Fred Barnes
The Weekly Standard
Washington, DC, United States
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Past articles by Fred:
President Trump’s Precarious Position
President Trump is in deeper political trouble than he thinks. And I’m not talking about whatever special counsel Robert Mueller has up his sleeve. Trump has real-life re-election trouble. → Read More
The Criminal Justice Reform Bill Has a Big Loophole
It would make dangerous and violent criminals eligible for early release. → Read More
Trump Tries Something Surprising: Self-Control
Eyebrows were raised in Washington when President Trump responded to an allegation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The president didn’t mention the accuser. He said the Senate Judiciary Committee would go through “a process and hear everybody out I’d like everybody to be very happy.” → Read More
Desperate Democrats
One of the most revealing moments in the Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh involved Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). He said Republican justices overwhelmingly side with corporations and right-wing interests in cases before the High Court. And so does Kavanaugh in his votes on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. → Read More
Chuck Grassley’s Moment
The chairman of the Judiciary Committee is no longer Senator Bipartisan. → Read More
Three Leaders Are Better Than One
Democrats have tried to block the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of the FBI and its probe of the Trump presidential campaign. They have failed. And the Senate Judiciary Committee is investigating the actions of the FBI on its own. → Read More
Trump Does It His Way
In February, then-secretary of state Rex Tillerson was informed by a North Korean envoy that Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un wanted to meet with President Trump. Tillerson favored accepting the invitation quickly. Trump didn’t. → Read More
The Wipeout of Obama’s Legacy
President Obama’s legacy is rapidly vanishing. The decision by President Trump to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran is the biggest blow, but it’s only the latest. The elimination of the individual mandate and canceling the yearly bailout of insurance companies have left Obamacare in a precarious condition. Young immigrants whose parents brought them to the United States… → Read More
A Scalia Acolyte Wins Republican AG Race in Missouri
The drive by Republican state attorneys general to block the overreach by the federal government into state affairs got a boost yesterday from the primary victory of Josh Hawley as Missouri AG. If elected, Hawley will add a state the growing movement of state attorneys general. Hawley, 36, is already well known in conservative legal circles. He defeated state senator Kurt Schaefer, 50, in a… → Read More
Trump's Intellectuals
Inside the Beltway and along the Washington-to-Boston corridor, #NeverTrump has won the hearts and minds of conservative intellectuals and the high-toned media. The dissenters—yes, there are some—make a lot less noise. But move away from the East Coast and it's a different story. Out there, the conservative intelligentsia isn't aligned against Donald Trump—quite the contrary. Roger L. Simon, the… → Read More
The Hillary Myth
Hillary Clinton sounds like Paul Ryan on the economy. She says she’s for strong growth, fair growth, and long-term growth. She would abandon the slow-growth economics of President Obama and return us to those wonderful days in the 1990s when husband Bill was in charge. This is a different Hillary Clinton from the one we've seen in debates with Bernie Sanders, her socialist rival for the… → Read More
He's a One-Man Band
Donald Trump was wise to decline to join a 13th and final Republican presidential debate. He has little new to say and not much that’s compelling or interesting. He began the 11th debate by calling Mitt Romney a failed candidate and an embarrassment to everybody. And in his next-to-last comment, he insisted his rivals don't deserve any credit for the record Republican turnout in primaries and… → Read More
Populist Trump v. 'True Conservative' Cruz
We shouldn’t be surprised the Republican presidential race has come down to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. This is a party in which half or more of its voters feel they've been betrayed by their leaders. Who else would they favor except the two candidates most at odds with the GOP brass? It started in New Hampshire, where 47 percent of Republican primary voters answered yes to the betrayal question… → Read More
The Forgotten Voters
In the 1980s and ’90s, Republicans attracted, then locked up, new groups of voters: the anti-abortion movement, the Reagan Democrats, the Christian right, and the pro-gun crowd. More recently, Republicans have won the support of practically everyone associated with the energy industry, especially coal mining. Most of these voters were stolen from Democrats. But Republicans were oblivious to the… → Read More
Trump Dominates
Donald Trump tightened his grip on the Republican presidential nomination by dominating Super Tuesday. But his prospects of defeating Hillary Clinton in the general election are fraught with new trouble. By winning 7 states yesterday, he denied Ted Cruz a string of victories in Southern states that were to be his launching pad to the nomination. Instead, Cruz won only his home state of Texas and… → Read More
Trump Close to Winning Republican Nomination
Donald Trump, having won the Nevada caucuses, is now two primary victories from defeating his top two rivals and claiming the Republican presidential nomination. If he beats Ted Cruz in the Texas primary next Tuesday, that would finish off Cruz as a viable candidate. Texas is Cruz’s home state. And if Trump wins the Florida primary two weeks later, that would all but eliminate Marco Rubio from… → Read More
Not the Best of Campaigns
Presidential campaigns are never perfect. Troubles occur. What is supposed to happen doesn't happen. There's an old saying that no one has ever become a better person for having run for president. That's about as close to a reliable expectation of presidential campaigns as there is. The 2016 race has had its own set of imperfections. Here are five that come to mind: (1) Candidates without… → Read More
Cockfight in South Carolina
There wasn’t much to like in last night's Republican debate in Greenville, South Carolina. I doubt if many people came away from the two-hour squabble feeling better about the GOP or its presidential candidates. Perhaps Republicans should consider cancelling the rest of the debates. They aren't helping the cause of electing a Republican to the White House in November—quite the contrary. The… → Read More
Donald Trump in Driver's Seat on way to Presidential Nomination
Donald Trump got everything he wanted in New Hampshire primary—and a whole lot more. He's not only a stronger frontrunner in the Republican race than ever; he's now in the driver's seat on the road to the presidential nomination. Trump is dominant. Here are a few examples: Every Republican candidate who finished first and second in Iowa and New Hampshire has won the presidential nomination.… → Read More
Rubio Makes it a Three-Man Race
By finishing third in last night’s Iowa caucuses, Marco Rubio joined Donald Trump and Ted Cruz as a candidate with a realistic chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination. Rubio pulled himself out of the pack of long-shot candidates and sure losers in the large GOP field – by itself, an important achievement. What made Rubio's showing especially impressive was how close he was… → Read More