Free Republic

Democrats will hold their 2024 national convention in Chicago, according to three sources familiar with the decision. The decision to hold the 2024 Democratic National Convention there will place the party and President Biden in the heart of a battleground region that has proven pivotal in the last several election cycles. Party officials were torn between a few finalists as they weighed where to hold the gathering, including New York and Atlanta.

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) pressed Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw Thursday on the railroad’s history of lobbying against stricter safety regulations at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio. Whitehouse specifically cited a 2015 Obama-era regulation that required more modern electronic brakes for trains carrying hazardous materials, which Norfolk Southern called “not in the public interest” and lobbied to weaken before the Trump administration scrapped it outright in 2018.

Well before classified documents were found in President Biden’s Delaware home, its garage, and the Penn Biden Center, it’s fair to say a certain number of Democrats were uncomfortable with the idea of our octogenarian president seeking reelection. Now a narrative is building that if the classified documents found at these locations aren’t the leverage needed to convince him not to run — or even to resign at some point — his age and health very well could be a reason for him to do just that by the time campaigning begins in earnest next year. So, on the admittedly...

The senior Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee is warning that government shutdowns are all but inevitable if the newly empowered Republicans insist on dropping federal funding back to 2022 levels, as some conservatives have demanded. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) emphasized that any spending bills will need the support of Democrats in both Congress and the White House, and vowed that they’d never back proposals that revert funding to last year’s levels. “You cannot pass appropriations bills without them being both bipartisan and bicameral. The president will not sign,” she said during a press briefing in the Capitol on...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. is criticizing Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema after she announced her decision to leave the Democratic Party and register as an independent on Friday. Sinema announced the decision in an Arizona Republic op-ed published on Friday, criticizing America's two party system. "Americans are told that we have only two choices – Democrat or Republican – and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have been pulled further and further toward the extremes," Sinema wrote. "Most Arizonans believe this is a false choice, and when I ran for the U.S. House and...

"The View" co-host Joy Behar appeared upset on Thursday that Americans didn't give Democrats a "supermajority" in the midterm elections and said that half of the country was "not paying attention to their own needs." After co-host Sara Haines praised Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan's concession speech after losing to Republican JD Vance in Ohio's Senate race, Behar said she didn't want to be a "Debbie Downer" but insisted Democrats should have enjoyed massive gains in Congress. "On the one had you have a party that tried to save health care, that tries to save your right to vote, that...

President Biden on Tuesday will announce that the first bill he would send to Congress if Democrats retain their majorities would be one to codify the Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion rights. Biden is set to make the remarks at an event in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Democratic National Committee. It illustrates how Democrats and Biden want to put the emphasis on abortion rights ahead of the midterms as new polls suggest the party is losing momentum in its effort to retain the Senate and House. Biden’s announcement has caveats. Sending the bill is dependent on Democrats retaining...

The Democrats are riding a wave of successes the past few weeks. Gas prices edging downward, passage of the improbably named Inflation Reduction Act, successful meddling in Republican primaries and improving poll numbers have combined to make Biden and his compatriots believe they can win control of the Senate, and optimism is rising about the House. But when you dig through the numbers, Democrats are getting ahead of themselves.

Bill Clinton says he’s never before been so concerned about the country’s foundational future, lamenting there’s a “fair chance” that the United States could “completely lose our constitutional democracy.” The former president appeared Wednesday on CBS’s “The Late Late Show” and responded to a question from host James Corden that alluded to Donald Trump’s presidency without mentioning the ex-commander in chief by name. Corden asked Clinton how he stays “so positive in what has been a very, very dark few years.”

Democratic senators are pushing back on whispers within their party that President Biden, 79, is too old to run for a second term. Senators say they will strongly support Biden if he opts to run for reelection, despite growing concerns over his low public approval rating and his ability to win a grueling presidential election when he will be 81 years old.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called the recent actions of New York City Council speaker Adrienne Adams “movie-villain type of decisionmaking” in a social media post on Tuesday. Ocasio-Cortez posted an Instagram story to discuss “what it actually looks like when politics gets dirty,” accusing the speaker of taking funding away from children’s after-school programs. “The mayor and the city council speaker decided that they wanted their budget right now. The budget had absolutely unconscionable cuts to education, housing services and a lot more,” Ocasio-Cortez explained. “How do you actually get that? Well, you create a psychological environment and a political...

At a time when President Biden is at 33 percent approval while Congress sits at 21 percent, there’s one politician who is seeing his numbers rise briskly: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.). Overall, 57 percent of West Virginia voters approve of Manchin’s performance in the Mountain State. That’s a 17-point jump since Joe Biden took office in early 2021. No U.S. senator has seen a bigger increase in support than Manchin. More notably, the former governor has doubled his approval ratings among West Virginia Republicans, with a whopping 69 percent approving of his performance. For context, Biden’s approval in the state...

The candidates in Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate primary race met face-to-face in a one-hour debate organized by 12 Nexstar television stations and hosted by WHTM/abc26 Harrisburg. The hour-long forum saw sparks fly over an array of issues including the economy, crime, the war in Ukraine, fracking and mask mandates ahead of the May 17 primary.

Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Outnumbered,” former Attorney General Bill Barr reacted to White House press secretary Jen Psaki suggesting Fox News reporter Peter Doocy came across as “a stupid son of a b****,” something that members of the mainstream media failed to speak out against. Barr said that former President Trump was elected “because the American people are sick and tired of the mainstream media and see the double standard.” He added the hypocrisy of the media complaining about how Trump treated them while allowing Psaki’s remarks was a result of the media being “largely an extension of the...

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is facing fierce pushback from Democrats as he implements a slew of conservative policies just two weeks after he formally assumed office. The businessman-turned-politician has hit the ground running, signing a number of executive orders aimed at banning mask mandates and what his office has called “inherently divisive concepts, like Critical Race Theory and its progeny” from classrooms.

AOC told the Washington Times that “a lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out.” “I believe it’s a Walgreens in California cited it, but the data didn’t back it up,” she said. Now, she says this in the face of numerous videos and reports of smash and grabs in Democratic cities across the country, in particular a spurt of such criminal actions in California. So, it’s fantasy to deny them. Republican lawmakers and retailers blasted AOC for denying the obvious.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., will retire at the end of this Congress. DeFazio, who will step down after serving in the House of Representatives for 36 years, becomes the 19th Democratic lawmaker to retire or run for different office in 2022 elections, as the party tries to defend it's razor thin majority in the chamber. Twelve House Republicans are retiring or seeking another office next year.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday he doubts there is a Plan B for immigration reform if attempts to include provisions through the budget process fail. "If we don't have reconciliation I'm not sure that there's a pathway forward," Menendez told immigration advocates on a call organized by the American Business Immigration Coalition. He added that any legislative avenue outside of reconciliation would need the support of at least 10 Republican senators, an unlikely prospect for an issue as politicized as immigration.

The term is universally misused. If they don't want to use the correct term, "Democrat party", it should be spelled as "the Democrat-ick party."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the Democrat Party needs new leadership — a remark which comes after two years of rumors infighting among establishment Democrats and far-left progressives in the caucus as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) continue to hold a grip on ultimate direction of the party. Ocasio-Cortez made the observation during a Wednesday interview with The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill as they discussed a variety of issues — from President-elect Joe Biden’s “corporate revolving door” transition team to the prospect of shifts in Democrat Party leadership.