Free Republic

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro broke his silence about not joining the 2024 Democratic ticket as the vice presidential candidate — with sources attributing presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ snub to her fear that he would steal the “spotlight” and alienate the party’s progressive base over his support for Israel. ... Hank Sheinkopf told The Post that Shapiro was too hot to pick as Harris’ running mate because of his pro-Israel record, and that Waltz was a safer choice. “The ticket would have been too pro-Israel. Harris doesn’t need a battle over Israel-Gaza,” said Sheinkopf, who worked on Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign....

Queen pols are fuming that the borough is being overloaded with rowdy migrants – and are calling for other Big Apple neighborhoods to take their fair share of asylum seekers. “It’s been a real challenge,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said Sunday. “Just because you have a loud voice and more wealth doesn’t mean you don’t do your fair share. “What about Staten Island?” The Post reported Sunday that the poorest neighborhoods in the five boroughs are taking a disproportionate number of the migrants flooding into the city – with Queens taking the brunt. Queens is home to 70 of...

Former Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel — who is 94 years old — wondered whether President Biden belongs in a nursing home instead of the White House following last week’s debate disaster. “I have never been more shocked and embarrassed by any presidential debate than I was last Thursday,” Rangel, who served in Congress from 1971 to 2017, said Sunday on 770 WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable.” “One [candidate is] a convicted felon who has no respect for the truth, for morality. The other seemed so damned confused I didn’t even know whether he knew where the hell he was at...

A Staten Island power couple made up of the district attorney and a state Supreme Court judge are under scrutiny for “double dipping” by taking in hefty taxpayer-funded salaries and pensions. Both DA Michael McMahon and Judge Judith McMahon are getting paid six-figure salaries while also collecting government pensions that are likely more than $100,000, The Post has learned. DA McMahon “retired” from government service in December — while remaining the borough’s chief prosecutor — and now collects a pension that is likely upwards of $130,000. McMahon, 66, a former legislative staffer, councilman and congressman before becoming district attorney in...

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman on Sunday blasted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for calling for an election to replace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, denouncing the New York Democrat’s remarks as “outrageous.” “I thought the statement he made this week … was a mistake. I can’t ever remember anything like it,” Lieberman told host John Catsimatidis on the “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM. Lieberman, 82, a former Democratic senator from Connecticut who later became an Independent before his 2013 retirement, was the first Jewish-American to appear on a presidential ticket when then-Vice President Al Gore tapped him as his...

A New York commission that will recommend whether to give reparations for slavery and discrimination to black residents hasn’t even met yet - but it’s already sparked a rift among black New Yorkers over who should be eligible for payouts. **SNIP** Bertha Lewis, head of the Brooklyn-based Black Institute, told The Post that reparations must be considered for all black residents, because they have suffered from decades of systemic racism resulting from slavery - even if they are not direct descendants of slaves. “That’s a false narrative,” Lewis said. “I don’t give a f**k what California did.” “You can’t just...

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has been using taxpayer resources to promote his wife as she campaigns to become the Garden State’s latest US Senator, according to records and critics. Gov. Murphy’s press office has pumped out a slew of fawning press releases — which appear on the governor’s website — about First Lady Tammy Murphy after she announced her Senate run on Nov. 15. The releases include: Jan. 16, 2024: “First Lady Tammy Murphy Celebrates Signing of Doula Access Bill” Jan. 23, 2024: “First Lady Tammy Murphy today hosted a roundtable discussion to celebrate Maternal Health Awareness Day” Jan....

One of President Biden’s New York delegates has been convicted of scamming the Syracuse school district and currently owes the state $101,000 in back income taxes and penalties, The Post has learned. James “Jimmy” Monto III — who pleaded guilty to falsifying business records while he was an employee with the Syracuse City School District — is on Biden’s list of pledged delegates in the 22nd Congressional District for his re-election campaign.

The leader of an LGBTQ group at Columbia University is excluding any supporters of Israel from an upcoming black lesbian film event, The Post has learned. With the conflict in Gaza raging, an organization called LionLez sent out a message to students promoting an on-campus “Black Lesbian Film” event said explicitly said no “Zionists” would be welcome to attend. “It’s FREE PALESTINE over here. Zionists aren’t invited. See you soon, Lion Lez,” read the promotion for the Friday night showing of the two flicks, including one called “Shakedown” which “chronicles explicit performances in an underground lesbian club in Los Angeles.”...

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa has claimed that then-Mayor Bill de Blasio deliberately failed to deploy enough cops during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in New York City because he feared violent clashes between the NYPD and protesters would embarrass him. Like many other issues, how to handle the protests that erupted over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota triggered disagreements between Cuomo and de Blasio, recounts DeRosa in her forthcoming memoir, “What’s Left Unsaid: My Life at the Center of Power, Politics & Crisis.” “We learned that a high-ranking member of the police...

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration took steps in several recent disputes involving lucrative upstate gambling rights that were in line with the interests of Delaware North, where hubby Bill Hochul works, a new report says. Just last month, the governor agreed to a last-minute tweak to the state budget to restructure the public-private board overseeing western New York’s Batavia Downs hotel and casino, a competitor of the multibillion-dollar firm where Bill Hochul is senior counsel, the New York Times said. While Delaware North says it is no longer interested in acquiring Batavia, the restructuring could presumably make such a move easier,...

Long Island Rep.-elect George Santos came clean to The Post on Monday, admitting that he lied on the campaign trail about his education and work experience — but insisting that the controversy won’t deter him from serving out his two-year term in Congress. “I am not a criminal,” Santos said at one point during his exclusive interview. “This [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.” Santos’s professional biography was called into question earlier this month after the New York Times reported that he misrepresented a number of claims, including...

Gov. Kathy Hochul has a piece of legislation sitting on her desk that would allow casino operators to hire a diverse range of convicted felons — from drug peddlers to killers. The measure was sent on Tuesday to the governor for her signature or veto after passing the state Senate and Assembly by big bipartisan margins in June. Current law bars licensed casino operators from hiring anyone convicted of any felony. Critics blasted the bill as an another example of a Democrats’ bleeding heart, criminal friendly proposal run amok. “That’s just wrong. This is another example of the New York...

Some New York lawmakers are renewing the push for a state law that would lay the groundwork to pay reparations to black residents whose ancestors were enslaved. Proponents gained steam after a task force in California last week recommended that the Golden State shell out $569 million in reparations to slaves’ descendents there, or $223,200 apiece, because of lingering housing discrimination practices.

A Staten island grand jury has identified numerous instances of ballot harvesting fraud in a race for City Council last year — including a ballot submitted on behalf of a dead person and signature fraud involving dozens of other absentee ballots. The unprecedented 38-page grand jury report released by Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon called for changes in state election law including requiring official government-issued ID to vote. But it does not specify the race in question, nor does it file criminal charges against anyone. Sources told The Post that the criminal investigation focused on the campaign of Marko...

Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney said when inflation put the squeeze on his family he popped a can of Chef Boyardee – and declared “that’s what families have to do. The House Dems campaign fundraising chief, who is also a five-term incumbent representing the Hudson Valley, gave a glowing endorsement Saturday for Beefaroni and other Chef Boyardee canned pasta products when asked about his plans “to fight inflation.” “Well, I grew up in a family where if the gas price went up, the food price went down, so by this time of the week we’d be eating Chef Boyardee if...

A mom of three was executed in front of her kids less than 24 hours after her estranged husband was sprung from jail on no bail over a caught-on-camera beatdown she’d posted to her Facebook page in a desperate plea for help. The shocking case — in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s western New York hometown — has sparked fresh outrage to New York’s no-cash-bail laws and to the governor and fellow Democrats for refusing to repeal them. Adam Bennefield, 45, who has a prior conviction for kidnapping another ex at gunpoint, is now charged with shooting dead his 30-year-old wife, Keaira...

A mom of three was executed in front of her kids less than 24 hours after her estranged husband was sprung from jail on no bail over a caught-on-camera beatdown she’d posted to her Facebook page in a desperate plea for help. The shocking case — in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s western New York hometown — has sparked fresh outrage to New York’s no-cash-bail laws and to the governor and fellow Democrats for refusing to repeal them. Adam Bennefield, 45, who has a prior conviction for kidnapping another ex at gunpoint, is now charged with shooting dead his 40-year-old wife, Keaira...

Gov. Kathy Hochul treated herself to nearly $1 billion worth of pork-barrel spending in this year’s state budget — allowing her to freely hand out cash as she runs for election against Republican challenger Lee Zeldin. Hochul and her Democratic allies in the Legislature added the $920 million worth of outlays to the $220.5 billion fiscal plan in an 11th-hour move in April that government watchdogs warn is wide open to abuse. “These slush funds are totally unaccountable. It’s not how public dollars should be doled out,” senior policy adviser Rachael Fauss of Reinvent Albany said Friday.

Two people were shot outside the Long Island home of GOP gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin on Sunday while his teenage twin daughters were at home, he confirmed to The Post. “My daughters Mikayla and Arianna were doing homework on the first floor,” said Zeldin, who was not home at the time. “They heard the shots. Boom! They went upstairs and locked themselves in the bathroom. “They’re freaked out,” the congressman said. The Suffolk County pol, who is running on a tough-on-crime platform, said the two people who were shot were taken to Long Island Community Hospital. “I don’t know...