Free Republic

WASHINGTON — White House officials were scrambling Thursday to figure out how to counter the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry, with one source familiar with the situation describing a sense of “total panic” over the past week at the lack of a plan to address the new reality. There appears to be rising “anxiety, unease, and concern” — as one person close to the White House described the mood in the West Wing — that the whistleblower’s allegations could seriously wound the president and some of those around him. “There’s not a lot of confidence that there’s no there there,” this...

CNN’s “State of the Union” panel ripped former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her campaign Sunday one day after staffers corralled the press behind a rope as Clinton walked in a Fourth of July parade in New Hampshire. The panel consisting of CNN contributors S.E. Cupp and Van Jones, The Wall Street Journal’s Carol Lee, and CNN political reporter Jeff Zeleny roasted Clinton’s rope line, with Jones calling it “the worst visual metaphor” for her campaign. “This is humiliating for reporters who have to abide by Hillary Clinton’s rules of journalism,” Cupp told host Jake Tapper. “And it’s not...

President Obama has all but quit smoking, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday after the surgeon general issued a report on the health risks of tobacco as part of the administration’s anti-smoking campaign.