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Democratic Congressman Compares Trey Gowdy To Draco Malfoy

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“If I’d been on that committee, I would have referred to him as the honorable gentleman from the house of Slytherin.”

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Democratic congressman and noted Harry Potter "fanatic" Gerry Connolly joked that if he were on the House Select Committee on Benghazi, he would have referred to chairman Trey Gowdy as "the honorable gentleman from the house of Slytherin."

In a video uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday and noted by Blue Virginia, the congressman from Virginia asked a group of Fairfax Democrats to compare Gowdy to Harry Potter character Draco Malfoy.

"Have you watched the Benghazi hearings last week? How many of you have are fans of Harry Potter? Okay, try this out, Trey Gowdy, Draco Malfoy," Connolly said

"If I'd been on that committee, I would have referred to him as the honorable gentleman from the house of Slytherin," he added.

In 2011, The Hill chronicled Connolly's devotion to the Harry Potter series.

"Connolly also had a long-standing tradition before the midnight release parties with his daughter: Her friends would come over before midnight and play homemade Potter trivia," The Hill reported.

The report added that "although Connolly doesn't use Potter metaphors on the House floor, he says he does see how enemies at Hogwarts could align with political enemies in Congress."

"I suppose there are some Death Eaters in our politics these days we need to resist who would destroy Medicare and return the country to a more Darwinian kind of world," Connelly told The Hill.


Florida Set To Execute Man For 1985 Quadruple Murder

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Florida Department of Corrections / Via dc.state.fl.us

Florida is set to execute Jerry Correll on Thursday for murdering four people in 1985.

If his execution goes forward, Correll would be the first person to be executed using the drug midazolam since a June Supreme Court decision allowing the drug's use in a case out of Oklahoma.

However, a pending request before the U.S. Supreme Court asks the court to put the execution on hold while it decides another case, Hurst v. Florida. The Hurst case challenges the constitutionality of the state's unique death sentencing laws, which require a judge, not jury, to decide whether a person convicted of a capital crime is to get the death penalty. The jury only gives the judge an advisory recommendation, and the recommendation does not need to be unanimous.

"Florida, in short, has recognized its outlier status but failed to correct it despite pointed warnings over many years," Correll's lawyers wrote to the Supreme Court. "This Court should put the situation to rest in this case if it has not done so in Hurst."

Correll, 59, was convicted of stabbing to death his ex-wife, Susan Correll, 25, their 5-year-old daughter Tuesday, Susan's mother, Mary Lou Hines, 48, and sister, Marybeth Jones, 29, at Hines' home in Orlando.

On Oct. 2, the Florida Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution for Correll, who had challenged the state's use of midazolam, a controversial drug that was at the center of a significant Supreme Court ruling in June. In a 30-page ruling, the court ruled that Correll failed to show he was "very likely to endure needless suffering upon administration of midazolam" which is part of Florida's three-drug protocol.

In response to Correll's latest filings at the Supreme Court, Florida officials have opposed the request for a stay of execution, arguing that Correll is shifting his arguments in order to fit the pending Hurst case.

"Now that many other courts have granted stays in capital cases throughout the state while this Court considers Hurst, Correll want to align his argument with that in Hurst simply to avoid execution."

Notably, the federal public defender's office also weighed in with a brief supporting Correll's request, detailing what it called the Florida Supreme Court's "limited view" of prior U.S. Supreme Court precedent on the issue of the role of the jury in capital sentencing — a view, they wrote, that is squarely at issue in Hurst.

Correll was scheduled to be executed in February but his execution was halted pending the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on whether Oklahoma could use midazolam as a sedative in its executions.

The court allowed the use of midazolam, which was used in problematic executions in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arizona in 2014.

In addition to the question relating to the pending Hurst case, Correll's lawyers have argued that there is a high risk of him having a "paradoxical reaction" to midazolam because of his alleged brain damage and history of alcohol and substance abuse. This increases the risk of him being conscious while being injected with the second and third drugs, thereby violating his constitutional rights, according to his appeals.

Executions are on hold in Ohio and Oklahoma, both of which use midazolam in their execution protocols. Ohio has delayed all executions until 2017 because of difficulties finding drugs, while executions in Oklahoma are postponed indefinitely over concerns of its execution protocols.

All four of Correll's victims had been repeatedly stabbed and died from massive hemorrhages, according to court documents. The three adults had "defensive wounds" on their hands. All four bodies were found at the house of Correll's ex-mother-in-law, Mary Lou Hines, who was one of the victims.

His ex-wife Susan Correll's murder was described in court documents as "heinous, atrocious and cruel" and was committed during sexual battery. Court documents said Correll tortured her before killing her.

Correll's child, Tuesday Correll, was "clad only in her nighty and was clutching her cloth doll when she was brutally and repeatedly attacked by her own father," according to court documents. She had "hostage-type" wounds.

Correll repeatedly stabbed Susan Correll's sister, Marybeth Jones, and stole her car after killing her.

Several bloody fingerprints and palm prints found at the crime scene were matched to Correll's, according to court documents.

Besides the courts, Florida law does allow for executive clemency, although Correll's clemency request has already been denied. The last clemency granted to a death row inmate was more than 30 years ago.

Mark Warner: "We Have Been Begging The Administration For Months" For A Syria Plan

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“I wish that I had heard a plan from the administration…”

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia says he's been begging the Obama administration for months to tell him their plan for Syria, but has gotten no reply.

"I sit on the Intelligence Committee," Warner said on the John Fredericks Show on Tuesday. "We have been begging the administration for months to say, alright, come in and tell us your plan, and I wish that I had heard a plan from the administration, or, I wish for that matter John McCain and Lindsey Graham more, defense hawks, I wish I'd heard a rational plan from them."

Warner said he thought some of the problems in Syria might have been prevented, "if the president would have actually fired those missiles when he drew the red line against Assad when they found chemical weapons."

"Where is the game plan," Warner asked, to support "moderate forces" if Assad was backed by Russia. Warned noted that ISIS "fights better than their numbers" because they're willing to do horrible things.

"I don't know in a region that we can simply walk away," he added. "I think many people would argue the fact that we walked out of Iraq without enough remaining forces may have led to some of the disintegration of Iraq. I think that's any open question."

"While I'm not happy with what's going on, I don't have a better plan and what I don't think we can do is simply say to this terrible unstable region, 'okay, have at it. Assad, ISIL,' and frankly the people that we've helping we're gonna suddenly leave you in the lurch."

Warner said he'd strongly support a further deployment to the region, just not the deployment of active military ground troops on the ground.

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Ted Cruz: "We're Moving In The Opposite Direction" Of Jeb, Hiring Not Firing

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“Instead of laying off staffers we are ramping up.”

Sean Rayford / Getty Images

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says unlike his opponent Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, his presidential campaign is hiring, not firing, staff.

"Not only are we able to pay the bills but we're moving in the opposite direction," Cruz said on Family Research Council's Washington Watch radio program on Tuesday when asked about Bush's campaign cuts. "Instead of laying off staffers we are ramping up. We are hiring field staffers in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. We are opening offices now."

Bloomberg News reported last week that Bush's campaign, suffering from falling poll numbers, was laying off some staff and cutting pay across the board.

Cruz said his campaign was "very prudent on the front end," noting failed campaigns (not mentioned, but notably former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's) "hemorrhaged cashed early on."

"We were very good stewards with the money we raised," added Cruz.

Cruz's presidential campaign reported having $13.8 million in cash on hand in their totals to the FEC, which was near top of all candidates for money raised.

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Lawyers Claim Death Penalty Prosecutor Said He Wanted To Cut Their Throats

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WASHINGTON — Dale Cox, the outgoing Louisiana prosecutor in Caddo Parish, threatened attorneys defending a client in a capital case over the weekend, the defense attorneys claimed in court on Tuesday, saying he wanted to "cut their fucking throats."

Cox made national headlines over the summer for comments made to the Shreveport Times in March that the state should "kill more people." He chose not to run in this year's election due to the distraction that he said his aggressive support for the death penalty has caused.

He remains in office for now, though, and has claimed that his newfound notoriety has led to death threats, according to a copy of a transcript from court proceedings on Tuesday that was obtained by BuzzFeed News.

In the hearing, defense lawyers also claimed that Cox referred to a female defense attorney in court as a "bitch" over the weekend, and later told the defense attorneys, "Do you want to go outside right now?"

On Sunday, when the defense attorneys first raised the matter, Cox acknowledged "want[ing] to cold cock all three of them," saying that he's had to move his family because of threats made against him. In particular, he drew umbrage at a claim made in a brief filed by the defense lawyers claiming that Cox is "unusually bloodthirsty."

The comments were made in the murder trial of Eric Mickelson. He was convicted for the 2007 strangling death of Charles Martin on Wednesday afternoon; sentencing will follow.

The transcript in question, though, was a hearing on a request by the attorneys to have Cox kicked off the case because of the comments he allegedly made about the defense attorneys:

The transcript in question, though, was a hearing on a request by the attorneys to have Cox kicked off the case because of the comments he allegedly made about the defense attorneys:

From the start, however, Judge Katherine Dorroh said that she would be denying the request:

From the start, however, Judge Katherine Dorroh said that she would be denying the request:


One of the defense attorneys, David Price, noted that they would be appealing the ruling, a step they took on Tuesday afternoon, asking an appeals court and Louisiana Supreme Court to toss Cox from the case:

One of the defense attorneys, David Price, noted that they would be appealing the ruling, a step they took on Tuesday afternoon, asking an appeals court and Louisiana Supreme Court to toss Cox from the case:

The Shreveport Times reported on the Louisiana Supreme Court filing earlier Wednesday afternoon.

Then, however, one of the other defense attorneys, Kathryn Sheely, jumped in to explain what it was that they allege Cox said on Sunday, Oct. 25, in court:

Then, however, one of the other defense attorneys, Kathryn Sheely, jumped in to explain what it was that they allege Cox said on Sunday, Oct. 25, in court:

Sheely continued:

Sheely continued:


The judge noted that the jury was not in the room when the alleged comments were made, a fact acknowledged by the defense attorneys:

The judge noted that the jury was not in the room when the alleged comments were made, a fact acknowledged by the defense attorneys:

Calling the matter "unfortunate" but saying she was not able to determine what all was true of the claims, the judge denied the request:

Calling the matter "unfortunate" but saying she was not able to determine what all was true of the claims, the judge denied the request:



Obama Administration Supports Transgender Student In Federal Appeals Court

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Dominic Holden/BuzzFeed News

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration filed a groundbreaking legal brief in a federal appeals court on Wednesday evening, supporting a transgender student's challenge to his school's policy banning him from using the restroom that corresponds with his gender identity.

The move at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Gavin Grimm's case is the strongest step yet from the Obama administration to advance its position supporting the right of transgender people to seek legal protections under current civil rights laws.

"Prohibiting a transgender male student from using boys' restrooms, when other non-transgender male students face no such restriction, deprives him not only of equal educational opportunity but also “of equal status, respect, and dignity,'" lawyers from the Justice and Education departments wrote in the brief.

Grimm, a transgender male, has sued his school district, Gloucester County School District in Virginia, alleging that the district's policy violates the ban on sex discrimination in education under Title IX of the Education Act of 1972.

After the federal district court judge rejected his request for an injunction keeping the school from enforcing its policy barring him from using the male restrooms at the school, he appealed to the 4th Circuit.

The Obama administration, following the analysis in a 2012 ruling from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has found that the ban on sex discrimination in existing civil rights laws includes a ban on discrimination against transgender people.

Wednesday night's filing, however, is the first time the administration has weighed in on the issue in an appeals court. That is an important distinction because a decision in the case would apply to all federal cases filed within the circuit — not just to this student's case.

"Treating a student adversely because the sex assigned to him at birth does not match his gender identity is literally discrimination 'on the basis of sex,'" the administration lawyers wrote in the brief.

Read the administration's brief:


Bernie Sanders: End Federal Marijuana Prohibition To Improve Lives Of Black People

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Mark Kauzlarich / Reuters

FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders went farther than any of his opponents in calling for an end to the war on drugs Wednesday when he told college students at George Mason University it was time to "to remove the federal prohibition on marijuana."

Sanders said a shift away from criminal prosecutions for marijuana could improve the lives of black Americans he said are unfairly burdened with criminal records for doing something Americans of all races also do.

"Although about the same proportion of blacks and whites use marijuana, a black person is almost four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person," Sanders said. "Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use."

Both sides of the burgeoning bipartisan criminal justice advocacy movement cite racial bias as a key problem in the justice system. Conservatives have said reducing racial disparities in prosecutions and imprisonment could improve the economic standards for minorities while saving states millions spent on expensive prosecutions. Progressives have long pointed to the disparities in drug prosecutions as deeply unfair and disastrous to minority communities.

However, few national politicians are willing to go as far as Sanders did Wednesday to redress the problem. His journey to Wednesday's speech began at the first Democratic debate, when he floored marijuana advocates by saying he personally would vote for a state ballot initiative legalizing marijuana use.

The independent senator from Vermont now says marijuana should be removed from the federal government's list of "Schedule 1" narcotics used in prosecutions. He said the next steps should be left up to the states.

"The time is long overdue for us to remove the federal prohibition on marijuana," he said. "In my view, states should have the right to regulate marijuana the same way that state and local laws now govern sales of alcohol and tobacco."

Sanders was quick to say he wasn't calling on states to legalize marijuana in the way Colorado and a few others have, but he said the federal government should no longer stand in the way of legalization through bans on marijuana dispensaries using the banking system, for example.

Ever the progressive focused on using government spending to solve social problems, however, Sanders did note that states could legalize marijuana, tax it, and use the money "to fight the effects of substance abuse of hard drugs like opiates that are harming so many communities."

Rick Santorum's Biggest Financial Backer Says He Has Backups, But Won't Say Who

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Rosie Gray/BuzzFeed News

BOULDER, Colorado — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum's longtime supporter and financial backer, Wyoming-based investment manager Foster Friess, told BuzzFeed News he is sticking with the former senator for now, but he has other candidates in mind for if and when Santorum drops out.

"If Rick has to drop off for some reason I’m moving all my support to my wife," Friess joked.

"My position's been to stick with Santorum and leave it at that, and if it comes to a point where I have to make a decision then I’ll make a decision, and yes I definitely do have some favorites, but I must say that I would support any one of the 17 – [Rick] Perry, [Scott] Walker, I was hugely impressed with both of them," Friess said.

Both Perry and Walker have dropped out of the presidential race.

"I’m just so grateful we were able to come up with 17 really competent, qualified, wonderful human beings to run for president," Friess said.

There have been some indications of who else Friess may support: He sent an email in August telling people about upcoming events in Wyoming with Ted Cruz and Ben Carson.

Friess was almost single-handedly responsible for keeping Santorum going in the 2012 election by bankrolling his super PAC, the Red, White and Blue Fund. Though Santorum was the runner-up in the last Republican primary, he has struggled to gain any traction this time and was in the "undercard" debate for the third time on Wednesday.

Asked if he had a ballpark amount in mind for how much money he plans to spend overall this election cycle, Friess said "yes and no," but "it’s a little bit like you’re asking me how much I’m gonna spend for my wife’s birthday present."

Friess told the New York Times earlier this year that "the money I give will be hard to track," and reiterated this point while talking to BuzzFeed News, saying he likely would be giving more to groups that don't have to disclose their donors, like 501©4s.

"There’s going to be some groups that are going to be supportive of who I want to support that I won't be the key supporter of like I was in 2012, but it’ll be a little bit harder to track because I was a little stunned with all the notoriety it created — I was getting calls from people running for dogcatcher in Kansas," Friess said. "So I mean, I’m honored to be able to support some of these candidacies but I think if I keep a little lower profile it might be smarter."

Friess said he had lunch with Santorum today ahead of tonight's debate in Boulder.

"I love his team, they’re so committed and they’re in there for the cause," Friess said.


Jeb Bush Continues "Death Spiral" At GOP Debate

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Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

BOULDER, Colorado — Jeb Bush's beleaguered presidential campaign was dealt another blow at Wednesday's Republican primary debate when the candidate's high-stakes gambit to attack an opponent he once considered his protege badly backfired.

Bush entered the CNBC-hosted debate with stubbornly lackluster poll numbers, unimpressive fundraising, and some of the worst press he has received all year — fueled by morbid anonymous quotes from skittish donors and allies. As one Bush fundraiser memorably told the Washington Post last week, "It feels very much like a death spiral, and it breaks my heart."

Bush looked to escape the "death spiral" — and revive his supporters' confidence in his 2016 viability — with a commanding debate performance Wednesday, which included lambasting Marco Rubio for his record of skipping Senate votes.

"I'm a constituent of the senator and I helped him and I expected that he would do constituent service, which means that he shows up to work," Bush said, describing the young Floridian, whose political rise he has long supported, as a "gifted politician."

Bush then angled toward Rubio, who was standing next to him on stage, and addressed him directly by his first name.

"But Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term, and you should be showing up to work," he said. "I mean, literally, the Senate — what is it, like a French work week? You get, like, three days where you have to show up? You can campaign, or just resign and let someone else take the job."

"I get to respond, right?" Rubio asked the moderators, coolly. He then pointed out that the 2008 Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, missed Senate votes during his presidential campaign, as well.

"I don't remember you ever complaining about John McCain's vote record," Rubio told Bush. "The only reason why you're doing it now is because we're running for the same position, and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you."

The loud applause from the audience that followed drowned out Bush's bid at formulating a comeback — thus bringing an end to the candidate's attempt at a game-changing moment.

Bush's attack on Rubio was clearly premeditated, a fact evidenced by his campaign's quick-draw email blast to reporters highlighting the "French work week" line minutes after he said it. But according to Florida-based GOP strategist Rick Wilson, Bush blew the moment by giving up the element of surprise in the days leading up to the debate.

"Never mark your ambush with flashing lights and traffic cones. Everyone in Florida politics heard this attack was coming since the weekend, and Marco was absolutely ready for it," said Wilson, who actually hinted at the coming dig on Twitter before the debate began. "This was not Jeb at his best."

In the post-debate spin room, Bush's campaign manager, Danny Diaz, acknowledged Rubio's rhetorical skill, but used it to draw comparisons to Barack Obama circa 2008.

"No one is going to argue that Sen. Rubio isn't an outstanding performer," said Diaz. "But there's a difference between an outstanding performer, and one that has delivered over and over again. We have an outstanding performer who's been in the White House for seven years, and I think most Americans and largely all Republicans are dissatisfied with the outcome."

Bush spent the rest of the debate turning in the same sort of awkward, listless performance that has marked his other onstage appearances this year. He spoke for just six minutes and 39 seconds in total, getting less airtime than every other candidate on the stage except for Rand Paul.

When a moderator asked him whether he would support a hypothetical budget deal that included $10 of spending cuts for every one dollar of tax increases, he struggled to articulate an answer, and ended up fumbling for a joke.

"You find a Democrat that's for cutting taxes — cutting spending ten dollars, I'll give them a warm kiss," he said.

If Bush's aim was to calm his supporters' nerves and dispatch Rubio, who has passed him in some recent national polls, Wednesday's debate was likely counterproductive. Before the event was even over, establishment figures in the GOP were panning his performance.

"Simply put, he whiffed," said one South Carolina Republican, who is neutral in the 2016 race. "He needed a moment to assuage donor fears and it backfired. As much as people may say the Bush name is a hindrance, the reality is that his last name is the only thing keeping him in the conversation right now."

But even Bush's famous last name may not be enough to keep his supporters in line now.

Asked after the debate how many phone calls from Bush donors the Rubio campaign had already fielded, Rubio's spokesman, Alex Conant, told BuzzFeed News coyly, "I don't have a number, but we've gotten calls."

Turns Out Donald Trump Hasn't Read His Own Immigration Policy Paper

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Mark J. Terrill / AP

Donald Trump insisted at Wednesday's Republican presidential debate that he had never criticized Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Sen. Marco Rubio for their immigration policies, but a policy paper on his own website says their immigration proposals "would decimate women and minorities."

Trump got into it with debate moderator Becky Quick when Quick asked Trump about his statement that Zuckerberg is Rubio's personal senator because of their support for H1B immigration visas for tech companies.

"You have been very critical of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook who has wanted to increase the number of these H1Bs," she said.

"I was not at all critical of him. I was not at all," Trump responded.

Quick, confused by his answer, asked him where she had read it then.

"I never said that, I never said that," Trump continued.

It turns out that the articles Quick had read were citing Trump's immigration policy paper ... on DonaldTrump.com.

In the bipartisan 2013 Senate immigration bill that Rubio supported but has largely distanced himself from since, the Florida senator supported increasing the annual H-1B visa cap from 65,000 to up to 195,000 depending on market conditions and demand.

In a 2013 Washington Post op-ed, Zuckerberg asked why the country kicks out the more than 40% of math and science graduate students who are not U.S. citizens after educating them.

"Why do we offer so few H-1B visas for talented specialists that the supply runs out within days of becoming available each year, even though we know each of these jobs will create two or three more American jobs in return?" he wrote.

Quick revisited the question later on in the debate, informing Trump that the comment was from his website.

"As far as Mark is concerned, as far as the visas are concerned, if we need people, it’s fine," Trump said. "They have to come into this country legally. We have a country of borders. We have a country of laws. We have to obey the laws. It's fine if they come in, but they have to come in legally."


Here Is Ted Cruz's Big Dig On The Media At The GOP Debate

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“How about talking about the substantive issues the people care about?”

Ted Cruz, center, at Wednesday night's debate.

Mark J. Terrill / AP

Cruz was responding to a question from CNBC's Carlos Quintanilla, who asked if Cruz's opposition to a budget compromise shows "that you're not the kind of problem-solver American voters want?"

Cruz shot back that "the questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media."

The line drew big applause from the audience. He continued saying the debate "is not a cage match."

"And, you look at the questions — 'Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain?' 'Ben Carson, can you do math?' 'John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?' 'Marco Rubio, why don't you resign?' 'Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?'" Cruz went on. "How about talking about the substantive issues the people care about?"

Mark J. Terrill / AP


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Chris Christie: President Obama Does Not Support Law Enforcement Officers

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Chris Christie said that police officers are afraid to get out of their cars and enforce the law of because of increased scrutiny, piggybacking Wednesday night on prior statements by FBI director James Comey, which suggested that officers are holding back from doing their jobs.

FBI director James Comey said the rise of violent crime in certain cities was due to less aggressive policing, which he argued was a result of heightened scrutiny of police officers over the last year after a series of deaths of black men.

"Let's talk about something that happened this week in the news," Christie said during Wednesday night's CNBC Republican debate. "You know, the president's appointed FBI director has said this week that because of a lack of support for politicians like the president of the United States, that police officers are afraid to get out of their cars, that they're afraid to enforce the law.

"And he says, the president's appointee, that crime is going up because of this, and when the president of the United States gets out to speak about this, does he support police officers? Does he stand for law enforcement? No, he doesn't."

On Tuesday, Obama praised law enforcement at a gathering of the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Chicago. He said measures to reduce incarceration, push gun control, and change sentencing laws were being implemented to make officer's jobs easier.

“Too often law enforcement gets scapegoated for the broader failures of society and our criminal justice system,” Obama said. “It is possible for us to come up with strategies to effectively reduce the damage of the drug trade without relying solely on incarceration.”

Comey described a so-called "Ferguson effect," in which officers are reluctant to do their jobs effectively because of the rise of anti-police rhetoric and fear an interaction could go viral.

At the IACP gathering, Comey backed off his comments about the Ferguson effect, saying law enforcement office could learn from Black Lives Matter, "to see the world through the eyes of people who are not in our line of work and see how they might perceive us.”

On Face The Nation, Christie said there was no "Ferguson effect" in New Jersey, because he tells police officers to do their jobs. And Christie used his platform Wednesday night to showcase his stance as a law-and-order conservative.

"The number one job of the president is to protect the safety and security of the American people," Christie said. "This president has failed, and when I'm in the Oval Office, police officers will know they have the support of the president of the United States.

"That's the real moral authority we need in the Oval Office."

Clinton VP Offer “Edgy Or Snarky But Nothing More,” Says Sanders Campaign Manager

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Alex Wong / Getty Images

FAIRFAX, Virginia — Bernie Sanders’s campaign manager isn’t backing down from a pointed jab at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the weekend that led Clinton boosters to call him “condescending” and sexist.

But as the jabs flew between Clinton supporters and backers of Sanders, Jeff Weaver, his campaign manager, said the Sanders campaign is ready to put the negativity genie back in the bottle.

But, he said, that is up to Clinton.

“They launched a vicious attack on us, we let them know that we’re not going to be a punching bag, and now we’re ready to resume important issues facing the country,” Weaver told BuzzFeed News in an interview. “Hopefully that’s how we’ll proceed from now until the convention.”

Earlier Wednesday, Clinton supporters were offended by a quote Weaver gave a reporter over the weekend in Iowa. During the Jefferson-Jackson dinner on Saturday night, Sanders debuted a speech that focused on Clinton directly. The speech rankled Clinton supporters and led to charges of hypocrisy for a candidate who promised over and over not to run a negative campaign. During a late-night pizza session with Bloomberg’s John Heilemann after the speech, Weaver got snarky when talking about Clinton.

“Look, she'd make a great vice president. We're willing to give her more credit than Obama did,” he said. “We're willing to consider her for vice president. We'll give her serious consideration. We'll even interview her.”

Heilemann reported the comment was “at least half-joking.” Clinton supporters bristled. Allies of the Democratic frontrunner were quick to suggest the quote had at least a sexist tinge.

“Condescending insult by a team who knows better,” tweeted Stephanie Shriock, president of EMILY’s List, a Democratic pro-choice women’s group supporting Clinton. “Hillary is possibly most qualified ever to run & Americans know it.”

The line could be a turnoff for a campaign trying to dramatically expand its base in the ever-shortening primary calendar, said others.

“Not sure a comment like that will win them any new votes, particularly female votes,” Stephanie Cutter, President Obama’s 2012 deputy campaign manager, wrote in an email.

Weaver dismissed the sexism charge.

“It certainly, I think, could be interpreted as edgy or snarky but nothing more,” he said.

Weaver, like other Sanders officials of late, said charges of sexism from Clinton supporters will be met with stern resistance.

“When we are the subject of attacks and innuendo from a super PAC that is openly coordinating with the Clinton campaign, when the opposing campaign is going to level accusations of sexism against the senator, which have been widely criticized in the media and condemned, I think it’s important for people to know that we are not just going to take those attacks and be a punching bag for the Clinton campaign,” he said. “It’s just not what we are going to do. They launched a vicious attack on us, we let them know that we’re not going to be a punching bag and now we’re ready to resume important issues facing the country.”

This is the message Sanders and his campaign are trying to project: We want to run the weedsy, long-stump-speech, feel-the-bern, issue-focused campaign we started running, but if Clinton and her team throw a punch we’re going to throw one back.

Sanders, who has run hard on a self-described history of never running a negative campaign ad, drew a distinction between pushing back on attacks coming his way and using barbs to focus in on areas where he and Clinton are divided.

“If I am called a sexist, for example, or other charges are made against me, we will respond forcefully. Of course we will, to defend ourselves,” Sanders told CNN Wednesday. “And we will very forcefully express our disagreements with Secretary Clinton on Wall Street, on the USA Patriot Act, on the death penalty, on issues where we disagree. That's called politics.”

On Wednesday night on the Fairfax, Virginia, campus of George Mason University, the Clinton focus was largely absent at a nationwide digital college town hall. A handful of area college students introduced Sanders, and a couple took veiled shots at Clinton while reading from prepared remarks. ("Only one candidate has been consistent in his support for the LGBTQ community," said one, echoing a Sanders campaign line.)

Sanders, for the most part, steered clear of Clinton, save for a section of his standard stump speech about his vote against the Iraq War she initially supported that has been part of his remarks for months. The highlight of the event was policy, not rhetoric, with Sanders debuting a push to end the federal prohibition on marijuana he said would serve to dramatically improve racial disparities in the country.

The highlight moment of the event was not a Sanders jab at Clinton but a moment when Sanders hugged and kissed a self-described Muslim-American student who delivered an emotional speech about the way her faith is often treated in American political discourse. Sanders pledged to work to end racism as president, and delivered an especially Sanders-esque lesson on how the economically powerful use prejudice to divide the working class.

Weaver insists this is the campaign Sanders, and the rest of his team, want to run. Senior aides, Weaver among them, are quick to say Sanders has “great respect” for Clinton and that they don’t want to be talking about anything else than the issues in that deep-dive Sanders way.

He puts the blame for the amped-up rhetoric at the feet of Clinton and said it’s possible to put the sharp-elbowed genie back in the bottle.

“We have controlled the agenda in this campaign, I think it’s fair to say the other side has controlled the tone,” he said. “We hope that tone returns to the kind of civil discourse on the issues we’ve been looking for the whole time.”

Carson And Trump — The Actual Republican Frontrunners — Fade Into The Background In Colorado

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BOULDER, Colorado — The first two Republican primary debates of the 2016 cycle were a showcase for outsider candidates. But in the third debate on Wednesday, the outsiders who are dominating the race — Donald Trump and Ben Carson — were basically a non-factor.

Unusually for this election cycle, the central narrative of the debate belonged to the establishment candidates, with the most significant showdown occurring between Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush in a moment that has many observers wondering whether Bush is long for this presidential race.

This was particularly surprising in the case of Trump, whose commanding presence in the first two debates — particularly in the first — faded here. Trump didn’t speak for long stretches of time, and his speaking time clocked in at 9 minutes and 26 seconds, putting him in fourth in that metric. In the past two debates, he got a larger share of the speaking time. When he spoke, he mostly repeated now-familiar talking points. And while Trump did have a big showy attack moment like the ones that spiced up the first two debates, it was against John Kasich, who doesn’t represent a real threat to Trump’s supremacy.

Like Trump, Carson disappeared for long stretches of time while establishment candidates duked it out. Unlike Trump, Carson’s reputation doesn’t rest on brashness, and voters like his quiet demeanor, so a performance like this might have very little bearing on his overall trajectory — and in fact, it’s not much different from his performances on the previous two debate stages. Still, it’s striking to see a candidate who has become such a force in the election, polling right behind Trump, be so reticent on the stage. Carson was among the lowest in terms of speaking time, clocking in third to last at just 7 minutes and two seconds.

Carly Fiorina, another outsider who’s been successful in the past few months (though with a much different audience), also failed to make a big impact, unlike the strong performance in last month’s debate at the Reagan Library in Southern California, which helped juice her standing in the polls. She was solid and poised, but in a debate where every candidate was grasping for a big moment, she didn’t have one.

Both Trump and Carson flubbed some facts, something that could be a headache for more conventional candidates but will likely slide off here. Carson misstated the number of federal agencies and sub-agencies (he said 645; the Federal Register says 438). He also claimed to have had no involvement with Mannatech, a company that makes nutritional supplements that has been accused of making false claims about curing autism and cancer. “I didn't have an involvement with them. That is total propaganda,” Carson said. "I did a couple of speeches for them; I do speeches for other people. They were paid speeches. It is absolutely absurd to say that I had any kind of a relationship with them." Carson appeared in a promotional videos for the company and has given several paid speeches for them.

As for Trump, he claimed that he had never been critical of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for seeking to increase the number of H1B1 visas. Yet Trump made this exact criticism (and also called Marco Rubio Zuckerberg’s “personal senator”) on his own website.

It’s too early to tell whether the frontrunners’ debate performances will affect them, and the safe bet is that they won’t — yet. In this cycle, it could take much more than this to slow the darlings of the anti-establishment wave sweeping the Republican Party.

Carson’s campaign manager Barry Bennett disputed the idea that his candidate faded into the background at all.

“Look at the social media scores,” Bennett told BuzzFeed News after the debate. “One on Twitter, one on Facebook, one on Sentiment. He was off the charts.”

Bennett said “most people would give their right hand” for the amount of Twitter and Facebook followers Carson gained during the debate.

The strategy, he said, had been to “show personality” and “see if you can get the audience to react to your personality and laugh,” and he said Carson had succeeded, citing a moment when the audience booed the CNBC moderators when they pressed him on his involvement with Mannatech.

Asked by reporters after the debate if there’s anything he wished had gone differently, Carson acknowledged, “Well, you always wish you had more time.” He said his strategy now was to “just keep talking.”

Trump brooked no argument of a possible fade, telling reporters, “No fade, no fade. That’s for sure.”

Paul Ryan Elected Speaker Of The House

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WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul D. Ryan was officially elected speaker of the House Thursday morning, succeeding John Boehner as a leader considered most able to unify the Republican Party after weeks of uncertainty and chaos.

Ryan, who secured his party’s nomination for the position in a secret-ballot election Wednesday, received 236 votes, clearing the 218-vote threshold needed to become speaker. The Wisconsin Republican vowed to run the House differently and "[wipe] the slate clean" as he addressed his colleagues for the first time as speaker-elect.

"Let’s be frank: The House is broken," Ryan said. "We are not solving problems. We are adding to them. And I am not interested in laying blame. We are not settling scores. We are wiping the slate clean. Neither the members nor the people are satisfied with how things are going. We need to make some changes, starting with how the House does business."

Reluctant to accept the job at first, Ryan was ultimately able to secure the overwhelming support of moderates and conservatives within his party.

As Boehner put it in his farewell address, "There’s a difference between being asked to do something and being called to do something. Paul is being called."

The outgoing speaker offered Ryan and his colleagues some advice in his address on coming together: "Yes, freedom makes all things possible. But patience is what makes all things real. So believe in the long, slow struggle. Believe in this country’s ability to meet her challenges, and lead the world."

Hardline conservatives, who were credited with Boehner's resignation, have said they are impressed with what they’ve heard so far from Ryan on the inclusive, open way he would run the House. But it remains unclear whether the new speaker will be able to keep House Republicans united — something Boehner constantly struggled with during his tenure.

Ryan's election as speaker follows a tumultuous month in the House.

After Boehner surprised his colleagues by announcing his retirement last month, his No. 2, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, stunned House Republicans once again by pulling out of the race for speaker during a closed-door meeting where he had been expected to win his party’s nomination for the position.

Ryan — a native of Janesville, Wisconsin, who was first elected to the House when was 28 years old — had insisted he didn’t want to run for speaker, saying the job was best suited for an “empty nester.” But with no clear consensus candidate in sight, veteran Republican lawmakers were able to convince him to seriously consider mounting a bid.

In the end, the former vice presidential candidate announced he would run only if he was able to secure support from the major caucuses within the GOP conference and if he could still make time with his family a priority.

And days later, he made his bid official after clearing a major hurdle: securing the support of a supermajority of a group of influential House conservatives. The House Freedom Caucus declined to fully endorse Ryan but decided to give him enough votes, paving the way for him to declare "a new day" as leader of the House.


Mitt Romney Came To D.C. To Watch Paul Ryan Get Elected Speaker

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Mitt Romney — along with his wife Ann Romney — watched the vote for his once running-mate Paul Ryan from the House gallery Thursday morning.

Romney was reportedly one of many Republicans who urged Ryan to run for speaker.

After Ryan secured his party's nomination for speaker Wednesday, Romney announced on Twitter he was looking forward to seeing his "good buddy" elected.



Ted Cruz's Dad Says "The Devil Overplayed His Hand" By Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage

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“The next logical step is for a homosexual to come to your church and demand to be hired. Whether as pastor or as janitor it’s immaterial.”

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The father of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has argued in speeches that the devil overplayed his hand by legalizing same-sex marriage in the Supreme Court's landmark ruling earlier this year.

Rafael Cruz, a pastor and prolific speaker, also has argued in a recent speech that churches will soon be forced to either hire gay employees or face civil rights lawsuits.

"I'll tell you what, I think that the Devil overplayed his hand with this ruling on homosexual marriage," the elder Cruz said in a speech at a rally for religious liberty in North Carolina last month. "I do a lot of pastor's conferences across America, and since that decision, the number of pastors that I'm seeing at each pastor's conference has more than doubled. The church is waking up, and I think that we are about to see an unprecedented sweep across America. The sleeping giant is waking up. We are going to see a grassroots tsunami across America. To take America back. To make it again that shining city on a hill, to the glory of God."

Speaking at a pastor's breakfast at Open Door Community Church in Summerfield, Florida last month, Cruz said it was a "lie" to say politics can't legislate morality.

"If the wicked are in authority they are going to legislate their wicked brand of morality," Cruz said citing the landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage across the United States.

Cruz said the Supreme Court declared homosexuality a civil right, meaning churches would now be forced to hire homosexuals.

"The next logical step is for a homosexual to come to your church and demand to be hired," Cruz said. "Whether as pastor or as janitor it's immaterial."

Cruz added that if church declined to hire "a homosexual," it would be faced with a civil rights discrimination lawsuit.

"I think the devil overplayed his hand," Cruz repeated.

Carson Says He'll Band Together With Other Campaigns To Fix The Format For Debates

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Ben Carson greets attendees at Colorado Christian University on Thursday.

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LAKEWOOD, Colorado — Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson told reporters on Thursday that his staff is reaching out to other campaigns to discuss how to change the format of the debates.

Carson said of Wednesday's debate, "I think maybe it has the possibility of being a very important moment in American politics, because it so clearly demonstrates the need for a change in format."

"I’ve asked my staff to reach out to the other campaigns to talk about a change in format," he said in a press availability before a speech at Colorado Christian University, a small Christian college outside of Denver.

CNBC, which hosted the debate, has come under intense criticism from Republicans. Some of the campaigns felt that their candidates weren't given a fair amount of time, and Republicans have accused the moderators of losing control of the debate and of being biased. "CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled," Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement on Wednesday.

Carson didn't have many specifics in mind for what he wants the debate format to look like.

"Maybe the opportunity to lay out your plan for something and then be questioned about it and then go to the next one," he said. "That’s something that would be actually useful. Using it for political purposes just doesn’t make any sense."

Carson said he wants "moderators who are interested in actually getting the facts and not in gotcha questions" and "we’re looking for an opportunity to actually be able to explain what your program is."

He did not say he wouldn't attend the next debate if his requirements aren't met.

"We will always have the conversation of course, I don’t see any reason whatever right now to be posturing," Carson said.

Carson appeared to fade a bit into the background in Wednesday's debate, which was dominated by squabbling between establishment candidates. And despite the fact that he is polling in second place, he was near the bottom in tallies of how much speaking time candidates got. He also had to field uncomfortable questions about his involvement with Mannatech, a company that manufactures nutritional supplements that has been accused of making false claims of their efficacy in curing autism and cancer. Despite the fact that Carson has appeared in promotional videos and given paid speeches for the company, he said he had no real involvement.

Carson reiterated that on Thursday, telling reporters, "I don’t have any official involvement with them. They don’t pay me other than if I give a speech, a paid speech, and I do like the product."

He said he had not been paid to appear in promotional videos for Mannatech.

As for the paid speeches, Carson argued that he gives paid speeches to all kinds of groups.

"You name the group, I’ve spoken for them," Carson said. "It doesn’t mean that I’m endorsing them, doesn’t mean I have any special relationship with them."

Carson said he considers questions about Mannatech to be "gotcha" questions.

Club For Growth President: Rubio And Cruz Are "Gold Standards"

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“What we need to do is, on the presidential, tell people the truth about Trump, so that several other candidates who are very good, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz at the top, the gold standards, get a chance to be heard and have their messages get through the media fog.”

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David McIntosh, president of the influential conservative advocacy group Club of Growth, says Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are the "gold standards" of Republican presidential candidates.

"What we need to do is, on the presidential, tell people the truth about Trump, so that several other candidates who are very good, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz at the top, the gold standards, get a chance to be heard and have their messages get through the media fog," McIntosh said on WTMJ Wednesday while discussing why the group had gone after Donald Trump as a phony conservative. "When we looked at that we realized, the Club, we don't have to run for office, so it's okay if people get mad at us."

The Club for Growth said earlier this year they were bundling campaign donations for five candidates: Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rubio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (who dropped out), and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The group has declined to endorse a single candidate since the support of its board members is divided among those listed.

Still, McIntosh strongly defended Rubio as one of the most conservative candidates for office.

"No, not at all, he is one of the reformers who would come in and change things in Washington," he said when asked if Rubio was an "establishment" candidate. "I'm glad that he can build bridges to more establishment supporters and donors, but at his core he is a complete pro-growth, free market, limited government conservative. And as is Ted Cruz, and you know if we shift the leadership in the party to Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio, and then Paul Ryan as speaker, and we get more conservatives in the Senate, that's a huge gain for us."

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Ben Carson's Own Adviser Contradicts Him: Mannatech Question “Absolutely” Fair

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Ben Carson’s business manager, Armstrong Williams, says questions about Mannatech are “absolutely” fair after Carson himself called question “very unfair.”

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Just minutes after Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson called questions about his ties to a controversial nutritional supplement company "totally unfair," his longtime business manager and confidant said the exact opposite -- that such questions were "absolutely" fair and not "gotcha" questions.

During Wednesday's CNBC debate, Carson was asked about his 10-year relationship with Mannatech, a nutritional supplements company that paid $7 million to settle a deceptive marketing lawsuit in Texas. Carson, who appeared in promotional videos for Mannatech's products, said the idea he had any involvement with the company was "total propaganda."

In an interview Thursday with NewsMaxTV's Steve Malzberg Show, Carson said of the question, "That was very unfair, I think I made that clear." Earlier in the interview Carson said the CNBC questioners made the debate "a gotcha interview" and a "gotcha debate." Carson said he gave the debate, "the lowest mark you can give it."

Just minutes after his interview with NewsMaxTV was posted, however, Carson's longtime business manager, spokesman, and confidant, Armstrong Williams, declared on CNN's The Lead that the question was not a gotcha question and was "absolutely" fair.

"I actually negotiated the contract as his business manager," Williams said of Mannatech. Williams said Carson went to Arizona and was supposed to read a script for Mannatech but felt uncomfortable doing so. Carson gave a speech booked by his speaking agency but decided to end any relationship after that.

"He said, 'I'm not gonna say this. I'm not comfortable with this.' He said, 'I don't believe this," Williams said.

After the speech, Williams said, Carson made it clear to him he needed to get him out of any contract they had.

Here's Williams on CNN:

View Video ›

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LINK: Carson Says He’ll Band Together With Other Campaigns To Fix The Format For Debates


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