Jill Biden didn’t answer a question about husband Joe Biden‘s impeachment as she hosted an event with Hillary Clinton at the White House but assured the former secretary of state she was very ‘loved’ by the Democrats in the room.

The first lady smiled at a reporter who inquired about Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s decision to open an impeachment inquiry against the president but didn’t stop to comment on the matter.

‘It’s an honor to welcome you back to the White House,’ Jill Biden told Hillary Clinton at the event in the East Room. And when the audience broke into whoops and cheers, the first lady to her: ‘You are so loved.’ 

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden remained in hiding on Tuesday, not appearing in public at the White House. The only event on his public schedule was his daily intelligence briefing although the public schedule doesn’t reflect all of the president’s activities for the day.

The White House called a lid shortly after 2 pm ET, meaning there would be no public activities by the president, who returned from his trip to India and Vietnam late Monday night. That was a few hours after McCarthy made his impeachment announcement. 

The last Democratic president to be impeached was Clinton’s husband, Bill Clinton. Republican President Donald Trump was impeached twice. Neither president was convicted by the Senate. 

Hillary Clinton was at the White House on Tuesday for her first public appearance at the  presidential residence and workplace since her 2016 election loss to Donald Trump.

The former secretary of state did make a private appearance at the White House in 2021 for a dinner to celebrate then outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel early in Biden’s tenure. 

Biden and Clinton were honoring the 2023 Praemium Imperiale Laureates. The Praemium Imperiale is a global arts prize awarded annually by the Japan Art Association for lifetime achievement in the arts. The Praemium Imperiale Laureates were first celebrated at the White House by President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton in 1994. 

It was a Clinton-friendly crowd. Spotted in the audience was Clinton’s longtime aide Huma Abedin; former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close friend of both Clintons;  Capricia Marshall, who was an aide in the Clinton White House; and former Rep. Jerry Moran, a close Clinton ally.

Actress Debra Messing and ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov were also at the event.

In her remarks, Jill Biden also reference the fact that Hillary Clinton will be returning to the classroom. The former secretary of state is teaching a class on global decision making at Columbia University. 

The first lady, who teaches at Northern Virginia Community College, noted Clinton was now a ‘fellow educator.’ 

‘Good luck this semester,’ she told her. 

Clinton thanked the first lady for hosting the event at the White House and paid tribute to her dual work as first lady and teacher. 

She didn’t mention her own presidential race or former president Trump. 

‘You know, Dr. Biden travels across the United States and around the world on behalf of the American people and I can say from some experience that is an exhilarating but exhausting job,’ Clinton said.

‘But throughout it all, she has remained dedicated to her first calling as an educator and mentor of young people. Now as she said, I’ve gone back to teaching recently, after 50 years, and I can attest it’s a hard enough job without being first lady,’ she said.

Earlier Tuesday, McCarthy made the shock announcement he would launch an impeachment inquiry on Biden, accusing the president of an ‘abuse of power and being involved in a ‘culture of corruption’ over son Hunter’s foreign business deals. 

‘House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct,’ McCarthy said, speaking at the Capitol. ‘Taken together these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption.’

‘These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption. And they warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives. That’s why today I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,’ he noted.

‘This logical next step will give our committees, the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public. That’s exactly what we want to know the answers.’

Republicans have charged Biden and his family made millions off shell companies Hunter Biden formed when his father was vice president. Hunter had business deals with an energy company in the Ukraine, received a discounted stake in a private-equity firm in China, and did consulting for a Romanian real-estate magnate.

The president has denied any involvement in his son’s business dealings. But Republicans claim at least a dozen Biden family members could be involved in a scheme to benefit financially from Biden’s public office. 

House investigators are expected to issue subpoenas for the bank records of the president and his family. The GOP also claim Biden sat in on at least 24 calls with Hunter’s business partners and was referred to as ‘the big guy’ by Hunter’s business associates. And they say Joe Biden used pseudonyms to discuss his activities related to Ukraine with his son Hunter during his time as vice president.

An inquiry is the first step in the impeachment process. It is when evidence is gathered for the articles, or charges, of impeachment against an official.

It is a massive step with many pitfalls, including infuriating Republican moderates and many GOP senators, who are skeptical of the issue and causing friction with the White House as budget negotiations are underway. Congress faces a September 30th deadline to fund the government or it will shutdown.

McCarthy, however, is under intense pressure from the conservative wing of his party to make such a move, including threats from some of his own GOP lawmakers to remove him from the speakership.

The White House has repeatedly denied Biden has conducted any wrongdoing. The president himself has said he was not involved with any of Hunter’s business deals. 

The White House called McCarthy’s move ‘extreme politics.’

‘House Republicans have been investigating the President for 9 months, and they’ve turned up no evidence of wrongdoing. His own Republican members have said so. He vowed to hold a vote to open impeachment, now he flip flopped because he doesn’t have support. This is extreme politics at its worst,’ White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations Ian Sams said in a statement. 

A former top advisor to Bill Clinton says there’s a ‘good chance’ Hillary Clinton will run against Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election if the current administration loses Congress in the midterms.

Dick Morris claimed Sunday morning a Clinton-Trump rematch is likely if the Democrats don’t pull the successful results in November’s election, alleging the failure would cause the party to turn on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

‘There’s a good chance of it,’ Morris told WABC radio host John Catsimatidis before applauding the former presidential nominee’s campaign strategy, which could see her face-off against Donald Trump again after Trump beat her to the White House in 2016. 

‘Hillary has set up a brilliant, brilliant strategy that nobody else is able to do.’

He continued: ‘What she’s done — at a point at which no Democrat is willing to come out and criticize Joe Biden, but all Democrats are disappointed with him and have to realize the ultimate correctness of our accusations that he was incompetent to be president — she has set up a zero-sum gain with him. 

‘The worse he does, the better she does because she’s positioned herself as the Democratic alternative to Biden.’

Morris also claimed Clinton, 74, has portrayed herself as the opposition to the extreme left and cautioned her own party to be cognizant of the candidates they’re running in what she refers to as ‘purple districts’. 

That appears to be an attack on ‘woke’ progressive policies that have been blamed for turning many centrist Dems away from the party. 

The former political advisor alleged ‘there is only one person capable of that level of thinking — and that’s her husband, Bill.’

Although Clinton has not yet said if she intends to enter the bid for president in 2024, she has publicly taken aim at the current administration’s efforts, saying they ‘mean nothing if we don’t have a Congress that will get things done and we don’t have a White House that we can count on to be sane and sober and stable and productive’.

Morris alleged Clinton is well positioned to be the Democratic party’s change candidate who can reference Biden’s failures, noting that a ‘left-wing took over the party and led us into disaster in the 2022 midterms’.

‘The person who staked out the turf first and owns the turf in the Democratic Party is going to be Hillary. It’s a brilliant, brilliant strategy​,’ he explained. 

His comments come just weeks after Clinton warned the Democratic Party it needs to be ‘clear eyed’ about what wins elections – a tacit warning that its progressive wing risks handing midterm victories to the Republican Party. 

She told NBC‘s Willie Geist last month that Democrats needed candidates who could win in purple states if it was to have a Congress that will ‘get things done.’

Her comments reflect divisions in both parties, as centrists grapple with fringes that offer ideological purity and headline generating Twitter accounts. 

For Democrats, that means the so-called Squad of progressives – including the likes of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.   

‘I think that it is a time for some careful thinking about what wins elections, and not just in deep blue districts where a democrat and a liberal Democrat or so-called progressive Democrat is going to win,’ said Clinton.  

‘We’ve got to be very clear eyed about what it’s going to take to hold the House and the Senate in 2022. And to win the electoral college because also Republicans are doing everything they can to create an environment in which winning the Electoral College, even narrowly the way Joe Biden did will be out of reach for Democrats,’ she argued in December, just weeks after the party’s defeat in Virginia’s gubernatorial election.

She added that she understood why politicians would want to argue for their own priorities. 

‘But at the end of the day, nothing is going to get done if you don’t have a Democratic majority in the House, in the Senate, and our majority comes from people who win in much more difficult districts and our majority in the Senate comes from people who can win in not just blue states and hold those wins … but can win in more purpleish states,’ she said. 

‘So this is going to be a very intense period, not just for the Democratic Party, but for the country.’ 

Morris, referencing her commentary, said Sunday: ‘She was absolutely right and nobody else has the guts to say that.’

He alleged other Democrats had to keep their alliance with the extreme left because ‘that’s their potential base’.

‘Hillary can say “go to hell, I don’t care about you guys. I’m going to be the anti-Chirst, I’m going to run against you.” Therefore, she’s the only one between now and the end of the midterm elections who’s prepared to say what the truth is,’ Morris said.

He added: ‘She staked out a ground, not on ideological issues, but on pragmatism.’ 

Morris’ statements echo those made last week in a Wall Street Journal op-ed making a case for a Clinton 2024 run.

The authors cited Biden and Harris’ poor poll numbers, alleging they could open doors for the former Secretary of State.

‘She is already in an advantageous position to become the 2024 Democratic nominee,’ Democratic political consultant Doug Schoen and former New York City Council president Andrew Stein wrote. 

‘She is an experienced national figure who is younger than Mr. Biden and can offer a different approach from the disorganized and unpopular one the party is currently taking.’ 

However, others argue Clinton isn’t ‘forward-thinking’ enough to secure a bid for the 2024 race.

‘Democrats have a rich history of bringing old-school politicians out of the stables for a comeback and having them get slaughtered,’ Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Campaign Change Committee, told The Hill Sunday.

‘Not just Hillary Clinton in 2016 but Senate candidates like Ted Strickland in Ohio, Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, Phil Bredesen in Tennessee and Walter Mondale in Minnesota.’

‘We need forward-looking leaders who stand for a new vision and not the politics of yesteryear that everybody hates,’ he added. 

Although Clinton has not formally stated if she plans to run for president in 2024, a source close to the former First Lady and her husband claims the couple wants to return to prominence in the Democratic Party.

‘It’s a perpetual itch that will never go away,’ the insider told Politico. ‘They know how to slowly reenter. The Clintons want to reset the board in their favor and then move the pieces.

Trump also hasn’t announced if he plans to run 2024, but he has publicly said he’s thinking about it.’

‘I think a lot of people will be very happy, frankly, with the decision, and probably will announce that after the midterms,’ he said in an interview in November.

Recent polls have shown he is favored above other potential Republican candidates.

In a Reuters survey published last month, 54 percent of Republicans said they would pick Trump as their top choice. Eleven percent indicated they favored Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Manchin DODGES question on whether he’ll back Biden in 2024: Democrat says ‘we’ll just have to wait and see’ when asked if he will support president in Chris Cuomo interview

• Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin played coy when asked if he would support President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election 
• ‘You know, we’ll just have to wait and see, I’m not predicting anything,’ Manchin told fired CNN anchor Chris Cuomo in a podcast interview 
• Manchin said it would be the voters’ decision, and also pointed out how a ‘national Democratic figure’ likely wouldn’t win his red state, West Virginia  

By Nikki Schwab, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Published: 18:31 EDT, 28 July 2022 | Updated: 07:26 EDT, 29 July 2022

Hillary Clinton’s criticism of ‘open border’ under Biden is a sign she WILL run for president again in 2024, says former adviser to Bill who now works for Trump

• Dick Morris was an adviser to Bill Clinton when he was Arkansas governor and later as president in 1992, but now advises Donald Trump
• He said both Bill and Hillary’s recent comments about migrants are a sign that she’s gearing up to run as Democrats’ ‘moderate’ option in 2024
• Morris predicted Clinton would announce a third White House bid if Democrats faced huge midterm losses in the Senate and House of Representatives 

By Elizabeth Elkind, Politics Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 10:54 EDT, 2 October 2022 | Updated: 14:08 EDT, 2 October 2022

Bill Clinton has revealed that he knew as early as 2011 that it was ‘only a matter of time’ until Vladimir Putin would invade Ukraine, after the warmonger made a chilling warning to the former US president.

During a tense discussion between the leaders in Davos, Switzerland, three years before Russia invaded Crimea, Putin made it apparent that he did not agree with a deal to respect Ukraine’s borders.

The US-brokered agreement between Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, and Kyiv, stated that Ukrainian territory would not be infringed upon in exchange for Kyiv relinquishing its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal.

‘Vladimir Putin told me in 2011 — three years before he took Crimea — that he did not agree with the agreement I made with Boris Yeltsin,’ the FT quoted the former US president as saying at a New York event.

‘He said… ‘I don’t agree with it. And I do not support it. And I am not bound by it.’ And I knew from that day forward it was just a matter of time.’

The revelation was made during a joint appearance at an investment firm talk with his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which the couple used to urge for greater support of Ukraine.

Former Presidential candidate Mrs Clinton also took a swipe at Putin, who she has previously blamed for helping to undermine her election bid against former president Donald Trump.

She said Putin ‘is in what he views as a righteous struggle to undermine western democracy and reinstitute, as much as he can, the Russian empire. So he’s not going to stop.’

The Democrat politicians also reiterated the importance of Western support to Ukraine, saying that continuing to supply arms could help the country win the war.

A united Western response, they said, would also work to deter China from its ambitions in Taiwan in the short term – with Mrs Clinton saying that Xi Jinping had paid attention to the stand taken by the US, UK and others.

She added that she ‘wouldn’t trust’ Putin at a negotiating table ‘under any circumstances’, saying the only way the war could end would be if Ukraine secured ‘leverage’ – either a military defeat or regaining its lost territory.

The Clintons’ stark warnings come after Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, escalated tensions by claiming that the US was behind a drone strike which Russia said was launched by Kyiv to assassinate Putin.

The Kremlin mouthpiece insisted – without providing evidence – that the US was ‘undoubtedly’ behind the strike that he said was carried out by Ukraine.

The White House has roundly dismissed the claims as ‘lies’.

‘Decisions on such attacks are not made in Kyiv, but in Washington,’ a furious Peskov said. ‘Kyiv only does what it is told to do. Attempts to disown this, both in Kyiv and in Washington, are, of course, absolutely ridiculous.’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied Russia’s claims Ukraine was behind the drone strike on the Kremlin and British security officials believe the attack was a ‘false flag’ operation by Russia to distract Kyiv from its anticipated counter-offensive and rally up support back home.

Around 40 explosive-laden drones with ‘for Moscow’ scrawled on them were fired by Putin’s forces at cities that were miles away from the front line, with explosions heard in the capital Kyiv and southern cities of Odesa and Zaporizhzhia. 

While Ukraine has demonstrated the capability to launch such attacks on the Kremlin, Kyiv is considered unlikely to risk fracturing international support by targeting the dictator directly. 

A Russian ‘false flag’ attack appeared a more likely explanation, with the explosion intended to generate support for Putin and further Russian attacks on Kyiv, UK officials said last night.