe in this guy.”...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is planning to raise money for former President Donald Trump in the coming weeks, putting into action the commitment he made at a meeting with Trump last month to help his former rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, according to two people familiar with the matter. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details have not been finalized and plans could still shift in the weeks ahead. Still, DeSantis is making calls to donors while his finance team works quickly to put together a schedule that would...

Jump forward to about 5:00. It's all good, but I really started to like it at that point.

Doug Burgum has dislodged Sen. Tim Scott at the head of the market for Republican VP nominee on betting exchanges (Betfair) @ 5.7 I know little about him. 😲

Michael Cohen apparently wants a reality show but, if his testimony Monday is any indication, reality is about to sink in for not just Cohen but the prosecutors and the court. In stoking interest in his own appearance, the former Trump counsel promised the public that they should be “prepared to be surprised.” Thus far, however, Cohen has offered nothing new and, more importantly, nothing to make the case for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

What will be the endgame of all these attacks on the American legal system and the warping of it for blatant political purposes? None of the five civil and criminal cases currently lodged against former President Donald Trump have ever had merit. They were all predicated on using the law to injure his re-election candidacy—given a widespread derangement syndrome among the left and a fear they cannot entrust a Trump/Biden election to the people. These criminal and civil trials are merely the continuation of extra-legal efforts of the last eight years to destroy a presidential candidate in lieu of opposing...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is "counting on" Michael Cohen lying during former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, according to attorney and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett on Saturday. Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, is set to testify in the high-profile trial on Monday, which will determine whether the former president falsified business records over payments, allegedly facilitated by Cohen, to former adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair that happened in 2006 secret before the 2016 presidential election, as alleged in a criminal indictment. Prosecutors led by Bragg allege the $130,000 payment...

This article is posted in its entirety after a podcast from Bloomburg discussed the unfair NYC property tax system.New York City’s notorious property tax system — which places a higher burden on rental properties and advantages affluent white areas at the expense of lower-income neighborhoods of color — appears headed for a major overhaul.The state’s highest court voted 4-3 on Tuesday to reinstate a lawsuit by a coalition called Tax Equity Now New York that sought to have the convoluted system declared illegal.The Court of Appeals revived two claims from the suit, which had previously been dismissed by lower courts....

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are virtually tied in Virginia, a Fabrizio Ward and Impact Research survey found. The poll found Biden and Trump neck-and-neck in the Old Dominion State. Biden garnered 43 percent support, while Trump saw 42 percent support. That is well within the survey’s ± 4.4 percent margin of error. Another 14 percent remained undecided: 📊 VIRGINIA POLL: Fabrizio Ward (R) & Impact Research (D) Joe Biden 43% Donald Trump 42% ⬜ Undecided 14% — Senate Tim Kaine 48% Hung Cao 36% ⬜ Undecided 16% — Job approval Sen. Kaine: 54-28 (+26) Gov. Youngkin:...

Michael Cohen said he was disappointed that Donald Trump didn't consider him for his Chief of Staff role in the White House. Trump didn't offer him the position, and Cohen even admitted he didn't "believe" the role was the right fit, but he just wanted his name included with other candidates. “I had other ideas for myself that I wanted but I wanted to be considered. It was more about my ego than anything," Cohen said.

Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in five of six key battleground states new polling found, as the Democrat has lost support among the nonwhite and young voters who formed his winning coalition four years ago. On Monday, The New York Times, Siena College and The Philadelphia Inquirer released the latest series of battleground polls, with the numbers largely unchanged since the last set of polls were published in November. Biden didn't get a boost from the stock market climbing 25 percent or from ads his campaign has run in the six key states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan,...

An MSNBC panel grew bewildered at a poll indicating independent voters find President Joe Biden to be a bigger threat to democracy than former President Donald Trump. A PBS Newshour/NPR/Marist poll found 53% of independents believe Biden’s second term will “weaken America,” while 42% believed Trump would further harm democracy. “I find it shocking, honestly,” MSNBC political analyst Susan Del Percio said. “I can’t make sense of that number. I wish I could. I wish I could have some really great insight to it, but I don’t know if it’s an outlier or not, because the other numbers of independents...

Michael Cohen testified Monday he secretly recorded Donald Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 election, discussing plans to buy a Playboy model’s story about having an affair with the then-candidate. Cohen — who worked for Trump for more than a decade — told jurors in Manhattan Court that the Sept. 6, 2016, conversation, taped on the Voice Memos app on his iPhone, was the only time he surreptitiously recorded his former boss. “So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?” Trump could allegedly be heard saying on the nearly three-minute recording played in court by Assistant District...

Michael Cohen testified Monday he secretly recorded Donald Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 election, discussing plans to buy a Playboy model’s story about having an affair with the then-candidate. Cohen — who worked for Trump for more than a decade — told jurors in Manhattan Supreme Court that the Sept. 6, 2016, conversation, taped on the Voice Memos app on his iPhone, was the only time he surreptitiously recorded his former boss. “So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?” Trump could allegedly be heard saying on the nearly three-minute recording played in court by Assistant...

Former President Donald Trump is making a “heavy move into Minnesota,” hoping to flip the state red after it has consistently voted blue in the presidential election since 1976. Trump is heading to the blue state this week, speaking at the Minnesota Republican Party’s Lincoln Reagan dinner. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), the Trump campaign’s state campaign chair, said the Minnesota GOP is “honored to welcome” Trump to the state: Honored to welcome the former and next President of the United States @realDonaldTrump to Minnesota! We are going to end the failed policies of the Biden Administration and get...

One of the burning questions of the 2024 presidential election so far — and Lord knows we haven’t had many burning questions — is that of whom Donald Trump will pick as his running mate. The former president has dropped a few hints, and there’s been plenty of speculation. But what do voters think? If somehow Trump put the question to his base, whom would they choose? A new poll from I&I/TIPP gives us an indication.The pollsters asked 538 Republicans (I don’t know if that number was on purpose or a happy coincidence) over the first weekend in May. The...

Ana Navarro told her co-hosts Monday on ABC’s “The View” that the election in November is a choice between President Joe Biden’s decency and the “evil” of former President Donald Trump. Navarro said, “I think this trial is helping Donald Trump because it’s keeping him off the trail and we are not focusing on the stupid stuff he says on a daily basis. And that is helping him. On Biden, look, you know, at first it was people saying, we don’t like our choices. What else? What other candidate? No third candidate. No knight in shining armor appeared.” She added,...

The Athens, AL Police Department is investigating a reported attack against Tara Johnson, a Trump volunteer, outside a local Republican Party headquarters in what is alleged to have been a “politically motivated attack.” Tara Johnson, described as a “dedicated Republican volunteer” in a press release from the Alabama Republican Party, was assaulted outside the Limestone County, AL GOP Trump Headquarters over the weekend. According to Alabama Republican Party communications director Jeannie Negrón Burniston, Johnson serves as the lead volunteer despite physical mobility challenges due to health issues.