Jill Stein launches Green Party campaign for president – latest

Jill Stein, the two-time failed Green Party candidate for president, announced on November 9 that she would once again try to seek the White House.

“I’m running for president to offer a better choice for the people outside the failed two-party system,” Ms Stein, 73, wrote on X. 

“Political insiders always smear outsiders like us and try to shame voters who want better choices. But without freedom of choice in elections, there is no democracy,” she added.

Ms Stein’s announcement comes as the Republican 2024 candidate field begins to slowly shrink with former Vice President Mike Pence being the most recent to drop out of the race.

She joins one other prominent third-party-affiliated candidate, Robert F Kennedy Jr, in trying to take on the expected Republican nominee, ex-president Donald Trump, and Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden.

Her announcement comes approximately two months before the first general election primary is set to take place in January.

Key Points

Dean Phillips announces Democratic run

RFK Jr ends Democratic bid for White House and will run as independent

Pence accuses Trump, DeSantis and Ramaswamy of ‘appeasement’ over their isolationism

News anchor schools Nikki Haley over false claims tying Hamas attack to $6bn Iran deal

Republican lawmaker dismisses possibility Trump could be House speaker

Green party candidate Jill Stein announces 2024 campaign

21:45 , Josh Marcus

Jill Stein announced on Thursday that she is entering the 2024 presidential race as a candidate seeking to represent the Green Party, criticising the two major parties for their handling of issues like climate change and inequality.

“The political system is broken,” she said in an announcement video on social media. “The two Wall Street parties are bought and paid for. Over 60 per cent of us now say the bipartisan establishment has failed us and we need a party that serves the people.”

“We’ll put solutions to the crises we face,” she added. “Crushing inequality, endless war, and climate collapse…The ruling parties that got us into this mess aren’t getting us out.”

Josh Marcus reports:

Green party candidate Jill Stein announces 2024 campaign

Mike Pence suspends his presidential campaign

Saturday 28 October 2023 19:36 , Kelly Rissman

Former Vice President Mike Pence announced on Saturday that he is suspending his 2024 presidential campaign.

Mr Pence said with a heavy heart while speaking at the Republican Jewish Conference in Las Vegas: “I just couldn’t sit this one out.”

“But the bible tells us there is a time for every purpose under heaven.” He said that after traveling across the country for months, “It has come clear to me that this is not my time.” He said the suspension was effective Saturday.

“I’m leaving this campaign but let me promise you: I will never leave the fight for conservative values and I will never stop fighting to elect principled Republican leaders to every office in the land. So help me God,” Mr Pence said.

Read more:

Mike Pence suspends his 2024 campaign for president

How the 2024 candidates reacted to Maine shooting

Friday 27 October 2023 21:00 , Ariana Baio

After another tragic mass shooting occurred in the US on Wednesday, 2024 presidential candidates quickly responded to the incident offering their thoughts, prayers and solutions to America’s growing gun violence issue.

In Lewiston, Maine, a gunman opened fire at a bowling ally and a local restaurant killing 18 people and injuring 13 others.

President Joe Biden, who is seeking re-election, sent his thoughts and prayers to those affected by the shooting in a statement from the White House and referred to legislation he has enacted to reduce gun violence.

Republican candidates blamed mental health problems for the mass shooting – a tactic often utilised by conservatives to avoid assigning responsibility to guns. Historically, Republicans back the Second Amendment and defend their right to firearm ownership.

How the 2024 candidates reacted to Maine shooting

Before Dean Phillips announced campaign a bus with his face was spotted

Friday 27 October 2023 18:15 , Ariana Baio

Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips has reportedly booked a campaign bus for what appears to be a primary challenge to President Joe Biden, setting the Democratic backbencher up for a long-shot bid that is likely to make him a pariah among his colleagues in the House of Representatives.

Radio station WCCO reported on Wednesday that a bus bearing custom wrapping with the message “Dean Phillips for President” was spotted along Ohio roads this week.

The third-term Democratic representative, an extremely wealthy owner of the Phillips Distillery liquor business, has served in the House since 2019.

Andrew Feinberg reports:

Democratic challenger to Biden has a branded campaign bus, report says

Dean Phillips announces Democratic run

Friday 27 October 2023 17:41 , Ariana Baio

Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips announced he is running for 2024 president, becoming the latest candidate to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden for the White House.

Mr Phillips, 54, has been a member of Congress since 2019 representing Minnesota’s 3rd district.

Mr Biden is largely aligned with Mr Biden on his political beliefs and voting record. However, for months, he has expressed doubt that Mr Biden could properly take on Mr Trump in the presidential election.

In a lengthy post on X, Mr Phillips said his campaign would focus on the economy, safety and “generational change.”

“I didn’t set out to enter this race. But it looks like on our current course, the Democrats will lose and Trump will be our President again. President Biden is a good man and someone I tremendously respect. I understand why other Democrats don’t want to run against him, and why we are here. This is a last-minute campaign, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and courage is an important value to me,” he wrote.

Trump says he ‘may’ also visit Israel after Biden wartime trip

Thursday 19 October 2023 17:56 , Rachel Sharp

Donald Trump has now suggested that he could also travel to Israel following President Joe Biden’s historic wartime visit on Wednesday.

The former president spoke to reporters during a break in his New York civil fraud trial on Wednesday – a case that threatens to topple his business empire in the Big Apple and land him with $250m in financial penalties.

“If I was president, Israel would not have been attacked. It was visually attacked. It would not have been attacked,” he said.

“Ukraine would not have been attacked. You take a look at what’s going on throughout the world. The world right now is a mess, it’s a mess. And it’s a very sad day.”

When asked if he plans to head to Israel, Mr Trump replied: “I may. I may go, I may go.”

DeSantis confronted by New Hampshire voter over claims babies are being beheaded by Israelis in Gaza

Friday 13 October 2023 19:52 , Martha McHardy

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis clashed with a voter while on the campaign trail in Littleton, New Hampshire, on Thursday, in a heated exchange over the Israel-Hamas war.

A local man, identified by The New York Times as local Arab-American ski shop owner Ron Lahout, confronted Mr DeSantis about unverified claims babies are being beheaded in Gaza.

Mr Lahout began by asking Mr DeSantis what he thought “about the annihilation and the decapitation of all the Palestinians in Gaza right now”.

“They are not decapitating babies’ heads,” Mr DeSantis can be heard saying of Israeli forces. “They are not intentionally doing that.”

It comes after unverified reports emerged of Palestinian militants decapitating babies during the attack by Hamas on Israel on Saturday.

Trump mocked for appearing to blame ‘hummus’ for attacks on Israel

Thursday 12 October 2023 20:00 , Martha McHardy

Donald Trump is being mocked for appearing to blame “hummus” for the attacks in Israel over the weekend.

At a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Mr Trump mispronounced the name of the terrorist group Hamas several times, appearing to refer to it as “hummus”.

A clip of the speech went viral on social media and the former president was also mocked by TV host Jimmy Kimmel.

In the opening monologue of his show, Mr Kimmel joked that Mr Trump’s speech displayed the “deep well of insight he has into this ongoing conflict in the Middle East”.

“Could you imagine anyone else in the world doing anything even remotely like that?” Mr Kimmel asked.

White House slams ‘unhinged’ Trump for calling Hezbollah ‘very smart’

Thursday 12 October 2023 17:45 , Oliver O’Connell

The White House has condemned former president Donald Trump for calling the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah “very smart” in remarks on Thursday night in Florida.

His comments came less than a week after militant group Hamas launched a massive attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Speaking at a “Club 47 USA” event in West Palm Beach on Wednesday (11 October), the former president said: “Can you imagine national defence people, and they said ‘gee, I hope Hezbollah doesn’t attack from the north because that’s the most vulnerable spot’.

“And I said ‘Wait a minute. You know Hezbollah’s very smart. They’re all very smart.’ The press doesn’t like it when I say that. You know, I said that about President Xi of China, 1.4 billion people, he controls it with an iron fist. I said ‘he’s a very smart man’.

“They killed me the next day… ‘He said he was smart’. What am I gonna say… But Hezbollah, they’re very smart.”

Biden has been interviewed by special counsel investigating classified documents found at his home

Tuesday 10 October 2023 18:00 , Andrew Feinberg

President Joe Biden has been interviewed by Department of Justice prosecutors who’ve been looking into how documents with classification markings ended up at his Delaware homes and a Washington, DC office he used while out of government, the White House has said.

In a statement, White House spokesman Ian Sams said the “voluntary interview,” which started on Sunday and finished on Monday, was part of the probe being overseen by Robert Hur, the former Maryland US Attorney who was tasked with investigating the documents at locations linked to Mr Biden.

Mr Hur, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland this past January, has spent the last nine months interviewing various figures connected with Mr Biden’s term as vice president, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a former assistant, Kathy Chung.

Both Mr Blinken and Mr Chung played roles in packing Mr Biden’s office in late 2008 and early 2009 during the transition between the Obama administration and the Trump administration.

Mr Sams, the White House spokesperson, referred questions from The Independent to the Department of Justice while noting that Mr Biden and the White House have cooperated fully with Mr Hur’s efforts.

VIDEO: Nikki Haley calls for Israel to ‘finish’ Hamas following attack on civilians

Tuesday 10 October 2023 16:00 , Gustaf Kilander

RFK Jr has a vision to change America. His family say he’s a crackpot

Tuesday 10 October 2023 14:03 , Bevan Hurley

As Robert F. Kennedy Jr took to the stage in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on Monday to unveil his vision for ending hundreds of years of two-party rule, a technical hitch with the teleprompter briefly threatened to derail his big moment.

“I need my speech”, he complained as he disappeared from view, stage right. “It’s upside down.”

In the Netflix sci-fi hit Stranger Things, the “Upside Down” is the name given to a mysterious alternate dimension that exists parallel to the known world. In other words, an apt description for Kennedy’s presidential campaign.

Kennedy is often described as paranoid, delusional and dangerous. And that’s just by his own family.

But in his supporters’ eyes, a Kennedy presidency offers the chance to rewrite the rules in Washington, DC to create a more equitable system for all.

Former US general reminds GOP attacking Biden of time Trump leaked Israeli intel to Iran ally

Tuesday 10 October 2023 05:00 , Martha McHardy

A former US general took to Twitter on Sunday to remind Republicans laying blame on the Biden administration after Hamas militants launched the deadliest attack on Israel in decades that Donald Trump shared classified intelligence from Israel with Iran-allied Russia when he was president.

Retired army general Mark Hertling shared a story about allegations the former president told top Russian officials that Israel had successfully hacked Isis computers in order to gain intelligence about bomb plots against the West in a meeting at the White House in 2017.

At the time, the former president’s actions reportedly ignited fears by Israel that Russia could have passed the information to its ally Iran, which has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Mr Trump reportedly leaked the information in a meeting in the Oval Office in May 2017 with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and the then-Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak. Amid uproar over the revelation, Mr Trump insisted he had every right to give Russia the information.

He tweeted: “As president, I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled WH meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against Isis and terrorism.”

Pence accuses Trump, DeSantis and Ramaswamy of ‘appeasement’ over their isolationism

Tuesday 10 October 2023 03:00 , John Bowden

Mike Pence led the charge for the foreign interventionist wing of the 2024 Republican primary against their isolationist rivals this weekend as new hostilities erupted between Israel and the Hamas militants of the occupied Gaza Strip.

It was a banner weekend for that wing of the GOP, whose members among the 2024 primary field spent their hours one-upping each other with rhetoric endorsing an unmitigated Israeli response against the Palestinian militant group that launched attacks across the country.

Mr Pence made his remarks in Iowa, where he is battling for a surprise victory (or at least a decent-enough showing) in the first-in-the-nation caucuses. Calling out Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis by name, he accused them of supporting America’s retreat from a global military, diplomatic and economic footprint he argued was previously responsible for tamping down on unrest around the world.

His rebuke, he said, was directed at “voices of appeasement like Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis that I believe have run contrary to the tradition in our party that America is the leader of the free world.”

“This is … what happens when you have leaders in the Republican Party signaling retreat on the world stage,” charged the former vice president.

News anchor schools Nikki Haley over false claims tying Hamas attack to $6bn Iran deal

Tuesday 10 October 2023 02:00 , Graig Graziosi

Former UN Ambassador and GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has joined a chorus of Republicans accusing Iran of funding a terror attack against Israel despite there being no evidence to support their claims.

Republicans have been pushing the narrative as a way to tie the attack in Israel to Joe Biden.

Their claim goes like this: Joe Biden gave Iran $6bn to facilitate a prisoner exchange; Iran then used that money to fund Hamas‘s Saturday attack on Israel that left hundreds dead and wounded.

NBC News’ Kristen Welker challenged that narrative during an interview on Sunday with Ms Haley on Meet the Press.

Earlier in the show, Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured the public that the money given to Iran in the prisoner swap was frozen, and has remained frozen, until Iran withdraws it for use in humanitarian endeavors.

Republican lawmaker dismisses possibility Trump could be House speaker

Tuesday 10 October 2023 00:00 , Martha McHardy

A Republican lawmaker has dismissed the possibility that Donald Trump could replace Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

Rep Ken Buck, who voted last week to oust Mr McCarthy as speaker of the House of Representatives, insisted the former president doesn’t stand a chance of taking the gavel after far-right Republicans including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz floated the idea he could be appointed to the role.

When asked on ABC’s “This Week” about some Republicans calling for Mr Trump to become the next speaker, Mr Buck said “that’s not going to happen”.

“It shouldn’t happen, and we have a lot of talent inside the House,” he said.

“We’ll settle this inside the House Republican conference, and we will elect someone who’ll have the unity and the backing of the full conference.”

Authoritarianism expert has a warning about Nikki Haley’s refusal to condemn Trump

Monday 9 October 2023 22:00 , Alex Woodward

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has refused to say whether Donald Trump should be disqualified for the GOP’s 2024 nomination after his comments suggesting that the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff should be executed for treason.

During NBC’s Meet the Press on 8 October, Ms Haley, a former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, called his comments “irresponsible” but did not say whether she believes his comments are disqualifying.

“I think any man or woman who served our country deserves our highest respect,” she said. “They sacrifice a lot. Their families sacrifice a lot. And we should honour them every chance we get.”

Authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat of New York University said Ms Haley’s refusal to outright condemn Mr Trump’s increasingly violent rhetoric offers a grim warning of a growing tolerance for authoritarian violence.

“Apparently the idea of executing Milley is now the Party Line,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We are living through real-time preparation for an authoritarian crackdown. We are in phase of ‘getting the public used to the idea of violence.’ Having authoritative voices like Haley endorse violence is key.”

RFK Jr ends Democratic bid for White House and will run as independent

Monday 9 October 2023 20:03 , Graeme Massie, Mike Bedigan

Robert F Kennedy Jr has announced he will end his run for the White House as a Democrat and instead become an independent 2024 presidential candidate.

“I’m here to declare myself an independent candidate for President of the United States,” the anti-vaxxer scion of America’s most famous political family said on Monday.

“But that’s not all, I’m here to join you and make a new Declaration of Independence for our entire nation,” Mr Kennedy added. “We declare independence from the corporations that have hijacked our government.”

Mr Kennedy originally positioned himself to run against Joe Biden, but the Democratic National Committee is not holding debates and is fully supporting the president’s run for a second term in the Oval Office.

Mr Kennedy made the official announcement at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, with campaign signs reading “Declare your Independence”.