Free Republic

For all the unity that the Democratic Party projects, there’s actually a lot of drama behind the scenes, and it’s nice to see the details finally come out. According to a new tell-all on last year’s campaign, Joe Biden spent the last weeks of his re-election meltdown dodging phone calls—not from reporters or donors, but from Barack Obama himself. For two full weeks before he finally bailed out last July, Biden reportedly refused to take his old boss’s calls. And get this: even after he quit, he gave Obama the cold shoulder for another month. It’s a far cry from...

Friday on CNN’s “News Central,” former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she was not “concerned” about former President Joe Biden’s mental capacity during her tenure. Partial transcript as follows: BRIANNA KEILAR: According to my colleague Jake Tapper, who wrote a book with Alex Thompson, looking back on that, cabinet secretaries were telling them that Biden wasn’t up to the task of the proverbial 2 a.m. phone call. George Clooney said Biden didn’t even recognize him at the fundraiser that he was hosting. I mean, we’re talking 2023, 2024, why didn’t you see — why didn’t you have concerns?...

Karoline Leavitt has obliterated Joe Biden's former press secretary in a scathing on-air takedown, calling her 'bitter' as she embarks on a nationwide media blitz to sell her memoir. Leavitt was speaking with Jesse Watters on Fox when she was asked to respond to Karine Jean-Pierre's recent rebuke calling her 'deplorable.' Without missing a beat, Leavitt launched into a 90-second blitz on Jean-Pierre's character and role in the White House during her time under Biden. 'With all due respect to my predecessor, she is one of the main culprits of the greatest cover-up and scandals in American history,' she said....

Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote in her new book that she didn't think former Vice President Kamala Harris would win the election. "When I woke up, it was over. Harris had lost. I received calls from friends who were distraught or numb with disbelief. But I wasn’t surprised by the outcome. The truth was, I never really believed Harris could win. I’d been in the body of a Black woman all my life. I’d stood at the podium in the White House briefing room, traveled in my chocolate skin through rural towns, and all my experiences of...

Former Biden White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre unleashed on the Democratic Party in an excerpt from her new memoir, explaining why she decided to become an independent after years as a party flack. In the excerpt, Jean-Pierre detailed the phone call in which then-President Joe Biden told the White House team that he was dropping out of the race, Newsweek reported. "Biden seemed to be totally at peace with his decision, but I was stunned, my feelings a blur. I was angry and sad. I was enraged and heartbroken that this man had given more than 50 years of...

Former Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., wanted Republicans to win the Senate last year in order to prevent Democrats’ pursuit of "raw political power." In his new book, "Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense," set to be released on Tuesday and obtained by Fox News Digital, the former West Virginia Democrat-turned-Independent ripped into his ex-political party, tore into former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and blasted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., while lauding the relationship that he had with President Donald Trump. Manchin made waves when he and former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who also left the...

New York magazine writer Charlotte Klein is really annoyed with former Biden White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre. What bothers Klein isn't the fact that KJP was utterly incompetent as now attested to by her former fellow White House colleagues, nor even the fact that she is obviously grifting with the launch of her new self-serving book. No, what irks Klein is the word "independent" which KJP has latched onto with her announcement that she is leaving the Democrat party.You get an idea of just how obsessed Klein is by "independent" by the fact that she obsessively repeats that word...

Eric Adams will not seek the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor — instead pushing all his chips in on a longshot run as an independent candidate. Hizzoner dropped the bombshell news in a campaign video announcement Thursday — just the day after a federal judge killed his corruption case for good. “More than 25,000 New Yorkers signed my Democratic primary petition, but the dismissal of the bogus case against me dragged on too long, making it impossible to mount a primary campaign while these false accusations were held over me,” Adams said in the six-minute spiel. “But I’m...

Last year saw an “unexpected” amount of sea level rise around the world, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Thursday. An analysis led by the agency found that the rate of rise was nearly a quarter of an inch per year, compared to an expected rate of 0.17 inches. That’s a concerning statistic considering the hazards rising sea levels bring, including sending potentially deadly storm surge farther inland, threatening urban infrastructure, eroding coastlines and disrupting ecosystems, and resulting in more frequent high-tide flooding. “The rise we saw in 2024 was higher than we expected,” Josh Willis, a sea level...

Vice President JD Vance on Monday said Trump administration officials are already in talks to put on a settlement to the years-long war Russia launched against Ukraine, and warned that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needs to accept Donald Trump’s terms for a mineral rights deal and enter negotiations with Moscow.Vance’s demand that Zelensky accept the U.S.-backed mineral rights deal follows the Ukrainian leader’s ejection Friday from the White House after an Oval Office shouting match with Vance and Trump.It also comes just hours after the Trump administration announced it was halting some defense aid to Kyiv at a crucial time...

President Donald Trump fired 17 independent watchdogs at multiple government agencies on Friday, a person with knowledge of the matter said, eliminating a critical oversight component and clearing the way to replace them with loyalists. The inspectors general at agencies including the departments of state, defense and transportation were notified by emails from the White House personnel director that they had been terminated immediately, the source said on condition of anonymity. The dismissals appeared to violate federal law, which requires the president to give both houses of Congress reasons for the dismissals 30 days in advance. The White House did...

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that an independent commission should investigate the local and state response to the wildfires in Southern California. Schiff said, “The governor’s called for an independent review of why we didn’t have enough water in places like the Palisades, there were also water pressure issues in Altadena. I support that independent review. I think we should go further and, frankly, do an independent commission review of all of this. What went right in our response? What went wrong in it.”

<p>FBI Director Christopher Wray has raised doubts as to whether or not Donald Trump was struck by a bullet during the assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month.</p><p>Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about the ongoing investigation into the attempt on the former president’s life and the response of law enforcement agencies that day.</p>

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a longtime moderate Democrat, announced on Friday that he is registering as an independent. Manchin announced last year that he would not run for reelection in the deep red state, creating an opportunity for Republicans to flip the Senate seat. The news that Manchin has registered as an independent raises fresh questions, however, over his political future and aspirations. “Our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground,” Manchin, who has long been a pivotal swing vote in the Senate, said in a statement. “To stay true...

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a longtime political moderate, on Friday announced he is leaving the Democratic Party and has registered as an independent. In a statement, Manchin, who is not running for re-election, said he switched his party affiliation at the West Virginia State Capitol. "From my first day in public service in 1982, I have always focused on doing what’s best for my state and my country, without regard to party or politics. Throughout my days in elected office, I have always been proud of my commitment to common sense, bipartisanship and my desire to bring people together. It’s...

US Sen. Bob Menendez is petitioning to run for Senate as an independent candidate, in a last ditch attempt to save his political career. The embattled New Jersey Democrat is facing federal charges of fraud, extortion, bribery and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt between 2018 and 2022 — while serving as chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez, who bowed out of his state’s Democratic primary, has been personally collecting signatures to get ballot access, according to the New Jersey Globe.

Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of Britain's Labour Party, said on Friday he would stand as an independent candidate at the upcoming national election on July 4, Reuters reported. "I want our political parties to be democratic, but members of Islington North Labour have been denied the right to choose a candidate," Corbyn said in a video announcing his plan. "So we have to stand up. We have to stand up and say, we're not taking this anymore. We will assert our rights. That's why I'm standing to be an independent candidate for the people of Islington North," he added....

Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) brushed off accusations that progressives are influencing President Biden’s border policy on Sunday, describing the president as “very independent” on the issue. The concerns were raised after Biden appeared to back off promises to use executive action to close the border, following mass criticism from progressives. The left wing of the Democratic Party has been critical of the president over his willingness to embrace hard-line immigration policy, which they argue is reminiscent of former President Trump.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who is federally accused of accepting gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for his influence as a senator, is reportedly mulling an independent reelection bid. Citing a pair of sources “who spoke with him directly,” NBC News’s Julie Tsirkin, Carol E. Lee, and Kate Santaliz reported Thursday that Menendez is considering an independent run: He is now making calls to allies about his record and career and is preparing to collect petitions to run in November as an independent, the sources said. If Menendez were to run as a Democrat,...

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will announce his choice of running mate on March 26 in Oakland, Calif., his campaign revealed Wednesday. The heads-up comes one day after the 70-year-old told the New York Times that New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura were “at the top of his list” to be his No. 2. Other prominent figures approached as VP possibilities include former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and 2020 presidential candidate and 2021 New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang — all of whom apparently declined, according...