Free Republic

Joe Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, after Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign Wednesday morning. The next big question in the race - beyond when and how Biden will be formally nominated amid a pandemic, of course - is who is going to fill out the ticket as Biden’s vice presidential running mate. The pick carries unusual importance, especially given Biden, who will turn 78 shortly after Election Day, would be the oldest president ever elected by far. We already know one thing about that pick: It will be a woman, as Biden pledged in a recent...

WASHINGTON — With Russian-backed separatists pressing their attacks in Ukraine, NATO’s military commander, Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, now supports providing defensive weapons and equipment to Kiev’s beleaguered forces, and an array of administration and military officials appear to be edging toward that position, American officials said Sunday. President Obama has made no decisions on providing such lethal assistance. But after a series of striking reversals that Ukraine’s forces have suffered in recent weeks, the Obama administration is taking a fresh look at the question of military assistance. Secretary of State John Kerry, who plans to visit Kiev on Thursday, is...

“I wasn’t involved in the talking points process.... As I understand it, as I’ve been told, it was a typical interagency process where staff, including from the State Department, all participated, to try to come up with whatever was going to be made publicly available, and it was an intelligence product.” — Then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jan. 23, 2013 This column has been updated New information is raising questions about the development of the administration’s talking points on the deadly attack on the diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, which left four Americans, including the ambassador, dead. Readers may...

Note: This transcript is edited to include only remarks by U.S. Permanent Representative Susan E. Rice. She was joined at the stakeout by the Permanent Representative from France following remarks by the Permanent Representative from Russia. Ambassador Rice: Oh, the bombast and bogus claims. Welcome to December. Is everybody sufficiently distracted from Syria now and the killing that is happening before our very eyes?We had a very useful and productive briefing on Libya by Special Representative Ian Martin. As always he was comprehensive and thorough and responded very in-depth to the questions that were posed to him by Council members....