Tag: Vice President

Bob Kuylen, vice president of the North Dakota Farmer’s Union, speaks out admist growing pressure from farmers on Trump’s trade policy. Kuylen argues farmers have ‘pretty much lost all of our markets since Trump took over,’ adding though farmers may…

Mic Smith/Associated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. — Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday remembered Ernest F. Hollings as “a giant in this state and nation” who evolved to “write the great story of our times.” Speaking at the funeral of Mr. Hollings, the former South Carolina senator who died this month at 97, Mr. Biden hailed his longtime friend and former colleague, a one-time segregationist, as the embodiment of this state’s growth. “People can change,” Mr. Biden said of Mr. Hollings, who was known as Fritz, adding, “We can learn from the past and build a better future.” Mr. Biden’s trip here marked his first visit to an early nominating state this year and came just a week before he is expected to make his long-anticipated entry into the Democratic presidential primary. His somber appearance at The Citadel, South Carolina’s military college and Mr. Hollings’s alma mater, was not the 2020 debut the former vice president and his aides were planning. But his eulogy underscored Mr. Biden’s deep ties to this pivotal state with its high percentage of black voters — and the promise and peril of his candidacy. Mr. Biden once described Mr. Hollings as his best friend in the Senate. Such older Americans here and beyond make up the core of Mr. Biden’s initial base, early polls indicate, and are the sort of reliable participants in primaries that candidates covet. And Mr. Hollings was not the first South Carolina political icon Mr. Biden has honored: In 2003, he delivered a eulogy for Strom Thurmond, a longtime Republican senator and onetime Dixiecrat nominee for president. “Fritz grew and I grew along with him.” Neither he nor Mr. Biden mentioned the fact that the Confederate flag was raised atop South Carolina’s Capitol dome by a state legislator in 1961 when Mr. Hollings was governor. The flag would remain on the Statehouse grounds until 2015, when it was removed in the aftermath of the racist killing of black parishioners at Charleston’s Mother Emanuel church. “He put the Confederate flag on the Statehouse that we had to fight to take down,” said Melissa Watson, a Charleston-area teacher and local Democratic official who is black.

But despite almost five decades in the political arena, Mr. Biden, 76, did not have an agile, fully staffed campaign in place to confront it. He issued three statements and one online video attempting to explain his conduct, only to joke about the issue in a speech to a union conference Friday. Far from remaining above the fray, Mr. Biden will enter the campaign as bruised as any of the 16 other candidates already in the race. But if the attacks from Mr. Trump and his allies illustrated that Republicans are worried about facing Mr. Biden, the controversy this past week has also shined a light on the risks Democrats would be taking in nominating him — and not just because of his recent problems. Yet his decision to wait on announcing his candidacy has come with a cost, in part because he did not use the time to better prepare for some of the most inevitable questions about his lengthy record in politics. (Mr. Obama himself has been tight-lipped during his former running mate’s difficult week; a spokesman for the former president declined to comment while noting that Mr. Obama had praised Mr. Biden warmly in recent months.) His aides have contacted at least two Democratic officials, James Singer and Helen Smith, about research jobs, but Mr. Singer went to work for Ms. Harris and Ms. Smith is planning to work on a House race. Patti Solis Doyle, who managed Mrs. Clinton’s campaign in 2008, said Mr. Biden had already sacrificed some of his political strength by waiting so long. After declaring at a Democratic fund-raising dinner in Delaware last month that he would be “the most progressive candidate” in the race, Mr. Biden clarified on Friday that he meant his positions on issues like race and L.G.B.T. Mr. Biden’s “only sin,” he said, “is he loved people.” But, Mr. Morgan added, it was past time for Mr. Biden to make a decision about the race.

Last week, the Cut published an essay by Lucy Flores, a former Nevada lieutenant governor nominee, who wrote that Biden smelled her hair and kissed the back of her head at a campaign event in 2014. In the week since, six more women have come forward. Below, here’s a running list of the allegations against Biden. In response to the essay, Biden claimed that he had no memory of having “acted inappropriately,” but added that if he was in the wrong, he would “listen respectfully.” Amy Lappos When Amy Lappos was a congressional aide for U.S. representative Jim Himes in 2009, she claims that Biden touched and rubbed his nose against hers during a political fundraiser. “It wasn’t sexual, but he did grab me by the head,” she told Hartford Courant on April 1. “He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. Hill was one of two women to come forward with allegations in the New York Times, which referred to Biden’s conduct as “tactile politics” in a report published on April 2. At a 2012 at a fundraising event in Minneapolis, Hill alleges that Biden rested his hand on her shoulder, and then started to move it down her back, which left her feeling “very uncomfortable.” “Only he knows his intent,” she told the Times, adding, “If something makes you feel uncomfortable, you have to feel able to say it.” Caitlyn Caruso In the same Times report, a woman named Caitlyn Caruso claimed that after sharing the story of her sexual assault at a University of Nevada event in 2016, Biden hugged her “just a little bit too long” and laid his hand on her thigh. It was a moment that soon went viral, and was described then by the Post as “powerful.” But in the Post’s report published this week, Karasek says she believes that Biden violated her personal space. “But again, all of our interactions and friendships are a two-way street … Too often it doesn’t matter how the woman feels about it or they just assume that they’re fine with it.” Vail Kohnert-Yount In the same Post report, Vail Kohnert-Yount alleged that when she was a White House intern in the spring of 2013, Biden “put his hand on the back of [her] head and pressed his forehead to [her] forehead” when he introduced himself, and that he called her a “pretty girl.” She was “so shocked,” she said, “that it was hard to focus on what he was saying.” Though she told the Post that she doesn’t believe Biden’s conduct constituted sexual misconduct, she described it as “the kind of inappropriate behavior that makes many women feel uncomfortable and unequal in the workplace.” This post will be updated if necessary.

“He’s an affectionate person, to children, to senior citizens, to everyone, but that’s just not the way.” Over the past week, Biden – who has long been expected to launch a bid to be the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2020 any time now – has been the subject of damaging news reports after two women accused him of inappropriate behavior towards them. Pelosi said the two allegations of unwelcome contact should not keep Biden from running for the presidency in 2020. “I don’t think it’s disqualifying,” she told the event on Tuesday. The former Nevada lawmaker Lucy Flores described in an essay for the Cut her discomfort when Biden kissed her on the head during a campaign event in 2014. She has since said the episode is disqualifying and that he should not run. Joe Biden's very bad week: has his White House run failed before it begins? Asked on Monday about the accusations against Biden, Pelosi said: “I don’t think that this disqualifies him from running for president, not at all.” But Biden’s potential Democratic rivals haven’t rushed to back him up. Over the weekend, the presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand came closest to calling out the former vice-president. Gillibrand, a New York senator, said, “If vice-president Biden becomes a candidate, this is a topic he’ll have to engage on further.” Ultraviolet, a women’s advocacy group, tweeted: “Joe Biden cannot paint himself as a champion of women and then refuse to listen and learn from a woman who says his actions demeaned her. “Neither the Bernie Sanders campaign nor anyone involved in it, planted, planned, persuaded, cajoled or otherwise urged Lucy Flores or anyone else to tell their story.

Watch Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder’s entire March 2019 interview with MSNBC anchor and chief legal correspondent Ari Melber – a newsmaking discussion which drew a reaction from Vice President Mike Pence, for Holder’s comments about MAGA and voting…

Ethan Miller/Getty Images Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., under pressure to respond to allegations that he touched and kissed a former Nevada assemblywoman, Lucy Flores, went on the defensive Sunday morning with a sweeping statement saying he did not believe he acted inappropriately but acknowledging that he had made “expressions of affection” during his years on the campaign trail. “But we have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention. Ms. Flores, responding on Sunday morning to Mr. Biden’s statement, said she was glad the former vice president was willing to listen and clarify his intentions. “And this is something that we should consider when we’re talking about the background of a person who is considering running for president.” “For me it’s disqualifying,” she added. Democratic presidential candidates weighed in on Sunday morning, indicating that they believed Ms. Flores’s allegations but remaining circumspect about the potential political fallout for Mr. Biden. “I have no reason not to believe Lucy,” Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said on says on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Asked if allegations should disqualify Mr. Biden from running for president, Mr. Sanders said: “I think that’s a decision for the vice president to make. His party calls it completely inappropriate.” Political pressure began to mount on Mr. Biden on Saturday as Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is also a 2020 candidate, said in Iowa that she believed Ms. Flores and called on the former vice president to respond to the allegations. In her CNN interview on Sunday, Ms. Flores called Mr. Munoz’s statement “entirely irrelevant” because its premise was that she and Mr. Biden were never alone, a claim Ms. Flores said she never made. After her piece published Friday, she said she had been “prepared for the worst.” But she said she has been surprised by the amount of positive feedback and support she has received. On Tuesday, he expressed regret for his role in the hearing, saying, “To this day, I regret I couldn’t give her the kind of hearing she deserved.” As Ms. Flores noted in her essay, Mr. Biden has also faced scrutiny over the years for pictures and videos that have shown him standing close to women and sometimes touching them on the shoulders, whispering in their ears and even giving kisses.

Nati Harnik/Associated Press Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders lead a new poll of likely Iowa caucusgoers released this weekend, underscoring how the nomination process for the Democratic Party has, to this early point, been defined by the two figures with the largest national profiles. The poll, which was conducted by The Des Moines Register and CNN, had Mr. Biden as the top choice for 27 percent of respondents, leading all candidates. Though Mr. Biden’s advisers have signaled that he intends to run for president, he has yet to announce his candidacy. Mr. Sanders, who kicked off his campaign recently in New York City, was the top choice for 25 percent of those asked. Only 5 percent of likely caucusgoers now call him their first choice for president — down from 11 percent in December. [Join the conversation around the 2020 race with our politics newsletter.] It remains to be seen if that will translate to hardened support, particularly in one of the largest, most wide-open and diverse Democratic primary fields in history. The next closest figure to Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders, according to the poll, was Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who was among the first to announce her presidential candidacy. Ms. Warren was the top choice for 9 percent of respondents, followed by Senator Kamala Harris of California, who was favored by 7 percent of respondents and had soaring favorability ratings. Other candidates — including Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — have struggled to make an imprint, the poll found.

Muzaffarpur: A Janata Dal (United) Vice-President Prashant Kishor has assured the young people in Bihar that he can help them become members of parliament or members of legislative assemblies. "If I can help someone become Prime Minister and Chief Minister, I can also help Bihar's youth become MPs and MLAs," he said while addressing a public gathering earlier this week. Mr Kishor is credited with devising successful political campaigns for Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Gujarat assembly polls in 2012. He also conceptualised advertising campaigns and marketing strategies like Manthan and Chai pe Charcha for PM Modi in 2014. Mr Kishor, who hails from Bihar, had also worked with Nitish Kumar during the 2015 Bihar assembly election. The political strategist recently expressed contrasting views with party chief Nitish Kumar's method of realigning with the BJP and exiting from the grand alliance comprising of JD(U), RJD and Congress in 2017. Mr Kishor, who has been in support of youth participation into politics, had welcomed about 1,600 people including political leaders and businessmen in JD(U) from February 11 to 13. "With the vision of strengthening JD(U) and enhancing its worker base, Mr Kishor launched ''Youth in Politics'' campaign with the goal of bringing around 1 lakh youth into electoral politics," according to a press release issued by JD(U). The party said ex-members of panchayat raj institutions, mayors, block pramukhs and zilla parishad chairpersons, businessmen, entrepreneurs, students, women and others expressed their intent to join the party. NDTV Beeps - your daily newsletter