“Well, I think he’s sort of a guy that just has a wonderful personality, a good speaker, somebody that people trust.”

Evan Vucci / AP

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump praised President Obama in 2009 in his book Think Like A Champion and on CNN's Larry King Live.

Trump, who is currently hovering near the top of the Republican field in recent presidential polls, wrote of Obama in his book, "what he has done is amazing."

Trump added, "the fact that he accomplished what he has—in one year and against great odds—is truly phenomenal."

Trump also wrote he thought Obama "has the mark of a strong leader" and said Obama's comments on the economy "have led me to believe that he understands how the economy works on a comprehensive level."

Here's the full except, which is in the first chapter of the book:

After the election in November of 2008, I was interviewed by Dominic Carter of New York 1 (who has recently, as of late 2009, gone through a great deal with spousal abuse) on his program called "Inside City Hall." New York 1 is an all-news program that is popular in New York City, and Dominic has a dynamic television presence. He describes me as "a man not known for keeping his opinions to himself," and we covered some interesting topics. Dominic asked about the election and I was honest about it. McCain was in an almost impossible situation. Bush had been so incompetent that any Republican would have a hard time unless they could bring back Eisenhower. Bush was a disaster for the country as well as for the Republican Party. Then he asked me about Barack Obama. I told him that Barack will need to be a great president because we're in serious trouble as a country. It hasn't been this way since 1929. So he doesn't have much choice—he will simply have to be great, which he has a very good chance of being. What he has done is amazing. The fact that he accomplished what he has—in one year and against great odds—is truly phenomenal. If someone had asked me if a black man or woman could become president, I would have said yes, but not yet. Barack Obama proved that determination combined with opportunity and intelligence can make things happen—and in an exceptional way. He is not walking into an easy or enviable situation. As of October of 2008, the U.S. government reported a $237 billion deficit. The good news is that Obama seems to be well aware of the situation. His comments have led me to believe that he understands how the economy works on a comprehensive level. He has also surrounded himself with very competent people, and that's the mark of a strong leader. I have confidence he will do his best, and we have someone who is serious about resolving the problems we have and will be facing in the future.To me that is very good news. After 9/11, this country received a lot of compassion from countries and people around the world. Within a short amount of time, however, we were hated. How did that happen? We had no dialogue with other countries because they just plain hated us. What's different today is that we have a new chance, a new beginning. The world is excited about Barack Obama and the new United States. Let's keep it that way.

Charlie Leight / Getty Images

Trump said he thought "the world looks at us differently than they used to" because of Obama.

The reality star added, "I do agree with what they're doing with the banks" on how Obama was handling the financial crisis.

He also stated he thought Obama has "a wonderful personality" and was "somebody that people trust."

"I think that he's really doing a nice job in terms of representation of this country," said Trump. "And he represents such a large part of the country."

"I think he's doing a really good job," he concluded.

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Bernie Sandyaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

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Howard Dean, the former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont governor, says Sen. Bernie Sanders "can make a real run" at winning the Democratic nomination.

Dean, who earlier in the interview said he was a strong Hillary Clinton supporter and was "all in" for her winning the nomination, also said Sanders "is making progress" and "anything can happen in a presidential race."

"He is making progress," Dean said to radio host John Catsimatidis on the Cats Roundtable on AM970 on Sunday.

The former Democratic national chairman added he believed the socialist from Vermont had long made income inequality his issue, and that was "the number one issue for the American people."

"I've known Bernie a very long time. All his life as politician his message as been economic justice and this is the year for that. Even the Republican pollsters understand that this probably the number one issue for the American people."

Dean said he still thought Clinton would win, but added "anything can happen in a presidential race."

"This is Bernie's issue and he's very good at it," said Dean. "He's very good at it. He's a good debater. He's very smart and I think that he can make a real run at this. I think Hillary can win but anything can happen in a presidential race."

“In a typical Chicago way, to my Mexican-American friends, I would say, ‘Donald Trump callate’ — shut up.”

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Walker’s basically been promising the same things for most of his career. What he did on: prisons, abortion, welfare, vice, the elderly, and more.

Darren Hauck / Getty Images

When Scott Walker formally announces his bid for the presidency on Monday evening, he'll be promising "reform, growth, and safety" — basically things he's been promising for 20 years.

Walker is essentially a career politician, particularly in local and state politics; he spent a decade as a state assemblyman before becoming the Milwaukee county executive. Based on an extensive BuzzFeed News review of his legislative record, Walker's main priorities during those years were tough-on-crime politics, upping punishments for certain types of offenses, legislation to stop abortion and vice, and changing welfare policies in ways that fit pretty squarely under the "reform conservatism" banner.

He championed the sweeping Truth in Sentencing Act and "get-tough" measures for juvenile offenders. But he also pushed legislation like:

• Walker introduced a bill that would have banned prisoners and guards at state prisons from using equipment or weights for body-building or weight training.

• Walker introduced a bill that would have authorized "a chain gang work program in which inmates are assigned to work away from the grounds of the institution while joined together in a group by a length of chain," and allowed the Department "to restrict the recreation activities and privileges of an inmate who is in the program, subject to the constitutional rights of inmates."

• Walker introduced a bill to make it more difficult for juvenile offenders to petition the courts to expunge their records if the offense would have been a felony if committed by an adult, and would have raised the age from 17 to 21 at which they could attempt to do so.

•Walker introduced a bill that would have required the Department of Corrections "to charge prisoners for the costs of providing postsecondary educational courses or programming."

• Walker repeatedly introduced bills that would have eliminated or chipped away at laws against employment discrimination "based on conviction record," and allowed employers to fire or refuse to hire individuals on such grounds.

• Walker introduced a bill that created penalty enhancers for violent crimes committed on or within 1,000 feet of a school or school bus. The bill eventually became law.

• Walker introduced a bill that created a distinct penalty for abuse of a "vulnerable adult" resulting in death, and increased the maximum penalty for abuse of a vulnerable adult resulting in significant injury. The bill eventually became law.

• Walker introduced a bill that created a penalty enhancer for sentencing violent felonies committed against people age 62 or older in their residences, increasing the maximum sentence by up to five years. The bill eventually became law.

• Walker co-sponsored a bill that would have imposed mandatory minimum sentences, and eliminated the possibility of probation, for certain serious sex offenses (primarily those involving children and/or authority figures).

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The former federal public defender who helped the White House choose who to let out of prison Monday — and other advocates — want the commutations to just be the beginning for criminal justice.

WASHINGTON — Monday's sweeping commutations by President Obama are meant to serve two purposes, says the former federal public defender who helped the White House select which prisoners got to leave custody early.

One was to correct the sentences of inmates serving time under old guidelines that no longer apply to newly sentenced prisoners. For them, a long and sometimes difficult journey is just beginning.

The other was to push Congress to enact changes to the criminal justice system a growing bipartisan coalition of advocates and the White House have been pushing for years.

"I became a lawyer to do this, to speak for people who don't have a voice who have no hope," Cynthia Roseberry, the director of the Clemency Project 2014 — a group of lawyers and advocates that helped process thousands of applications for early release from federal prisoners ahead of today's announcement — told BuzzFeed News in a recent interview. "These are my people, they grew up in the same place I was reared in."

Roseberry grew up in a poor, inner-city Atlanta neighborhood. Her career has been focused on providing legal help to the people she grew up with, a community she said often gets the short end of the stick when it comes to the long arm of the law. She spent years as a high-profile criminal defense attorney in Georgia, helping found the state's Innocence Project and eventually serving as a federal public defender. She moved to D.C. to run the Clemency Project, which the Department of Justice requested early last year for federal prisoners who believed they might be eligible for early release but couldn't afford attorneys to help them.

The Clemency Project sorted through tens of thousands of applications for clemency. The group couldn't decide who would get their sentences commuted — that power rests solely with the president — but it was able to help find applicants who lawyers working for the project believed matched the eligibility guidelines laid out by the Obama administration. Thirteen-thousand applications were screened out. Around 50 were sent to the White House for review. Not all applicants used the Clemency Project; some used their own attorneys. The Clemency Project offered free legal help through funding from the American Bar Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Federal Public and Community Defenders, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

In the end, the White House chose 46 federal prisoners, originally sentenced for nonviolent drug offenses, for early release.

"These men and women were not hardened criminals," President Obama said in a Facebook video announcing the commutations. "But the overwhelming majority had been sentenced to at least 20 years. Fourteen of them had been sentenced to life ... so their punishments didn't fit the crime."

The prisoners granted clemency will, for the most part, enter the federal probation system, where they'll be live under supervised release for several years. Some of the outside advocates who helped Monday's commutations are expected to help with the uphill climb to a job and housing by forming an outreach group that will help track the progress of prisoners who had their sentences reduced today.

"They're going to be entering an alien world," Rosenberry said of prisoners who may have put behind bars before smartphones and the internet.

Obama used the Facebook video to again call on Congress to act on existing legislative proposals that would retroactively reduce certain minimum non-violent drug sentences to current levels set by Congress in 2010. Activists pushing for an end to mandatory minimums for drug offenders entirely say the commutations could help push their efforts in Congress, where Republican leaders have shown signs of softening their tough on crime stance when it comes to some minimum sentencing.

"The fact that we put nonviolent drugs offenders in prison for the rest of their natural lives, or even just decades, is appalling, and today's commutations recognize that a free country shouldn't do that, particularly not when there are much better evidence-based penalties available to deter recidivism and improve public without permanently fracturing families and communities," Mike Riggs, spokesman for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, told BuzzFeed News in a statement. "We know that members of Congress know this as well. It's time for them to act."

It was not clear in the hours following the White House announcement exactly how advocates would leverage the commutations to push congressional action, but the White House move puts more than two dozen public faces on the issue of criminal justice. Rosenberry said the move sets a presidential precedent as well.

"I hope that it carries on with the next president," she said. "I hope that whomever is elected next is bold enough to continue this."

Republican-leaning criminal justice advocates in Congress and around Washington said last week they don't view Obama's commutations as damaging the way pro-immigration Republicans viewed the president's executive actions on DREAMers and other groups. For one thing, they say, it's crystal clear that commuting sentences a power the president has. White House critics said the president overstepped his bounds when it came to those executive actions last year. There was some worry that it might be harder to get wavering Republicans to come down on the side of supporting criminal justice advocates now that Obama has so strongly made support for them a focus of his remaining time in office, but overall the commutations were not expected to derail things on Capitol Hill.

For Rosenberry, the commutations were another chapter in a lifetime of advocating for poor clients she said are often unfairly treated by the justice system. She cited the bipartisan efforts that have brought together evangelical Republicans, libertarians, and social justice progressives under one tent to support changes to the criminal justice system. Like Obama, she said the commutations should produce energy in Congress to act.

"All politicians now have the power to do this from the people," she said. "That's why this is such a historic moment."

LINK: President Obama Just Granted Clemency To 46 People Convicted Of Nonviolent Drug Offenses

“The Defense Department’s current regulations regarding transgender service members are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in announcing the six-month review.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

Carolyn Kaster / AP

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Ash Carter has ordered a six-month review of the military's policies banning transgender people from serving openly.

"The Defense Department's current regulations regarding transgender service members are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions," Carter said in a statement.

In announcing the review, Carter took a rather direct tone, noting, "[W]e have transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines - real, patriotic Americans - who I know are being hurt by an outdated, confusing, inconsistent approach that's contrary to our value of service and individual merit."

A source familiar with the Pentagon's decisionmaking on the issue told BuzzFeed News recently that Carter met with President Obama last week to discuss the issue. Obama made a rare visit to the Pentagon on July 6, where he spoke at a press briefing about the current military campaign against ISIS.

In the Monday evening statement, Carter announced a six-month review to assess "the policy and readiness implications of welcoming transgender persons to serve openly." Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Brad Carson will head the group.

Notably, Carter said in his statement that the group "will start with the presumption that transgender persons can serve openly without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified."

Secondly, Carson now will have the decision authority for discharges for those who identify as transgender or are diagnosed with gender dysphoria. In recent months, the service branches had raised the authority for such discharges from commanders in the field to more senior individuals within the respective branches' leadership.

The Associated Press reported earlier Monday, and BuzzFeed News confirmed, that the announcement was coming this week.

The White House provided no comment to BuzzFeed News last week in response to an inquiry about the matter, and a Pentagon spokesperson said only that there was "nothing to announce" at that time.

Last month, when Carter addressed an LGBT pride month event at the Pentagon, he discussed diversity at length but made no specific mention of transgender military service.

"Embracing diversity and inclusion is critical to recruiting and retaining the force of the future. Young Americans today are more diverse, open, and tolerant than past generations," he said. "If we're going to attract the best and brightest among them to contribute to our mission of national defense, we have to ourselves be more diverse, open, and tolerant, too."

The move comes as a handful of service members still serving have started to come out publicly as trans, including Jamie Lee Henry, a doctor and major in the Army's Medical Corps who spoke with BuzzFeed News in June about being a trans person serving in the military today.

Over the last fourteen years of conflict, the Department of Defense has proven itself to be a learning organization. This is true in war, where we have adapted to counterinsurgency, unmanned systems, and new battlefield requirements such as MRAPs. It is also true with respect to institutional activities, where we have learned from how we repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," from our efforts to eliminate sexual assault in the military, and from our work to open up ground combat positions to women. Throughout this time, transgender men and women in uniform have been there with us, even as they often had to serve in silence alongside their fellow comrades in arms.

The Defense Department's current regulations regarding transgender service members are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions. At a time when our troops have learned from experience that the most important qualification for service members should be whether they're able and willing to do their job, our officers and enlisted personnel are faced with certain rules that tell them the opposite. Moreover, we have transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines - real, patriotic Americans - who I know are being hurt by an outdated, confusing, inconsistent approach that's contrary to our value of service and individual merit.

Today, I am issuing two directives to deal with this matter. First, DoD will create a working group to study over the next six months the policy and readiness implications of welcoming transgender persons to serve openly. Led by (Acting) Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Brad Carson, and composed of military and civilian personnel representing all the military services and the Joint Staff, this working group will report to Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work. At my direction, the working group will start with the presumption that transgender persons can serve openly without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified. Second, I am directing that decision authority in all administrative discharges for those diagnosed with gender dysphoria or who identify themselves as transgender be elevated to Under Secretary Carson, who will make determinations on all potential separations.

As I've said before, we must ensure that everyone who's able and willing to serve has the full and equal opportunity to do so, and we must treat all our people with the dignity and respect they deserve. Going forward, the Department of Defense must and will continue to improve how we do both. Our military's future strength depends on it.

The move would allow individually chartered troops to make their own decisions about leadership standards. A final vote is set for July 27.

Scout leader Jesse Pacem (left) directs Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts as they prepare to lead marchers at the 41st annual Seattle Pride Parade Sunday, June 28.

Elaine Thompson / AP

WASHINGTON — A key leadership panel of the Boy Scouts of America voted unanimously last week to end the ban on gay leaders in scouting, the organization told local leaders on Monday.

The move — raised as a necessary step by the organization's head in May — came from the executive committee of the Boy Scouts on July 10. A vote of the full executive board is scheduled for July 27, at which point the change is immediately effective.

The resolution passed by the committee does not require councils or troops to allow out gay leaders, but lifts the prior ban on such leaders. Specifically, the resolution "affirms the right of each chartering organization to reach its own religious and moral conclusions about the specific meaning and application of" the organization's values.

At the Boy Scouts national annual meeting in May, the group's president, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, took on the issue directly and at length.

"I must speak as plainly and bluntly to you as I spoke to presidents when I was director of the CIA and secretary of defense," he said in part. "We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be. The status quo in our movement's membership standards cannot be sustained."

In a statement, Zach Wahls, the executive director of Scouts for Equality, said, "Today's announcement hopefully marks the beginning of the end of the Boy Scouts of America's decades-old ban on gay leaders and parents like my two moms."

He continued: "For decades, the Boy Scouts of America's ban on gay adults has stood as a towering example of explicit, institutional homophobia in one of America's most important and recognizable civic organizations. While this policy change is not perfect—BSA's religious chartering partners will be allowed to continue to discriminate against gay adults—it is difficult to overstate the importance of today's announcement."

In the resolution, the Boy Scouts national organization specifically states that it will "defend and indemnify to the fullest extent allowed by law" any chartered group that is a religious group and is challenged in court for making a "good faith refusal to select a unit leader based upon the religious principles of the chartered organization."

Boy Scouts memorandum sent on Monday:

From the unanimously approved resolution:

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“‘Sandwich’ means food that consists of a filling; such as meat, cheese or a savory mixture; that is placed on a slice, or between 2 slices; of a variety of bread or something that takes the place of bread; such as a roll, croissant or bagel.”

Gerry Broome/Associated Press/Andrew Kaczynski Sandwich Photoshop

Scott Walker's nearly decade-long career in the Wisconsin State Assembly offers an extensive record of his policy positions over the years, including a bill in which included this definition of the word "sandwich."

The bill did not become law.

“…it will be like a 10 day exercise, because the fierceness of our forces would mean that we can absolutely guarantee the outcome of this film.”

PAUL J. RICHARDS / Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says the United States should have the most "formidable, fierce, military in the history of mankind" with the ability to defeat ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran within 10 days.

"Well the easiest thing in the world is to go back to what we should have or could have done, but presidents don't get to back in time like Marty McFly and live back to the future," the former governor of Arkansas said in an interview with American Heartland with Dr. Grace while discussing if he thought invading Iraq was a mistake.

"We have to work with the facts we have. So there is no point in speculating, should we have done it? I think the question is, 'what do we do in light of the situation we are in?'"

Huckabee said the ultimate solution is for America's military to be the strongest "in the history of mankind" with the ability to defeat threats like "ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranians, whatever it is" in "a 10-day exercise."

"And here is what we have to do: America has to have the most formidable, fierce, military in the history of mankind," stated Huckabee.

"So when we have a threat, whether it is ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranians, whatever it is, we make it very clear that we plan to push back and destroy that threat to us. And we won't take 10 years doing it, we hopefully won't even take 10 months, it will be like a 10 day exercise, because the fierceness of our forces would mean that we can absolutely guarantee the outcome of this film. That's how America needs to operate in the world of foreign affairs, and foreign policy."

Huckabee added he would not take grounds troops off the table to fight ISIS.

"We have to leave that as an option," he said. "We can't leave anything off the table."

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QUESTIONER - In fact it was the void that he created in Iraq that led to the current crisis that we face there in the Middle East. Governor, what would you do about ISIS, and also tell me, looking back, do you think getting into the Iraq War was a mistake all together?

HUCKABEE - Well the easiest thing in the world is to go back to what we should have or could have done, but presidents don't get to back in time like Marty McFly and live back to the future. We have to work with the facts we have, so there is no point in speculating should we have done it? I think the question is, what do we do in light of the situation we are in. And here is what we have to do. America has to have the most formidable, fierce, military in the history of mankind. So when we have a threat, whether it is ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranians, whatever it is, we make it very clear that we plan to push back and destroy that threat to us. And we won't take 10 years doing it, we hopefully won't even take 10 months, it will be like a 10 day exercise, because the fierceness of our forces would mean that we can absolutely guarantee the outcome of this film. That's how America needs to operate in the world of foreign affairs, and foreign policy.

QUESTIONER - Now am I hearing boots on the ground, here. Is that boots on the ground. American troops on the ground. I've been saying from the start, I've been saying for almost a year now, we've got to send the troops back in and that is all there is to it.

HUCKABEE - We have to leave that as an option. We can't leave anything off the table. The mistake that this president has made is announcing all of the things that we don't want to. I'd be very clear. We are going to announce you the outcome, we you lose, exactly how we do it and which levels of force we use to get it done. You'll find out when you are on the losing end of it. We would lose whatever it takes, that would include ground forces, but we would do whatever is necessary for Americans to succeed at putting down this threat and making sure it's no longer a threat to citizens of this country.

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“How could we pass on the opportunity to have his own PAC keep our coverage going as he kicks off his national campaign for president?”

The political fundraising group supporting Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich's bid for president bought the website at the center of its new advertising campaign from a prominent anti-Kasich blogger for several thousand dollars, a BuzzFeed News review of domain records has found.

As part of a $1.7 million ad buy to promote the governor, the New Day for America 527 group purchased "johnkasich.us," a site previously owned by Joseph Mismas, who has been a fierce critic of Kasich for years. Mismas routinely uses his platform at Plunderbund.com — one of Ohio's leading left-wing blogs — to criticize and embarrass the Ohio governor.

New Day for America's purchase will be funding the anti-Kasich blogger's writers and helping keep them "paid for the next few months" through the money he acquired in the deal.

Why is the group paying one of Kasich's most vociferous online critics? Here's how it all went down:

On July 8, New Day for America launched www.johnkasich.us.

johnkasich.us / Via johnkasich.us

The site features and is referred to in a new ad intended to begin introducing Kasich to the general public.

youtube.com / Via youtube.com

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Huckabee plays the TRUMP card.

PAUL J. RICHARDS / Getty Images

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Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said his party "should be welcome to hear" Donald Trump's views, that "Republicans have room in our party" for Trump, and that he does not believe Donald Trump is a racist.

"You know I've been very careful not to comment on the other candidates and I've been very honest in saying, Donald Trump doesn't need my help getting wind underneath his wings or to get publicity," the former Arkansas governor stated on American Heartland with Dr. Grace.

Huckabee said Republicans shouldn't spend time attacking each other, and that Trump will have to defend his own statements.

"It's very difficult for me to understand why Republicans spend our time beating up on other Republicans," said Huckabee. "Donald Trump has every much right to run as I do, or anyone else. He will make his statements, he will stand by his statements, and he'll defend them. I'd rather focus on my own plans and that's what I'm doing."

Huckabee added the Republican Party has room for Trump in it and they "should be welcome to hear his views." He said he didn't believe Trump was a racist.

"But I don't think that Donald Trump is a racist and I think that anybody who will say that has never been around him. He's a plain spoken guy, but I think that if you disagree with somebody, calling them a racist is sort of a way to end a legitimate and thoughtful discussion and that's unfortunate. Republicans have room in our party for Donald Trump and we should be welcome to hear his views, and if you disagree with him, well we'll disagree with him."

Even just the first week of July, Trump basically torpedoed all other talk on Facebook.

Donald Trump has dominated media coverage the last few weeks. Good news: He also has dominated the Facebook conversation.

From July 1 through July 7, Trump basically stomped everything, according to data provided through a BuzzFeed News partnership with Facebook. These numbers include pages; the "unique" number represents one interaction per person/page, and the "interactions" number includes everything. This does not include paid reach.

BuzzFeed News

The sentiment of people posting about Donald Trump on their personal accounts is a little more mixed, though.

This is a different set of data, which only includes personal accounts. Trump announced he was running on June 16. He became an integral part of our daily lives in the last two weeks.

BuzzFeed News

You’re hired.

Carlos Osorio / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told Bloomberg in mid-2009 that he would "hire" President Obama, saying "he's handled the tremendous mess he walked into very well."

"I would hire him," Trump stated. "He's handled the tremendous mess he walked into very well. He still has a daunting task ahead of him but he appears to be equal to the challenge. He has kept his eye on both national and international issues and his visits to foreign countries have shown him to be warmly received, which is certainly a change from the last Administration."

"I believe he should pay more attention to OPEC and what's going on there, but overall I believe he's done a very good job," Trump added.

BLITZER: His economic policies, President Obama says, have saved us from another depression, is he right?

TRUMP: Well, I do agree, and this did start prior to him getting there, but he also kept it going. You had to do something to sure up the banks, because the psychology of the banks and you would have had a run on every banks, the strongest and the weakest. So, you have to do something. And I hated the ultraconservative view on that. And ultraconservative is nothing should ever happen. If they go out of business, everybody said, that's fine.

You did have to do something to sure up the banks. They probably should have done something for Lehman Brothers, because Lehman was a disaster that caused lots of other disasters. Lehman was a real disaster, but they did have to do something to sure up the banks. And it starred a little bit sooner than him, but also, it really started with Paulson. But also Obama carried it forward, and you did have to do it. Whether you had to go beyond the banks, that's another thing. Whether all of this TARP money was spent wisely, that's another thing.

Huckabee’s history DVDs for kids, as he would say now, bow before the “false god of judicial supremacy,” declaring the Supreme Court the ultimate legal authority in the land.

GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has said he wouldn't follow the Supreme Court's June ruling legalizing same-sex marriages, but back when he was selling educational DVDs, Huckabee was teaching kids that the Court was the "ultimate authority" on the Constitution.

Before running for president, Mike Huckabee often promoted "FREE" DVD programs on his popular Fox News show and on his Facebook page that have recurring charges hidden away in the fine print. The programs are made by the company Learn Our History, which Huckabee co-founded. The company is part of EverBright Media.

Via buzzfeed.com

LINK: Read more on that here.

One of the episodes from Learn Our History was on the Supreme Court:

Learn Our History

Huckabee is a co-founder of Learn Our History:

Learn our History

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Brian Snyder / Reuters

NEW YORK — Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina would roll back the new Iran nuclear deal by re-isolating Iran from the international banking system unless they comply with snap inspections, she told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday.

"Well, based on what I’ve read, I would continue to do what I’ve said for some time, which is on day one in the Oval Office, I would place a phone call to the Supreme Leader," Fiorina said in an interview in BuzzFeed News' newsroom.

"He might not take the phone call, but the message would be ‘new deal,’" she continued. "Unless you’re prepared to open every nuclear facility and every military facility, anytime, anywhere inspections — not 20 days notice, not all this stuff apparently we agreed to — we’re going to make it as hard as possible for you to move money around the global financial system. We can do that; we don’t need anyone’s permission or collaboration to do that. That’s what I would do."

Asked what Republicans in Congress should do now, Fiorina said she would "encourage them to vote it down" if the deal is as bad as she thinks it is.

But Fiorina was realistic about one of the most obvious challenges facing opponents of the deal: The fact that once it is implemented, it will be extremely difficult to unravel. This stands in contrast to other Republican presidential candidates who have promised to reverse the deal if they win the presidency; both Ted Cruz and Scott Walker, for instance, said they would terminate the deal. Fiorina, formerly the CEO of Hewlett Packard, acknowledged that other countries probably wouldn't go along with a future U.S. president's decision to reverse the deal.

"Even if Congress does vote this deal down, the rest of the world has moved on," Fiorina said. "That’s the danger in this. China and Russia are moving on, the EU is moving on, so really, even if Congress votes it down, even if President Obama doesn’t override that, the only people who will be walking away from this is the U.S."

That, Fiorina said, is "why we have to make it very difficult for them to move money through the global financial system."

"I mean, we can’t control China, Russia — they’ve never been negotiating on our side of the table," she said.

"The EU is desperate for an opportunity to participate in a growing Iranian economy. And so, we have to make it very difficult for Iran to move money," Fiorina argued. "And one of the things that’s going to happen immediately here, is when sanctions are lifted, Iran will get a windfall of hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars, which based on their past behavior, and I don’t see any reason for them to change it, they will use to fund their proxies in the region – Hezbollah, Hamas, etc. – who have a strategic intent to destabilize the region. Which is why, both the Saudis, the Israelis, sort of everyone else in the region has been saying, ‘Don’t cut this deal, don’t cut this deal.’"

Six world powers signed a deal with Iran on Tuesday in Vienna after lengthy negotiations that intends to curb Iran's nuclear program and ensure its peacefulness in exchange for sanctions relief. The deal has been one of the signature efforts of the Obama administration's foreign policy, while being widely opposed by Republicans who argue that it will cause instability in the Middle East and threaten Israel's security.

3,000 progressives are descending on Phoenix, Arizona, this week for Netroots Nation, but what they don’t know is that Latino and immigration issues will be front and center.

Photo Illustration BuzzFeed News / Thinkstock

PHOENIX — Nearly a year before Netroots Nation 2015, the largest annual gathering of progressive organizers, Netroots leaders and board members met with a small group of activists in Arizona.

Organizers for the progressive conference, which is sometimes criticized for a lack of diversity, had a clear message: They wanted this year's conference, located in Phoenix, to be the most Latino- and immigration-focused in Netroots' 10-year history.

And the 16 activists, representing a dozen local groups, had their own demands. They wanted the Netroots organizers, including the group's executive director Raven Brooks, to really understand the experience of undocumented immigrants.

So they took the Netroots leadership to the border.

Last September, the Netroots organizers and local activists watched what is known as Operation Streamline, where undocumented immigrants are processed before detention and deportation. They met with a group that serves as a liaison between the coroner's office and families whose relatives have died in the desert. And they spoke to organizations that do things like provide breakfast and calling cards to recently deported undocumented immigrants.

"It's one thing to hear about it but to experience some of this stuff, it was things you can't really believe are happening," Brooks told BuzzFeed News.

The trip serves as the foundation for this year's conference — which is seeking to reflect the breadth of the progressive movement, something the group has been criticized for not doing in the past.

Netroots will play host to a protest against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who held a rally with Donald Trump on Saturday, and is the target of federal lawsuits charging him with racial profiling and illegal detentions of Latinos, which has drawn the ire of immigrant groups. More prominently, Netroots will also feature a town hall with former Gov. Martin O'Malley and Sen. Bernie Sanders moderated by Jose Antonio Vargas, a journalist who came out as undocumented in a 2011 New York Times magazine article, and a keynote speech from progressive favorite, Sen. Elizabeth Warren. (Hillary Clinton was invited but said she couldn't attend because of previously planned campaign trips.)

But organizers say it's also the most diverse agenda they've ever had: 62% of panelists are people of color and 63% are women, and the conference focuses most on Latino issues than any previous one. A group of labor leaders, activists, and journalists will recreate the border trip on Wednesday, as well.

The agenda also reflects an emphasis on the local activists — in previous years, those activists say, the Netroots conferences too often featured immigration content produced and led by well-connected, Washington-based national groups instead.

"The effort to get executive action didn't come from a lot of the late comers in pushing the president," said Arturo Carmona, executive director of Presente, a 300,000-member organization. "It came from the grassroots, day laborers, DREAMers, Presente, Puente. The discussions of the progressive movement should be reflective of that reality."

People from that movement — activist Erika Andiola of Arizona's Dream Action Coalition, Marisa Franco, who leads the #Not1More campaign, former state senator Alfredo Gutierrez, and Presente — will appear on a panel to dissect what worked and what was learned from the push for Obama to implement executive actions on immigration.

The activists also demanded scholarships to Netroots for undocumented and minority youth. Netroots obliged here, too, with a record 280 scholarships for DREAMers and organizers of color, and activist trainings set for Tuesday. This, they say, is critically important to arm the next generation of activists with the tools it needs to be successful.

"Netroots has been historically criticized for its lack of diversity, but this year it will be not just Latino and immigration focused, but also criminal justice focused," #Not1More's Franco said. "How can we deny the innovation coming out of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the immigrant rights movement, and other people of color struggles?" She pointed to the mobilization of black Twitter users around events that were livestreamed using social media, like the Ferguson protests.

"The same things you hear about in private prisons — the challenges, the fact that there are too many bodies in one place — it's the same thing in detention centers, but in detention centers it's worse," said activist Alejandro Chavez. "A lot more women are being raped. But people care less because we're deporting them."

In an effort to show progressives what local issues they should be caring about more, Netroots created a website called AZDispatch.org, where they've been posting videos on everything from Operation Streamline to workplace raids and more.

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Vargas, the founder of #EmergingUS, a digital magazine in partnership with the Los Angeles Times that will focus on race, immigration, and identity, wrote about the lack of diversity at Netroots eight years ago, but now says his goal in moderating the talk between O'Malley and Sanders is to bring context and facts to an immigration discussion at a time of "hysteria and ignorance" because of the rise of Trump.

The activists also think something else will help them advance their cause in the ranks of progressive causes: the literal Phoenix heat (it's expected to be over 100 degrees this week) for people who attend the protest against Arpaio.

"The heat gets to you and it's hot and you start imagining there are people in tents right now because Arpaio doesn't want to pay money for jail cells," Chavez said. "There are chain gangs chained along the road — it's an awakening moment for online organizers. It's very different when you're there, with people living in tents in 110-degree heat right now down the road."

John Loredo, a strategist who works with activists and was involved with Netroots in Phoenix early on, said it's about putting a human face on an issue "poisoned by misperception."

"What we hope is to provide a reality check on this issue," he said. "Who immigrants really are, what they really do and how dependent our economy is on them and that it's a human rights issue. A lot of them die just trying to get here to serve others."

Still, the activists wouldn't be good at what they do if they weren't still leaning on organizers and attendees.

Carlos Garcia of Puente Arizona, involved from the very beginning with the Netroots leadership, who met at his office, said he would have liked to see more immigration events on the main stage in the same way as the presidential forum. He acknowledged that the organization made great strides to accommodate activist wishes but wants to see more when it counts.

"They're expecting over 3,000 people, but we'll see how many of them will march with us on Friday against Arpaio," he said. "The action participation will show how much they're with us."

Garcia sees it as a deal he's making with other progressives.

"We don't want you to come see how sad and hard our lives are here unless you're going to go help the people in the same situation where you live," he said. "We're not looking for lastima (sympathy), we're looking for people who want to help and engage our community."

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Scott Walker’s candidacy brings voter ID laws, a huge issue for black voters, into the spotlight. But is it a sexy enough issue for voters to seize on?

Darren Hauck / Reuters

PHILADELPHIA — Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker entered the presidential election Monday, and Democrats and left-leaning voting rights advocates at the annual NAACP convention this year couldn't be happier.

Walker's rise to prominence as a candidate, and his support for contentious voter ID laws, made him a soft target for DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who addressed the NAACP in Philadelphia on Monday.

"Scott Walker claims that he wants to bring Wisconsin to Washington," Wasserman-Schultz said in her address. "But the truth is he's already brought the worst of Washington's dysfunction and divisiveness to Wisconsin."

Walker passed "one of the nation's strictest voter ID laws" she added, "and then he fundraised off it, capitalizing financially on potentially denying people their right to vote."

Touting his conservative record in his announcement speech Monday, Walker was unapologetic about his cuts to Planned Parenthood, about defeating unions, and he received thunderous applause when he mentioned the Wisconsin law that requires people to present a photo ID before being allowed to vote.

The law affects an estimated 300,000 voters in Wisconsin — or 9% of eligible voters — according the the nonpartisan Advancement Project. Last year, Walker also implemented cuts to early voting, ended weekend voting, and consolidated voting locations in some communities.

As the national Republican Party attempts to make inroads with minority communities, Democrats and activists will point to Republican-backed voter ID laws, such as those championed by Walker in Wisconsin, that advocates say disproportionately affect the poor and minorities.

Katherine Culliton-González, senior attorney and director of the voter protection program at the Advancement Project, which brought lawsuits against Wisconsin, says protecting against voter fraud is the most common defense for support of photo ID laws, but that many voter fraud allegations are proven as false. The allegations of fraud are not only unfounded, she said, but prevent people in Wisconsin from using state-issued identification, for instance, that is not expired but does not have a valid address.

"We all have a fundamental right to vote, and the ballot box is the one place we should all be equal," Culliton-González said. "Scott Walker has basically stood for the opposite of that."

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has also name checked Walker, and she highlighted Walker's record on voting rights on her website, alluding to both the photo ID law that made it difficult for some college students to vote.

In her speech on voting rights, Clinton pitched a quixotic 20-day, nationwide early-voting window and automatic voter registration for when citizens turn 18. She pointed her criticism at Republicans, saying, "What part of democracy are they afraid of?"

Democrats made it clear that Walker will not be the lone target among Republican candidates.

"Rand Paul in particular has touted his outreach to the African American community, but I have a question for the good Senator," Wasserman Schultz continued. "How do you expect to broaden your party's appeal when you voice opposition to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, and believe in a business' right to discriminate?"

Michael Tyler, the Democratic National Committee's Director of African American Media said in a statement to BuzzFeed News that "whether it's Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Rick Perry jeopardizing access to the ballot for 600,000 Texans, Rand Paul dismissing the Voting Rights Act because America elected President Obama, Chris Christie brazenly claiming that Democratic efforts to increase ballot access are tantamount to a secret plot to commit voter fraud, or any number of the outrageous policies backed by the 2016 Republican field, their candidates and the Republican Party continue to make it very clear that they believe that when fewer people vote, they're better off and win more elections."

In North Carolina, the state legislature passed the strictest voter ID laws in the country. The law, H.B. 589, shortened the early voting window by a week, requires strict forms of state-issued ID and, among other restrictions, ended same-day registration. Arguments in a lawsuit began yesterday before U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder, and the trial is expected to last for two weeks.

All told, voter ID laws impact ten percent of all eligible voters nationwide, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

At the same time, Republicans are attempting more outreach with black voters. Last week, Republicans announced their Committed to Community initiative, to be run in Ohio, an important swing state.

Democrats would rather show those voters the GOP's record on voting laws, and Scott Walker has stepped right up.

"Governor Walker is under no illusion as to which demographics will be impacted by these discriminatory laws, and certainly has no reservations about disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of legal, eligible Wisconsin voters, especially if they plan to vote against him," Milwaukee Rep. Gwen Moore, one of Walker's most vocal critics, said in a a statement to BuzzFeed News. "He's made it crystal clear that he's willing to do and say anything to silence those who disagree with his policies, and his abysmal record on voting rights is indicative of that eagerness."

Members of a Taglit-Birthright alumni listserv received an email on Tuesday asking them to call their senators and lobby them against the Iran deal.

The email, sent to the listserv for Birthright alumni in the New York area, urges alumni to "help the State of Israel by contacting your congressman and senator and requesting that they reject this deal and override President Obama's veto of their decision."

Rebecca Sugar, who leads The Alumni Community, the organization that sent the email, told BuzzFeed News that her organization is separate from Birthright.

"Michael Steinhardt who co-founded Birthright is our Chairman," Sugar wrote to BuzzFeed News in an email. "We are recognized as the alumni organization on the ground in NY but we have a separate board, separate funding etc. The email I sent was from The Alumni Community not Birthright Israel."

Asked why she sent the appeal, Sugar said, "Because it is the right thing to do."

Birthright is an Israeli government-sanctioned nonprofit that brings thousands of young Jews each year to Israel on free educational tours. It would be unusual for Birthright to insert itself into domestic political debates. Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson is major funder of Birthright, having donated $40 million to the organization this year on top of $120 million overall before that, and is an avowed opponent of the deal. Six world powers and Iran reached a deal to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief on Tuesday after lengthy negotiations.

The full text of the email:

Today was an important day for the State of Israel. After 20 months of negotiations, an agreement has been reached with Iran on their nuclear program. The United States Congress now has sixty days to review the agreement, holding public debates and committee hearings, and will choose to approve or reject the deal.

You can help the State of Israel by contacting your congressman and senator and requesting that they reject this deal and override President Obama's veto of their decision. Call their Washington offices and make your voice heard.

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the world this morning, "This is a bad mistake of historic proportions." You can see the video of his responseHERE, and read the full text HERE.

To learn more about the Iran Nuclear Program and the Negotiations, check out the great resources from AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

We are all called upon at this moment in history to help Israel. This is a moment for all Birthright Israel alumni to stand with Israel, take action and make your voices heard.

The note was followed by the contact information for the offices of Sens. Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, Bob Menendez, Richard Blumenthal, and Chris Murphy.

Another employee of The Alumni Community, Natalie Solomon, also posted a similar message in a private Facebook group for former Birthright staffers and trip leaders that is run by The Alumni Community. A screenshot of the post was sent to to BuzzFeed News by a member of the Facebook group.

Asked about the Facebook post, Sugar reiterated that her group is not part of Birthright. "Our FB group isn't Birthright Israel's," Sugar said in an email. "It is ours. We message to them as we do our alumni."

The day after announcing 46 commutations, President Obama called for big changes to the criminal justice system in a wide-ranging speech at the NAACP’s annual convention.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

PHILADELPHIA — Speaking at the annual convention of the NAACP Tuesday, President Barack Obama praised the bipartisan effort to change the criminal justice system, laying out a list of policy proposals that amounted to the most wide-reaching remarks of his presidency on criminal justice and the prison system.

Obama focused on early investment in communities, including proposals that the U.S. spend at least a portion of the $80 billion it costs to incarcerate 2.2 million Americans per year to expanding access to pre-K and summer jobs.

"We ask police to go in there and do the tough job of trying to contain the hopelessness when we are not willing to make the investments to help lift those communities out of hopelessness," Obama said. "That's not just a police problem, that's a societal problem."

He pushed for lower mandatory minimums — "or get rid of them entirely" — in hopes of a sentencing reform bill to reach his desk this year.

Obama's speech at national convention of the NAACP, came just one day after he announced he was commuting the sentences of dozens of non-violent drug offenders, and he will soon become the first sitting U.S. president to visit a federal prison facility when he travels to the the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution outside of Oklahoma City.

"They are Americans, too," Obama said to a standing ovation from the audience.

Obama said people convicted of non-violent drug crimes owe a debt to society, "but you don't owe 20 years. You don't owe a life sentence. That's disproportionate to the price that should be paid."

In too many cases, Obama said, "the punishment simply does not fit the crime."

Before Obama said he was ordering the Justice Department to review the overuse of solitary confinement in federal prisons, he used the occasion to touch on conditions some argue make rehabilitation and reentrance into society for the formerly incarcerated a less certain proposition.

"We should not be tolerating overcrowding in prison," he said. "We should not be tolerating gang activity in prison. We should not be tolerating rape in prison. And we shouldn't be making jokes about it in our popular culture. That's no joke. These things are unacceptable."

Before his remarks, Obama heard the stories of four former prisoners — two were black, he said — with post-incarceration success stories, evidence the country needed to step up its efforts to create more opportunity.

Obama said this type of justice constituted "the American tradition and in the immigrant tradition of remaking ourselves...in the Christian tradition that says none of us is without sin and all of us need redemption, justice and redemption go hand in hand."

Obama's speech was not without ceremony for the president, who has publicly eschewed the "lame duck" label and says his administration is committed to getting things done until the clock runs out. "Let's get something out of the way up front, I am not singing today," he joked with the audience, alluding to his singing of "Amazing Grace" at the funeral of State Sen. Rev. Clementa Pinckney.

Nor was the speech, despite its sensitive subject matter, void of the typical excitement that accompanies his remarks before majority black audiences. Placards of sketches were placed on the floor of the president and first lady next to sketches of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown adjacent to the doors of the hall.

When the doors opened, audience members scurried down the aisles in hopes of a prime seat. Only standing room remained more than two hours before Obama took the stage.

“Planned Parenthood and the Democrats who vote to fund this organization owe the American people an explanation for these heinous, and possibly illegal, actions,” Walker said in a statement.

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Wisconsin governor and presidential candidate Scott Walker called an undercover video that purports to show Planned Parenthood's national medical director discussing the sale of fetal body parts harvested from abortions "absolutely horrifying and disgusting."

Walker further added Tuesday that Democrats who voted to fund the organization owe the American public an explanation.

"This is absolutely horrifying and disgusting. Planned Parenthood and the Democrats who vote to fund this organization owe the American people an explanation for these heinous, and possibly illegal, actions," Walker said in a statement to BuzzFeed News Tuesday.

"Practices like this cannot be tolerated, which is why as governor, I defunded Planned Parenthood."

An undercover video recorded a year ago and released Tuesday morning by the Center for Medical Progress shows Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood, speaking in detail about fetal body parts, how they are harvested from abortions, and the costs associated with that procedure, with actors pretending to be from a fetal tissue procurement company. Planned Parenthood said Tuesday the video misrepresents their participation in tissue donation programs.

Walker, who an aide noted co-sponsored legislation to ban the sale of fetal parts when he was a state lawmaker, spoke in his presidential announcement speech of how as governor he "defunded Planned Parenthood and enacted pro-life legislation."

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