An internal Draft Biden memo says people were much more likely to click on targeted banner ads — as well as give money and sign up to volunteer — in the three days after the vice president appeared on Stephen Colbert’s new show.

John Paul Filo / CBS

WASHINGTON — An internal memo circulating among supporters of a Vice President Joe Biden 2016 run for president shows that Stephen Colbert's new CBS late-night show is still the home of the "Colbert Bump."

The memo, sent to top officials at the super PAC Draft Biden by its data vendor — a D.C.–based startup called VEDA co-founded by former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser and Democratic consultant Meghan Buck — shows huge increases in web traffic and so-called engagement with Draft Biden in the week since Biden appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last Thursday.

"The power of the Vice President's appearance on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert cannot be understated," Buck wrote in the memo, obtained by BuzzFeed News. "The Colbert Bump is real."

The memo describes an "800% increase in daily signups" since the Colbert interview and a six-fold increase in the number of people in early states clicking on targeted banner ads placed by Draft Biden on popular websites.

Buck declined to share the raw numbers associated with the increases, but said around 200 people signed up to volunteer for Draft Biden in the first 72 hours after the interview, a number she said was significant because it came from people who had clicked on a banner ad, which requires users to stop what they're doing and interact with the Draft Biden site.

Veda told BuzzFeed News Draft Biden "website traffic also increased by 600% on the day following the Late Show appearance." The banner ads, which send people to a petition urging Biden to run and then ask them for a donation or to put their name in the volunteer database, saw big increases as well.

Biden's interview with Colbert was one of the most emotional and revealing of either man's career. The interview was replayed heavily on cable news and was shared widely online.

Before the interview and after it, Draft Biden has been targeting early state voters with banner ads and other digital engagement campaigns. Buck said click-throughs on banner ads in Iowa and New Hampshire were six to eight times higher than the national click-through average after Biden's Colbert appearance.

"All of this data points to one real conclusion: The American people saw the Vice President's emotional honesty on display last week and are excited about the opportunity of having an honest, authentic voice in this race," Buck wrote in the memo.

Colbert has been hosting a number of presidential candidates since starting his CBS show earlier this month. On Friday, he will interview Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who already enjoys online engagement that's the envy of most other presidential candidates. Colbert's first episode featured Republican presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

LINK: Joe Biden And Stephen Colbert Have A Remarkable, Wrenching Conversation About Tragedy

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“I think he eventually came to understand what I was saying — I believe that’s the reason he gave me the Presidential Medal of Freedom. But, you know, it’s a process.”

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson said Thursday that he believes his advice to George W. Bush on how to handle the Middle East was "the reason" he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008.

Carson made the remark in an interview with radio host Doug Wright, who asked the Republican to elaborate on the claim he made during Wednesday night's debate that he had opposed the Iraq war from the outset, and encouraged President Bush to pursue alternatives courses of action.

"What I suggested to President Bush is to be Kennedy-esque," Carson had said. "Declare that within five to 10 years we will become petroleum independent. The moderate Arab states would have been so concerned about that, they would have turned over Osama bin Laden and anybody else you wanted on a silver platter within two weeks."

When Wright asked Carson to share the details of his conversations with President Bush, the renowned surgeon did not hold back.

"Actually, I had multiple conversations with him," Carson explained. "But the point that I was making to him is that those moderate Arab states, they're much more concerned about their well-being than they are about protecting Osama bin Laden or any of the other terrorists, and that we can use that to our advantage, simply by changing our policy, and bringing them into line, under control, that way."

"I think he eventually came to understand what I was saying — I believe that's the reason he gave me the Presidential Medal of Freedom," Carson continued. "But, you know, it's a process."

A press release announcing Carson's award put out by Johns Hopkins Children's Center, however, cites Carson's groundbreaking work as a neurosurgeon and philanthropist.

"Today Dr. Carson is one of the world's leading neurosurgeons. He is renowned for his successful efforts to separate conjoined twins and his expertise in controlling brain seizures. He has worked to be a motivating influence on young people. He and his wife Candy have started an organization that offers college scholarships to students across America. The child of Detroit who once saw a grim future became a scholar, a healer, and a leader."

Carson himself also made no mention of his role as foreign-policy advisor in accepting the award.

"I am humbled by President Bush's recognition of my work," said Carson. "I am extremely grateful that he chose to honor me not only for my work as a neurosurgeon, but also for my efforts to improve the lives of America's youth."

"I am blessed to have the opportunity to pursue both paths, which I consider equally important," he concluded.

Here's the audio:

w.soundcloud.com

“It’s not about appeasement,” said Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona. “It’s about protection of babies. That’s our goal.”

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Some House conservatives aren't satisfied with the largely symbolic passage of a bill to defund Planned Parenthood on Friday — and the threat of a government shutdown doesn't seem to be enough to hinder their efforts.

The bill to defund Planned Parenthood for a year — unless the group stops performing abortions — passed 241-187. The House also approved another abortion-related measure that would strengthen laws protecting infants born alive after failed attempts at abortions, and the Senate is expected to take up a bill next week banning abortions after 20 weeks.

But pro-life conservatives — led by Sen. Ted Cruz, who has taken the issue to the presidential campaign trail — are determined not to settle for anything short of tying the defunding Planned Parenthood measure to government spending bill, which has to pass by the end of the month to avoid a government shutdown.

"It's not about appeasement," said Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona. "It's about protection of babies. That's our goal."

Franks has said Republicans need the leverage of attaching the defunding measure to the spending bill to get a vote. When asked about the shutting the government down over Planned Parenthood, he told BuzzFeed News:

"Anytime we don't protect the most innocent among us in a republic like this under this Constitution, the government has already shut down."

Congress has only five more legislative days on the calendar left to pass a spending bill, and one without the defunding measure could jeopardize John Boehner's speakership.

Boehner celebrated the passage of standalone defunding bill, but he faces a tough road ahead in balancing calls for defunding Planned Parenthood and avoiding another shutdown on his watch.

"The legislation passed by the House today will ensure these horrific acts are not subsidized with Americans' tax dollars," he said in a statement, "and provide more resources to other community health centers while our investigation is ongoing... It's beyond shameful that the White House has threatened to veto these reasonable, humane measures. Those who would deny the weakest among us the right to life are on the wrong side of history."

The push to defund the group follows the release of a series of undercover videos accusing Planned Parenthood of selling aborted fetuses' organs and tissues. The group has denied the claims and Democrats have called the videos a smear campaign based on false, doctored videos.

During the debate on the bill, the bill's sponsor, Tennessee Rep. Diane Black, and other Republicans argued that the measure wasn't about party affiliation or being pro-life; it's about protecting taxpayer dollars.

"We should all have an interest that laws are followed and that the taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly... That's not a political statement," she said. "That's quite literally our job here in Congress."

A bill defunding Planned Parenthood failed in the Senate last month, and President Barack Obama has said he will veto any legislation that includes similar measures.

Darren Mccollester / Getty Images

DURHAM, N.H. — The day after Donald Trump declined to correct an anti-Muslim voter at his town hall who identified President Obama as a Muslim and not an American, Hillary Clinton said she was “appalled” by Trump's “prejudiced,” “discriminatory” non-response — and called on the candidate to "start behaving like a president, to show respect, and to stand up for the truth.”

Clinton told reporters here on Friday that, had she been in Trump's place, she would have told the voter to "quit impugning the integrity of the president."

The moment Trump heard the remark, Clinton said, he should have “repudiated that kind of rhetoric, that level of hatefulness in a questioner, in an audience that he was appearing before.” What’s more, she said, Trump should have made clear that the statement was factually incorrect: Obama is an American citizen and a practicing Christian. “He knew, or he should have known, that what that man was asking was not only way out of bounds — it was untrue,” Clinton said.

The Democratic candidate made the remarks on Friday afternoon at the University of New Hampshire following a campaign forum to promote her plan to make college more affordable and relieve student debt. Clinton appeared alongside the state's governor, Maggie Hassan, who officially offered her endorsement.

The night before, not far from here in New Hampshire, Trump appeared at the town hall where an attendee said, “We have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims. Our current president is one. We know he’s not even an American,” said a questioner at a town hall in New Hampshire. “We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question, when can we get rid of them?”

Trump, who in recent years has fueled theories that Obama was not born in the United States, promised the voter that he would be “looking at that and a lot of different things” in his campaign.

Asked if the exchange was racist, Clinton said, “I think it’s prejudiced. I think it’s discriminatory. I think it comes out of the same unfortunate reservoir of hateful rhetoric that we’ve seen too much of where people are being set against one another. And that has no place in our politics.”

How would Clinton have responded to the voter, had he been at one of her town halls? “Well, I don’t think that person would have come to my event,” she told reporters.

“But if that person had been at my event, I would have called him out on it. And I would have said, from the very beginning: ‘That has no place in a political discussion like the one we’re trying to have here. And not only is it out of place and wrong. It is totally, factually untrue… quit impugning the integrity of the president.”

Clinton also said she agreed with Sen. Lindsey Graham, another Republican presidential candidate, who told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Friday that Trump should go on national television to apologize. “I hope he does,” Clinton said. “I hope he will take Senator Graham’s advice and request and do just that.”

When told that Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was claiming that the candidate didn’t hear the voter’s question correctly, Clinton called on Trump to clarify the point himself. “He should address that,” she said.

“We can all have differences. That’s what elections are about,” Clinton told reporters before wrapping up her first event of the day on Friday. “That’s all fair game. But we have a bigger obligation to the American people to try to have a campaign that is about what’s really going on in the lives of Americans, and to do everything we can to eliminate from our political discourse the kind of comments that we heard yesterday.”

“I don’t know why these people were out until 2:44 in the morning.”

Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

The chair of the Michigan Republican Party says there is a way to avoid the kind of controversy two presidential campaign staffers find themselves in after an alleged altercation at a Michigan bar: go to bed earlier.

Paul campaign staffer John Yob on Twitter Friday called on Marco Rubio to fire one of his staffers, Richard Beeson, alleging that Beeson punched him in the face Thursday night at a Mackinac Island bar. The police chief for Mackinac Island characterized the incident to The Guardian as a "shove" that was blown out of proportion.

Michigan GOP chair Ronna Romney-Daniel told the Michigan's Big Show Friday that two should have been in bed already.

"Come on. Didn't their mothers tell them that nothing good happens after midnight. That's what my mom told me," Romney-Daniel said.

"Yea, I just think that they should go to bed earlier, I was in bed at 11. I don't know why these people were out until 2:44 in the morning," she said earlier in the interview.

Here's the audio:

w.soundcloud.com

“It’s like, if all the tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail,” Santorum told Glenn Beck on Thursday. “Every problem that the State Department has, the answer is diplomacy. Why? Because if it’s not diplomacy, they don’t have a job.”

Mandel Ngan/AFP / Getty Images

Rick Santorum said Thursday that, as president, he would abolish the State Department.

Santorum made the comment in an interview with radio host Glenn Beck, who told the former senator from Pennsylvania that he was hoping to hear the party's 2016 contenders call for everyone at the State Department to be fired.

"I have said that," Santorum replied. "I said that when I ran four years ago — the first thing I'd do is abolish the State Department and start all over."

"I have to tell you, I dealt with them for 12 years, I was on the committees that had a lot of interaction with them, and, you know, not that there aren't a few good people in there," Santorum continued. "I'm sure there are really good, dedicated public — but look, it's just, they are a bunch of internationalists who do not look after the interests of the United States. They don't look at the world from the standpoint of the United States and our principles being the ones that are the best."

"They're relativists, they're internationalists, and they are not serving the interests of the American people," Santorum concluded.

Pressed by Beck about the practicalities of firing the entire State Department, Santorum responded with a critique of the department's single-minded focus on international diplomacy.

"It's like, if all the tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail," Santorum said. "Every problem that the State Department has, the answer is diplomacy. Why? Because if it's not diplomacy, they don't have a job.

"And so the answer is never to do anything, the answer is always to appease, to talk," he continued. "I mean, I'm sure that they, that John Kerry, they're just having the greatest love-fest over at the State Department right now, because they got a deal!

"The fact that we sold out the security of our country, we put Iran on a path to a nuclear weapon that's going to cause a war at some point, just is completely beyond their ability to comprehend," Santorum went on. "They've got a hammer, every problem's a nail, and they're gonna negotiate, negotiate, until they get a deal."

"We have to have a leader who goes in there and says: 'We have problems, and we have a variety of different things in which we can solve those problems, and the State Department is one of them and only one of them,'" concluded the former Senator.

Here's the audio:

The Glenn Beck Program

Will Ferrell, Patton Oswalt, Shepard Fairey, Margaret Cho, Lil B among Sanders’ celebrity backers.

Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders rolled out a long list of celebrity endorsers Friday, another sign that his presidential campaign is stepping up its game as polls continue to show him surging in early primary states against national frontrunner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In a release, the campaign touted a sampling of the 128 celebrities who signed a letter stating, "We endorse Bernie Sanders to become the 2016 Democratic Nominee for President of the United States."

"A small sampling of the names includes actors Will Ferrell and Mark Ruffalo, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, actor and musician Michael 'Killer Mike' Render, Margaret Cho, and co-founder of Apple Computer, Steve Wozniak, just to name a few," reads the release.

The celebrities quoted in the release include Adam McKay, Will Ferrell's writing partner and the director of a couple of films starring Ferrell, guitarist Wayne Kramer and hip-hop artist Lil B.

Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo, who publicly begged Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run earlier this year, attended a fundraiser for Sanders in New York City Friday and posted his support for Sanders on Instagram.

Hollywood is generally thought to be a main fundraising engine for Clinton, who has a long, star-studded celebrity endorsement list of her own. Ruffalo's move, as well as an endorsement for Sanders from actor Danny DeVito — who maxed out a contribution to former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley earlier in the year — suggests Sanders is winning over some of the stars still up for grabs.

"Many of the artists on the list have never endorsed a candidate before," the Sanders campaign noted in the release.

Eric Fanning could become the highest-ranking out gay man in the defense department.

Duncan Wood/U.S. Air Force via AP

President Obama nominated Eric Fanning as Army Secretary on Friday, making him the first out gay man to be considered for a top military position within the Department of Defense.

Fanning brings "a depth of experience and tremendous dedication," Obama said of Fanning and a number of other appointees in a statement on Friday.

The 47-year old has been serving as Acting Under Secretary of the Army with the Department of Defense since June 2015. He has been slowly moving up the ranks in the administration since 2009 when he served as a Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy. He moved from the Navy to the Air Force in 2015, and then served as Special Assistant to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

The nomination comes after efforts by the Obama Administration aimed at strengthening the rights of LGBT individuals in the military, including the repeal of its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. In July, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced military officials were looking into ways for trans people to serve openly.

Fanning also supports openly transgender people serving in the military, according to the Washington Blade.

In an interview last year, Fanning told the National Journal that he originally dismissed a career in the military, despite coming from an Air Force family, because of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

"If you were in the uniform you couldn't be openly gay," he said, of his decision to instead serve as a civilian member of the defense department.

But the culture of the defense force has changed.

"I think a lot of people are proud that someone now can come this far in an in­sti­tu­tion that didn't seem wel­come to LGBT in­di­vidu­als," he told the National Journal. "I think a lot of people are proud that you can do what you want to do now — That you can be active and not just have to be polit­ic­ally with­in the com­munity, but wherever it is with­in gov­ern­ment or out­side gov­ern­ment."

If confirmed by the Senate, Fanning would replace John McHugh, who is expected to step down Nov. 1.

Clinton tweeted (in Spanish) that “talking about Latin Americans doesn’t always mean talking about tips,” but once assumed that the employees at a black tie event she attended were undocumented immigrants.

Scott Morgan / AP

Hillary Clinton, who on Friday criticized John Kasich for comments he made suggesting that Latinos tend to work in the service industry, made comments last year expressing a similar sentiment.

According to an MSNBC story from November 2014, Clinton suggested that the waitstaff and cooks at a black-tie event at the New York Historical Society were undocumented immigrants, saying that she would "venture to guess" that President Obama's executive action on immigration, which protects millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation, was about "the people who served us tonight."

"This is about people's lives," Clinton said. "This is about, I would venture to guess, the people who served us tonight, who prepared our food tonight."

Clinton took to Twitter on Friday to criticize Kasich, who according to the Los Angeles Times said at a luncheon in California on Thursday, "A lot of them do jobs that they're willing to do and, uh, that's why in the hotel you leave a little tip."

According to the Los Angeles Times, he apparently meant the remark as a complement and said it before telling a story about a Hispanic worker at a Los Angeles hotel leaving him a note to say, "I really want you to know that I care about your stay."

Clinton responded with a tweet in Spanish:

The tweet calls Kasich "another product of the Party of Trump" and argues that "talking about Latin Americans doesn't always mean talking about tips."

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A lawyer for the deputy clerk who has been issuing marriage licenses in Rowan County raised questions about changes the elected clerk, Kim Davis, made to the forms.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis gives a statement on her first day back to work on Sept. 14 in Morehead, Kentucky.

Ty Wright / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Although this week lacked the fireworks in Rowan County, Kentucky, that recent weeks have seen over the issuance of marriage licenses there, lawyers on Friday brought two issues to the trial judge in the case that could reignite the fight this coming week.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed over her refusal to issue marriage licenses when under court order to do so, was back at work on Sept. 14. While she continued to refuse to issue marriage licenses — and said that she wasn't herself authorizing them — Davis said that she would not stop deputy clerks who were issuing licenses from doing so.

Davis did, however, announce that the licenses would "state that they are issued pursuant to a federal order." When the first license was issued, additional changes from the licensed previously issued were reported by BuzzFeed News as well.

The lawyer for Deputy Clerk Brian Mason brought that issue to US. District Court Judge David Bunning's attention on Friday, noting that it "appears to this counsel those changes were made in some attempt to circumvent the court's orders and may have raised to the level of interference against the court's orders."

When Bunning released Davis from jail on his contempt order, he released her on the condition that she not interfere with the issuance of licenses.

In Friday's filing, Mason's lawyer added that his client's concern is that "he does not want to be the party that is issuing invalid marriage licenses." He also noted that Mason "is trying to follow the court's mandate, as well as his superior [Davis] ordering him to issue only these changed forms."

Since Bunning is the one who ordered Davis not to interfere with the issuance of licenses, he will have to make a decision as to whether her actions constitute interference. If Bunning decides that she has violated his order, she could be ordered to change the forms back, or face "appropriate sanctions," as Bunning said she would if she violated the order.

In addition to the license alteration question, a second issue was raised with Bunning on Friday — this one from the lawyers from the plaintiffs in the case.

The second issue relates to the question of who is covered by Bunning's injunction.

Initially, his order was that Davis not enforce her "no marriage licenses" policy as to the four couples who brought the lawsuit. On Sept. 3, however, Bunning — in response to a request from the plaintiffs — issued a "clarified" order, stating that Davis had to stop enforcing the policy against any couple seeking a marriage license.

In a request to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, Davis had asked for the Sept. 3 order to be put on hold, asserting that it was, more or less, an attempt by the plaintiffs to get around waiting on their request for the judge to expand the case into a class action lawsuit that would cover all couples.

Bunning had put the class action request on hold while the preliminary injunction appeal could be heard, but then, Davis's lawyers argued, he effectively took the same action as would have been achieved under the class action in the guise of "clarifying" his initial preliminary injunction.

On Thursday, the 6th Circuit rejected Davis's request, holding that she first had to seek a stay from Bunning under federal court rules. While technically sending Davis back to the trial court to seek the stay, which her lawyers did on Friday, the decision also gives Bunning a chance to figure out whether the clarified injunction is the best approach.

On Friday, the plaintiffs' lawyers attempted to give Bunning a way to resolve the issue by asking him to reopen and speed up consideration of the class action request.

In the most relevant section of the filing, the lawyers wrote:

"Plaintiffs believe that this Court's September 3 Order clarifying the preliminary injunction was procedurally and jurisdictionally proper. However, in light of (1) the arguments presented by Defendants to the Sixth Circuit and this Court regarding the current lack of class certification and this Court's stay of class certification proceedings, and (2) Davis' conduct making clear that she only continues to issue the licenses to all couples because of this Court's Order, the principles of equity dictate that this Court should reopen and expedite briefing on the class certification motion to ensure that members of the putative class are protected from the serious and irreparable harm that Davis seeks to impose on them."

In other words, the plaintiffs' lawyers say that, while they believe the Sept. 3 clarified order is fine, Bunning could avoid the questions raised by Davis by certifying a class and making the case a class action lawsuit that would formally include all couples wishing to marry in Rowan County as plaintiffs.

Both of these issues are now before Bunning, who has had some difficulties keeping his rulings clear in the case.

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Saturday defended himself against critics who complained he should have corrected a supporter who said at a town hall meeting that President Obama is a Muslim and not a U.S. citizen.

“We have a problem in this country,” the man said at the campaign event in Rochester, New Hampshire, on Thursday. “It’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one.”

“Right,” Trump responded.

“You know he’s not even American,” said the man, who said he was from White Plains.

The man alleged that Muslims in the United States gather at "training camps" to plot to kill Americans and wanted to know what Trump would do to "get rid of them."

“We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things,” Trump replied. “A lot of people are saying that, and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We’re going to be looking at that and plenty of other things.”

His comments were seized on by critics who said Trump should have corrected the man, as Sen. John McCain did in 2008 when he was running for president and he admonished a supporter who said Obama was "an Arab."

Fellow Republican presidential candidates, including Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Lindsey Graham, rebuked Trump. “I would just tell you that if somebody at one of my town hall meetings said something like that, I would correct them and say, now, the president’s a Christian and he was born in this country," Christie told the Today show on Friday.

Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton also blasted Trump for his “prejudiced" and “discriminatory” actions.

But, in a series of tweets on Saturday, Trump defended himself, saying Obama would not come to his defense in a similar situation.

Speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition event in Iowa for Republican presidential hopefuls, Trump briefly addressed the flap, saying he would let the tweets stand on their own. He then proceeded to read the to the audience before taking questions.

"I think they’re pretty self explanatory and descriptive," he said.

For years, Trump served as the most high-profile face of the false claims that circulated online about Obama's citizenship.

Speaking in front of Trump and other guests at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011, the president mocked the wealthy billionaire for his support of the so-called "birther movement."

"No one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald," the president said. "And that’s be­cause he can fi­nally get back to focus­ing on the is­sues that mat­ter — like, did we fake the moon land­ing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Big­gie and Tupac?"

Obama lampooned Trump's "credentials and experience," mocking the D-list stars Trump had to choose from on Celebrity Apprentice.

"These are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night," the president deadpanned to widespread laughter as Trump sat glowering.

LINK: Donald Trump Says He’d Look At Getting Rid Of Muslims In “Training Camps” As President

LINK: Hillary Clinton “Appalled” By Donald Trump’s “Prejudiced” Answer To Question About Muslims And Obama

“The theme of my campaign is not about process. It’s about the actions that we need to take to help rebuild the American dream, and make wages go up rather than down. And so that’s what I focus on wherever I speak.”

Scott Eisen / Getty Images

MANCHESTER, N.H. — About two months ago, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley made it the mission of his presidential campaign to start a debate over the debates.

He spent the summer calling for more debates, and calling on others to call for more debates. He printed new campaign signs with a debate slogan ("We Need Debate"), joined a debate protest outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, and accused the party chair of autocratically devising a "rigged" debate system that would benefit Hillary Clinton.

On Saturday, at the New Hampshire Democratic Party convention, O'Malley witnessed one of his biggest victories yet: Dozens of attendees rallied the hall into boos and chants for more debates during a speech by the DNC chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. "C'mon, folks. We're all on the same side," she said over the noise.

But when it was his turn to take the podium, O'Malley did not talk about the Democratic debates, or the "We Need Debate" campaign, or the supporters who helped interrupt Wasserman-Schultz earlier in the day. He gave his standard speech, hitting on his record as governor of Maryland, his 15 "strategic goals to rebuild the American Dream" — and only alluded to the issue with a few passing references to the "unanswered" Republican debates.

Afterward, reporters wanted to know: Where was the victory lap!

"Local democrats and media members were wondering," one asked, "why not make that more of a focal point with the crowd being obviously be so into that message?"

O'Malley, still polling in the low single-digits, appeared eager to remind his questioner that his campaign is not, in fact, a campaign for more Democratic debates. It is a campaign for president.

"The theme of my campaign is not about process. It's about the actions that we need to take to help rebuild the American dream, and make wages go up rather than down," O'Malley said, standing with a few aides backstage at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester. "And so that's what I focus on wherever I speak. When I jump up on a chair I often will mention that we should be having more debates rather than fewer."

The scene at the convention, where five of the six Democratic candidates spoke after Wasserman-Schultz, signaled both the success of O'Malley's debate over the debates, and the challenge that now poses to his candidacy, having made a matter of "process" such a prominent part of his campaign message.

On Saturday, O'Malley recognized that the debate question will come and go: Wasserman-Schultz, under added pressure from statements against the setup by Nancy Pelosi and the DNC's two vice chairs, will either add to the six scheduled debates, or she will not. Then, the debates will happen. The first one is next month.

O'Malley, as he put it backstage, plans to keep talking about the questions that comprise the center of his campaign — questions, he said, that do not involve debates.

"The center of my campaign is not about a process. It's about a country. Our country. And what we need to do to create a better life for our kids," he said.

As for why he didn't highlight the debates in his speech on Saturday, O'Malley noted that the convention marked the first time the candidates appeared at the same event in New Hampshire. (Clinton spoke first, followed by O'Malley; Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont; Lincoln Chafee, the former governor and senator from Rhode Island; and Lawrence Lessig, the Harvard Law professor. Jim Webb, another Democratic candidate, did not attend.)

"The issue of having more debates is certainly an important one," O'Malley said. "And certainly the crowd made their opinion known when the chair spoke."

O'Malley's campaign zeroed in on the debate issue in August, when the DNC released a slate of dates and locations for six debates. Under the current plan, four come before the caucuses and primaries begin — including one debate in Iowa, home to the first caucuses, and one debate in New Hampshire, home to the first primary. In 2008, as his campaign has pointed out, Democrats held two debates in Iowa before the caucuses, and three in New Hampshire before the primary.

O'Malley argued that the schedule unfairly benefited Clinton, who, at the time, still led Sanders in early-state polling. His campaign's lawyer has also questioned the legality of the DNC's so-called "exclusivity clause," which bars candidates from participating in unsanctioned non-party debates.

At a DNC meeting last month, with Wasserman-Schultz seated on stage just paces away, O'Malley delivered a speech largely dedicated to attacking the schedule. While the Republicans criticize Democrats at their own debates, O'Malley said, "we respond… with crickets, tumbleweeds, a cynical move to delay and limit our own party debates."

"This is totally unprecedented in our party history," he said. "This sort of rigged process this has never been attempted before."

Sanders has since joined O'Malley's effort. And Clinton, who for weeks declined to engage much at all with the issue when asked, said earlier this month that she would be open to more debates. "I have made it clear that if they want to do more, I'm happy to do them," Clinton said during an appearance on CNN this week.

On Saturday, speaking with reporters after his speech, O'Malley argued that the party, and all its candidates, would suffer for every Republican debate without a Democratic counterpart. "Wy would you turn over the microphone?" he said. "I think most Democrats are pretty upset by it, and the DNC members themselves were never even consulted. This was a one-woman edict."

And what about his campaign, a reporter asked. How was he going to get his numbers up?

"You got to keep going," O'Malley replied.

The Obamas said farewell to Don Francisco after 53 years of his popular variety show in a video, which aired during his last show. Hillary Clinton sent a video Friday.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama sent a tribute video, which aired during the last episode of Sabado Gigante on Saturday.

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Michelle Obama said Sabado Gigante has been an important part of the country's cultural life and the president said it has helped Americans appreciate that family comes first.

Don Francisco took time during the show to note that White House Hispanic Media Director Katherine Vargas, in the audience with her parents, helped make the video happen.

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The last episode of the iconic show in Latino households had an unmistakable political component. Mario Kreutzberger, better known as Don Francisco, not only launched musical careers but also featured many elected officials.

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In an interview on “Meet the Press,” the retired neurosurgeon said he doesn’t believe Islam is consistent with the Constitution.

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Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson says he would not agree with putting a Muslim in the Oval Office, telling "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd on Sunday that he doesn't believe Islam is consistent with the Constitution.

The Republican presidential candidate said that he doesn't feel the same way about having a Muslim in Congress, but it would depend on "who that Muslim is and what their policies are."

Carson, who is currently neck-and-neck with Donald Trump in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, made the remarks in response to a question about Trump's controversial handling of a town hall questioner.

From the transcript:

CHUCK TODD: Let me wrap this up by finally dealing with what's been going on, Donald Trump, and a deal with a questioner that claimed that the president was Muslim. Let me ask you the question this way. Should a President's faith matter? Should your faith matter to voters?

BEN CARSON: Well, I guess it depends on what that faith is. If it's inconsistent with the values and principles of America, then of course it should matter. But if it fits within the realm of America and consistent with the Constitution, no problem.

CHUCK TODD: So do you believe that Islam is consistent with the Constitution?

BEN CARSON: No, I don't, I do not.

CHUCK TODD: So you--

BEN CARSON: I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.

CHUCK TODD: And would you ever consider voting for a Muslim for Congress?

BEN CARSON: Congress is a different story, but it depends on who that Muslim is and what their policies are, just as it depends on what anybody else says, you know. And, you know, if there's somebody who's of any faith, but they say things, and their life has been consistent with things that will elevate this nation and make it possible for everybody to succeed, and bring peace and harmony, then I'm with them.

CHUCK TODD: And I take it you believe the president was born in the United States and is a Christian?

BEN CARSON: I believe that he is. I have no reason to doubt what he says.

Speaking Sunday on CBS, Clinton said that the U.S. should increase the number of Syrian refugees it resettles next year from 10,000 to 65,000.

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Hillary Clinton said Sunday the U.S. should commit to taking in 65,000 Syrian refugees next financial year, a significantly higher number than the 10,000 the Obama administration has announced it will accept.

"We're facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II, and I think the United States has to do more, and I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000, to begin immediately to put into place the mechanisms for vetting the people that we would take in," Clinton told Face the Nation moderator John Dickerson on Sunday.

This is the first time Clinton has set a target number for the intake of Syrian refugees. In previous interviews, the former secretary of state has said there should be a global effort aimed at resettling the the large Syrian refugee population, which the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has put at more than 4 million.

Several Democrats, including 14 U.S. senators and her opponent Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, have been calling for 65,000 for months.

Clinton said on Sunday that the U.S. should prioritize taking in the most vulnerable -- including, she says, Christians and Yazidi women -- before repeating her call for a global meeting to address the issue.

"I also want the United States to lead the world, and I've recommended at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly there be an international meeting called by the secretary general and literally get people to commit [to] putting money in, helping the frontline states like Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon who've absorbed a lot refugees, working with the EU and the European countries, but getting everybody to make a contribution," Clinton said.

The U.S. has resettled just 1,500 Syrian Refugees since the beginning of the civil war in 2011.

The Obama administration announced this month that they plan to accept 10,000 refugees in 2016, but refugee resettlement advocates and lawmakers criticized the announcement as insufficient.

The UNHCR has referred more than 15,000 Syrian refugees to the U.S. for resettlement. It currently takes between 18 and 24 months for the U.S. to process a resettlement claim, and, according to some sources, some refugees wait upwards of 1,000 days from time of application to resettlement.

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In an interview that aired Sunday, Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson said he was opposed to a Muslim person becoming president because he does not believe Islam is consistent with the U.S. Constitution.

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"I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that," Carson said on Meet the Press on NBC. He did, however, say that he was OK in some circumstances with a Muslim person being in Congress.

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Twitter: @jakebrewer

President Obama has paid tribute to White House staffer Jake Brewer, who was killed Saturday in Maryland when his bicycle collided with a car during a charity bike ride. He was 34.

In a statement posted to Facebook, police in Howard County said Brewer was killed around 3:40 p.m. ET when he lost control of his bicycle while traveling on a sharp curve on a Mt. Airy road. He crossed the double yellow lines and was struck by a car traveling in the opposite direction.

Brewer was pronounced dead on the scene, police said, while the 51-year-old driver of the car was not injured.

A statement posted to the website of the Ride to Conquer Cancer said there had been a fatal accident. "This has been a very sad day for the ride community and our supporters," the statement read.

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Brewer worked as a senior policy adviser in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, which is part of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.

In a statement, Obama said he was "heartbroken" at the "tragic loss" of Brewer, who lived with his family in Alexandria, Virginia.

"Simply put, Jake was one of the best," the president said. "Armed with a brilliant mind, a big heart, and an insatiable desire to give back, Jake devoted his life to empowering people and making government work better for them."

In addition to working at the White House, Brewer co-founded the Define American organization, a media group working to change perceptions of immigrants.

Obama praised Brewer's efforts helping immigrants and working to increase democratic transparency.

"I’ve often said that today’s younger generation is smarter, more determined, and more capable of making a difference than I was as a young man. Jake was proof of that," the president said.

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Brewer's wife, Mary Katharine Ham, a journalist who serves as the editor-at-large of conservative website Hot Air, paid tribute to her late husband on Instagram.

"I don't have to tell most of you how wonderful he was," she wrote. "It was self-evident. His life was his testimony, and it was powerful and tender and fierce, with an ever-present twinkle in the eye."

"I will miss him forever, even more than I can know right now," she wrote.

The couple have a young daughter, Georgia, and Ham is pregnant with their second child.

A GoFundMe has been established to support the children's education.

Obama said he and the First Lady were praying for the Brewer family. "They'll always have a family here at the White House," he said.

In an sitdown interview with the chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Cornel West said Bernie Sanders is primed to pull off an upset — and it’s going to be because of the black staffers on Sanders’ campaign.

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WASHINGTON — Dr. Cornel West believes Bernie Sanders will upset Hillary Clinton — because Sanders is hiring the right black staffers, he said in an interview with the chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party.

In the interview with party chair Jaime Harrison, a snippet of which was provided to BuzzFeed News, West spoke about the Black Lives Matter activists who confronted Sanders in Seattle and Phoenix, and what's happened since.

"You've got some folk in the Bernie Sanders camp, sister Symone Sanders, brother Marcus Ferrell, and brother Ernest Boston and others who are going to help turn things around," West said, referring to staffers hired by the Sanders campaign.

He downplayed the activists' disappointment with Sanders in particular, saying their confrontation of Sanders was less about Sanders himself than it was about the movement wanting to hold all candidates accountable.

"I think that the younger generation just wanted politicians across the board to be accountable," West said. "And they didn't know that much about brother Bernie Sanders. So he's one politician among others. And I agree, I think politicians ought to be accountable."

West has been an adviser to Black Lives Matter activists, and has participated in actions in protests.

"Sometimes politics are [about] disruption, in which you try to make them accountable and Bernie responded directly with a very powerful racial justice platform."

While Sanders has surged in both Iowa and New Hampshire, he is less well-known in South Carolina, where Clinton leads by 23 points according to the latest YouGov/CBS News poll. Sanders' campaign has committed resources to fixing the problem, but questions remain about whether there is enough time between now and February to increase his name identification with black voters. Once they know who he is, Sanders has to convince black voters that he, not Clinton or, potentially, Joe Biden, is the best candidate to advocate on their behalf.

West recently introduced Sanders at a rally at Benedict College, a historically black college in Columbia.

The interview is part of the "Chair Chats" interview series with Harrison, widely considered a rising star in the Democratic party. In addition to West, Harrison has interviewed Sanders himself, along with Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley.

West said the coalition building, as well as the hires Sanders is making, is why Sanders is primed for an upset. He added that the Clinton machine had lost its cache.

In South Carolina, Sanders' campaign has targeted areas with a high concentration of black voters. He hired Christale Spain, the SCDP's former deputy executive director, who began at Sanders' South Carolina headquarters in Charleston last week.

West said that Obama, with whom he's feuded publicly, had once lagged behind in the polls there, too.

"There's going to be a real upset in February," West said.

Rubio says he believes Planned Parenthood is pushing women into getting abortions in order to sell their fetal tissue.

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Marco Rubio says while he is against fetal tissue research when the tissue is obtained from an abortion, he is okay with research done on tissue from a miscarriage or any other natural end to pregnancy.

Fetal tissue donations from abortions have come under scrutiny from conservatives after an anti-abortion group released a series of videos which they claim show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of tissues from aborted fetuses for profit. Planned Parenthood has denied the allegations.

The senator from Florida has recently made the case that a government shutdown over funding Planned Parenthood would be the fault of President Obama and Senate Democrats.

"So there are cases, we're now getting into the weeds on it, but it's an important question," Rubio told an Iowa television station over the weekend. "And there are cases where a child is miscarried or there's some other natural end of a [pregnancy].

"And in those cases if there's something that can be salvaged from it that could help someone else, we're for it, no different than organ donation where unfortunately someone who's young and healthy dies in a car accident and -- I've had a relative who died an untimely death and his organs were harvested and it helped save people and provide organs for them."

Rubio said he believes Planned Parenthood is pushing women into getting abortions, and that fetal tissue from abortion has "created an industry."

"That's different from saying we're going to take the fetal tissue of aborted fetuses, because now what you've done is you've created an industry," added Rubio. "Now what you've done is you've created an incentive for people to be pushed into abortions so that those tissues can be harvested and sold for a profit.

"If you go to one of these centers, young women are provided very few options and [in] many places are not told anything about, for example, adoption services that might be available to them," said Rubio. 'The idea that, in essence, you come in and it's already predetermined: this is the direction that -- this is what this place does, it provides abortions and we are going to channel you in that direction.

"And I just think you've created an industry now, where you create the situation where very much you've created an incentive for people not just to look forward to having more abortions but being able to sell that fetal tissue for purposes -- these centers -- for purposes of making a profit off of it, as you've seen in some of these Planned Parenthood affiliates," he concluded.

Trump took a U.S. senator to task for asking his pro-choice sister, then a federal court nominee, about her views on abortion.

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In his 2000 campaign book The America We Deserve, Donald Trump, who currently identifies as pro-life but at the time said he was pro-choice, chastised a U.S. senator for asking his pro-choice sister, a federal court nominee, her position on abortion.

"When my sister Maryanne Barry Trump, one of the brightest and most capable people on the federal bench, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing on her elevation to a federal judgeship in the Third Circuit Court, Smith insisted on asking her views on abortion," wrote Trump.

"She patiently explained to the good senator that her personal views on the issue were meaningless; a federal judge's job is to uphold the law as it is written, not to interpret from the bench based on his or her personal views," continued Trump. "Maybe if my sister had spoken more slowly he would have understood her."

In an interesting turn of events, New Hampshire Republican Sen. Bob Smith, whom Trump was referring too, had his 2001 re-election campaign managed by Corey Lewandowski, who is now managing Trump's current presidential bid.

Trump has declared himself pro-life since 2011, but in 1999 said but he was "strongly pro-choice," though he hated "the concept of abortion."

Earlier this year, Trump told Bloomberg Politics he thought his sister would make a good Supreme Court justice.

"My sister's great," said Trump. "I have a sister who's on the court of appeals."

"She'd be a good Supreme Court justice?" asked Mark Halperin of Bloomberg Politics.

"I think she'd be phenomenal," said Trump. "I think she'd be one of the best. But frankly, we'd have to rule that out."

The Bush campaign, as noted by The Washington Post, attempted to make Trump's previous comments on his sister an issue. Sharing an article on the comments, "Trump Praises His Sister, a Pro-Abortion Extremist Judge," by National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru (whose wife works for Bush).