Free Republic

Former President Bill Clinton is set to back Rep. Charlie Rangel, who’s seeking a record-setting 23rd term in Congress. And the endorsement couldn’t come at a better time: The Harlem district representative has fallen out favor with several notable politicos. Mr. Rangel, 83, has had strained relations with President Obama since 2008, when he supported Hillary Clinton for president. And there’s also no love lost between Mr. Rangel and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mr. Rangel in 2013 backed city comptroller Bill Thompson for mayor, Politico reported. That, after Mr. de Blasio had endorsed Mr. Rangel’s re-election campaign in...

April 14, 2014 11:34 AM Rangel Blames Failure to Pay Rent on . . . Sequester? By Andrew Johnson Charlie Rangel’s district office went all of 2013 without paying rent, and it’s Republicans’ fault, apparently. The New York Democrat blamed his complete financial mismanagement — which resulted in the state bailing him out for at least $87,000 — on last year’s sequester. “As everyone knows, the GOP sequester not only constrained our nation’s economy, but also strained the budget of congressional offices,” said a Rangel spokeswoman, according to the New York Post. The automatic spending cuts went in to effect...

New York City’s longest-serving congressman won’t pay his rent. State taxpayers were stiffed out of at least $87,000 when Rep. Charles Rangel stopped paying for the district office he rents in Harlem’s Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building, records ­obtained by The Post show. His staffers’ excuse? They lost the lease, according to state Office of General Services correspondence. “I finally heard back from Congressman Rangel’s office and it seems we haven’t gotten the signed lease back because they lost it!” OGS real-estate specialist Sydney Allen wrote in a July 30, 2013, e-mail to a colleague that was ­obtained...

Rep. Charles Rangel called an apparent building explosion and collapse in his home district in Harlem, New York the most “horrific” thing that has hit his home district in his time in Washington and his community’s Sept. 11. “I’ve never had anything this horrific that’s happened in my community since I’ve been in Washington,” Rangel told NBC’s New York affiliate Wednesday as news reports of the fire response continued to come in. “I hope that soon, and very soon, it will be contained and we can go back to some degree of normal normalcy.”

This is Rep. Charlie Rangel’s last hurrah. The 83-year-old Democrat is preparing to announce that this will be his last campaign for re-election, and that he will retire from Congress in 2016 as President Obama is leaving the White House, Harlem insiders told me. “Rangel is hoping that he will get more support for re-election by promising this will be his last term — and that party leaders will allow him to step down in dignity then, rather than backing a challenger now,” said one source.

Rep. Charles Rangel isn’t letting a federal judge have the final word in his recently dismissed lawsuit against the House over a humiliating 2010 censure vote. A month after U.S. District Judge John Bates tossed the longtime New York Democrat’s complaint, his private attorney, Jay Goldberg, filed an appeal, according to court records Tuesday. The House censured Mr. Rangel in 2010 for failure to disclose rental income on a vacation house and breaking House rules that ban members from taking gifts.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) predicted he’ll face a “rough’ fight for reelection this cycle, but said he believes ObamaCare will be a boon to his campaign. “It’s going to be a rough one, but, you know, it’s like shooting crap. Either you win or you lose; you just can’t stay even with the first shot,” Rangel said on MSNBC on Tuesday. The long-serving Democrat had been considered a retirement risk, but announced earlier this month he plans to run for reelection. He’s likely to face a contentious primary fight from state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, whom supporters believe is well-poised to...

Charles B. Rangel, the venerable but embattled congressman from Harlem, will announce on Thursday that he is running for a 23rd term, according to a colleague in the New York House delegation. Representative Rangel — who in an unusually introspective email to supporters over the weekend prompted speculation that he might retire — told the colleague, Representative Gregory W. Meeks, this week that “I haven’t announced yet, but I want folks to know that I am going to do it.” “He is full of energy,” said Mr. Meeks, a fellow Democrat.

They’re two of the most powerful African-American politicians in the land. And by most accounts, President Obama and Rep. Charles Rangel hate each other. The most recently revealed salvo in their war of words — Obama’s assertion that Rangel is a “hack,” according to the political tome “Double Down” — is just one element of a long-dysfunctional relationship. Rangel supported Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary, but the seeds of mutual disdain were planted before that, according to Democratic insiders and staffers for both pols.

New York Democrat Rep. Charlie Rangel denied that President Barack Obama lied when he repeatedly claimed those who liked their healthcare plans could keep them under Obamacare, claiming that the ensuing criticism is instead “all about Obama.” Rangel appeared alongside North Carolina Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers to discuss Obamacare’s political future with Fox News’ Shannon Bream on Sunday. After checking in on a fatal subway derailment in Rangel’s New York district, Bream asked the congressman if he would be open to modifying parts of the healthcare law that need work. “I don’t know what you mean by modification,” Rangel protested....

It appears one Democrat member of Congress has decided to drop the mask and reveal who he really is. Unbelievably, Charlie Rangel told NY1 that “President Obama should drop the charade of democracy and rule directly through executive orders.” I mean, why not? After all, Rep. Rangel’s own relationship with following laws is fuzzy at best, given his problems with tax evasion.

President Obama considered veteran Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel a political hack and had such little regard for Jesse Jackson that he “effectively banned” the civil rights leader from the White House, a new book claims. The political tome about the 2012 presidential campaign, “Double Down,” says Obama had little patience for “professional left” activists and “vanishingly close to zero” for what a White House aide called “professional blacks.” “Apart from Georgia Congressman John Lewis and Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, Obama had nearly as much contempt for the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) as he did for the Tea Party Caucus,”...

President Obama considered veteran Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel a political hack and had such little regard for Jesse Jackson that he “effectively banned” the civil rights leader from the White House, a new book claims. The political tome about the 2012 presidential campaign, “Double Down,” says Obama had little patience for “professional left” activists and “vanishingly close to zero” for what a White House aide called “professional blacks.” “Apart from Georgia Congressman John Lewis and Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, Obama had nearly as much contempt for the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) as he did for the Tea Party Caucus,”...

Lawmakers had to pause for a fact check about a 78-year-old law during a hearing that was supposed to be about ObamaCare, after Rep. Charles Rangel made the -- inaccurate -- claim that no Republicans supported the Social Security Act. The New York Democrat made the assertion Tuesday while railing against Republicans for opposing the health care law. It was during a House hearing where Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, was testifying. "It should give you some small comfort to know that, historically, the Republican Party always fought vigorously against these types of programs,"...

Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) says that there is “no question” that members of Congress who are paid $174,000 a year are entitled to taxpayer-funded subsidies when they purchase health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges. … Under Obamacare, only people whose income is below 400 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for a federal subsidy to buy health insurance on the government exchanges. However, a recent rule made by the Office of Personnel Management allows members of Congress and their staffs to keep the taxpayer-funded “employer contribution” they currently receive under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP)...

Oliver Darcy reporting multiple members of Congress arrested at immigration rally.

As House Republicans attempted to demonize the Affordable Care Act in Washington, DC, local Democratic lawmakers in the Bronx began promoting the healthcare reform package, often referred to as “Obamacare,” as a significant improvement in how Americans pay for and receive health care. Because the House, which is controlled by Republicans, continued to link every budget bill to the de-funding of the Affordable Care Act, the federal government was forced to shut down many of its operations on Tuesday. (Editor’s note: See p. 2 for more details on what the shutdown means. As of press time Tuesday night, Republicans and...

Tax cheat and crook Charlie Rangel is back in the news again for not disclosing funds. In 2010, Rangel lost his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee because of an investigation into 2 corporate-funded trips to the Caribbean. Later that year, the House of Representatives formally censured him after he was found guilty of 11 ethics violations. Violations included failure to disclose over $600,000 in assets on a financial disclosure report as well as short changing the IRS for 17 years on rental income from his villa in the Dominican Republic. He also raided his PAC for $393,000 to...

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y) on Monday called it “embarrassing” that President Barack Obama has drawn a “red line” on Syria, and the congressman does not see “anything urgent about it.” “I love Obama, and you’ll never find a truer Democrat than me, but this whole idea of any president of the United States drawing lines saying that if any country does something, that he considers wrong, that the nation is going to war, it’s unheard of–drawing a red line. So, of course, it’s embarrassing. I wish it didn’t happen,” Rangel said. An MSNBC host asked Rangel: “Are you concerned in...