joe biden

March 12 (UPI) — Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., announced Thursday that he will run for his 18th term in the House of Representatives.

Clyburn, 85, said he is going to run a “very vigorous campaign.”

“Today I’m going to answer a question that’s always asked: What is there unfinished or what more do you need to do? Well, it’s in the preamble of our Constitution: We exist in pursuit of a more perfect union,” he said. “And I’m here today to say I do believe that I am very well-equipped — and healthy enough — to move into the next term, trying to do the things that are necessary to continue that pursuit of perfection.”

About his age, Clyburn said, “If I were not up to it, I would not do it. But in response to some extensive surveys, some intense consultations with my three daughters, they finally got to a unanimous opinion that I should be here today and make this announcement.”

Clyburn, who has served in the House for more than 30 years, was the No. 3 Democrat in the chamber until he stepped down as Democratic whip in 2023. He then became assistant Democratic leader to House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Steny Hoyer, D-Md., recently announced their retirements from the House, leaving Clyburn as the only one left of that leadership trio from 2007-2023.

Clyburn joined the House in 1992 as the first Black congressman from South Carolina since Reconstruction.

Clyburn endorsed then-presidential candidate Joe Biden just before the South Carolina primary, which helped him win the state and boost his candidacy after struggling in other early primaries.

Antjuan Seawright, Clyburn’s longtime adviser, said he is still needed in Congress to “help shape the direction and future of our country.”

Seawright added that the party needs “a little hip-hop and R & B, Old Testament and the New Testament.”

South Carolina’s primary will be June 9.

WASHINGTON — Jill Biden is breaking her silence about Joe Biden’s decision to abruptly end his 2024 presidential reelection bid under pressure from Democrats concerned about his age, health and viability against Republican Donald Trump in a rematch of their 2020 campaign.

A political spouse for nearly 50 years, Jill Biden said she has never publicly discussed her feelings about the three-week stretch when her husband ended his political career, instead saving her thoughts for the pages of her soon-to-be-released memoir.

Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on Wednesday announced that her book, “View from the East Wing: A Memoir,” is scheduled to be published June 2.

Jill Biden told the Associated Press in a brief telephone interview that the book is a “reflection of my four years as first lady” and that writing it was somewhat healing.

“It was kind of cathartic for me to write it, and I wrote about all the, you know, sometimes painful — but other times, most of it really beautiful moments that Joe and I shared during his presidency,” she said.

Jill Biden declined on Tuesday to discuss any of those moments, good or bad — including watching her husband work his way to the decision to end his five-decade-long political career by dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

In an announcement video shared on Instagram, she said she wants to “set the record straight.”

The last chapter of her husband’s political career

In April 2023, then-President Joe Biden was 80 and the oldest president in U.S. history when he announced he was running for a second term. His age and fitness to serve another four years — which would take him to age 86 — became a source of concern for the public. Some fellow Democrats began to pressure him to step aside after he turned in a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June 2024 in which he struggled, in a raspy voice, to land his debating points and often appeared to lose his train of thought. Aides blamed the poor performance on a cold.

Joe Biden at first insisted that he would stay in the race, but after a few weeks he withdrew from the campaign and endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris, his vice president. Harris became the party’s presidential nominee but lost to Trump in the November 2024 election.

Jill Biden said that, with the book, “I have put things in perspective,” presenting what she describes as a “more balanced view” of her husband’s time as president.

The memoir is also a tribute of the sorts to women who, like herself, juggle multiple roles.

“It’s also a story about my being able to balance life, you know, as a working woman and as a mother, a grandmother, a first lady,” she said.

During her four years in the role, Jill Biden, 74, made history as the first first lady to continue the career she had before entering the White House. She had taught English and writing for decades at the community college level, and she continued teaching twice a week at a Northern Virginia school while serving as first lady.

Joe Biden ‘doing well’ after his cancer diagnosis

The former president’s office announced in May 2025 that he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bones. He’s receiving treatment.

Jill Biden said it was “quite a shock getting the diagnosis” for her husband, who’s now 83.

“The fact that it is in his bones means that he will have cancer, you know, all his lifetime,” Jill Biden said. She said the doctors say he will “live out his natural life.”

“Like most retired couples, he’ll probably drive me crazy till the end of it,” she joked.

She said he visits Washington at least once a week for meetings or to give speeches.

A unique period in American history

The former first lady also writes in the book about serving during a unique period in U.S. history, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the publisher.

Her husband was sworn into office on the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021, just two weeks after a mob of Trump supporters, spurred by his false claims that the Republican lost because of election fraud, stormed the building in a violent attempt to keep lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden’s victory.

Joe Biden’s first year in office was dominated by the federal response to the pandemic and, while he mostly stayed at the White House, Jill Biden wore face mask and traveled around the country to encourage people to get their vaccinations. She also continued her advocacy on behalf of military families, education and community colleges, cancer prevention and women’s health initiatives.

Before she became first lady, Jill Biden was second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, when her husband was Barack Obama’s vice president. She currently chairs the Milken Institute’s Women’s Health Network.

Jill Biden is also the author of “Where the Light Enters,” published in 2019, in which she writes about meeting Joe Biden, then a U.S. senator from Delaware, and marrying and building a life with him. She also has written three children’s books.

Superville writes for the Associated Press.

March 6 (UPI) — The Department of Justice released new FBI documents Thursday that describe several interviews with a woman who accused President Donald Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a young teen.

The pages had been withheld from the other documents from the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Officials said they were held back because they mistakenly believed they were duplicates.

The 16 pages of notes describe three interviews that the FBI conducted in 2019 with the woman, who said she was sexually abused by Epstein and Trump when she was between the ages of 13 years and 15 years in the 1980s.

There are also two pages from an intake form that document the initial call to the FBI from a friend who reported the woman’s claims.

Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019.

The House Oversight Committee voted Wednesday to subpoena U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify on the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files, which are legally required to be released to the public.

The Justice Department posted on X that it identified about a dozen other documents that were “incorrectly coded as duplicative.”

Federal prosecutors in Florida also determined that five prosecution memos that had been labeled privileged could be redacted and released.

NPR reported that it conducted an investigation that found 53 pages that appeared to be missing from the public release database.

There are still 37 pages missing, NPR said, including notes from the interviews, a law enforcement report and license records.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said in a statement that they applauded the release of the interviews but still criticized the department for its handling.

“But let’s be clear — this White House cover-up is ongoing. Millions of pages still remain concealed from the public and our committee,” said Sara Guerrero, spokesperson for Oversight Democrats.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to NPR Friday that Trump has been “totally exonerated by the release of the Epstein files.”

“These are completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence, from a sadly disturbed woman who has an extensive criminal history,” Leavitt wrote to NPR.

“The total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden‘s department of justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them — because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. As we have said countless times, President Trump has been totally exonerated by the release of the Epstein Files,” she wrote.

March 6 (UPI) — The public funeral for the Rev. Jesse Jackson began Friday morning, with state, religious and local dignitaries attending.

Former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are scheduled to attend along with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and First Lady Jill Biden. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Ill., and Chicago Cubs owner Tim Ricketts are also scheduled to attend.

Musical guests scheduled are pop singer and actor Jennifer Hudson, and gospel singers Bebe Winans and Pastor Marvin Winans.

The event, called “The People’s Celebration,” is at House of Hope, a south side venue that can hold 10,000 people.

By 8 a.m. CT Friday, thousands were waiting outside the House of Hope to pay respects to Jackson, USA Today reported.

“This is an occasion for all of us – not only the African American community, but the rest of the world, to celebrate the accomplishments of a great man,” Eric Williams, a Chicago resident and member of the House of Hope church, told USA Today. “He will be greatly missed.”

Jackson died Feb. 16 at 84 of complications from progressive supranuclear palsy.

The civil rights activist lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Columbia, S.C., the state where he was born, and there were public and private services held in his honor there.

A service planned for Washington, D.C., has been postponed.

“The Jackson Family looks forward to honoring Rev. Jackson’s work and life in Washington, a city that held rich friendships and deep meaning for the Reverend,” Jackson’s family said in a press release.

Feb. 23 (UPI) — A federal judge in Florida on Monday blocked the public release of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into classified documents held at President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago estate.

In the order, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon of the Southern District of Florida said Smith’s report should not be made public after she previously ruled that he was illegally appointed to spearhead the case.

In July 2024, she said Smith’s appointment as special counsel by President Joe Biden violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. She took issue with what she described as the “broad power” given to Smith, the “indefinite” appropriate given to the task and his lack of supervision.

Biden appointed Smith to investigate whether Trump — then the former president — mishandled classified documents by storing them at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. Smith’s probe resulted in 41 criminal counts against Trump, but Cannon dismissed the case in 2024.

In her order Monday, she accused Smith of accelerating efforts to prepare the report after her ruling so it could be completed before he left his position in January 2025 upon Trump’s inauguration to a second term. She said Smith used “discover materials generated in this case,” and there was a 2023 protective order preventing the public release of such materials unless approved by a court.

Cannon said she’s also blocking the release of the report because doing so “would cause irreparable damage to former defendants” involved in the case. Also named in the indictment against Trump were his aide, Walton Nauta, and Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker accused of helping Nauta move 30 boxes of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago into a storage room under Trump’s direction.

Smith defended his investigation into the handling of classified documents — and another into Trump’s alleged attempts to interfere with the 2020 election — to Congress in December. He said if given the same evidence, he would charge Trump with crimes again.

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Smith said.

“Our investigation also developed powerful evidence that showed President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a bathroom and a ballroom where events and gatherings took place.”