The Hard Choices tour begins on Tuesday with tight security and limited time.

A bookshelf displays copies of Hillary Clinton's new memoir, Hard Choices, at the first signing of her publicity tour at a New York Barnes & Noble on Monday.

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed

In New York's Union Square, on the top floor of a Barnes & Noble, a band of photographers jockeyed for better spots behind the rope line. Farther back, two dozen cameramen set up their tripods. Somewhere in between, a handful of print reporters asked bookstore staffers for a closer view of the main attraction: the stage where Hillary Clinton would be signing copies of her new book.

The answer from one Barnes & Noble staffer: "There's nothing to see or hear."

"She's not taking questions. Please don't ask any questions," said another. "She'll come in, hold the book and pose, and then immediately start signing."

One thousand fans waited in line for hours on Tuesday morning — some since Monday night — to get a brief moment with Clinton and an autographed copy of her memoir, titled Hard Choices. But the carefully managed event, the first stop on a national publicity tour to promote the new book, allowed little interaction between Clinton and her readers, or reporters there to cover the signing.

As attendees waited in a line that stretched around the block, staffers handed out a list of guidelines for the event. A piece of paper with eight bullet points warned fans that Clinton would not be "personalizing the book or signing memorabilia."

"NO posed photography with the author," the rule sheet advised.

On the third floor, attendees went through a security check and metal detector before they were allowed upstairs. A bookstore staffer coordinating the event said the only political signing they've hosted that has been comparable in size and scope to Monday's book tour stop was an event for Bill Clinton. (Sen. Elizabeth Warren was at the same Barnes & Noble this spring to promote her memoir, A Fighting Chance, but only about 200 people attended; readers and reporters were free to approach Warren after a brief speech and question-and-answer session.)

By 11:15 a.m., just after the event was scheduled to begin, Clinton aides came up the escalator to the fourth floor, but without the author.

Near the front of the room, a sleepy college student leaned against a pillar and closed his eyes. Fans peered over the rope line to see if they could spot Clinton. Finally, Janie Groff, a 57-year-old Brooklyn resident who'd been in line since 7:30 p.m. on Monday, shouted to no one in particular, "Go get her! Just go get her!"

When Clinton did come, the sound of cheers filled the floor.

She walked on stage and took her place before a long wooden desk and leather chair, flanked on either side by two posters of the book jacket — a sepia-toned picture of Clinton gazing directly into the camera. "I am thrilled to be here at Barnes & Noble and to be given the chance to meet so many of you," she said.

"We have a lot of hard choices to continue to lead the world and solve problems that affect us and the rest of humanity," Clinton added, in a set of brief remarks about the memoir, which focuses on her four years as secretary of state.

"So, I'm looking forward to not only meeting you but also having a chance to hear from you as we go through the day," she said. "Let's get started!"

Clinton took her seat at the desk and the signing began. She occasionally paused to take a picture — deviating from her own guidelines for the event — or to have a brief conversation with a fan. But for most of the signing, the line moved quickly, aided by four staffers on stage who moved books to and from Clinton like a conveyor belt.

The first woman, farthest to Clinton's left, would take a book from the pile, open the flap to the signing page, and place it on the table. (One publishing source dubbed the role "the flapper.") The second person would slide the book over to Clinton, as she engaged with the attendee. The third, directly to Clinton's right, would take the book from Clinton and fold the jacket flap over the page, marking the place with the autograph. And the fourth would take the book and hand it to the grateful fan.

After about 30 minutes, the press was escorted from the building. But before the photographers in the front row left, Clinton paused to take a few more pictures.

"Thank you, oh my god," one photographer shouted as the cameras flashed.

"Gorgeous! Beautiful!"

"Madame Secretary!"

Clinton laughed, turning her head from side to side in a fake pose.

Attendees received a sheet of guidelines for the Hillary Clinton book signing on Tuesday at the Barnes & Noble in New York's Union Square.

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed

“The country has to do some soul searching about this. This is becoming the norm.”

Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press / MCT

WASHINGTON — Addressing a question about gun violence from a UC Santa Barbara student Tuesday, just days after a mass shooting on the California campus and hours after another shooting at a high school in Oregon, President Obama called the lack of legislative action on a background check for gun purchases "the biggest frustration" of his presidency.

"I don't know if anybody saw the brief press conference from the father of the young man who had been killed at Santa Barbara — and as a father myself I just — I couldn't understand the pain he must be going through and just the primal scream that he gave out. Why aren't we doing something about this?" Obama said. "And I will tell you that, I have been in Washington for a while now and most things don't surprise me. The fact that 20 6-year-olds were gunned down in the most violent fashion possible and this town couldn't do anything about it was stunning to me."

After a pitched legislative battle where the president inserted himself directly into the lobbying process to pass a gun-control bill failed following the 2012 Newtown, Conn., shooting that left more than 20 elementary students dead, Obama tore into Congress, blaming them for what he called "a pretty shameful day in Washington."

More than a year later, speaking in a Q&A with Tumblr users at the White House, Obama made it clear the focus of his frustration has shifted from Congress to the electorate.

"If public opinion does not demand change in Congress, it will not change," Obama said. "I've initiated over 20 executive actions to try to tighten up some of the rules and the laws, but the bottom line is, is that we don't have enough tools right now to really make as big of a dent as we need to."

Congress is powerless against the gun lobby, Obama argued, because pro-gun-control voters do not have the energy behind them that anti-gun-control voters do.

"And most members of Congress — and I have to say to some degree this is bipartisan -- are terrified of the NRA. The combination of, you know, the NRA and gun manufacturers are very well-financed and have the capacity to move votes in local elections and congressional elections," Obama said. "And so if you're running for office right now, that's where you feel the heat. And people on the other side may be generally favorable towards things like background checks and other common-sense rules, but they're not as motivated, so that's not -- that doesn't end up being the issue that a lot of you vote on."

There has been little talk of a renewed push for gun control legislation since the Newtown-era bill failed in the Senate. The UC Santa Barbara shooting led to some legislative action in Congress focused on mental health, but the president said that focus is not going to get the job done.

"You know, the United States does not have a monopoly on crazy people. It's not the only country that has psychosis. And yet, we kill each other in these mass shootings at rates that are exponentially higher than any place else," Obama said. "Well, what's the difference? The difference is, is that these guys can stack up a bunch of ammunition in their houses and that's sort of par for the course."

Obama said it's up to the American people to drive Washington when it comes to alleviating the problem of mass gun violence.

"The country has to do some soul searching about this. This is becoming the norm. And we take it for granted in ways that, as a parent, are terrifying to me," Obama said. "I am prepared to work with anybody, including responsible sportsmen and gun owners, to craft some solutions. But right now, it's not even possible to get even the mildest restrictions through Congress. And we should be ashamed of that."

LINK: Shooting At Oregon High School, Two Confirmed Dead

“I’m going to have to talk to somebody about that.”

whitehouse.tumblr.com

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The event almost finished without a single problem!

Via whitehouse.tumblr.com

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The groups say recent limits on the Violence Against Women Act’s nondiscrimination provision show that the “harm is more than speculative” from the 2007 decision.

United States Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington on May 5.

Gary Cameron / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A group of 90 progressive and liberal organizations on Tuesday renewed their call on the Obama administration to withdraw a Bush-era ruling they say opens the door to government-funded religious discrimination.

Signed by prominent groups like the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Human Rights Campaign, NAACP, and National Organization for Women, the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder takes issue with a 2007 Bush DOJ memorandum that, the groups say, provides "a blanket override of statutory non-discrimination provisions" to religious organizations seeking government grants.

The groups point to a statement issued by the Department of Justice earlier this year about the new nondiscrimination provision for grant recipients in the Violence Against Women Act. The FAQ memorandum specifically cites the Bush memo and announces that exemptions from the religious nondiscrimination requirement in VAWA will be given to faith-based organizations able to provide certain certifications to the Justice Department.

In the letter sent to Holder Tuesday, the groups write:

[T]he OLC (Office of Legal Counsel) Memo wrongly asserts that RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act) is "reasonably construed" to require that a federal agency categorically exempt a religious organization from an explicit federal non-discrimination provision tied to a grant program. Although the OLC Memo's conclusion is focused on one Justice Department program, its overly-broad and erroneous interpretation of RFRA has been cited by other federal agencies and extended to other programs and grants, including, most recently,VAWA. The guidance in the OLC Memo is not justified under applicable legal standards and threatens to tilt policy toward an unwarranted end that damages civil rights and religious liberty.

Or, in other other words, the groups argue that the Bush-era memo gives religious groups seeking government funds too much power to be exempted from nondiscrimination rules that are a part of those grant programs.

The groups call on Holder to announce a review of the 2007 memorandum and, "at the end of that review, withdraw the OLC Memo and expressly disavow its erroneous interpretation of RFRA."

The letter, signed by 90 "religious, education, civil rights, labor, LGBT, women's, and health organizations," echoes a letter sent to Holder by nearly 60 organizations in 2009 and a more broad letter by a smaller group sent to the White House in 2013.

Read the organizations' letter to Holder:

“The only way to make this car faster is to make it in Texas,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry tweeted.

The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., and is planning to build a "gigafactory" that would employ 6,500 people. Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas, are the top locations, according to the Arizona Republic.

Justin Sullivan / Getty

Perry showed how much he wants Tesla in Texas by driving one around Sacramento Tuesday.

Office of Rick Perry

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A true shocker. And the end of the road for Republican support for allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States.

Eric Cantor

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP / Getty Images

In a stunning turn of events that Republicans tempted toward compromise will remember for a generation, a tea party challenger defeated one of the top Republican leaders in Congress, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, in the Tuesday Republican primary for Cantor's Virginia congressional seat.

David Brat rode anger over immigration in particular, and an anti-establishment wave in general, to beat Cantor, who has held his seat for more than a decade and is the second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives.

Brat, a virtual unknown, campaigned hard on immigration, dubbing Cantor "the number one Republican supporter of amnesty." Brat benefited from conservative radio host Laura Ingraham's steady support and a drumbeat from online conservatives led by the Breitbart and the Drudge Report.

Cantor, like many establishment Republican figures, has at times cautiously supported some version of the negotiated compromise on immigration — legalization in exchange for tighter border measures — that a key Republican constituency, big business, eagerly backs, and which has for years been widely considered inevitable. Brat ran hard against every element of that, including the broadly popular move to legalize DREAMers — immigrants who arrived in the United States as children.

"Once you announced that kids are welcome, they're going to head in," Brat said Sunday.

Cantor had tacked against the immigration compromise as his primary approached, and the election drew far less national attention than more high-profile tea party challenges in Kentucky and Mississippi. Cantor's internal polling reportedly had him leading the race by 34 points — last week.

Every Republican who wants to keep his or her seat — and perhaps particularly the ones who hope to win Republican presidential primaries in 2016 — will likely study the results of Tuesday's election. They raise questions about whether figures who support a version of the immigration compromise, like Florida's Marco Rubio, will be viable candidates; they suggest that hardline anti-immigration campaigners like Texas' Ted Cruz may be seriously viable primary candidates; and they open the question of what strategy Republicans can take to win vital Hispanic voters against a Democrat in the general election.

LINK: Ted Cruz’s Staff Seems Pretty Excited On Twitter That Eric Cantor Lost

LINK: Conservatives On Twitter Celebrate The Death Of “Amnesty”

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“Is DC listening yet?”

Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost in stunning fashion Tuesday night to tea party challenger Dave Brat.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters / Reuters

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Dead, dead, dead.

Brat accused Eric Cantor — who hinted that he might support a compromise that would allow undocumented immigrants to stay in America — of being soft on immigration. He even dubbed Cantor "the number one Republican supporter of amnesty."

On hearing about Cantor's loss, anti-immigration conservatives took to Twitter to celebrate.

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“No one who wants to be in leadership eventually will ever, ever go for it,” one Republican lawmaker said.

U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The most important effect of Majority Leader Eric Cantor's shocking primary loss may come in the minds of a generation of Republicans who learn a single lesson: Tiptoe toward compromise on immigration at the risk of your career.

Cantor was hardly a champion of open borders, but he had been among many establishment Republicans who flirted with a compromise that would allow millions of undocumented people to remain in the United States legally — specifically immigrants brought into the U.S at young age. Cantor had pushed for a Republican version of the DREAM Act this year. That became the core of the campaign against him — and the emblem of a new turn in Republican politics.

"[Immigration has] been off the table for a while but now it's really never going back on the table," said a lawmaker close to the House Republican leadership Tuesday night. "No one who wants to be in leadership eventually will ever, ever go for it and likely raise holy hell if it comes up."

Tea party challenger David Brat campaigned against Cantor on the immigration issue, calling the majority leader "the number one Republican supporter of amnesty." Brat's core support came from conservative media figures and outlets that care most deeply about the immigration issue: Breitbart, radio host Laura Ingraham, and writer Mickey Kaus.

"Clearly that's one of the issues that he lost his race on, I think there's frustration over a lot of issues, and amnesty should be clearly off the table," Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp told BuzzFeed.

"Republicans don't trust the president to enforce the laws, and we had Eric suggesting he could work with him on certain immigration issues," Huelskamp said. "But I think it's clear now that anybody who wants to keep their job in the Republican party won't pass amnesty."

But Tuesday's results don't necessarily mean a coming purge of supporters of a compromise. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham — a longtime, vocal proponent of major legislative action on immigration — won his primary Tuesday night, despite being once considered one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress. But Graham had been dragged, in part by this issue, into a years-long, multimillion dollar ground war to defend his seat — any senator's nightmare, and something others will likely strive to avoid.

But immigration activists viewed Cantor as two-faced on the issue, while blocking reform in the House. Graham on the other hand, had aggressively made his case on immigration reform to voters.

Graham defeated six challengers Tuesday night in South Carolina’s Republican party primary, surpassing the 50% vote threshold to avoid a runoff.

Sen. Lindsey Graham holds a news conference about Benghazi at the U.S. Capitol on October 30, 2013, in Washington, D.C.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham defeated six challengers Tuesday night in South Carolina's Republican party primary, surpassing the 50% vote threshold to avoid a runoff.

With 97% of precincts reporting that the 58-year-old led his Republican opponents with 57% of the vote. Finishing a distant second was state Sen. Lee Bright, who received 15% of the vote.

"I want to thank the good Lord," Graham said during his victory speech. "I want to thank the voters. Without you, we would be crying right now. To those who voted for me, I'm not going to let you down. I can't promise you, you will always agree with me but I promise you I will do what I think is best for all of us."

The victory is a triumph for the South Carolina Republican, who is largely known for his hawkish foreign policy beliefs. Graham was considered especially vulnerable to a tea party challenge given his immigration stance and openness to bipartisanship on some key issues.

Graham, who was elected to the office in 2002, is all but assured victory in the November general election in this deep-red state. He faces Democratic State Sen. Brad Hutto, and Libertarian Victor Kocher.

Also in South Carolina Tuesday, fellow Republican Sen. Tim Scott easily won his primary, setting the stage for the state to elect its first African-American to the U.S. Senate.

Scott was appointed to the Senate in 2013 by Republican Gov. Nikki Haley after Jim DeMint resigned to run the conservative Heritage Foundation. Scott had not previously faced a statewide election.

LINK: Immigration Revolt: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Loses Republican Primary

LINK: Congress Won’t Move On Immigration For A Long Time

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Obama “should go big.”

AP Photo

Stunned by the loss of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, advocates for immigration reform said Tuesday night that the only remaining hope for bringing legal status to undocumented people in America lies through executive action by President Barack Obama.

"Everyone was betting on the primaries for the tea party to die out, with this win, a majority leader hadn't lost since 1899, this is big going to rile up the Steve Kings, the Mel Brooks of Alabama, going to scare a lot of members," said Cesar Vargas, an activist who is himself a "DREAMer," having come to the United States without papers as a child. "Before we heard the votes are not there yet, now they're gone."

"Absolutely [Cantor's defeat] means the president should go big on administrative action," Vargas said.

The calls for executive action are not new. Major moves on immigration already seemed increasingly dead in the House this session. But now, they appear dead for longer than that — through the 2016 Republican presidential primary, and perhaps as long as Republicans control one house of Congress.

Marielena Hincapié, the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, also said executive action by Obama will be the next step.

"If Boehner decides not to act and the window closes on immigration reform, the president has no option but to go bold," she said. "He's doing it on student debt, he's doing it on minimum wage, if Congress won't act, he will, he should do everything at his disposal."

The loosely united group of activists pressing for executive action have often disagreed on what exactly the president should do concerning, most urgently, record numbers of deportations. But most agree with some version of a proposal from New York Senator Chuck Schumer: that some sort of relief should be extended to the undocumented immigrants who would be protected by a bill that won bipartisan support last year in the Senate. It's a move that would provide some sort of legal status — if not citizenship — to several million immigrants.

"Even if the president can not statutorily do the entire road to citizenship, he certainly has the legal authority to do for millions more what he has already done for young people," said Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborers Organizing Network.

"Once the smoke clears, there will be galvanized momentum for the president to act using existing authority," Newman said.

Advocates also found themselves Tuesday night making the difficult case that backing reform isn't actually bad politics for Republicans. Hincapié, for one, disputed the notion that Cantor had lost over his position on immigration. Cantor's loss was "a vote about not having a backbone," she said. Another immigration reform group, America's Voice, blasted Cantor as "no friend of immigration reform" and in fact "the main person in the House blocking a vote on citizenship."

Dave Brat pulled off a stunning upset Tuesday night when he defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Virginia’s Republican primary.

Virginia economist Dave Brat defeated Eric Cantor, one of the leading Republicans in the country, on Tuesday night in a stunning upset.

On his website, Brat foregrounds an array of conservative banner issues: he opposes "any efforts to undermine or limit" the right to bear arms; he cites Ronald Reagan in the first line of his foreign policy section; and he calls Obamacare an "economically disastrous law and unconstitutional power grab."

But his conservative positions go deeper than the ordinary conservative talking points. For example, he says that he wants to fully enforce the 10th Amendment, which deals with state sovereignty. He also supports term limits for members of congress and a full audit of the Federal Reserve System.

He received the endorsements of conservative media leaders Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, and Laura Ingraham, who recently said that Cantor should have been traded for Bowe Bergdahl.

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Inside the Northern Virginia dinner party where tea party honchos plotted their next moves. “This is the conservative movement on fire,” says Bozell.

(MANDEL NGAN/AFP / Getty Images)

A small contingent of right-wing elites was gathered for an intimate dinner party at the Great Falls, Va., home of ForAmerica Chairman Brent Bozell when returns first started trickling in from Rep. Eric Cantor's primary race. They weren't there to watch election coverage, but Tea Party Patriots President Jenny Beth Martin couldn't help but check her phone for the early numbers. With the first two precincts reporting, she told the group, Cantor was trailing his obscure opponent, an economics professor named David Brat.

"Cantor should give his concession speech now!" Bozell joked.

Everyone laughed, but it wasn't long before their phones started buzzing with the startling news: The House majority leader was about to lose his primary to a grassroots insurgent — upending the common wisdom in Washington that the tea party was dead, and serving notice to the old guard that the grassroots wasn't done with the Republican civil war.

The dinner guests — who included Andy Roth of the Club for Growth, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Mike Needham of Heritage Action, David Bossie of Citizens United, and prominent conservative fundraiser Richard Norman — began hurriedly making calls to activists on the ground, and scanning their phones for updates. Somebody turned on Fox News and then, when The O'Reilly Factor wasn't providing live coverage, they changed the channel to CNN.

"Can you think of a greater political upset in your life? I can't think of one," Bozell said over the phone, as his guests chattered excitedly in the background. "This is stunning. This is the conservative movement on fire."

Bozell described the group's mood as "ebullient," and it's easy to see why. For months, conservative activists have watched as their attempts to oust establishment Republicans with a 2010-style insurrection fall flat. The dominant media narrative throughout the midterms has centered on the taming of the tea party, with the donor class and party leaders in Washington declaring victory over the grassroots and the activist organizations that support them.

But with Cantor's defeat, the leaders at Bozell's dinner table had proof that the movement was still very much alive — a fact that warranted some gloating.

"Is the establishment going to get questions for the next week and a half asking whether they're dead?" Martin asked sarcastically. "The fact of the matter is freedom is alive."

As they dined on vegetable lasagna, the guests plotted their next moves — from beating Thad Cochran in the Mississippi Senate runoff, to marshaling an army of activists that would make sure the GOP nominated a true conservative for president in 2016.

"This is good for anyone who has a connection with the grassroots," Bozell said. "It's good for [Ted] Cruz, it's good for Rand Paul."

Bozell added, though, that Paul would do well to heed the lessons of the night and resist the temptation to drift to the left on immigration policy, a key issue in Cantor's race. Paul is scheduled to take part in a teleconference Wednesday with Grover Norquist, a conservative activist who supports immigration reform.

"The sound you just heard was the death knell of the immigration reform within the establishment of the Republican Party. It's kryptonite," Bozell said, by way of warning to Paul. "Look, there's a constructive way to have a discussion about immigration, but when you send signals that you're willing to go along with amnesty, the public is adamant in their response and they will throw you out of office."

He added, "It's time for Grover Norquist and the Chamber of Commerce to think of Plan B, because their agenda is dead."

(Reached for his response, Norquist called it a stretch to cast Cantor's loss as a national referendum on immigration reform, and cited the conservative coalition that supports the policy: "If the modern Reagan Republican Party is not men and women who create businesses, and run farms, and are in communities of faith, what is it?")

As the evening wore on, the tone of the dinner conversation shifted from jubilant to vindicated.

"Once the shock wore off, it was, 'Damn right we won. Damn right the movement is still alive,'" Bozell said.

As his guests basked in victory, the host briefly retreated from the celebration with his public relations consultant, Greg Mueller, to craft a statement that they would soon blast out to reporters. The result was thoroughly triumphant: "Eric Cantor's loss tonight is an apocalyptic moment for the GOP establishment. The grassroots is in revolt and marching."

When he returned to the dinner, Bozell was struck by the weight of the moment.

"If you looked around that table and you looked at the organizations represented, it was virtually every major conservative group in America," he said. "There was real muscle in that room, and a real sense that something historic happened tonight."

The tea party senator rejects immigration hawks’ argument that the Virginia race was a referendum on the issue. “I say everywhere I go that I am for immigration reform.”

Rodger Mallison/Fort Worth Star-Telegram / MCT

In the wake of Rep. Eric Cantor's stunning primary defeat Tuesday night, many conservatives have rushed to declare the outcome a referendum on Republican efforts to pursue immigration reform, a key wedge issue in the race. But tea party hero Sen. Rand Paul isn't buying it.

In a teleconference with Grover Norquist, a conservative champion of immigration reform, Paul told reporters Wednesday he wouldn't back off his position on the issue.

"I still am for it," Paul said. "I say everywhere I go that I am for immigration reform."

He argued that Cantor's loss to a little-known conservative economics professor was the result of the majority leader finding himself on the wrong side of many issues important to the grassroots, including the debt ceiling, the NSA spying program, and "corporate welfare."

Paul also pointed to the South Carolina primary victory Tuesday night for Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been an outspoken advocate for immigration reform, as evidence that immigration "maybe isn't the paramount issue."

Paul encouraged conservatives to support immigration reform because "if we do nothing, the status quo continues," though he also recognized that "there's an entrenched group that won't for any" reforms.

"But there's also a middle group, where I would consider myself," Paul said, adding that he believes the term "amnesty" — a favorite talking point on the right — "is a word that's kind of trapped us" by confusing the national debate.

Paul's favored approach to reform differs from the immigration bill that passed the Senate last year, which he voted against. Rather than giving the Obama administration the authority to determine if the border between the U.S. and Mexico is secure — thus triggering the rest of the reforms aimed at helping undocumented immigrants find a path to legal residency — Paul supports giving Congress the ability to vote every year on whether needs are being met at the border.

The emphasis on border security is meant to appeal to conservatives who rejected last year's Senate bill because it gave the Obama administration too much power.

"Frankly, no administration has been trustworthy on the border security issue," a senior adviser to Paul told BuzzFeed before the teleconference. "That's why people are skeptical of immigration reform. In order for conservatives to accept the fact there might be able to be immigration reform, this issue must be handled."

The adviser added, "Elections are almost never a referendum on one issue; they are a referendum on the people on the ballot."

But many on the right remain skeptical of Paul's immigration rhetoric. Brent Bozell, the founder of the conservative group ForAmerica, warned Tuesday night that Paul would do well to distance himself from Norquist's reform agenda.

"The sound you just heard was the death knell of the immigration reform within the establishment of the Republican Party. It's kryptonite," Bozell said. "Look, there's a constructive way to have a discussion about immigration, but when you send signals that you're willing to go along with amnesty, the public is adamant in their response and they will throw you out of office."

And when the teleconference was announced Tuesday, the right-wing website Breitbart posted a story that called Paul's position a "lurch to the left."

This article has been updated to include comments made by Paul.

At least one account used by high-level Obama administration officials got caught by the hack Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — The Tweetdeck vulnerability discovered Wednesday briefly lowered the security walls for all users. That included top officials at the White House.

The TweetDeck vulnerability, which has the ability to give hackers "access to your login in credentials," was fixed quickly in a patch pushed out by Twitter Wednesday.

The update didn't come soon enough for Katherine Vargas, the White House director of Hispanic media. Her account retweeted a strange string of programming script, the telltale sign of an account that had been hacked.

A source familiar outside the White House told BuzzFeed other administration accounts were caught up in the TweetDeck hack, as well.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Recent Education Department action will allow transgender students “to assert their rights if and when they see that they are being discriminated on their college campuses,” Obama says.

Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press / MCT

WASHINGTON — President Obama made a strong case Tuesday for administrative action on LGBT nondiscrimination measures, saying that transgender students can now "assert their rights" following recent Education Department action laying out an expanded view of protections under Title IX.

The comments are a marked contrast to the Obama administration's inaction on LGBT workers' rights, where Obama has refused to issue an executive order protecting LGBT employees of federal contractors from discrimination and the question of whether an existing executive order applies to transgender workers is stuck in a review.

Speaking in a White House question-and-answer session with Tumblr CEO David Karp, Obama was asked about the Education Department's April memorandum detailing a policy that includes anti-transgender discrimination as part of the sex discrimination banned by Title IX, legislation that bars discrimination by schools.

"Title IX is a very powerful tool," Obama said. "The fact that we are applying it to transgender students means that they are going to be in a position to assert their rights if and when they see that they are being discriminated on their college campuses. And that could manifest itself in a whole variety of ways."

Although the administration endorsed the Student Non-Discrimination Act, legislation pending in Congress that is modeled after Title IX to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by schools explicitly, the Education Department has for the past year been interpreting Title IX's existing sex discrimination ban as including a ban on gender identity-based discrimination. The April memorandum formalized that policy across the department.

The path of supporting an expansive interpretation of current law, even while pushing legislative efforts to make such protections explicit, is the same path some have been urging with regard to workplace discrimination against LGBT people.

In April 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that Title VII's bar on sex discrimination included anti-transgender discrimination. Since then, both the EEOC and Justice Department have applied that ruling to Title VII discrimination claims brought against private companies and the government. The Education Department relied in part on the EEOC's ruling in addressing Title IX as it has.

And yet, there is an outlier. The Labor Department enforces Executive Order 11246, which bars federal contractors from discriminating in employment on the basis of, among other reasons, sex. In the more than two years since the EEOC ruling, the Labor Department has refused to apply the EEOC's reasoning in the Title VII case to the executive order.

Labor Secretary Thomas Perez has said on multiple occasions since February that a review is "ongoing" and told BuzzFeed that he was "in charge" of the review, although a public records request for all records in his office relating to the review resulted only in a single document being produced: a letter to members of Congress saying that the review is ongoing. Perez has refused to say when the review began or who is involved in the review.

In addition to the question about the interpretation of the existing executive order, LGBT advocates also have repeatedly asked Obama to issue a new executive order to provide explicit protections for LGBT employees or job applicants of federal contractors. The White House, however, has maintained that its preference is for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act through Congress, which would apply to most private employers and not only those with federal contracts.

Obama's comments on Tuesday, however, show an understanding of the benefits of immediate action outside of legislation — at least with regard to students. A White House spokesman did not respond to a question about whether Obama believes the Labor Department should take similar action to that taken by the Education Department to ensure that trans workers can "assert their rights" against federal contractors who discriminate against them.

MR. KARP: So one question we heard a lot from our community that I wanted to make sure to mention today: Recently -- I think you've been following -- the Department of Ed's Office of Civil Rights and DOJ have extended Title IX protections to trans students. What do you see as the next steps to ensure equal treatment of trans people in schools in America?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, Title IX is a powerful tool. It's interesting -- yesterday I had the University of Connecticut men's and women's basketball teams here. This is only the second time that the men's and women's basketball teams won the national championship in the same year. The previous year was 2004, and it was UConn again.

But what was interesting about it is that the men were kind of a surprise. It was nice. The women were dominant. I mean, the UConn Husky women's program, they rule. And they are incredible athletes. And talking to these young women, they're poised and they're beautiful, and some of them are 6'6" and they're wearing high heels, and supremely confident and competitive. And that's a huge shift from even 20 years ago or 30 years ago. The reason for that was Title IX was applied vigorously in schools, and it gave opportunities -- it's not like women suddenly became athletes. They were athletic before. Michelle, when I work out with her, she puts me to shame. (Laughter.) But it had more to do with restrictions and opportunity.

So the point I'm making is, is that Title IX is a very powerful tool. The fact that we are applying it to transgender students means that they are going to be in a position to assert their rights if and when they see that they are being discriminated on their college campuses. And that could manifest itself in a whole variety of ways.

Disruption and destruction. McCarthy will run for majority leader, Roskam will run for whip.

Joshua Roberts / Reuters

Following his stunning primary defeat Tuesday, Eric Cantor will step down as House majority leader at the end of July.

The resignation from his post as the second-ranking Republican in the House will trigger a race to replace him — in the middle of an election year. The race will come as Speaker John Boehner's hold over the Republican conference is improved over previous years but tenuous at best.

Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy is expected to run for the majority leader position, and others may enter the race as well. Rep. Peter Roskam will run for majority whip, per a source close to him.

Rep. Darrell Issa said Wednesday that he has "no doubt" Cantor will support McCarthy. "You can count on it," he said.

For his part McCarthy declined to comment on his status and Cantor's, repeating that there would be an announcement this afternoon.

The disruption of the Cantor loss and resignation is clear on Capitol Hill, though lawmakers leaving a meeting in Boehner's office insisted things would be fine.

"We'll get through this like we get through everything," Rep. Paul Ryan said. "I think it's unfortunate that he lost and very disappointed at the outcome and it's premature to speculate on anything else."

"We've been through a leadership change like this before when Tom Delay stepped down," said Rep. Randy Neugebauer. "What we learned is that Republicans have a deep bench and we'll have people that will step up. Our conference will select someone to fill that spot and we'll move on."

"The good news is we have a deep bench," he said.

Children and teenagers were kicked, yelled at, forced to drink from toilets, and denied food and medical care, according to a complaint filed today.

John Moore / Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — The American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of immigrant rights organizations are accusing U.S. Customs and Border Protection of systemic physical abuse and mistreatment of unaccompanied immigrant children in its custody, according to a complaint filed Wednesday.

In graphic detail, the document describes children and teenagers being shackled in stress positions, kicked, yelled at, forced to drink from toilets, denied food and medical care, and otherwise abused and threatened. It was lodged with the civil rights office of the Department of Homeland Security and the agency's inspector general.

"Children are being abused on a massive and widespread scale," said James Lyall, a border litigation attorney at the ACLU in Arizona. "This is an urgent crisis that needs to be addressed immediately … These children's stories are horrific."

In a statement, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says it "strives to protect unaccompanied children with special procedures and safeguards." It said that nutritional and hygienic needs are met and "mistreatment or misconduct is not tolerated."

The allegations come as federal officials have in recent weeks been overwhelmed by a surge of thousands of unaccompanied children who have flooded across the border, many of them fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. The government has opened up military bases to house the children temporarily.

Border patrol officials in a statement Wednesday said they have "taken extraordinary measures to care for these children while in custody and to maintain security in overcrowded facilities."

Even before the recent surge, however, the ACLU complaint alleges that the government was holding children for days at a time in crowded, unsafe, and freezing-cold detention cells, and often meting out physical and verbal abuse along with rotten food.

A 13-year-old boy picked up near Brownsville, Texas, said that Border Patrol agents allowed their service dog to scratch his face, then denied him medical treatment for the bleeding wound and impaired vision that resulted. They put him in shackles that were too tight and hurt him, according to the complaint.

A 16-year-old girl traveling with her 2-year-old son said she was put into a freezing-cold holding cell with 30 other people, and not given any blankets. On the third day, the girl realized her son was feverish. One official gave her a wet towel to try to reduce the baby's fever, but her pleas for additional medical assistance fell on deaf ears.

A 17-year-old-girl cut her hand on a fence while trying to cross the border, but instead of giving her medical assistance, the Border Patrol agent who apprehended her "squeezed the wound, causing her great pain," the complaint says. Then he reportedly told her, "It's good that you are hurt, you deserve to be hurt for coming to the U.S."

"Border Patrol agents are committing appalling abuses of children all along the border," said Ashley Huebner, managing attorney of the Immigrant Children's Protection Project at the National Immigrant Justice Center. "Even worse, Border Patrol has been committing these abuses for years, and our organizations have notified the agency numerous times, yet nothing has changed. The recent increase in arrivals of young people at the border makes it especially urgent that CBP ensure all children in their custody are treated safely and humanely."

The minors included in the complaint, who are identified only by their initials, range in age from 5 to 17 years old. They were interviewed this spring about their experiences in Border Patrol custody, and most of the alleged abuses took place within the last year, according to Erika Pinheiro, directing attorney for community education programs at Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project.

All told, about a quarter of the minors claim they were physically abused. More than half said they were verbally abused and denied medical care, including a child whose asthma medication was seized even as she suffered multiple asthma attacks.

The complaint was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigrant Justice Center, the Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, and Americans for Immigrant Justice. It calls upon the government to conduct a "prompt and thorough investigation into each of these allegations, and to take swift action … to fully address the systemic problems at CBP."

It also asks the government to improve its detention standards, make provisions to care for unaccompanied children, and develop procedures to immediately transfer children suffering from medical conditions to safer places.

The complaint echoes the results of other investigations into alleged mistreatment of immigrants by Border Patrol agents, including a report from the American Immigration Council last month that found that CBP took no action in 97% of abuse allegations.

Earlier this week, amid such criticisms, the head of internal affairs for CBP was removed from his post.

Jeff Zucker chips away at Fox News’ cable news dominance with CNN’s Sunday night formula.

Loosening Fox News' stranglehold on the cable news ratings game is the number one problem that has befuddled CNN and the rest of cable news for 12 years.

Ratings wins over Fox News in the almighty demo category do happen for CNN and MSNBC. The victories are usually by a small margin on a random night. And, lately, wins are side effects of captivating breaking news events — like a missing plane or Chris Christie traffic problems — that float another cable news network ahead for a brief victory over a few days or, if they're lucky, a week.

But there is a time that Fox News does lose consistently in the ratings: Sunday nights — and it's worth noticing. It's especially worth noticing because the winner is CNN's new style of cable news.

The graphic below charts Sunday's primetime ratings in demo since the season premiere of Anthony Bourdain's successful "news for people who don't want news" show, Parts Unknown in April:

So there you have it: Fox News losing Sunday nights to, well, just about everyone in cable news for two straight months.

CNN's small opening on Sunday nights with this new formula has a chance to hold, possibly expand with more of these new style projects in the pipeline featuring proven talent like the very popular Dirty Jobs guy, Mike Rowe, America's Most Wanted vet John Walsh, and Emmy winner Lisa Ling.

It's actually pretty surprising that a cable news innovator like Roger Ailes hasn't touched this kind of entertainment-focused taped programming yet — or at least addressed CNN's foray into the format. It could be that he's just ignoring it and sticking to what has been working just fine for Fox News.

But in a changing cable news world where Huckabee and Hannity are consistently losing to Anthony Bourdain and Morgan Spurlock — no matter what night of the week — it might be time to at least start experimenting with some fresh programming at FNC.

And the network does have options.

For starters, Fox News recently welcomed actress Stacey Dash as a paid contributor to the network. She's already co-hosted Ailes' latest success, Outnumbered, and, who knows, if Ailes ever decided to dip his toes in the world of news for people who don't want news, then Dash would be an excellent vehicle for a first experiment.

Another option could be Ailes' old friend Glenn Beck and his production setup at the BlazeTV network.

Beck has made it clear he's over politics and wants to become a mogul in the Walt Disney mold. Although his movie about Tesla and Edison has yet to be released, he's not quite there yet. Why not work on bigger, high-concept productions based on ideas from the ratings geniuses at Fox News? If just one effort is a hit, it could help Beck and the Blaze on their way to a larger audience and allow Ailes to brush off yet another spasm of ratings victories by his foes.

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Welcome to the playhouse, Dave Brat.

Eric Cantor was a really popular guy in the House.

He was majority leader, meaning he was second most powerful GOP member.

Via Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures

But this year, a primary opponent landed in Cantor's home district.

The Virginia 7th.

Via Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures

His name was Dave Brat and he was from the tea party.

Brat did not like the way Cantor was running things in Congress.

Via Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures

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