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When people are feeling insecure, Bill Clinton famously said, theyd rather have someone who is strong and wrong rather than somebody who is weak and right. Clinton wasnt talking specifically about todays Republican primary voters, but the lesson applies. Whether Donald Trump or someone else is the Republican nominee in 2024, his stylea toxic potpourri of machismo, populism, and nationalismis here to stay.

If the nominee isnt Trump, who could fill the role? Let me begin with the man who was ahead of the curve, staking out this territory before Trump came along: Chris Christie. Now, I know progressives are rolling their eyes heavenward. What about Bridgegate? What about how Christie humiliated himself by endorsing Trump? What about the meme of him lounging on a beach while state beaches were closed to the public? In a GOP primary, those things wont hurt him, and some of them may help him.

Christie is publicly mulling a run; aside from being an authentic bully, heres what we also know about Christie: He has mad political skills. He was elected governor of New Jersey. Twice. As a Republican. The second time, he won by a landslide. Later, during a crucial New Hampshire primary debate, he single-handedly destroyed the 2016 campaign of Marco Rubio: a man many of us saw as a once-in-a-generation candidate. Christie has sharp elbows, and hes recently throwing them at Trump. Christie has been a critic of Trumps election fraud claims since November.

A former federal prosecutor, Christie ousted incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in 2009, promising to take on the public-employee unions. And he never stopped fighting. Take for example, the special education teacher named Melissa Tomlinson who confronted him in 2013. She provoked a debate and a finger-wagging rant from Christie that ended with the line, Im sick of you people. Heres the thing. Christies supporters LOVED it. As the bus door closed, Tomlinson found herself surrounded by Christie partisans. An elderly woman turned to Tomlinson and told her, Youre in the wrong place, hon, reported NorthJersey.com. The crowd started heckling, and cheering for Christie, Tomlinson recalled. I almost have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from it. I keep seeing people looming over my head.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, said the great pugilist and philosopher, Mike Tyson. In Christies Jersey, lots of people got (rhetorically) punched in the mouth (he would later say that teachers unions deserve a punch in the face.) And, for a long time, it worked. Flawlessly!

In fact, its likely that Trump learned something from Christie, who, after all, was right next door. Christie may have been the pioneer, the guy Trump learned from, said Assemblyman John McKeon, D-Essex. He has been a frequent target of Christies wrath, dubbed a hack lawyer during a recent dispute over the management of NJ Transit. It may be no coincidence that Ann Coulter, who saw Trumps rise in 2016, saw something in Christie back in 2011.

Christie ended up leaving office as a wildly unpopular governor. But from the standpoint of winning a Republican primary in todays political environment, the biggest mistake he ever made was hugging Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the Jersey shore. Could Christie bully his way back into GOP superstar status in 2024?

Of course, there is a catch-22. Republican voters like Trump because hes the alpha dog, but (the assumption is) anyone who succeeds Trump will have to at least be in his good graces. Therefore, they must subordinate their ambitions to Trump. See the problem?

For someone who isnt going to automatically defer to Trump, though, this could be an opportunity. If Trump freezes the field, that allows Christie to either (a) get a head start when Trump finally decides not to run, or (b) get a clean shot at a one-on-one race against Trump, with the hope that many Republicans who grudgingly supported Trump might prefer the former guy to stay former. This is a high-risk, high-reward strategy. Christie could get destroyed and humiliated by Trump wholets be honestis the clear frontrunner for the nomination.

Or it could work. Ask yourself this question: If Christie really wants to be president, and is willing to suffer the slings and arrows, is there a better strategy? By 2028, there will be a huge field of new Republicans (some of whom weve probably never even heard of). Christie missed his window when his approval numbers were through the roof in 2012 and decided to bide his time, which was a mistake. Its hard to imagine that Christie would have better odds by waiting his turn and competing in a larger field seven years from now.

For more reasons than one, Christies 2024 slogan should be Go Big or Go Home! Christie seems to understand this. Im also not going to be one of these people whos going to say, Well, Ill wait to see what President Trumps going to do. Im not going to defer to anyone if I decide thats what I want to do and that I think Im the best option for the party and for the country, Christie said on a podcast last month. I think if you say youre deferring to someone, thats a sign of both weakness and indecision, and weve already got that in the White House.

The other leading candidate to fill this role is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who came in second to Trump at the CPAC straw poll and (more recently) topped Trump in approval at the Western Conservative Summits straw poll. As HotAirs Allahpundit pointed out, DeSantiss one great advantage over Trump [and, I would argue, Christie!] is that, as a sitting governor, he can actively fight culture-war battles with skin in the game while Trump is relegated to issuing press releases. Examples include vaccine passports, a minute of silence for students in public schools, banning transgender women from womens sports, most recently offering to send Florida law enforcement to the border. Of course, the 60 Minutes attack on DeSantis might be his greatest asset, because it simultaneously casts him as victim, MSM fighter, and victor.

Like Christie, DeSantis must navigate trying to take over a party that Trump hasnt vacatedmuch like their shared state of Florida.

A post-Trump GOP headed by DeSantis or Christie wouldnt be my first choice, but would it at least be tolerable? Perhaps. Like pornography, well know it when we see it. Regardless, Im betting the partys next presidential nominee will be either Trump or a slightly less chaotic and maybe more competent version of Trump.

This should concern a whole slew of wanna-be presidential candidates, starting with Mike Pence. Pence was booed recently at a conservative confab, making him the first politician to be jeered by both fans of the Hamilton musical and attendees of the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference. The latest hissing incident is more telling. Historically, vice presidents have huge built-in advantages; however, we are talking about a political leader whose own base literally tried to kill him. Pences career is premised on playing the good cop while furtively advancing a conservative agenda that may belie his sunny aw-shucks demeanor.

Todays GOP has no room for someone who speaks softly, even if he (or she) carries a big stick. They want a real bully to fill the bully pulpit. Thats why, if anyone is to succeed Trump in the GOP, Christie and DeSantis are where the smart moneys at.

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Chris Christie Wants to Out-Trump Trump The Daily Beast - The Daily Beast

To the Editor:

As a former staff lawyer for the New York Civil Liberties Union who, as a civil rights lawyer since then, has concentrated on First Amendment cases, I do not take threats to free speech lightly. But restrictions on speech raise issues that are more complicated than your article implies.

Yes, hate speech is generally protected by the Constitution, but so is equality, and hate speech can often make a mockery of equal rights. What the critics call an abandonment of A.C.L.U.s principles reflects, in fact, a growing awareness of many within the A.C.L.U. that speech and equality are sometimes in conflict, and that context matters.

The point is illustrated by the recent controversy over attempts by college students to block Ann Coulter, Milo Yiannopolis and Charles Murray from speaking on their campuses. While the administrators who ran the college bemoaned threats to academic freedom, and liberal critics charged the students with censorship of views they didnt like, the students recognized what it meant to vulnerable students whose lives on predominantly white, elite campuses were often a daily struggle to be targeted by such unrestrained bigotry. They understood as well that even in a place devoted to the free exchange of ideas, little was lost by not hearing Ann Coulter once again say of Muslims, We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.

What students and, now, many within the A.C.L.U. have recognized is that, whether or not speech is protected by the First Amendment, there are some times and some places where it should not be heard.

Alan LevineMiami Beach

To the Editor:

The conflicts within the A.C.L.U. may help us clarify what free speech requires in the 21st century. The A.C.L.U. has supported the First Amendment rights of some very bad people for years, but it is a guardian of free speech, not a law enforcement agency. It fought for the right of far-right groups to parade in downtown Charlottesville, Va., but deserves no blame for the failure of the F.B.I. and the local Virginia authorities to stop the violence.

Still, the A.C.L.U. is and was far from perfect. Neither your news story nor Michelle Goldbergs column (The A.C.L.U. Must Defend Awful Speech, June 8) mention the organizations most egregious failures. In the name of national security, it hesitated to defend Japanese Americans during World War II and all too often refused to take cases of Communists and other controversial figures during the McCarthy era. Did its delinquency contribute to the most serious episodes of political repression in American history? Perhaps.

Its current confusion simply illustrates how complicated protecting our freedom can be. This is all the more the case in a Twitter-sphere, where nuanced arguments cannot be made. I plan to renew my membership right now.

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Opinion | Conflicts Within the A.C.L.U. Over Free Speech and Racial Justice - The New York Times

Photo: Monkey Business Images (Shutterstock)

This week, a Massachusetts elementary school teacher was fired after he was exposed as an unabashed white supremacist writer who routinely published his work on white nationalist websites under multiple pseudonyms.

Hes a self-described race realist, which, as far as I can tell, only means that hes a Critical Race Theory-bashing, leftist-hating, garden-variety conservative who thinks white people are the truly oppressed racial group in a country dominated by whitenesswhich makes him no different than your average GOPropagandist legislator in office right now.

Anyway, 33-year-old Benjamin Welton was fired from Star Academy in Watertown, Ma.where he taught English, social studies and computer scienceafter he was investigated by a group of researchers called the Anonymous Comrades Collective and then exposed to his employer by HuffPost.

The researchers found out that his whiny people greatest hits collection includes work he did as a freelance writer for the American Renaissance. In case youre unfamiliar, its a white supremacist website that serves as a virtual gathering spot for mediocre white people to rant about how Black people are inferior to them while crying the saltiest of white tears over the normalization of anti-white rhetoric without smelling even a whiff of their own hypocrisy.

On this site, Welton wrote an essay titled, From Wide-Eyed Liberal to Race Realist under the name Sinclair Jenkins.

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From HuffPost:

Jenkins wrote that his radicalization began in the Navy, where it angered him to see blacks be mean to his fellow white sailors. Later, in graduate school, he grew disgusted over the ingrained culture of anti-white hatred in academia. Also, once I began paying attention to the news, I started seeing why so many people in my hometown took a dim view of blacks, wrote Jenkins, who noted that he grew up somewhere in Appalachia. After Ferguson and Baltimore, I understood that pumping money into the ghetto would never fix things. Later, he said, he discovered writers like John Derbyshire and Ann Coulter, who shared his distaste for immigrants, and websites like American Renaissance and VDare, which shared his firmly held belief in the biological foundations to race, and helped shape his white nationalist worldview.

Near the end of the article, Jenkins noted that he was a teacher, an audacious admission to make in a white supremacist publication.

If you need any more proof that Weltonwho I cant help but laugh at because, despite his extreme whiteness, he chose a Black-ass name like Sinclair Jenkins to hide behindis ideologically indistinguishable from the most prominent members of the current Republican Party. He also tweeted under a different pseudonym last August that making America great again requires defunding critical race theory.

According to the investigators, Welton also worked his neo-Nazi pen under aliases like Jake Bowyer and the second Blackest name a white supremacist could think of, Elias Kingston.

But in 2018, he wrote a piece under his real name called Against Education for a right-wing blog called the American Sun.

Your typical man on the street in America 2018 A.D. will come up with a small catalog of answers about what to do with our education system, Welton wrote, HuffPost reports. The race realist will speak of declining worldwide IQs and Americas increasing mongrelization driven by unassimilated races with below-average intelligence capacities.

He also wrote a bunch of white nonsense on how education is wasted on non-whites while bitching about how he feels American college campuses today are essentially playgrounds for far-Left agitators, anti-White elitists, and subsidized international students.

Just as abroad, if there is a rape culture on campus, it is largely being created because of the importation of Third Worlders, he wrote.

After the Anonymous Comrades Collective shared its findings with HuffPost, which then contacted Star Academy for comment, Welton was fired. He deleted all of his online activity, including a social media post from March 31, when he reportedly wrote: No mercy for our enemies. Do not weep, for they are not human. Treat those who want to abolish whiteness with the same venom if not more. They deserve medieval punishments. He wrote this seven months into his job as an elementary school teacher.

More From HuffPost:

Earlier this week, before they fired Welton, Star Academy administrators said in an emailed statement that they had not been aware of the concerning online publications allegedly made by a teacher at the school.

Star Academy, the statement continued, is committed to a diverse and inclusive community and embraces our responsibility as an educational institution to foster a safe and healthy environment for our students. We do not support, condone, or agree with white supremacism or white separatist ideologies.

After HuffPosts inquiries, Star Academy deleted the Faculty page from its website, which had included a photo of Welton and a brief description of his job.

So basically, all of these right-wingers who are suddenly hellbent on ridding the world of Critical Race Theory are worried about the wrong thing. It is teachers like Welton who should be banned from the classroom.

But Welton pretty much embodies neo-conservatism, so I wouldnt hold my breath for Republican lawmakers to have the same energy for teachers like him that they do for anyone who wishes to teach about America through a lens of Blackness.

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Massachusetts Elementary School Teacher Fired After Being Exposed as White Supremacist Writer Who Hid Behind P - The Root

One thing Ive learned watching the media: its like drinking tequila. Do it on an empty stomach. I watched two minutes of Don Lemon after dinner last night and my wife is still trying to get the smell of vomit out of two throw pillows. But also - it's amazing how fast they bury their own mistakes. Which maybe they learned watching "Goodfellas."

They'll report something that's false, but before anyone has a chance to expose the lie, they've already moved on. And like that hitchhiker I picked up last August, the storys gone without a trace. So thank God there are people out there, who go back and show us the most egregious media mistakes during this pandemic. These hacks wont get away with it just because they were wearing masks.

I must credit Human Events Christina Pushaw, Charles Cooke from National Review, and the great Ann Coulter for exposing this following media malpractice.

Do you remember the story of Rebekah Jones? Like Bernie Sanders' hair, it was everywhere! A heroic whistleblower accusing governor Ron DeSantis of demanding that she falsify data. Cable news embraced her like Andrew Cuomo groping a female staffer.

CNN HEAVILY PROMOTED REBEKAH JONES' FAKE CONSPIRACY ACCUSING DESANTIS ADMIN OF ALTERING COVID DATA

Clip of media praise for Jones: "Rebekah Jones, thank you for your invaluable work. This is very, very important work that you are doing. We greatly appreciate it.//I know this has been hard for you to be in the spotlight. There are a lot of big accusations coming your way, so thank you for taking this opportunity to help us understand what this is about and what it means for the people of Florida"// Ali Velshi: Rebekah Jones, the light is shining on you. Dont be scared because the whole country now is watching you and your family and what they do to you and your family and what they do to you.

But as quickly as you can say "Michael Avenatti," the narrative fell apart - crumbling faster than Julie Swetnick under oath. And when it fell apart -- the press ignored it. Like a burning police station in Minneapolis.

To remind you - After the Florida Department of Health fired Jones last May, she claimed it was for not helping to falsely boost DeSantis stats. Overnight, she became a star. Forbes awarded her "technology person of the year." Proof that Forbes has sunk lower than George Stephanopoulos in bare feethe is shorter than me. She raised hundreds of thousands of dollars; her Twitter followers exploded. It was all about as real as Kat's glasses, but that didnt matter.

The media loved her because she fit a role they needed: To bash an evil pro-Trump republican, who was beating the pandemic despite rejecting full lockdowns in a state teeming with rabid spring breakers and people in their late hundreds. Those bath-salt huffing, alligator-riding hillbillies just couldnt be right.

CNN'S JAKE TAPPER RETWEETS CRITICISM OF REBEKAH JONES AFTER PROMOTING HER FAKE CONSPIRACIES ON-AIR

Now as this is happening, the media's embracing Andrew Cuomo, who shoved COVID patients into rest homes that killed thousands. Might as well been gas chambers. Even as - per capita, New York has nearly double Floridas COVID-19 fatalities. The only thing higher than New Yorks COVID death rate are its taxes.

But what about this perfect hero? Turns out the lady NPR called a top scientist was about as much of a scientist as Bill Nye. In fact, she had held three non-scientist jobs - and all of them had her fired and criminally charged. She'd been busted for trespassing, resisting arrest, attempting to steal computer equipment; and in 2018 she was accused of sexual cyberharassment facing stalking charges, stemming from an extramarital affair with her former student. Her resume is more of a rap sheet. Although it sounds like someone Hunter Biden might be into.

So she was no doctor. She never even played one on TV. Youd get better health advice from the muscle head working at Vitamin Shoppe.

According to Human Events, "case files allege Jones stalked and robbed her former student, sent explicit photos to his family and employer, and trespassed on his property." Sounds exactly like what happened to me when I switched long-distance carriers. So maybe that mightve tipped the media off. No such luck. Even though all of this seems like an easy fact check.

But the media didn't care - cuz they needed a hero. And when the media seeks a hero, they'll overlook the very worst. Like this lewd lollipop. Remember how CNN embraced Michael Avenatti - yet his story had more flaws than the diamond Kat wears on her ring. That didn't stop Bri.

Clip of Brian Stelter interviewing Avenatti in 2018: Looking out to 2020, one reason I am taking you seriously as a contender is because of your presence on cable news.

Other than where to go for the best blueberry pancakes, does he ever get anything right? Remember how they embraced Jussie Smollett - the guy that did his best acting when being interviewed by the cops. Remember, hoaxers - when you hire two Nigerian brothers to fake a hate crime dont pay by check. And Ive lost count of all the questionable sources the media used in the Russian collusion hoax.

They flooded the zone with bitter clowns and spotlight chasers. Remember this guy? Anthony Scaramucci. I think he's now Jeff Zucker's footstool. Fact is - if the media can nail you -- they'll use any tool within reach. Including tools with a few screws loose. Then they stop covering it when theyre wrong and pretend the whole thing never happened. They shout the lie to ruin an enemys reputation, then dont have the integrity to admit they were wrong.

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But at least some people are doing the work Im too lazy to do. I wonder what our angry White male has to say!

Tom Shillue, Angry White Male: Ah the whistleblower huh? Yea, I didnt pay much attention to that story when it happened. Kinda shows you what I think about the mainstream media. I was probably out hiking like today. Which begs the question, if a fake whistleblower blows a whistle and youre not around to hear it, did it even make a sound?

There's definitely something wrong with that man.

This article is adapted from Greg Gutfeld's opening monologue on the May 20, 2021 edition of "Gutfeld!"

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Greg Gutfeld: Media will lie to ruin an enemy and wont have the integrity to admit they were wrong - Fox News

The largesse has transformed Thiel, an early Facebook investor and PayPal co-founder, into an outsize figure in the fight for control of the 50-50 Senate, providing fuel to two longtime associates who embrace his populist-conservative views. Top Republicans have expressed astonishment at the size of the donations and say theyve turned Vance and Masters whove never before run for elected office and will have to overcome primary rivals with far longer political resumes into formidable contenders in the blink of an eye.

A lot of people didnt know if they should take Blake [Masters] seriously as a candidate before the money came in, and when the money was announced Blake became a serious prospective candidate, said Kirk Adams, a former Arizona state House speaker. Before folks didnt really have any metric to judge his prospective candidacy, but now they do. Ten million dollars is a pretty damn good metric.

Thiel declined an interview request. His donations are by far his largest in two decades of giving to Republican candidates a partial reflection, friends say, of his intensifying interest in politics.

The tech investors profile in donor circles grew during the 2016 election, when he contributed around $1.5 million to pro-Trump outfits and spoke at the Republican National Convention. The 53-year-old, German-born Thiel would become an influential figure in Trumps orbit. He served on Trumps transition team and saw several of his aides become senior figures in the administration. He maintains a close relationship with Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner; the two both have homes in the Miami area.

Then-President-elect Donald Trump shakes the hand of Peter Thiel during a meeting with technology executives at Trump Tower on Dec. 14, 2016. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

But Thiels latest contributions stem not only from his growing political involvement but from his closeness with Vance and Masters. Vance became acquainted with Thiel when he was at Yale Law School and then went to work for Thiel in Silicon Valley; Thiel later became an investor in Vances venture capital firm. Masters, meanwhile, was a student of Thiels at Stanford University and eventually became chief operating officer of Thiel Capital and president of the Thiel Foundation. He maintains a website in which hes posted detailed notes from Thiels class at Stanford.

Vance and Masters appear to closely embrace Thiels ideological beliefs, including his distrust of globalization one of the issues that drew Thiel to Trump.

Vance, who authored "Hillbilly Elegy," a bestselling memoir about growing up in working-class Ohio, laid out his views during a July 2019 speech lamenting the shifting of jobs overseas. Last year, he published an essay titled End the Globalization Gravy Train.

Masters, meanwhile, co-authored with Thiel the 2014 book Zero to One, in which they portrayed globalization as the enemy of innovation.

Thiels support for 2022 candidates is expected to go beyond Vance and Masters, those familiar with his plans say. The list includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a rising star in Republican politics up for reelection next year, with whom Thiel has met privately.

Thiel is also looking at donating to an assortment of House candidates, including Army veteran Joe Kent, who is waging a challenge to GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Trump impeachment backer, in Washington state's all-party primary next year. Earlier this year, Thiel contributed to Brian Harrison, a former Trump administration official who ran unsuccessfully in a Texas congressional special election.

Over the years, he has supported an array of libertarian-leaning politicians, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and former Michigan Rep. Justin Amash.

But Thiel has never made political donations at this scale before and not all of his political bets have paid off. In 2018, he backed the gubernatorial campaign of Kansas Republican Kris Kobach, an immigration hardliner who defeated the sitting Republican governor in the primary before losing the general election to Democrat Laura Kelly. Two years later, he spent more than $2 million in support of Kobachs failed Senate campaign, which ended with a loss to an establishment-backed candidate in the Republican primary.

Thiels giving drew scrutiny in 2017, when he donated to then-Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawleys Senate campaign. The contribution landed just days before Hawley launched an antitrust investigation into Google, a company Thiel has criticized as monopolistic.

Within Republican circles, Thiel is seen as an unconventional donor. Unlike other major givers, he lacks a singular political adviser or gatekeeper for candidates looking to court him. The billionaire has operated mostly independently of those in the tight-knit world of Republican operatives, though he counts the incendiary conservative commentator Ann Coulter, with whom Thiel co-hosted a 2019 fundraiser for Kobach, as a friend.

Peter Thiel and Ann Coulter pictured in April 2019. | Theo Wargo/Getty Images

While some other Republican contributors, such as those in the Koch political network, have used their money to invest in building party infrastructure, Thiel has so far refrained from doing so. And unlike other donors who delve into the minutiae of how candidates they invest in build their campaign teams, Thiel has taken a largely hands-off approach with Vance and Masters, those familiar with the discussions say.

Thiel, who according to Forbes is worth more than $4 billion, made his first splash in conservative politics in 2009, when he penned an essay in outlining libertarian views that sharply diverged from the liberal bent of Silicon Valley. His attraction to Trump, friends say, partly stemmed from their shared distaste of the media. After the gossip blog Gawker in 2007 wrote that Thiel was gay, Thiel retaliated by secretly financing wrestler Hulk Hogans lawsuit against the website over its posting of a Hogan sex tape. The suit, which resulted in millions of dollars in damages being awarded to Hogan, forced Gawker out of business.

Republicans in Ohio and Arizona say Thiels money by itself wont be enough for either Vance or Masters to win the GOP nomination. Vance is squaring off against a handful of wealthy candidates with the ability to pour millions of dollars into their own campaigns, which would offset Thiels funding.

Masters will need to get by Jim Lamon, a deep-pocketed energy executive who could self-finance his campaign, and state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a potential candidate who would benefit from widespread familiarity among voters.

There are also limitations as to how far Thiels money can go, given that super PACs must pay higher rates for TV advertising than a candidates official campaign. Both states include expensive media markets, making it necessary for Vance and Masters to build formidable war chests on their own, say Republican strategists in Arizona and Ohio.

Its unclear whether Thiels $10 million donations are a one-time investment or if more money is on the way.

Unless youre Stephen King with successful movies, bestselling authors are not household names, Doug Preisse, the chair emeritus of the Franklin County, Ohio, Republican Party said of Vance. Its a super start, but hell need every bit of that and more in a race with a number of other well-connected self-funders.

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Rise of a megadonor: Thiel makes a play for the Senate - POLITICO