Free Republic

Shortly after Joe Biden boarded a recent flight from Washington to New York, a string of passengers began stopping at his seat in coach to deliver some version of the same message: Run, Joe, run. "We're with you," one said, according to a Democratic strategist who happened to be on the plane and witnessed the scene. "You've got to do this," said another. Biden himself is more conflicted — but he is listening keenly to the supporters pushing him to run for the White House in 2020. Biden is convinced he can beat President Donald Trump, friends and advisers say,...

And then there were the three who spoke on Friday. You had to control your gag reflex watching Vice President Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) extol McCain’s greatness as he was accorded the honor of lying in state. Consider Pence for a moment. He began with a ludicrous declaration that broke all records for disingenuousness: “The president asked me to be here on behalf of a grateful nation, to pay a debt of honor and respect to a man who served our country throughout his life, in uniform and in public...

Full Title: Sen. John McCain's pallbearers to include Warren Beatty, Joe Biden, Gary Hart, plus billionaire Michael Bloomberg and FedEx CEO while his ushers include health and telecom execs McCain's office announced his pallbearers and other aspects of three days of services for hero Actor Warren Beatty will be among those serving as pall bearers Vice President Joe Biden, a friend from the Senate, also will be there Former Sens. Gary Hart, Phil Gramm, and Russ Feingold will join, as well Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Among those paying tribute to McCain at his memorial services will be Jeff Flake, Joe...

meeting with a draft financial audit report. Two journalists who attended the meeting also took the report when they left the meeting. Jeffrey Smith of Dewey Citizens for Accountability arrived at the Aug. 3 meeting minutes before it adjourned. Smith said following the meeting, he left with a copy of TGM’s draft financial report, which was discussed at length during the meeting. Audit committee Chairman Larry Silver approached him after the meeting and insisted he give it back, Smith said. “Larry Silver ran/charged at me across the parking lot demanding I not leave with it,” Smith said in an email....

Former Vice President Joe Biden is launching an awareness campaign to promote the importance of family acceptance of LGBTQ youth. The vice president's Biden Foundation kicked off the "As You Are" initiative on Tuesday with a video campaign, featuring Biden, pop singer Cyndi Lauper, former NFL player Wade Davis and numerous LGBTQ advocates and activists.

Joe Biden is leading the Democratic field in some early polls asking voters about the party’s prospective presidential candidates in 2020. But in his old stomping grounds in the U.S. Senate, there are plenty of skeptics who point to the former vice president’s age, his support for the Iraq War and his two failed presidential bids as reasons to doubt he would be successful. “It’s hard to see someone [winning] who voted for the Iraq war. People are looking to turn the page,” one senior Democratic aide said. A second senior Democratic aide said “polls show that voters want someone...

What started out as a single flag in tribute to his friend has taken on a life of its own for a Lewes businessman. On July 10, Dave Repass put up a blue, black and white flag, known as a Thin Blue Line flag, on the northbound side of Route 1 over the Nassau Bridge following the sudden death of his friend, Delaware State Police Master Cpl. William Matt.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (Texas) blocked a resolution on Thursday that would have lent the Senate's support to the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, which was offered up in the wake of President Trump’s Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.) tried to pass their resolution by unanimous consent, which requires the sign off of every senator. But Cornyn objected, saying senators should focus on passing new sanctions legislation and warning that they should work through the committee process. "It is purely a symbolic act...

Some septuagenarian House Democrats have a message for their younger colleagues clamoring for a spot at the leadership table: Age ain’t nothin’ but a number. Democrats in their 70s have started pushing back against some of the more youthful members of the Democratic Caucus who are making noise about launching leadership bids in the wake of Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley’s stunning primary loss last week to 28-year-old Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York. Older lawmakers argue that just because Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), 78, and her top lieutenants are getting up there in years doesn’t mean they’re not...

Former Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview published Tuesday that he will not run for president in 2020. “It makes me feel guilty about not wanting to [run for president],” Biden told Josh Rogin of the Washington Post during a wide-ranging interview on U.S.-EU relations under the Trump administration. “But it doesn’t make me want to. I’m not looking to live in the White House, I’ve seen it up close.” “But all kidding aside, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” the 75-year-old added. During a March 2017 event at Colgate University, Biden said he was “fairly...

A bipartisan pair of senators penned a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to withdraw the Trump administration's nominee to a high-profile role over concerns that he has "spread misinformation" about immigrants and displayed a "lack of empathy" towards refugees.

LOS ANGELES, California, May 18, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) -- California’s Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra is leading a coalition of 20 attorneys general, representing 19 states plus Washington, D.C., opposing a Trump administration rule change that prioritizes abstinence education over contraception distribution in family planning funds. In February, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that abstinence messages and natural family planning methods would be given priority in distributing $260 million worth of family planning grants. The announcement did not mention artificial birth control. In response, Planned Parenthood affiliates in Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin, as well as the American...

Battling brain cancer at his family ranch in Arizona, 81-year-old Sen. John McCain has been sharing his hopes for the future of the country and reflections on his political life with friends who visit. For former Vice President Joe Biden, McCain's message was a simple one: don't "walk away" from politics, Biden told The New York Times, describing his conversation with the Arizona Republican. Biden has yet to make any announcement about whether he will run in 2020, after declining to run in 2016 following the death of his son, Beau. After visiting McCain last weekend at his ranch, Biden...

Baltimore City students scored near the bottom in reading and math compared to children in other cities and large urban areas on an important national assessment given in 2017. In fourth- and eighth-grade reading, only 13 percent of city students are considered proficient or advanced. In fourth-grade math, 14 percent were proficient and in eighth-grade math 11 percent met the mark, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federally mandated test from the U.S. Department of Education... That put the Baltimore ahead of only Detroit and Cleveland, and sometimes ahead of Milwaukee and Fresno, Calif. — areas of...

A group of bipartisan senators is introducing new legislation to limit President Trump's ability to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) will introduce the legislation, the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, on Wednesday. The legislation would let Mueller, or any other special counsel, receive an "expedited judicial review" within 10 days of being fired to determine if it was for a "good cause." If it was determined it wasn't, he would be reinstated. It would also codify regulations that only a senior Justice Department official can...

Will Democrats really get behind a do-over in 2020? Many have speculated that a late substitution of Joe Biden for Hillary Clinton might have saved the White House for Democrats in 2016, and at the very least it’s tough to argue that they could have done worse. Biden, for instance, would have known to campaign in the blue-wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and would have been better positioned to connect with working-class Americans outside the urban-coastal progressive bubbles.The Democratic Party, however, wants to double down on those progressive bubbles in the future, so Politico reports that Biden’s...

The Delaware Supreme Court overturned conviction of a teen in the fatal beating of a classmate at a Wilmington high school in 2016. Trinity Carr was 17 when a Family Court Judge found her guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree criminal conspiracy. Amy Inita Joyner-Francis was 16 when she died April 21, 2016, after a violent encounter with Carr and two others in a restroom at Howard High School of Technology. The state medical examiner testified that Joyner-Francis suffered sudden cardiac death brought on by a rare combination of heart and lung defects that contributed to her death. In...

Members of the Senate failed to advance any immigration laws on Feb. 15, leaving the fate of various U.S. immigrants in an ongoing state of limbo. News of the vote came in as hundreds of attendees sat in Irvine Auditorium, listening to former Vice President Joe Biden and former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush discuss immigration policy with Penn President Amy Gutmann. The two-hour discussion was punctuated by brief personal anecdotes by the panelists. In a particularly memorable moment, Bush described his relationship to his wife, Columba Bush, a Mexican-American philanthropist. "My wife is from Mexico, she's a proud Mexican-American....

The Schumer-Rounds-Collins immigration bill would be a total catastrophe. @DHSgov says it would be “the end of immigration enforcement in America.” It creates a giant amnesty (including for dangerous criminals), doesn’t build the wall, expands chain migration, keeps the visa... lottery, continues deadly catch-and-release, and bars enforcement even for FUTURE illegal immigrants. Voting for this amendment would be a vote AGAINST law enforcement, and a vote FOR open borders. If Dems are actually serious about DACA, they should support the Grassley bill!

The Senate shot down Sen. John McCain’s latest immigration legalization proposal Thursday as lawmakers finally began their long-awaited floor fight over the fate of “Dreamers.” Mr. McCain and Sen. Chris Coons, Delaware Democrat, had proposed an amnesty for perhaps 3 million illegal immigrants in exchange for a study of border security and a promise of action by 2021. But the plan had been rejected by President Trump and garnered only 52 votes in support, which was well shy of the 60 senators had set as the needed threshold for action. Votes were expected in quick succession on a plan to...