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Year: 2025

Former Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren critical, on ventilator: Reports

Former Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren critical, on ventilator: Reports

Known as the founding patron of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Shibu Soren had led the party for 38 years. He previously served as the third Chief Minister of Jharkhand, first for 10 days in 2005 and later from 2008 to 2009. He also led the state as the Chief Minister from 2009 to 2010.

‘Was the president up for the job?’ Steve Ricchetti defends Biden’s fitness as GOP seeks answers

‘Was the president up for the job?’ Steve Ricchetti defends Biden’s fitness as GOP seeks answers

Steve Ricchetti was the gatekeeper for former President Biden. But House Republican investigators hoped Ricchetti was the key to unlocking answers about Mr. Biden’s cognitive state when he was commander in chief. The House Oversight Committee summoned Ricchetti for a closed-door deposition recently. Ricchetti worked for President Clinton, was Biden’s top aide when he was Vice President and served as a key advisor in the Biden White House. He frequently visited Capitol Hill as President Biden and Congressional Republicans negotiated a debt ceiling pact in the spring of 2023. “What’s your message to the committee today?” yours truly asked Ricchetti when he materialized on the third floor of the Rayburn House Office Building for a voluntary, transcribed interrogation. “I’m not going to say anything on the way in. I’m just going to go in and give an interview,” replied Ricchetti. “Was the President up for the job?” I inquired. “Of course he was,” answered Ricchetti. “Of course he was.” SENATE REPUBLICANS PLAN HEARING ON BIDEN’S ALLEGED COGNITIVE DECLINE COVER-UP In a statement, Ricchetti conceded that former President Biden “occasionally stumbled.” But he argued the former president was fit for the job. Ricchetti added that no one “usurped President Biden’s Constitutional duties.”  In their inquest, Republicans have specific questions about the former President’s use of the autopen and about legal documents bearing Mr. Biden’s signature. “Who was signing any of these documents and who was running the White House?” asked Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., on Fox. “That’s the biggest, weirdest scandal probably in American history since Woodrow Wilson’s wife was running the White House.” That refers to First Lady Edith Wilson. Historians generally believe that she took over day-to-day executive functions after President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke. “Anything that had the force of (law) that was signed by autopen should be null and void,” argued Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, on Fox Business. Unlike Ricchetti, three other Biden figures have ducked questions when summoned for closed-door interviews. The Oversight Committee issued subpoenas for former Biden administration aide Annie Tomasini, former Jill Biden aide Anthony Bernal and the President’s former physician, White House doctor Kevin O’Connor. All three invoked the Fifth Amendment during their sessions before the House Oversight Committee, declining to answer questions. BIDEN’S AUTOPEN USE QUESTIONED AMID RELEASED AUDIO FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR INTERVIEW “I think the real witness is the doctor. And unfortunately, he took the Fifth,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.  Marshall himself is an OB-GYN.           “A doctor certainly has an obligation ethically to protect (a patient) for privacy. But the needs of the country – the national security issue, legal issues – trump that relationship as well,” said Marshall. Democrats contend Republicans are flailing in their probe of the former President. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., believes the GOP should focus on the economy and affordability issues. “Message to House Republicans,” declared Welch. “You won the election. I mean, I’m not quite sure why they want to waste time on this.” “He’s not the president,” said Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., of former President Biden. “I think we really should just move (on).” Fetterman himself faced questions about his health after suffering a stroke during his 2022 campaign and hospitalization for depression after taking office as a senator in 2023. But Republicans contend the Biden investigation is critical. Former President Biden’s medical state isn’t clear, although the public saw his performance in the debate last June. Republicans insist their probe is about figuring out what to do if a future President struggles cognitively. SENATE HEARING ON WHO WAS ‘REALLY RUNNING’ BIDEN WHITE HOUSE KICKS OFF WEDNESDAY “What we’re doing today is setting sort of a template for the future,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “How can we make it better? Because it’s a Democratic President today. It may be a Republican President tomorrow.” It’s not just a challenge for the presidency. But for lawmakers, too. In recent years, Capitol Hill has witnessed uncomfortable, steady declines of late Sens. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Kay Granger, R-Tex. “Hopefully all of us make the right decision when it’s appropriate,” said Welch. “And we have people around us to do the right thing.” Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., is one of the most conservative, politically pragmatic Democrats in the House. She represents a district President Trump carried three times. And even though Sens. Patty Muray, D-Wash., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., routinely win statewide, they fail to carry Gluesenkamp Perez’s district. Gluesenkamp Perez bested GOP nominee Joe Kent – for a second time – by four points in 2024. The 36-year-old Gluesenkamp Perez introduced a plan requiring cognitive standards for persons to serve in the House. The House Appropriations Committee rejected her amendment late last month. However, there are Constitutional and legal problems with imposing a cognitive exam on prospective lawmakers. Article, I, Section 5 of the Constitution says the House and Senate “may determine the Rules of its Proceedings.” So, it’s possible the House or Senate could impose a “rule” dictating a test. The same part of the Constitution says each body may judge “the qualifications of its own Members.” INSIDE THE BIDEN COVER-UP PROBE: 8 AIDES QUESTIONED, MORE ON THE WAY But imposing an additional provision for eligibility to serve could be extra-constitutional. For instance, Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution says House Members must be at least 25-years-old, have been a citizen for seven years and reside in the state from which they were elected. A senator must be 30, a citizen for nine years and live in the state they represent. However, heaping another mandate on top of that is a problem. This is why the Supreme Court found term limits to be unconstitutional. An additional “rule” – such as how long one can serve – introduces an extra qualification not outlined in the Constitution. That’s why the Supreme Court ruled against term limits proposals. It’s likely the High Court would follow suit with additional stipulations to serve in Congress. Moreover,

TIMELINE: Evolution of Mamdani’s defunding police rhetoric to this week’s ‘damage control’

TIMELINE: Evolution of Mamdani’s defunding police rhetoric to this week’s ‘damage control’

New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani made headlines this week when he attempted to walk back his long track record dating back to 2020 of criticizing the New York Police Department and calling for it to be defunded. On Wednesday, Mamdani told reporters after the death of an NYPD officer in midtown Manhattan that he is “not running to defund the police” and is “a candidate who is not fixed in time, one that learns and one that leads, and part of that means admitting, as I have grown, and part of that means focusing on the people who deserve to be focused about.” Mamdani added that his past calls to defund the police had been made out of “frustration” over the death of George Floyd.  Fox News Digital reviewed his comments on positions on police dating back to the days after Floyd’s death. MAMDANI BLASTED BY GOP OPPONENT FOR ‘SANCTIMONIOUS HYPOCRISY’ ON POLICE STANCE: ‘ABSOLUTE INSANITY’ June 5, 2020 “Two cops knocked a harmless old man to the ground and let him bleed out on the pavement,” Mamdani posted on X. “All that’s happened to them is a suspension without pay – and their colleagues think even that’s too much. There’s no reforming this system. Defund the police.” June 28, 2020 “We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti‑queer & a major threat to public safety,” Mamdani posted on X. “What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD. But your compromise uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat. NO to fake cuts – defund the police.” July 3, 2020:  “We need a socialist city council to defund the police,” Mamdani posted on X. November 6, 2020 “Queer liberation means defund the police,” Mamdani posted on X.  November 7, 2020 “Nature is healing,” Mandani posted on X in response to a user mocking and laughing at seeing a police officer “crying inside his car.” December 7, 2020 “City Council tried to make the NYPD reduce its overtime budget by half,” Mamdani posted on X. “They simply refused. There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt. Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence.” MAMDANI REVEALS IN RESURFACED VIDEO HOW ONE OF HIS ‘GREATEST VICTORIES’ BENEFITTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS June 5, 2021 In an interview with SAAG interactive, Mamdani again pushed the idea of defunding the police while suggesting the department for investing in “apartheid” by working with Israel’s IDF.  December 19, 2024  “As Mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements + brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their first amendment rights,” Mamdani posted on X, pledging to disband the New York Police Department’s Strategic Response Group (SRG), a unit that was first on the scene responding to the deadly midtown Manhattan shooting that left an NYPD officer and several others dead last month. Mamdani’s long history of anti-police rhetoric has resulted in heavy skepticism from many that his Wednesday press conference truly represents an abandonment of a desire to defund or hamstring police. “Zohran ‘Nature Is Healing’ Mamdani’s Wednesday presser struck me as a cynical and transparent attempt at damage control in response to an incident that served as a violent and somber reminder to New Yorkers of the enormous daily risks taken on their behalf by the men and women of the NYPD,” Rafael Mangual, senior fellow and head of research for policing and public safety at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, told Fox News Digital this week.  “But even under the tragic circumstances in which the press conference was held, Mamdani balked at multiple opportunities to explicitly retract or apologize for his long and sordid history of anti-police statements.”