Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was accused of lying to the FBI and evading reporting requirements on cash payments he reportedly made to a man he sexually abused while he was a high school wrestling coach.

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Julie Jacobson / AP

NEW YORK — Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz received a warm reception from mega-donor casino magnate Sheldon Adelson at a gala on Thursday, the latest development in the so-called "Adelson primary."

Speaking at a dinner for The World Values Network, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's Adelson-funded organization, Cruz gave a speech focused on Israel and the Iran deal that included lots of red meat for the mostly Jewish Republican crowd: He called for the next president to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, for example, and slammed the Obama administration for the flight ban to Israel during the Gaza war last summer. He also condemned the potential Iran deal that may be signed next month, calling it "disastrous."

The dinner, which featured speeches by Newt Gingrich, Sen. Bob Menendez, Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel, and others, took place in a large ballroom at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. It began with renditions of the American and Israeli national anthems, followed by a speech by Boteach, as well as an introductory video about him.

In his speech, Cruz also targeted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which the Adelsons have recently taken a more serious interest in combating. Specifically, Cruz called for the federal government to cut off funding to any universities that boycott Israel.

"In 2017, we need a president who will stand up directly and confront the BDS movement," Cruz said, to applause. "BDS is premised on a lie and it is anti-Semitism plain and simple. And we need a president of the United States who will stand up and say if a university in this country boycotts the nation of Israel than that university will forfeit federal taxpayer dollars."

Though Cruz has criticized BDS in the past, now is an especially good time for a candidate seeking Adelson's support to do so, since the Adelsons are about to make their concern over BDS a larger part of their overall political giving; Boteach told BuzzFeed News recently that he is helping them build an organization that would combat BDS on campus under the working title "Campus Maccabees."

The Texas senator received a standing ovation after his speech — including from Adelson, who cannot walk distances without a scooter and uses a cane to manage short distances and to stand. Cruz also posed for pictures with Adelson and Boteach before the dinner. Adelson's wife Miriam is said to be a big fan of Cruz's, though she wasn't in attendance on Thursday. The conventional wisdom has been that Adelson favors Florida Sen. Marco Rubio — Rubio has been featured several times on the cover of the Adelson-owned Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom and associates have told reporters that Adelson is leaning in his direction — but Adelson remains uncommitted to any candidate so far.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who arrived after the pictures were over and the gala had begun, was the other potential presidential contender who spoke at the gala. Christie, too, hit all of the Adelson-approved notes on Israel, and accused Obama of only caring about "the two L's" — his legacy and his presidential library. "We are willingly ceding leadership of the world," he said. The reaction to Christie's speech was muted, compared to the energetic reception Cruz received. Adelson didn't stand to applaud Christie, though the two were photographed speaking before Christie's speech.

The former governor of Maryland is expected to announce he’s seeking the Democratic presidential nomination this weekend.

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WASHINGTON — Martin O'Malley will enter the Democratic presidential race Friday not with a bang, nor a whimper, but with a guitar lick.

O'Malley's campaign will heavily promote a 23-second video of the former Maryland governor strumming "Hail To The Chief" on a guitar ahead of his formal campaign kick off event in Baltimore, according to details of the plan obtained by BuzzFeed News.

O'Malley supporters emphasize the lack of production in the 23-second clip — the guitar isn't even O'Malley's, they say, but was borrowed from a supporter — which they suggest contrasts with the slick, highly-produced rollout video by the Democratic presidential frontrunner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

O'Malley can be heard humming as he tunes up the guitar in the video. At the end of the short lick, the camera pans up to find him nodding approvingly at the song used go play presidents on and off stage. The screen fades to black before the words "Stay tuned" appear.

The guitar and O'Malley's willingness to play it at the drop of a hat have been a central part of the exploratory phase of O'Malley's presidential effort. As that phase comes to an end with an expected announcement that he's formally running for the White House, the guitar looks like its staying as a central part of O'Malley's image.

The former Maryland governor's rollout will have its share of production values as well. A local blues band that once opened for O'Malley's own Irish rock band is scheduled to play the Baltimore event on Saturday. O'Malley will speak atop Federal Hill overlooking the city he led as mayor before going on to become Maryland governor.

Following the announcement, O'Malley will set off for a string of retail politics events in Iowa and New Hampshire. No word from the campaign on whether the guitar will go with him.

Gabriela Domenzain is joining Martin O’Malley’s soon to be announced campaign as director of public engagement, sources tell BuzzFeed News. The Clinton campaign also considered hiring her.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Martin O'Malley is set to announce his campaign Saturday in Baltimore, but he has already made a key hire.

Gabriela Domenzain, former director of Hispanic media for Obama when he garnered a record 71% of the Latino vote in 2012, is joining O'Malley's campaign as the director of public engagement where she will have a hand in communications, policy, and political outreach, a campaign source said.

"In Maryland, you speak to Latinos and they call him the most pro-Latino governor of the United States," Domenzain told BuzzFeed News. "In other states they don't know him but they should."

O'Malley has talked up his immigration bonafides at events in Iowa and New Hampshire — the campaign notes that it is part of his stump speech — and he doesn't even use the term immigrants (he uses "new Americans"). Domenzain cited his record of passing the DREAM Act and giving undocumented immigrants driver's licenses but also says he increased government contract investment to Hispanic-owned small businesses by 133%.

Domenzain, was considered for the director of Hispanic media position in Hillary Clinton's campaign, according to sources with knowledge, and said she believes Americans want new voices on the left, especially voices as progressive as O'Malley.

As a longshot candidate, the former Maryland governor will need to make contrasts with Clinton to advance. Although he has a long and liberal record on immigration, Clinton has made immigration a priority in the early weeks of her campaign — outlining specific action she would take as president, and plainly suggesting she would go even further with executive action than President Obama has if Congress does not make changes to U.S. immigration policy.

But Luis Miranda, former director of Hispanic media in the Obama administration, also said both campaigns should not mistake immigration policy for being enough on Latino outreach.

"Engaging Latino voters takes not insulting them like Republicans do, but also the fact that they are Americans and care about a lot of things, like the economy," he said.

Still, Domenzain who says that she is a single-issue voter when it comes to immigration, says she came to understand its importance in 1999 in North Carolina at the first statewide conference of Latinos when she was staffing the former president of the National Council of La Raza, Raul Yzaguirre.

A farmworker walked up to her, shook her hand, and asked, "Why do you care about me?" On her flight home she realized only her and Yzaguirre were on the way back from that event to Washington — and she realized they were the only people who might advocate for the farmworker.

Domenzain ties her passion on immigration to O'Malley's response to the surge of Central American undocumented minors across the border last summer, where she says national leaders like Clinton and Obama said the children should be sent back.

She was heartened however when O'Malley, speaking at a Democratic Governors Association press conference last summer, said the country should act like Americans and give children "fleeing death" refuge. "That brought the possibility of dignity back to the conversation and turned my head," she said.

Domenzain also pointed to the recent Clinton hire of an immigration activist who was undocumented and has a mixed status family as a key moment in the run-up to the Democratic nomination.

"Hillary Clinton's campaign has hired Lorella Praeli, an incredible advocate who's lived the broken system," she said. "I'm very excited that the immigration debate will be elevated because we have people like Gov. O'Malley and his whole record has been speaking about this."

Miranda made a similar point. "Hispanics should be involved in campaign positions across the board, it's similar to how Clinton has a political director in Amanda Renteria, it's important to have diversity throughout the campaign," he said.

O'Malley will begin outreach to Latino organizations on Wednesday in his first event after his presidential announcement at a question and answer session with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce president Javier Palomarez in Washington.

Jose Parra, a seasoned strategist and former senior advisor to Harry Reid noted that Domenzain is one of a handful of top Latino Democratic operatives and said he respects the fact that O'Malley is putting a Hispanic in a position where they can guide the conversation around the campaign as a whole and not just "implement" Latino strategy.

And while O'Malley starts off at a major disadvantage against the frontrunner Clinton, Parra said his presence in the race will help shape the debate around issues that matter to progressives and will ensure Clinton stays the course on those messages and policy positions.

"It makes sure these ideas are defined and battle-tested," he said. "It winds up strengthening the party in the long run."

LINK: While Hillary Decides, Martin O’Malley’s Embracing Latinos And Immigrants

In 1983, Hastert co-chaired a report on how to prevent child abuse. “We began to realize that the current focus of efforts directed toward the problem of child abuse and neglect must change drastically at some point,” reads a letter he signed.

Abraham Lincoln President Library and Museum

During his time as Speaker of the House of Representatives, visitors to Dennis Hastert's official biography would have been greeted by this bullet point on his career as a state lawmaker:

"Prior to Congress, during the 1980s, Hastert served three terms in the Illinois General Assembly, where he spearheaded legislation on child abuse prevention..."

In fact, Hastert co-chaired a commission that reported on how to best prevent child abuse. The former speaker was indicted in federal court Thursday for evading the reporting requirements and lying to FBI related to a series of cash payments reportedly related to sexual misconduct by Hastert during his time as a high school wrestling coach and teacher.

In 1983, the Legislative Investigative Committee, which Hastert co-chaired, authored the report The Child Victim: Child Abuse In The Family and Society, which is more than 400 pages long.

Ultimately, the report led to a series of proposals developed as part of a five-year study of the state's child protection laws. Some of those included creating "multi protection teams" to help find neglected and abused children, tightening child-pornography laws, increasing funding for care centers for abused children, implementing penalties for not reporting abuse, and making child-abuse reporting laws stricter.

The seven recommended proposals were introduced following the report. Hastert co-sponsored all of the proposals, and on two, Hastert served as the lead sponsor along with his co-chairman.

"House Bill 538, sponsored by Representatives Jaffe and Hastert, mandates pilot multidisciplinary teams as described above," the report reads. "House Bill 537, also sponsored by Representatives Jaffe and Hastert, requires DCFS to administer or fund prevention shelters and service programs for abused and neglected children."

The bills together made up the Child Protection Act of 1983.

The Child Victim

The Child Victim report ultimately found that "that the existing framework is basically sound" and that legislation leading to small changes could help produce better reporting and handling of child abuse which led the series of bills.

"As our investigation progressed, we began to realize that the current focus of efforts directed toward the problem of child abuse and neglect must change drastically at some point," reads a letter from Hastert and commission members to the legislature.

"Efforts expended on treating abuse and neglect after the fact are not only a poor use of public funds, but also ultimately self-defeating. Primary prevention eventually must be given the same priority as treatment. This realization led us to agree with many experts who believe that legislation will not solve the intractable problem of child abuse and neglect. Rather than being an answer in and of itself, legislation is a framework that should allow for the development of feasible solutions."

The Child Victim report contained three chapters on case studies. These included "child abuse and neglect," "child abuse and neglect resulting in death," and "intrafamilial child sexual abuse."

Late in Hastert's House career, when he served as speaker, the Illinois Republican led efforts to protect children from online predators. The efforts, called "Keeping Kids Safe in Cyberspace," led to series of forums which included representatives of local police agencies and a panel of national Internet and law enforcement experts to explain how to keep children safe on the Internet.

"Recent news stories remind us that there are predators using the Internet to target children," Hastert said at one forum. "And just as we warn our children about 'stranger danger' when they are at the park or answering the door or telephone, we need to be aware of potential dangers in Cyberspace."

Hastert likewise supported the "Deleting Online Predators" Act that required "schools and libraries to limit access to social networking and pornographic websites, and calls on the Federal Trade Commission to launch a tips and information website for parents."

Megan Apper contributed reporting.

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“…obviously when we stand on the stage in the first debate people will see a very well-prepared individual.”

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Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry told a radio host last week he's all but certain to announce he's running for president next week. Perry said on the Mike Gallagher Show he's ready to "stand on that stage in the first debate" with a grasp on a wide range of issues.

"I knew that after our unsuccessful attempt in 2011, 2012 I was a bit naive about what it required to run for the presidency of the United States," Perry said, explaining he need to know monetary policy and foreign policy on a much bigger scale, in particular.

"Just being the governor of Texas was not enough," he said, noting he's spent the last three years study those issues and taking meetings.

The former Texas governor said studying those issues has made him prepared to run for president, adding "obviously, when we stand on the stage in the first debate people will see a very well-prepared individual."

Asked if he was ready to run for president by the host, noting he was recovering from back surgery during the 2012 cycle run for the presidency, Perry said, "I am, very much so."

"I realized that being physically fit is every bit as much important as mentally fit," saying he's spent the last three years getting ready, noting he learned in 2012 that being unprepared was costly.

Perry added he was "very ready" to run for president.

"I'm very, very comfortable. My wife is very comfortable. My family is very comfortable. The team of people that I've asked to assist me is very comfortable that we are very ready for this effort."

Alex Wong / Getty Images

BALTIMORE — At the top of Federal Hill — as Martin O'Malley declared his run for president and made a progressive economic case for "rebuilding the dream" — there was another announcement his campaign was trying hard to broadcast.

It appeared on the signs, the posters, the tee-shirts and lapel pins, on the body of a hulking jumbotron truck — and on the screen it hoisted in the air, bearing in pixelated red and blue lettering the message that, more than any other, seems to be the guiding slogan of the O'Malley for President effort on Saturday: "NEW LEADERSHIP."

Beside his wife and four children, in the state he led as governor and the city as mayor, O'Malley began his campaign under the banner of the next generation — and with a promise to "this generation" that it "still has time to become great."

At 52 years old, he is the youngest Democrat seeking the nomination.

Hillary Clinton, who holds a large share of the party's support in polling, endorsements, and fundraising, is 67. Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont, is 73.

For O'Malley, the rhetoric echoes that of his mentor, Gary Hart, the former U.S. senator who ran for president on a policy-heavy platform and a "new ideas" mantra.

Friends and former aides said in interviews this week that O'Malley sees his campaign in that historical lens — the unlikely underdog taking on an establishment candidate. Bobby Kennedy against Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. Hart against Walter Mondale in 1984.

(Before his speech started, O'Malley aides tried playing an announcement video set to that very theme for the crowd of at least 1,000 people on Federal Hill. "We will not stick our finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing," a narrator started. Then the clip sputtered, the jumbotron lost sound, and the video stopped altogether.)

The generational argument, though, has some supporters worried that O'Malley could appear to voters, as several put it, as if he is "playing the age card."

As he traveled last year to key primary states to test the potential for a campaign, O'Malley obliquely referenced the electorate's desire for new blood. He could sense a "yearning" across the country, he said at the time, for a "new generation of leaders." Still, O'Malley shied from questions about Clinton. He rarely mentioned her by name — even as he continued his calls for a fresh crop of talent in the Democratic Party.

Months later, the references are no longer oblique.

O'Malley's team recently released a statement suggesting Clinton is part of the "old guard" — and the "oldest story in politics." (His campaign has a vigorous press operation, with aides seeking to influence coverage. Earlier this month, in a live on-air interview with a Clinton official, NBC News's Andrea Mitchell appeared to accidentally cite off-the-record materials from the O'Malley team.)

And last week, two O'Malley associates started a super PAC to support his campaign called "Generation Forward." Upon its debut, the group's chief executive, longtime O'Malley adviser Damian O’Doherty, told the Washington Post, "This is not your grandmother's super PAC."

Ron Boehmer, a former O'Malley spokesman who founded Generation Forward with O’Doherty, said the comment was not a reference to Clinton, who is in fact a grandmother. "It was not an attack on Hillary Clinton's age, or any candidate's age. Instead, it's a PAC based on a candidate whose policies best fit future generations." (An official involved with Generation Forward did admit: "Saying grandmother's super PAC wasn't the best choice. We should have said grandparent's super PAC.")

The group plans to target young voters with digital and television ads, according to Boehmer. "He's the leader millennials can benefit from," he said.

On Saturday — with supporters on stage behind him, their "New Leadership" campaign signs raised in the air — O'Malley made his pitch to be that candidate. He outlined his eight years as governor of Maryland, where he ushered in same-sex marriage, a bill granting in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants, and an increase in the minimum wage. The speech touched only briefly on foreign policy, focusing more on the left-leaning economic policies he's pushed on the campaign trail in recent months.

Arguing for more regulation on the Wall Street, O'Malley wove in a line casting Clinton — along with Jeb Bush, a leading Republican candidate — as an establishment figure.

"Recently, the CEO of Goldman Sachs let his employees know that he'd be just fine with either Bush or Clinton. I bet he would," said O'Malley. "Well, I've got news for the bullies of Wall Street. The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families."

The remark drew the loudest applause from the crowd of any during the speech.

O'Malley was coy when asked about the age issue at his first two campaign stops as a presidential candidate, both in Iowa later on Saturday.

At a union hall in Davenport, asked if he thought his age gave him an advantage in the Democratic contest, O'Malley didn't answer directly, making a joke instead about how young he was, at 36, when he became the mayor of Baltimore. And in Des Moines, surrounded by dozens of "New Leadership" signs stapled to the wall of his state headquarters, O'Malley was asked if he was making age an issue in the campaign.

"No," he said, "but I do believe that as times change our challenges change. And the things that we were able to do both in Baltimore and in Maryland required new thinking and new perspectives and, yes, new leadership that's willing to try new approaches."

"And I believe that's what our country needs right now."

Still, some who know O'Malley worry that the aggressive strategy could be too negative, and not consistent with his approach historically as a campaigner.

"The problem with playing the age card is very quickly it turns into playing the gender card," said a former top adviser to O'Malley. "He's a better person than that. He could unintentionally marginalize himself in a permanent way."

"There's something potentially offensive about it," the former adviser said.

Republicans in the race have also invoked Clinton's age. Marco Rubio often refers to a candidate "from yesterday." And in a more extreme case, Rand Paul suggested last year that Clinton was too old to handle the "rigorous physical ordeal" of the campaign.

For O'Malley, the language is particularly tricky given his long history of support for the Clintons. The former first family has been helpful to O'Malley dating back to the early Baltimore years. In 2002, after he made the decision to pass on the governor's race that year, O'Malley received a note from Bill Clinton: "You will go on to bigger things. I won’t be surprised if you go all the way," it read, according to an account in Esquire.

And five years later, O'Malley was one of Hillary Clinton's earliest and most committed surrogates, making several visits to New Hampshire on behalf of her campaign.

"If I can, I will help her, wherever I can, whenever I can," he said at the time.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Others said O'Malley's more assertive approach has been "overplayed" by the media.

"That's being characterized by the folks covering him," said Shaun Adamec, a former O'Malley aide. "As you draw closer to an actual race, there are distinctions to be made. You can't fault him for drawing those distinctions."

Much of the old team surrounding O'Malley is no longer directly involved in the presidential race yet. There were faces from the old Baltimore crowd here on Saturday. But the campaign team itself is lean: Bill Hyers, the manager on Bill de Blasio's mayoral race, was hired as a chief strategist — though he is not expected to lead the day-to-day campaign. And O'Malley's longtime right-hand, Colm O'Comartun, is advising the campaign, but recently formed his own bipartisan consulting firm. Some who have known O'Malley longest, either from Hart's campaigns or the Baltimore years, have worried amongst themselves that it's not clear who exactly is in charge.

The bigger issue for others is that the push for "new leadership" won't be enough to drive a campaign. And in this primary, there's already a candidate to Clinton's left. Sanders, the self-described "socialist" senator, commands a vast and loyal base of followers.

Craig Varoga, who served as chief strategist on O'Malley's reelection campaign for governor in 2010, said that for a chance at the nomination, "first he needs an issue. Then he needs to be a perfect candidate and then run a perfect campaign. And then he needs to get really, really lucky. But it's not yet clear what that issue might be."

That wasn't the case in 1999, when a little-known city councilor stood at the corner of Harford Road and the Alameda in Baltimore and launched a campaign for mayor. Nobody thought O'Malley had a shot. But he ran as a crime-solver who wanted to address violence in every part of the city, not one. And when the frontrunner faltered, O'Malley was there with the resources and infrastructure — and the right issue for that race.

James Cauley, a consultant on the 1999 campaign, said Clinton may stumble, too.

"There's a path here. The Clintons are entirely capable, and not only capable but likely, to provide the opening," said Cauley. "Their ability to make huge mistakes is legendary."

But even still: "What's his issue now?" asked Varoga. "What is the wedge issue where Hillary cannot take the same position or not have a louder megaphone to communicate the same message? He needs a message to contrast with his opponent. Where does he draw the distinction?"

"A generational distinction is a theme — but it's not an issue the way that the Iraq vote was for Obama in 2008."

As a former big-city mayor, O'Malley may focus his campaign on questions of urban renewal and relieving poverty. Last month, after the death of a black man in police custody, Freddie Gray, touched off violent riots, O'Malley canceled a trip abroad to return home. But if those issues do become a centerpiece of his campaign, O'Malley will face critics of his tough-on-crime policing as mayor.

The unrest in the city has not subsided. The night before O'Malley's speech, Baltimore was hit with more homicides, bringing the total this month to 39.

At his announcement, he told the crowd of supporters that there was "something to be learned" from Gray's death. "For what took place here was not only about race," he said. "It's about everything it is supposed to mean to be an American."

"We have work to do," said O'Malley. "Our economic and political system is upside down and backwards and it is time to turn it around."

He went on speaking, but at least two protesters could be heard on Federal Hill.

One shouted "black lives matter" again and again as O'Malley spoke.

The other blew a whistle repeatedly.

Without a pause, O'Malley kept on with his speech.

Evan McMorris-Santoro contributed reporting from Iowa.

Some progressives have signed on to Rand Paul’s nuclear assault on the Patriot act. Martin O’Malley is not one of them.

O'Malley in New Hampshire today

Evan McMorris-Santoro

BEDFORD, New Hampshire — Martin O'Malley's push to become the progressive alternative in the Democratic presidential race does not extend to the fight over the PATRIOT Act.

Near the end of his second event of the day, a crowded meet-and-greet at a supporter's home perched on a Granite State mountainside, O'Malley raised the raging Senate fight over the PATRIOT Act unfolding in Washington as he spoke.

"We are right now, and I know it's hard to believe when you see some cable news stations, when you see Congress threatening to adjourn before fixing the PATRIOT Act, the fact of the matter is we are on the threshold of a new era of American progress," said O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, in part of a longer answer about how he would break the gridlock in Washington since 2011.

Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, led the Senate to a rare and highly contentious Sunday session while O'Malley spoke in Bedford. Paul promised to use Senate procedure to force an expiration of the PATRIOT Act over his concerns over domestic surveillance programs. Paul's effort has earned him the ire of some Republicans — and the support of some progressive groups like the ACLU and NAACP who are wary of the domestic surveillance programs.

In his first 48 hours as a presidential candidate — going from Baltimore, the city he led as mayor, to Iowa and New Hampshire, two states he needs to make a mark in if he wants to have any chance at defeating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton — O'Malley has often touted himself as a progressive alternative, promising vigorous opposition to President Obama's trade-policy plans and suggesting Clinton is too close to Wall Street to take on the problems of the middle class.

When it comes to Paul's push in Washington, however, O'Malley stands in the mainstream. In a brief Q&A with reporters after the house party, he told BuzzFeed News Congress needs to pass the USA Freedom Act, which has been pitched by supporters as a package to reform the PATRIOT Act. USA Freedom is supported by the White House and a bipartisan coalition in Congress and viewed with skepticism by libertarians and progressives who say it doesn't do enough to shut down domestic spying programs they say are in conflict with the Constitution. O'Malley said he supported the package but proposed a couple of additional measures he said would go farther, such as a public advocate in FISA courts, the secret judiciary that rules on government surveillance requests.

O'Malley warned that Paul's actions in the Senate on Sunday could put Americans at risk.

"I think we could be less safe if we resort to obstructionism when it comes to something as important as protecting our homeland from the threat of terror attacks," he said.

“We shouldn’t be disarming unilaterally as our enemies grow more sophisticated and aggressive,” Rand Paul’s patron, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul in happier times.

John Sommers II / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The Senate reluctantly agreed to take up a modified reauthorization of the Patriot Act that includes modest controls on the federal domestic surveillance programs, handing a victory of sorts to Sen. Rand Paul who had opposed any extension of the Patriot Act.

Following an hour-long closed-door meeting of the Senate Republican conference on Sunday, the chamber voted 77–17 to begin debate on the USA Freedom Act. That bill, which creates a new electronic surveillance system and makes some changes to the Patriot Act, has already passed the House and has the blessing of the intelligence community.

The agreement came over the objections of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who opposes the House bill and had aggressively pushed for a short-term extension of the Patriot Act, without changes.

"We shouldn't be disarming unilaterally as our enemies grow more sophisticated and aggressive. And we certainly should not be doing so based on a campaign of demagoguery and disinformation launched in the wake of the unlawful actions of Edward Snowden, who was last seen in Russia," McConnell said angrily in a floor speech prior to the vote.

Although a boon for Paul's campaign coffers thanks to a relentless fundraising campaign based around the spying debate, it is a pyrrhic victory for the Kentucky Republican: The Patriot Act will only expire in the most nominal sense as of midnight Sunday. The law includes "wind-down" provisions that will mean the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies will see little change in their ability to conduct on going domestic electronic surveillance, although no new data collections could be started.

Rep. Justin Amash, who has been a fierce opponent of the Patriot Act, acknowledged there is little substantive meaning to the expiration, but that it could have significant political consequences.

"The hours aren't significant … what is significant is that at midnight the Patriot Act expires, and I think from a legislative standpoint, someone looking at what they're going to authorize has to think of it like that. That they are authorizing something from scratch. There will be a lot of Democrats out there who will face incredibly tough primaries if the vote to basically reauthorize the Patriot Act from scratch after it expires," Amash told reporters prior to the vote.

Paul's decision to force the symbolic expiration of the law could also carry a high political cost — the support of McConnell.

Although Paul initially rubbed not only McConnell but the entire GOP conference the wrong way when he first came to the Senate, the two Kentuckians eventually came to an understanding, which allowed Paul to use the Senate as a megaphone to pursue his policy positions while not throwing monkey wrenches into McConnell's broader plans.

The arrangement took on added significance when Paul became a key ally in McConnell's re-election campaign last year. A number of top Paul staffers joined team McConnell, and Paul's work as a surrogate in the state helped McConnell defeat conservative upstart Matt Bevin during the primary campaign.

In return, McConnell quickly threw his weight behind Paul's presidential campaign. And while McConnell made it clear he won't use his position as leader to help Paul, the simple act of the laying of hands on Paul by the leader of the GOP's establishment faction has helped Paul's standing.

But Paul's open defiance could cost him in the future. McConnell has aggressively pushed Senate Republicans to vote against the USA Freedom Act, and instead to vote for an extension of the Patriot Act, and he had hoped that by backing up the original vote on the bill to last week's congressional recess, he could prevail. But when Paul didn't budge, McConnell found himself in the embarrassing position of either moving forward with the House's bill or simply letting the law expire.

And on Sunday, the senior senator from Kentucky — who is not known for his capacity to forgive and forget — was clearly displeased with his home state colleague.

"It is now clear that [reauthorization] will not be possible in the face of determined opposition from those who simply wish to end the counterterrorism program altogether," McConnell said icily, looking over at Paul.

“There is no room for John F. Kennedys in the modern Democratic Party.”

In Massachusetts over the weekend, Cruz argued "JFK would be a Republican today," because he supported tax cuts.

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Here's the impression:

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Both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy actually used the line — John in Ireland and Bobby in a speech at the University of Kansas — quoting George Bernard Shaw.

"This is an extraordinary country," John F. Kennedy said. "George Bernard Shaw, speaking as an Irishman, summed up an approach to life: Other people, he said "see things and...say 'Why?' ...But I dream things that never were — and I say: 'Why not?'"

Said Robert Kennedy in the 1968 speech, "George Bernard Shaw once wrote, 'Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?'"

Impressions are kind of Cruz's thing. Here's Churchill:

vine.co

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The last time Rex Elsass spoke in private with his longtime protégé and business partner Nick Everhart, the veteran high-powered Republican strategist offered up a strange prophecy.

It was an April morning in 2013, and in a few days their rancorous falling-out would make news, plunging one of the nation's leading GOP consulting firms into a state of upheaval. But at the moment, the two men were seated across from each other at a Bob Evans restaurant outside Columbus, Ohio. The mood was tense, their conversation stilted. Everhart wanted to clear the air; Elsass had something else in mind.

"I have plans for you to atone for my sins," Elsass said cryptically over his coffee, according to Everhart. "All you've done is speed up all the plans I already had for you."

Everhart didn't make much of the comment at the time. After 12 years of working as Elsass's right hand at Strategy Group for Media — a Republican political advertising shop where staff Bible studies are commonplace and paintings of Jesus adorn the walls — he had grown accustomed to tuning out his boss's grandiloquent sermonizing. He wishes now he had listened.

In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Everhart accused Elsass — who is now the top media consultant on Rand Paul's presidential campaign — of using his political clout and vast company resources to fanatically pursue a bitter "vendetta" against him. In the two years since Everhart was fired from Strategy Group, he said Elsass has gone to extraordinary lengths to torment him. Within a week of his ouster, he said the firm foreclosed on the home they had been paying for as part of his compensation. He said they hampered his job hunt by being almost comically belligerent in their enforcement of his non-compete clause. And he even suggested the criminal charges he's now facing are the result of Elsass putting pressure on a politically ambitious prosecutor.

To Everhart, the explanation for his former mentor's behavior is obvious.

"He is obsessed with trying to personally destroy me," he said of Elsass. "He wants me to be homeless, jobless, bankrupt, and in jail."

Elsass declined to answer specific questions from BuzzFeed News, citing the criminal charges Everhart still faces. "With the pending criminal trial, it's not appropriate for me to make any comments," he said.

But there's no question the two men have their share of personal baggage. Everhart was a lanky college kid when he first went to work for Elsass, the boisterous, back-slapping good ol' boy with a Bentley and a private jet. They bonded over their shared Christian faith, and together they built Strategy Group into one of the most combative and in-demand media shops in the GOP, getting hundreds of right-wing insurgents and tea partiers elected across the country. But as the company grew — and Everhart grew up — he said he became increasingly disillusioned with his boss. The high-flying lifestyle that had once seemed so alluring now struck Everhart as wasteful. The constant need for validation and attention that had once seemed tolerable now began to grate on him. And while he had once been flattered by Elsass effusively comparing their relationship to that of Paul and Timothy in the Bible, he wasn't sure how much longer he wanted to be a sidekick. All of it was beginning to take its toll.

"You had to almost nurture Rex's paranoia and anxiety about wanting to be the center of the universe, along with doing your full-time job," Everhart recalled.

By 2013, he and other top managers at the firm were growing concerned with what they saw as Elsass's increasingly erratic behavior, imprudent decision making, and moral failings. They decided an intervention was in order, and one morning they confronted Elsass and urged him to seek out psychiatric help, pursue spiritual repentance — and relinquish some of his management authority. Elsass balked, and soon came to suspect that his most beloved disciple, Everhart, was secretly plotting a coup to seize control of his company. In response, he purged Strategy Group of the suspected turncoats, and filed a civil lawsuit accusing Everhart of trying to steal from the company.

Though he adamantly denies the allegations, Everhart believes he knows what's driving Elsass's animus.

"He really likes to believe he created me and owned me, and now that he's been spurned, the only logical recourse is to destroy me," Everhart said. "It's a pretty typical response of someone who's a narcissist... to lash out at someone who's betrayed you."

It took nearly a year for Everhart and Strategy Group to reach a settlement — but that was just the beginning. With the civil litigation over, Elsass promptly began turning over evidence to the Delaware County Prosecutor's Office and, the prosecutor confirmed, encouraging them to pursue criminal charges. On Oct. 17, 2014 — a full year and a half after he'd left the firm — Everhart was charged with two counts of hacking, and accused of enlisting an ex-employee to help him steal files from a Strategy Group computer. He said he was simply trying to retrieve photos of his kids. Either way, by now Everhart had landed at a new political firm that specialized in direct mail, and he found the disruptive timing of the indictments — just two weeks before the midterm elections — to be suspicious. He also wondered why news of the charges was leaked to political reporters before he found out about them. (The prosecutor's office confirmed they did not put out a press release.) Everhart said the circumstance suggested an uncommon coziness between Elsass and the prosecutor.

His wariness only deepened last month, when he was slapped with new charges of perjury and evidence tampering. He said he wasn't contacted by a single investigator or prosecutor prior to being indicted, and he believes the charges are based entirely on depositions from the civil suit he already settled last year with Strategy Group.

Everhart said he now thinks the purpose of Strategy Group's civil suit was for Elsass to "set a trap" designed to "put me in jail."

Carol O'Brien, the county prosecutor handling the cases, said there has been nothing abnormal about the process in Everhart's cases. She denied that the timing of the indictments was calculated, and said in this case "it wasn't necessary" for investigators to speak to Everhart before he was charged. Asked whether she was acting on pressure from Elsass and his firm, O'Brien responded, "Lots of victims pressure us. That's what victims do."

She added, "It doesn't do a prosecutor any good to indict a case based on pressure from a victim if the evidence doesn't show probable cause, because you'll just look like an idiot in trial."

But at least one legal expert following the case said he was "shocked" by O'Brien's decision to pursue criminal charges. Todd P'Pool got to know both Elsass and Everhart when he hired Strategy Group for his unsuccessful 2011 campaign for Kentucky attorney general. He said he occasionally keeps in touch with both men, and has "no strong opinion on their business dispute." But as a former local prosecutor who supervised around 50,000 cases, "from homicides to speeding tickets," he said he has never seen anything like this.

"Today, there were thousands of depositions taken across the country in civil cases, and believe it or not, there are people who lie in depositions," he said. "So, for a prosecutor to select one deposition and say, 'Oh, we're going to prosecute you for perjury,' it's just shocking to me. ... Ohio only has so many jail cells, and they need to be for violent criminals and people who would hurt children."

Everhart speculated that as a Republican, O'Brien would have plenty of cause to "make Rex happy" if she aspires to higher office one day, and that her ambitions could be motivating her to pursue the case — a serious accusation. Asked to respond, O'Brien dismissed the notion, and added, "My political ambitions are very minimal."

No matter what happens next month at Everhart's first trial, though, it's likely his former boss will be paying close attention. When he was arraigned last year, Everhart said he spotted one of Elsass's employees lurking on the perimeter of the courtroom and snapping pictures. According to someone who knows Elsass, he keeps at least one of the photos on his phone, and likes to show it off.

But with the Republican presidential primaries growing more crowded and competitive by the week, it's unclear how much the Paul campaign — which has already drawn criticism in some GOP circles for occasional amateurishness — will tolerate such distractions from its top media consultant.

Everhart, meanwhile, also questioned how well Elsass is serving his candidate, but for a different reason. "There's some obvious irony that Rex is a chief strategist in a presidential campaign that says it's all about criminal justice reform, when they've got prosecutors taking a very keen interest in very political matters," he said.

As Everhart awaits trial this summer, he is taking comfort in the hope that one way or another this ordeal will soon be over. "It can't go on forever," he said, sounding as though he was trying to convince himself. "Nothing does."

But as maddening as the last two years have been, he says he can now see their value. In the weeks after getting fired from Strategy Group, he often found himself roaming his house in the middle of the day while the lawyers worked out what kind of jobs he could pursue without violating his non-compete. One afternoon, he decided to start watching Mad Men for the first time, figuring its focus on advertising might help him with his professional withdrawal. As he watched, though, he was startled to find so much familiarity in the show's bleakness.

"You have this torn character and these giant, selfish personalities who are focused on hustling clients, and consumerism," Everhart said. He reflexively wanted to judge them, or stand apart from them, but he said he soon realized he was them. "Sometimes, a person's encapsulation of who they are is really how they do their job. I was someone who could be defined that way. And only when it was stripped away, did I realize it was just a job."

His epiphany became more potent when his wife told him that in the weeks leading up to the Strategy Group meltdown, she had been praying that something would change to improve life at home for their young family. Everhart had been routinely working 14-hour days or longer and traveling constantly. If he hadn't been fired, Everhart said, "I'm not sure my marriage and family would have stayed together."

Maybe he'll get a chance to thank Elsass for that inadvertent gift one day. Everhart said he's tried calling, but never gets through. "I don't hate Rex," he insisted. "I feel bad for him. He's obviously someone who's gone through a lot of personal struggles in his life. I just wish he'd pick up the phone and ask the prosecutor to stop, because he has that power."

"I have plans for you to atone for my sins." — Rex Elsass, according to Everhart

“Put things back in a stable order and then at the point, how things might be divided up, certainly it warrants discussion, but I don’t think you can do that until you get stability there.”

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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said in a radio interview last week that the possibility of splitting up Iraq along sectarian lines was "worth looking at" and "warrants discussion."

"Ideas like that are certainly worth looking at," Walker told radio host Chris Salcedo when asked about comments made by former U.N. ambassador John Bolton about dividing up the country.

"Before you start talking about dividing up anything you have to get control over there. If you have Sunnis and Shiites and Kurds as you mentioned, distinctive categories, but the Sunnis have to be the freedom-loving ones, responsible ones, they can't be the more radical elements of the Islamic State."

Walker said many of the current problems in Iraq exist because the United States "backed away" from the country instead of "securing and maintaining the peace that was won."

"I don't why we don't learn from history," said Walker, pointing to the the longterm presence of U.S. troops in Japan and German after the Second World War.

Walker said once there was stable order if Iraq, dividing up the country at that point certainly "warrants discussion."

"We should learn the same thing when it comes to Iraq. Get back to the position where we eliminate the Islamic State from Iraq," added Walker. "Put things back in a stable order and then at the point, how things might be divided up, certainly it warrants discussion, but I don't think you can do that until you get stability there."

Walker is expected to announce in the next few weeks whether he will seek the Republican nomination for president.

The company’s “Look Policy” led the clothing retailer not to hire a woman who wore a headscarf.

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday sided with a Muslim woman who sought to work at Abercrombie & Fitch but was rejected because her headscarf – worn because of her religious practices – violated the company's "Look Policy."

The clothing retailer argued that the woman, Samantha Elauf, never requested a religious accommodation and, therefore, its failure to hire her could not be illegal.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit on Elauf's behalf, arguing that Elauf was not required to give specific notice to Abercrombie & Fitch that she would want a religious accommodation under Title VII.

The ban on "disparate treatment" in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "prohibits actions taken with the motive of avoiding the need for accommodating a religious practice," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the Supreme Court on Monday. "A request for accommodation, or the employer's certainty that the practice exists, may make it easier to infer motive, but is not a necessary condition of liability."

"Abercrombie's primary argument is that an applicant cannot show disparate treatment without first showing that an employer has 'actual knowledge' of the applicant's need for an accommodation," he wrote. "We disagree. Instead, an applicant need only show that his need for an accommodation was a motivating factor in the employer's decision."

The decision reversed the appeals court's decision and sent the case back to the lower courts.

The EEOC had won its initial religious discrimination suit but an appeals court reversed the ruling in 2013. Abercrombie decided against hiring Elauf in 2008, when she was 17 years old.

Abercrombie's look policy for sales associates was famously stringent for years, specifying everything from the maximum acceptable number of earrings (2) to the maximum length of fingernails (1/4 inch). The color black was also banned.

A company spokesperson said in an emailed statement today that Abercrombie recently replaced that policy "with a new dress code that allows associates to be more individualistic" and "changed our hiring practices not to consider attractiveness." Abercrombie has also modified "store associates' titles from 'model' to 'brand representative,'" the spokesperson said.

"While the Supreme Court reversed the Tenth Circuit decision, it did not determine that A&F discriminated against Ms. Elauf," the spokesperson said. "We will determine our next steps in the litigation, which the Supreme Court remanded for further consideration. A&F remains focused on ensuring the company has an open-minded and tolerant workplace environment for all current and future store associates."

The company said earlier this year that its stores now have more than 50% non-white staff, up from less than 10% in 2004.

Scalia wrote the opinion for the court, to which only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. Justice Samuel Alito agreed with the court's ultimate judgement but wrote separately.

Abercrombie's old look policy for associates.

Abercrombie / Via Obtained by BuzzFeed News

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The senator from South Carolina made it official Monday.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham announced Monday he will seek the presidency in 2016.

The South Carolina senator, who is considered a long shot for the Republican nomination, is expected to make his candidacy largely about his hawkish views on foreign policy, in an effort to inject his vision of a muscular American presence around the world into the 2016 debate.

"I've got one simple message: I have more experience with our national security than any other candidate in this race. That includes you, Hillary," Graham said Monday in his hometown of Central, South Carolina.

Aside from foreign policy, Graham also has staked out a position on immigration counter to most of the Republican field, advocating for a comprehensive approach to addressing the issue. The three-term senator was part of the so-called "Gang of Eight" in the Senate that authored an immigration bill that included a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Graham is the ninth announced Republican seeking the nomination in 2016.

Everything isn’t awesome.

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin on Sunday defended his criticism of the Lego Movie, saying his critics and the press who reported on the comments were "making a mountain out of a molehill."

At a town hall meeting last month, Johnson said the movie was part of a "insidious" propaganda campaign against businesses. After his comments were reported on by the Huffington Post, Johnson responded in a blog post on his Senate website saying, "The strange thing isn't that a kids' movie was anti-business, it is that someone claiming to be a journalist never encountered the idea before."

"That's called making a mountain out of a molehill," Johnson said in a local news interview on Sunday when asked about the "online content" about his comments.

"Well first of all, I was referring to an op-ed somebody wrote who had taken a six and seven-year-old children to this animated movie, that really had, the villain was a business person."

"The point I was trying to make is that if we're going to able to create good paying jobs for all Americans, if we're going to be able to grow our economy, we need to celebrate and incentivize success, rather than demonize and demagogue against it," Johnson added.

"I was making a much broader point. I barely even mentioned the Lego Movie. I was really talking about one businessperson who was pretty upset about the fact we just on an on-going basis culturally demonize and demagogue against businesses and against success. How else are we going to create the good paying jobs we all want."

Here's the video:

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Opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts avoids First Amendment questions.

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court tossed out the "threats" conviction of Anthony Elonis for postings he made on Facebook, leaving several key questions in the closely watched case unanswered.

The court, in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that the federal criminal law banning "threats" in interstate communication requires more than proof that a "reasonable person" would have viewed the communication as a threat for a conviction, known as a negligence standard.

The decision avoided constitutional questions about whether the First Amendment barred a conviction under the threats statute if only negligence was required for such a conviction.

Elonis had posted a series of posts on Facebook, having adopted an "on-line persona" of "Tone Dougie," posting what Roberts characterized as "crude, degrading, and violent material about his soon-to-be ex-wife."

The government had argued that if a reasonable person understood those as threats it should suffice for a conviction under the law, but Roberts, writing for the court, held that the law requires more. Specifically, he wrote that whatever greater mental requirement is required "must therefore apply to the fact that the communication contains a threat."

The court did not, however, resolve what that greater mental requirement was — a move that irked Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Alito, at one point, wrote that the decision "is certain to cause confusion and serious problems."

Alito wrote that the standard should be that a conviction is possible if the person "consciously disregards the risk that the communication transmitted will be interpreted as a true threat," known as a recklessness standard.

Roberts, however, countered that the court resolved the issue before it — that the negligence standard is insufficient — and that other matters would have to be resolved at other times. He noted that everyone agrees that a conviction is possible if the person's purpose was to make a threat or if the person had knowledge it would be viewed as a threat. The unanswered question, Roberts acknowledged, was whether recklessness would be enough.

The decision reversed the lower court's decision upholding Elonis's conviction and sent the case back to the lower courts.

LINK: Read the Supreme Court's opinion.

“I think if the Israelis were under attack right now, I’m not sure what this president would do,” said Huckabee when asked about Israel taking military action against Iran.

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Former Arkansas Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee argued over the weekend a two-state solution is "irrational and unworkable" and that if a Palestinian state is created, it must exist outside of Israel. Huckabee said there's plenty of land elsewhere in the world for a Palestinian state.

"The two state solution, if we mean two governments holding the same piece of real estate is irrational and unworkable," Huckabee told Arutz Sheva TV on Sunday during an appearance at the Israel Day Concert in Central Park, New York.

Huckabee, who refers to the area commonly called the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, called arguing for the two-state solution a "pretentious game."

"And I think it's time for us to quit playing this pretentious game that there's gonna be a two-state solution where both sides share the same country and real estate and streets 'cause they're not," said Huckabee. "One of the sides the Palestinians continue to say that Israel doesn't have a right to exist. You can't forge an alliance with that."

Huckabee cited there being "plenty of land in the world" to find a place for a Palestinian state outside of Israel.

"If there's a two-state solution, the Palestinians state needs to be outside the boundaries of the nation of Israel. There's plenty of land in the world where we can find a place and say, 'Okay, let's create a Palestinian state.' But not within the confides of a secure Israel."

Speaking at the event, Huckabee said "we never can accept the notion that Israel will be divided," citing the boundaries of Israel being given "not by the United Nations but by almighty God."

In his interview, Huckabee added he could not "explain why there is a harsh anti-Israel sentiment that exists in the administration."

Huckabee said if Israel was attacked he doesn't know what the Obama administration would do.

"I think if the Israelis were under attack right now, I'm not sure what this president would do," said Huckabee when asked about Israel taking military action against Iran.

Sen. Bob Menendez sent companies a questionnaire on their diversity statistics and BuzzFeed News has the first look at the results. They’re not good.

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Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez released on Tuesday a corporate diversity survey that finds women make up only 22.9% of board of directors for Fortune 100 companies and minorities make up only 18.3%.

The report, which took a year to develop, gather, and analyze, also finds that white men represent 63% of board members among the 69 out of 100 companies that did participate.

Menendez will speak about the report on Tuesday at a press conference, thanking the companies who participated and naming the 31 companies who chose not to answer the questions. (BuzzFeed News has the data he will present below.)

The report is not yearly and has been done in previous years with data from 2010 and 2011. The report based on 2011 data came out in 2013, for example.

Before the press conference, Menendez will hold a meeting with corporate stakeholders — CEOs, diversity officers, and officials with organizations who push outreach to minority communities.

Menendez was indicted in April on corruption charges after a federal investigation into his relationship with a campaign donor. He has argued the charges are politically motivated. His trial will begin this summer.

Javier Palomarez, the president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who will be one of the participants in the earlier meeting, says his is not a civil rights organization, it is focused on business. The report stresses this as well, making the case for diversity being an issue that makes financial sense to these companies.

Palomarez told BuzzFeed News that at the end of the day his organization expects the makeup of corporations to reflect their employees, stakeholders and customers and not just middle-aged white guys.

"We need to change that, that's not marketplace anymore," he said.

Only 9.2% of companies have specific targets for diversity and inclusion at the board of directors' level, the report finds. Nearly half of the companies do not have similar targets at the executive level and do not tie performance on meeting diversity goals to a portion of executive compensation. The report finds that only 14.5% of companies with a chief diversity officer have this person reporting directly to the CEO.

Palomarez said these numbers matter for the viability of businesses and highlighted women and Hispanics in particular. Only 10 Fortune 500 CEOs are Latino and corporate boards are only 3% Hispanic, he said. Women make up less than 15% of boards, women of color 7%, and Latinas less than 1%.

"When you look at those companies growth potential, it's the complete inverse of those numbers," he said. "The math doesn't work, you can't then expect this community to buy your services and products."

These are the 69 Fortune 100 companies that participated.

Bob Menendez office

These are the 31 companies that did not participate.

Bob Menendez office

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“There is something inherently wrong about forcing little children to be a part of this social experiment.”

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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee joked earlier in the year he wished he could have pretended to be transgender in high school "when it came time to take showers in PE."

Huckabee made the comments at the 2015 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this year but the comments were uploaded to YouTube over the weekend by World Net Daily.

"For those who do not think that we are under threat, simply recognize that the fact that we are now in city after city watching ordinances say that your 7-year-old daughter, if she goes into the restroom cannot be offended and you can't be offended if she's greeted there by a 42-year-old man who feels more like a woman than he does a man."

Huckabee continued saying saying he wished someone told him in high school he "could have felt like a woman" and shower with the girls.

"Now I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE," said Huckabee. "I'm pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, 'Coach, I think I'd rather shower with the girls today.' You're laughing because it sounds so ridiculous, doesn't it?"

Huckabee said there was "something inherently wrong about forcing little children to be a part of this social experiment."

"And yet today we are the ones who are ridiculed and scorned because we point out the obvious," he said.

"That there is something inherently wrong about forcing little children to be a part of this social experiment. I'm not against anybody. I'd just like for somebody to bring their brain to work some day and not leave it on the bed stand when they show up to govern."

Here's the full video:

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“They had a picture of me and quote in their magazine under the words, ‘in the words of our enemies.’”

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Speaking with the Lars Larson Show, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum noted he was featured in ISIS' online magazine.

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"I don't know if you know this but last month I was featured in an online, it was the magazine of ISIS," said Santorum. "They had a picture of me and quote in their magazine under the words, 'in the words of our enemies.' That was the headline of the article."

"I make the comment, they know who I am and I know who they are," Santorum added on a phrase he used in his announcement speech.

Indeed, Santorum was quoted talking about ISIS in their online magazine aimed at recruiting westerners Dabiq.

"Over the last month, a number of crusaders voiced their concerns over the power and drive of the Islamic State, its revival of Islam and the Caliphate, and its eventual expansion into Europe and the rest of the world," reads the introduction.

"The Catholic crusader and American politician Rick Santorum had the following to say," it says before showing an infographic with Santorum's quote and a picture of him:

Here's the article from ISIS' magazine Dabiq.

Dabiq

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