“You want someone on that stage against Hillary Clinton who has been through the wars.”

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

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Chris Christie says if "inexperienced" Marco Rubio is the Republican nominee, Hillary Clinton will "pat him on the head and then cut his heart out."

Conservative Solutions, the super PAC supporting Rubio, is airing attack ads on Christie in New Hampshire, where the New Jersey governor has devoted most of his time and energy with the hope that a win there will solidify his candidacy.

"This isn't my first rodeo and if Marco Rubio thinks by putting out a couple of negative ads on me that somehow he's going to intimidate me, it just shows how inexperienced he is, and how unprepared he is to be our candidate against someone like Hillary Clinton," the New Jersey governor and Republican presidential candidate told radio host Laura Ingraham on her program Wednesday. "You want someone on that stage against Hillary Clinton who has been through the wars."

"Not somebody who is a first time United States senator, who has never had a tough race in his life," Christie continued. Rubio was elected to the Senate from Florida in 2010 after beating early-favorite Charlie Crist in Republican primary

"This guy has been spoon fed every victory he's ever had in his life. That's the kind of person that we want to put on the stage against Hillary Clinton? I don't think so, she'll pat him on the head and then cut his heart out."

"Metaphorically, of course," Ingraham said.

"Yeah, metaphorically," Christie replied.

15th March 1972: Governor of Alabama George Wallace waves after winning the Florida Democratic primary election. (Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images)

Express / Getty Images

Segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace’s daughter and two of his former top aides said in interviews this week that candidate Donald Trump is squarely in Wallace’s racist, populist tradition.

“There are a great deal of similarities as it relates to their style and political strategies,” said Wallace’s daughter, Peggy Wallace Kennedy. “The two of them, they have adopted the notion that fear and hate are the two greatest motivators of voters. Those voters that feel alienated from the government. Those voters tend to make decisions based on an emotional level rather than intellectual.”

“They both understood, my father and Donald Trump, that low-information voters, they tend to feed off of the threats to their livelihood and safety without really considering what that threat really is, or even if it’s real,” she continued. “So daddy and Trump have this magnificent personality, a brave put-ons that the average American wants in a leader.

Wallace, who served four terms as governor of Alabama, is probably best remembered for his attempt to physically block black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama. He ran for president four times (three as a Democrat) in 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976, galvanizing white, southern voters behind his opposition to integration and his attacks on blacks and the student protest movement. His 1972 campaign was cut short when he was gunned down at a shopping mall in Laurel, Maryland.

In the 1980s, Wallace admitted to being wrong about race, and during his last run for Alabama governor, appealed to and won the support of some black voters. Wallace appointed many black leaders to political positions in his administration and personally apologized to James Hood and Vivian Malone, the pair he had once blocked from entering the University of Alabama.

Still, many remember most Wallace’s legacy during the ‘60s and ‘70s.

“He’s very similar to George Wallace in a lot of ways,” said Wallace’s 1968 campaign executive director Tom Turnipseed. “Both of them use a lot of the same kind of scare tactics and fear.”

“He appeals to the fear,” continued Turnipseed, who describes himself as a “reformed racist" (he became a civil rights lawyer and, at one point, sued the Ku Klux Klan). “That’s why he pushed the Mexican thing, and now he’s throwing the Chinese in there too. He uses that same kind of thing, that fear thing that Wallace did…. As far as the tactics they use, the scare thing, is a lot alike to be honest with you. The way they use the scare thing. In Trump’s thing it’s the Mexicans, the wetbacks that we used to call them, the Chinese too a little bit. Back in Wallace’s time it was African-American people.”

Turnipseed’s wife, Judy, who also worked for Wallace noted the similarity in his and Trump’s presentation.

“Their style is a lot alike,” she said. “They’re both very charismatic. Their rhetoric is really powerful, and they don’t really talk that much about solutions, but the fear and anxiety.”

Trump and Wallace share a flair for the flamboyant. During campaign appearances, Trump, like Wallace, uses tough language on those who interrupt his events.

“I love you too, I sure do,” Wallace said to one protester. “Oh I thought you were a she, you a he. Oh my goodness.”

In another instance, Wallace said he’d run over a group of anarchists.

“And when he was in California, a group of anarchists lay down in front of his automobile and threatened his personal safety. The president of the United States,” he said of another protester. “Well I wanna tell you, if you elect me president of the United States and I go to California, or I come to Arkansas, and some of them lie down in front of my automobile it’ll be the last one they ever want to lie down in front of.”

“Come up here after I’ve completed my speech and I’ll autograph your sandals for you,” Wallace once said to another protestors.

“I don’t know that Wallace ever had much to say what he was gonna do about things,” she continued. “Just, ‘the federal government,’ ‘the pointy headed liberals’ were trying to tell us what to do, and we were gonna stand up for ourselves and stand up for America. That kind of thing.”

“Another thing that I think is similar is that, a lot of people are saying that Trump is saying out loud what people are thinking,” she added. “They really said that about Wallace. That he articulated what people were thinking. And a lot of people are saying that’s what they like about Trump. That Trump says out loud what lots of people are thinking and don’t have enough courage to say. I’ve heard that a lot of times and that’s one of the common things that people said about Wallace.”

Peggy Wallace Kennedy, who has been vocal in her calls for "racial healing" and was an early endorser of Barack Obama's candidacy in 2008, made a similar comparison.

“They both can draw a crowd and work up a crowd,” she said. “My father was a very fiery and emotional speaker and was able to tap into the fears of the poor and working-class white people. American voters are looking for a leader who can fight first, rather fight first then seek rational solutions.

For her, the similarities even extended to campaign themes.

“One of my father’s presidential campaign themes was ‘Stand up for America’, and Trump’s is ‘Make America Great Again.’ Well the message does not suggest how you do that. It just reminds us that the average Joe who thinks America is in the dumpster, which I feel it is not. But they make you think that it is,” she said.

And for her, there was one main difference between the two men: Wallace, she said, did not go as far as Trump with personal attacks.

“I think my father had more self-restraint and respect for the institutions of government than Trump does,” she said. “I think my father understood the limitation of the executive branch of government, where I don’t think Trump does. And I think Daddy, even though he used coded language to use racial themes, he never attacked a culture based on their religion and race. He used coded language to suggest the racial themes. But he never specifically attacked a group of people based on their religion and their race. And I think Daddy had a respect for the process and the candidates. A great respect for the process and especially the process. He would have never leveled vicious attacks on the other candidates, especially those have been so personal. Daddy never would have done that.”

President Obama shakes hands with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley upon arrival in Birmingham, Alabama, on March 26, 2015.

Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images

Alabama officials entered the legal fray over the resettlement of refugees in the U.S., suing the federal government over claims that the Obama administration has failed to consult with the state over its resettlement plans.

Alleging that the Obama administration is not complying with the requirement under the Refugee Act of 1980 that the federal government consult with states on resettlements, three Alabama state officials are seeking a court order that the administration "may not place refugees within the State of Alabama unless and until they have fulfilled those consultation duties and obligations to the State of Alabama."

Concerns about the resettlement of Syrian refugees — and, as the discussions continued, broader concerns about the refugee resettlement process in general — were raised by more than half of the nation's governors in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris that left more than 100 people dead.

"Regarding security, Alabama shares the concerns of the intelligence community – including those of the Nation’s highest ranking intelligence officials – that sufficient information is lacking to ensure that certain refugees – including those from Syria – have neither provided material support to terrorists nor are terrorists themselves," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit is filed by private attorneys and Gov. Robert Bentley's chief legal adviser on behalf of the state of Alabama; Alabama Medicaid Agency Commissioner Stephanie McGee Azar; Acting State Health Officer Thomas M. Miller, M.D.; and Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Secretary Spencer Collier.

"The Refugee Act of 1980 requires that the federal government 'shall consult regularly (not less often than quarterly) with State and local governments and private nonprofit voluntary agencies concerning the sponsorship process and the intended distribution of refugees among the States and localities before their placement in those States and localities,'" according to the lawsuit.

Texas previously filed a similar lawsuit, and federal officials have maintained that they have provided sufficient consultation under the law.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange's spokesperson has not responded to multiple requests for comment on the lawsuit, and Strange has not issued a news release or mentioned the lawsuit on Twitter.

This is a developing story.

From the lawsuit:

Read the complaint:

Oscar Ray Bolin in 2012

Chris Urso / AP

Oscar Ray Bolin, who was convicted of stabbing three young women to death in the 1980s, was executed Thursday night in Florida, marking the first U.S. execution of 2016.

Bolin was convicted in the fatal beating and stabbing of Teri Lynn Matthews in 1986 as well as the killing of two other young women in Florida: Stephanie Collins and Natalie Holley.

Hours after Bolin's execution was scheduled to begin, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final requests for a stay. He was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 10:16 p.m.

Matthews was taken from a post office north of Tampa, according to court documents. Police later found her body on the side of the road, wrapped in a sheet imprinted with a hospital's logo. Bolin's half-brother testified that he helped Bolin move the body in to his truck after he was woken up in the middle of the night. Bolin's ex-wife was a diabetic and said the sheet matched the ones she would take home from the hospital.

Earlier in the year, Holley was taken after leaving work at a fast-food restaurant and Collins disappeared from a shopping center. All of the victims were stabbed to death.

Bolin claims he is innocent in last-minute legal challenges to his execution. He says that another inmate, who has since committed suicide, confessed to the Matthews murder and that the FBI hair analysis technique used was later discredited. But so far, the state Supreme Court and the federal district and appeals courts have denied his requests for a stay. He has also been denied clemency.

Bolin is also known for marrying a paralegal on his defense team. Bolin met Rosalie Martinez during his trial and then got married – on live TV — in 1996.

"It made kind of a mockery of the whole thing," Kathleen Reeves, Matthews' mother, told the Tampa Bay Times. "You have to put it out of your mind sometimes."

The mothers of the three victims attended many of the trials together, according to the Associated Press. Reeves says it doesn't matter that Bolin isn't facing the death penalty for all three cases since, she said, "He only dies once. He dies for all of our girls."

“This is not the way we act as Americans and I dare say that the federal government’s exercising a lot of restraint here,” continued O’Malley. “It’s hard to fathom or it’s hard to imagine if the people taking over buildings by armed force were Muslim or black, as some commentators have said, it would be the same reaction.”

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

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Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said it's hard to fathom the federal government would have a muted reaction to the armed stand-off at a federal building in Oregon if the occupiers were black or Muslim.

A small militia is occupying the headquarters building at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in a spontaneous slumber party in rural Oregon as part of a protest against the federal government and the imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers.

"Yeah, I don't know what the heck you call them, you call them burglars. You call them terrorists. One thing that they are not is militia," the former Maryland governor said on KDTH radio this week. "People, who with armed force and the threat of armed force, take over buildings. Whether they are federal buildings, state buildings, country buildings, or private buildings, this is lawless and criminal behavior. I hope that they will come to their senses and this can be resolved without any bloodshed."

The armed militia occupying the building are mostly white middle-aged men.

"This is not the way we act as Americans and I dare say that the federal government's exercising a lot of restraint here," continued O'Malley. "It's hard to fathom or it's hard to imagine if the people taking over buildings by armed force were Muslim or black, as some commentators have said, it would be the same reaction. Some hopefully this will get resolved peacefully they are not militia they're acting in criminal ways, this is criminal behavior."

O'Malley remains languishing in the presidential polls.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Florida Rep. John L. Mica penned a letter to President Obama detailing a round of actions he should take rather than conduct a town hall on gun violence on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Obama outlined a series of gun control measures that largely involve hiring more people at federal agencies to enforce current background check regulations and revisit those procedures.

In a letter to Obama, Mica said most gun homicides are attributed to factors he said that the president to conduct town hall meetings with "young thugs in homicide prone cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, and New Orleans" instead

Mica called on Obama to direct federal resources to promote fatherhood, and to produce a video "directed at young men, explaining the responsibilities of fatherhood and the proper respect for human life."

Here's the full letter:

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

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Mike Huckabee said in an interview on Wednesday that evangelical groups won't support his presidential campaign out of fear they would no longer be able to fundraise if Christian policies were to actually be put in place.

In an interview with Fox News pundit Todd Starnes on his podcast, the former governor of Arkansas was asked if he felt betrayed by evangelical leaders and organizations that have gravitated towards Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio.

"Well, certainly a sense of disappointment, and yet I do understand because, as I've often said, 'I don't go to them, I come from them,' but because of that I do understand them," Huckabee said. “A lot of them, quite frankly, I think they're scared to death that if a guy like me got elected, I would actually do what I said I would do, and that is, I would focus on the personhood of every individual. We would abolish abortion based on the Fifth and 14th Amendment. We would ignore the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision.”

Huckabee said that, as a result of his presidency, evangelical organizations would no longer be able to galvanize their supporters and fundraise.

“A lot of these organizations wouldn't have the ability to do urgent fundraising because if we slay the dragon, what dragon do they continue to fight? And so, for many of them, it could be a real detriment to their organization's abilities to gin up their supporters and raise the contributions, and I know that sounds cynical but, Todd, it’s just, it is what it is," Huckabee said.

Huckabee added that evangelicals were basing their support on secular grounds, instead of their faith in God.

"I think sometimes, while people say, ‘we’re praying about this, we’re asking God,’ that’s fine, but it seems like the criteria that I’ve been told for selecting candidates seems very secular," Huckabee said. "It’s about well, this person is polling well, this person has the cash. And I’m thinking, you know if these guys were going up against goliath they would’ve insisted that it was the big guy, with the king’s armor--they never would’ve allowed that shepherd boy with the five smooth stones, and with Gideon's army, they would’ve run for cover when God got gideon's army down to 300."

Joe Allbaugh in 2001, after being named director of FEMA.

J. Scott Applewhite / ASSOCIATED PRESS

The interim director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections will be Joe Allbaugh, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003, the Oklahoma Board of Corrections announced Thursday.

The announcement came a month after the previous director, Robert Patton, resigned in the wake of the state having made several mistakes in carrying out executions and in the midst of investigations into the mistakes.

After working in Oklahoma politics for some time, Allbaugh served as Bush's campaign manager when he ran for governor in 1994 and then worked as his chief of staff and later on his presidential campaign. He later served as Rick Perry's campaign manager when he ran for president in 2012.

The chair of the Oklahoma Board of Corrections, Kevin Gross, said it "might be interesting" to have someone without direct corrections experience run the prison system, according to a Tulsa World reporter.

Allbaugh will take over the department in the midst of upheaval. Patton announced his resignation in early December, as a grand jury was investigating deviations from the execution protocol under his watch.

In a New York Times report on Allbaugh and his role at FEMA in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the newspaper wrote, "Mr. Allbaugh (he is Joe, not Joseph) has experience imposing order on chaos." Allbaugh was responsible, however, for bringing Mike Brown into the agency — the person who became his successor and was heavily criticized for his handling of the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Patton's resignation announcement came weeks after a BuzzFeed News investigation found a pattern of mistakes followed Patton from his time working in corrections in Arizona.

Patton admitted in 2011 that there were several deviations from Arizona's protocol, like allowing unqualified executioners, not doing the proper checks on professional licenses and criminal background checks on them, that he never checked the forms that would indicate which drugs were actually used, and that he allowed a sheet to cover the IV.

Several of these same issues led to botched executions in Oklahoma. In his first execution as director, Clayton Lockett sat up on the gurney after he was declared unconscious. An investigation into why he took 43 minutes to die found it was caused largely by the executioners not being able to see the IV due to a sheet covering it.

In Patton's second execution as director, Charles Warner told witnesses that his "body [was] on fire" as he died. Later, it was revealed that the state used the wrong drug in the execution.

In what would have been his third execution as director, the state obtained, and briefly considered using, the wrong drugs. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office informed the corrections department that they could not use a drug not in the protocol, and eventually decided to start the grand jury investigation into the state's executions.

The warden at the prison, Anita Trammell, resigned in October. Patton's last day in the office was December. The Department of Corrections insists that both resignations are unrelated to the grand jury investigation — that Trammell had been considering retiring and that Patton wanted to be closer to family.

Patton's new job will be as a deputy warden at a prison in Arizona run by the GEO Group, a private prison company. The career change has a state lawmaker in Oklahoma questioning the legality, as Patton signed contracts with GEO Group during his time as director in Oklahoma.

“It helps to be tall.”

Donald Trump said Thursday that Marco Rubio might have been better off not rocking the shiny black boots with a heel that has had his opponents cracking jokes all week.

"Well, I can't quite, I don't, you won't see me wearing them," Trump said on the The Howie Carr Show. "I don't know what to think of those boots."

"It helps to be tall," added Trump. "I don't know, they're big heels. They're big heels. I mean, those heels were really up there. But you know, it's almost like, it doesn't matter too much. Probably he would have been better off not going that route. Would you say? I noticed he's taken a lot of hits. I just hope it works out fine for him."

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Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty Images

The former state senator challenging Sen. John McCain in Arizona's Republican primary criticized the senator on Thursday for questioning Ted Cruz’s eligibility to be president.

“I was stunned when I heard what John McCain said," Kelli Ward, McCain's tea party-backed challenger, told BuzzFeed News in a statement. "I couldn't believe my ears – he was questioning Ted Cruz's citizenship when he was in a similar situation himself!”

McCain was born on a military base in Panama.

Ward continued, “This is just one more reason that our next conservative president needs strong reinforcements in Congress. Can you imagine what a President Ted Cruz would have to deal with if we still have a Senator John McCain in the Senate?”

McCain said in a radio interview on Wednesday that he wasn’t sure whether the Canadian-born Cruz was eligible to be president. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said this week that Cruz's Canadian birth could be a problem for the GOP.

Cruz responded to McCain's comments in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, saying that the Arizona senator only questioned his citizenship because he secretly backs Marco Rubio’s bid for the presidency.

In her statement on Thursday, Ward questioned McCain’s conservatism.

“McCain has been more critical of Cruz than he has been of Obama. Mr. McCain's disdain for conservatives has gone too far - his desire to cling to the empire he has created for himself inside the Beltway has clouded his vision. The people of Arizona and the US are looking to change DC and the status quo. Questions like this, by a senior senator regarding a top contender for the presidency from the same party, are divisive and unnecessary.”

Ted Cruz speaks at Rustix Restaurant and Event Center in Humboldt, Iowa

Mark Kauzlarich / Reuters

WEBSTER CITY, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz dismissed Donald Trump's latest salvo concerning his citizenship status on Thursday.

"No, it’s not anything that’s going to happen, and I'm not going to be taking legal advice anytime soon from Donald Trump," Cruz said.

Trump tweeted at Cruz on Thursday morning, saying "Ted--free legal advice on how to pre-empt the Dems on citizen issue. Go to court now & seek Declaratory Judgment--you will win!" For the past few days, Trump has been raising questions about Cruz's status as a natural-born citizen, citing the fact that Cruz was born in Canada, even though Cruz was born with American citizenship to an American citizen mother and has renounced his Canadian citizenship. Trump has also raised doubts in the past about President Obama's birth.

"My response when Donald tossed this attack out was simply to tweet out a video of Fonzie from Happy Days jumping a shark and to move on," Cruz said, calling the current moment the "silly season" of politics.

Cruz also repeated criticism he levied at John McCain earlier in a Bloomberg Politics interview after McCain lent credence to the questions over Cruz's eligibility, saying he did it because he's planning to support rival Marco Rubio. Though Cruz has been avoiding criticizing Trump despite the attacks, he was more pointed when it came to McCain, a key player in the Republican establishment Cruz has built his career railing against.

"It is no surprise, everybody knows that John McCain is going to endorse Marco Rubio," Cruz said. "Their foreign policies are almost identical, their immigration policies are identical, and so it’s no surprise that people who are supporting other candidates in this race are gonna jump on the silly attacks that occur as we get closer and closer to election day."

Cruz was speaking before an event in an airport hangar here during his six-day bus tour across Iowa taking place this week.

“Come on man. Let’s get to the issues.”

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

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Jeb Bush says he doesn't think his Republican presidential opponent Ted Cruz has eligibility issues stemming from his Canadian birth, and placed blame on Donald Trump for perpetuating the controversy.

The former governor of Florid told Sean Hannity on the radio Thursday when asked if he thought Cruz's eligibility was an issue: "No, I don't. I'll just leave it at that."

"You know this is what Trump does," Bush continued. "He says something and then he pulls back. 'Well I didn't say it, someone else said it. I'm just repeating what someone else said.' Come on man. Let's get to the issues."

In an interview with the Washington Post on Tuesday, Donald Trump said Ted Cruz's Canadian birth would be a "big problem" for the Republican Party. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul added on Wednesday that he was not sure if Cruz was eligible to be president of the United States either. (Both men previously had said it was not an issue.) On the same day, Arizona Sen. John McCain also said that he wasn't sure if Cruz was eligible.

“These are guys by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty.”

Maine Gov. Paul LePage went on a racially-charged rant Wednesday night, singling out heroin traffickers from New York and Connecticut with names like "D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty" who enter his state and impregnate "young, white women."

Reuters Photographer / Reuters

"The traffickers, these aren't people who take drugs. These are guys by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty," LePage, a Republican, said during a discussion of the state's heroin epidemic at a town hall event. "These type of guys that come from Connecticut and New York. They come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home."

"Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave," he added. "Which is the real sad thing, because then we have another issue that we have to deal with down the road."

Here's the video:

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Aaron P. Bernstein / Getty Images

WEBSTER CITY, Iowa — Ted Cruz is doing his best to avoid Donald Trump’s birther-style attacks, but it’s not easy when you’re on a bus tour with a pack of reporters questioning you about it every chance they get.

And when another rival candidate echoes the questions about whether Cruz is really eligible to be president, given his Canadian birth. And when a nemesis of yours in the Senate lends credence to the question, too.

So far, Cruz has dismissed the growing miasma the same way he has done in the past. (Trump has also raised questions about Cruz's evangelical Christianity and claimed Cruz.) He tries to ignore the jab, responds with a jokey counter-jab, blames the media for inflating the controversy and forcing him to talk about it, insists he likes Trump, and repeats as needed. Trump has succeeded — again — in getting the media and other candidates to deal with the topics he wants them dealing with, in the midst of Cruz’s splashy Iowa bus tour.

But if Trump’s goal is to turn voters against Cruz, there’s no evidence it’s working. It’s just not clear that this is an issue voters are particularly interested in litigating, though, unlike with the birther movement that centered around Obama during the 2008 election — and there’s just too much goodwill for Cruz here in Iowa. The same genre of attack that destroyed the likes of Jeb Bush seemingly can’t be applied to Cruz, whose supporters are much more committed and less tenuous than Bush’s.

“[Trump] goes after everybody, even poor people who have handicap issues,” said Mary Lawson, 59, before Cruz’s appearance in Sioux Center. “He says some awful things. I don’t want that as our president, can you imagine?”

“Ultimately any time [Trump] attacks anybody it’s because something good is happening with them and that’s why he does it,” said Jim Bolkema, 61, after the same event. “So the moment somebody starts emerging, that’s when he goes on those kind of attacks. I’d say if [Cruz] is getting those kind of attacks from Donald Trump, he should be happy, because that means he’s scared of him.”

“I would care if I thought it was legitimate,” said Vickie Froehlich, 61, who drove from Minnesota to see Cruz in Pocahontas, Iowa, on Thursday. “But I don’t. And I admire Mr. Cruz, who has said he is not attacking people.”

Trump has said stuff that’s “not necessary,” said Amber Bailey, 37, who is choosing between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and attended Cruz’s event on Wednesday in Spirit Lake. “This week he’s going after Senator Cruz for the Canada thing – like, mind your own business and take care of your own stuff.”

Trump is a “jerk,” said Nathan Lichter, 28, who saw Cruz on Wednesday night in Storm Lake. “I think he’s not nice. I think you can be conservative, be very far right conservative, and still be kind and unifying and not divisive.”

Trump is a “bum,” said Tim Bever, 65, who went on Wednesday to see Cruz at a town hall event in Spencer. “I think we see through him. We see a suit, all the money, what goes with it.”

There’s also a contingent of Cruz supporters who see this as just the cost of doing business.

“It was a legitimate concern with Obama,” said Wayne Wolf, 56, at Cruz’s stop in Pocahontas. “People fall on both sides of the issue, I think it’s a legitimate question to raise. I don’t have a problem with him raising a question about Cruz.” However, Wolf said, he’s read up on it and doesn’t believe there’s a problem with Cruz’s eligibility.

Gary, 71, who was attending Cruz’s event in Storm Lake and didn’t want to give his last name, said he’s still choosing between Cruz and Trump and that Trump’s attacks don’t influence him either way.

“It’s part of the politics, part of the game,” he said.

Trump’s motivation isn’t really a mystery. Cruz is basically tied or leading in Iowa polls and is rapidly consolidating support among Iowa’s conservative elite. Family Leader head Bob Vander Plaats and Rep. Steve King, both conservative stalwarts known and loved in Iowa and key endorsements for Cruz, have been accompanying Cruz on stops along his bus tour. Over the past two days, the campaign has named both of them as national co-chairs.

Speaking with BuzzFeed News on Tuesday night, King dismissed the Trump birtherism out of hand.

“I think Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen of the United States of America, so that would be my answer to that,” King said. “Do you see anybody that was in the polls that looked like they were closing in or polling ahead of Donald Trump, and [him] not having attacked them? He promised he was going to do this, so I think it’s completely predictable.”

Cruz responded early to Trump by gently implying that Trump has jumped the shark, and has refused to go further than that. “I’m gonna stick with Fonzie jumping the shark and I’m gonna let the rest of y’all battle it out and that’s fine,” Cruz said on Tuesday evening. “I like Donald Trump, I like everyone on the Republican side who’s running for president, and you guys have seen as others have thrown rocks, as others have tossed insults, I haven’t reciprocated, and I don’t intend to start now.”

(This approach hasn’t slowed down Trump at all; on Thursday morning, Trump tweeted at Cruz offering “free legal advice” for avoiding a legal entanglement over the birth question.)

While Cruz is largely giving Trump a free pass on the citizenship questions, he’s not doing so with John McCain, who said in a radio interview that it’s legitimate to question Cruz’s eligibility and that he doesn’t know whether Cruz is a natural-born citizen or not. Cruz told Bloomberg Politics in an interview on Thursday that McCain is playing into the birther rumors because of his alleged clandestine support for Rubio. Cruz repeated this claim while talking to reporters ahead of a campaign appearance in Webster City on Thursday afternoon.

"It is no surprise, everybody knows that John McCain is going to endorse Marco Rubio. Their foreign policies are almost identical, their immigration policies are identical, and so it’s no surprise that people who are supporting other candidates in this race are gonna jump on the silly attacks that occur as we get closer and closer to election day,” Cruz said.

Cruz noted that most of the voters he encounters don’t seem particularly interested in this issue.

“As we travel the state of Iowa, none of these silly attacks that other candidates are pushing are being raised by real live voters,” Cruz said.

A protest against the raids, held in Florida this week

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — White House officials hope the decision to launch scores of immigration raids targeting Central American immigrants will act as a deterrent against a new wave of mass migration by women and children fleeing violence in the region.

During a closed door meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, officials said the raids were “a clear way to send a signal to folks in Central America not to come,” a lawmaker in the meeting told BuzzFeed News Thursday.

The lawmaker, who asked not to be named so as to speak freely, characterized the meeting as tense. “Everyone was pissed off they did these raids,” the lawmaker said.

Asked about the meeting, an administration official told BuzzFeed News that while the administration is aware of violent conditions in parts of Central America, people who had crossed into the country illegally will be sent home after "being provided an opportunity to have their cases heard."

"As we have said, in the spring and summer of 2014, our country saw an unprecedented spike in families and unaccompanied children from Central America attempting to illegally cross our southern border ... While we recognize the serious underlying conditions that cause some people to flee their home countries, at the same time we cannot allow our borders to be open to illegal migration," the administration official told BuzzFeed News on Thursday. "Those who come here illegally will be sent home after being provided an opportunity to have their cases heard, consistent with our laws and values."

The official also noted that the raids were part of a strategy announced in November 2014 in response to the surge of undocumented immigrants and that, “As a nation, we must secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws consistent with our priorities. At all times, we endeavor to do this consistent with American values, and basic principles of decency, fairness, and humanity."

The Obama administration is hoping to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2014, when thousands of immigrants — largely women and children — came to the southern border amid state and gang violence in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. The issue became a political flashpoint.

A new wave of immigration this summer would almost certainly become a major political war: Immigration has dominated the Republican primary so far, and masses of immigrants showing up at the border during the convention could prove complicated for the Democratic nominee.

During the meeting, according to the lawmaker, the administration seemed cool to the idea of classifying immigrants from Central America as refugees as a way to allow them to remain in the country. Additionally, the lawmaker said, officials had little response when members repeatedly pointed out that Cubans who come to the U.S. are still automatically given legal status to stay in the country but Central Americans are not, even though the U.S. and Cuba have begun normalizing relations.

But when it came to lawmaker criticism of the timing of the raids, White House officials were ready. According to the lawmaker, officials insisted they had not initially intended to publicize the raids — which have enraged immigration activists — just before Christmas. But an unauthorized “leak” forced the Department of Homeland Security’s hand.

Overall, the lawmaker said while it was a “decent meeting … I will say there wasn’t a real resolution."

Ayotte last year when announcing her re-election bid.

Jim Cole / AP

BELMONT, N.H. — About two months before Donald Trump officially announced he was running for president, he asked for a brief, private meeting with New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte in his early attempt to court Granite State leaders and activists.

"I didn't even know he was going to get in the race then," Ayotte said of the April meeting in an interview with BuzzFeed News. "He wanted to meet me, and I mean I wanted to meet him out of curiosity, because at that point, honestly, I wasn't even sure he'd be a candidate in the race."

They didn't talk much, Ayotte says, but nearly a year later — and weeks ahead of the New Hampshire's GOP presidential primary — Trump is a clear frontrunner in the state and has complicated the senator's already tight re-election bid.

"I don't think anyone foresaw this," Ayotte said in the interview, which fell between a packed day of constituent events.

She had just presented a long-overdue bronze star to a teary, 94-year-old World War II veteran in a surprise ceremony. Earlier, she’d toured a naval shipyard with Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Susan Collins of Maine, and updated the Londonderry Rotary Club over breakfast on her work in the Senate last year.

At the breakfast early on Wednesday morning, Ayotte name-dropped her Democratic colleague, Shaheen, four times in 45 minutes and emphasized her work on local issues — from fighting back new school lunch regulations to repealing the tax on the medical device industry, which has a growing presence in the state.

In those same remarks and later in the day at a town hall, Ayotte also reminded voters of her past experience in working with law enforcement as the state's attorney general while addressing the drug epidemic in the state.

Locked in a dead heat with her Democratic opponent Gov. Maggie Hassan, Ayotte is trying to distance herself from the presidential race and its candidates by constantly stressing her bipartisan tenure and work on local issues in small meetings with constituents — a stark contrast to the campaign Trump is running in the state.

Known more for his loud, well-attended rallies than retail politicking, the real estate mogul drew an estimated 1,500 to a packed high school gym in Claremont on Tuesday night. (While the crowd waited in the cold to get into the event, Ayotte staffers walked up and down the long line collecting voter information for their own campaign).

During his wide-ranging remarks, Trump berated members of the House and Senate for the recent passage of the bipartisan spending bill — the same measure Ayotte breaks down for constituents in explaining her accomplishments for the state last year.

“There’s anger in our country because the people are smart,” Trump said at the rally. “The people representing them are either dishonest, not smart, incompetent, or they have some other agenda that we don’t even know.”

At the event, Trump once again trumpeted his controversial proposals of banning Muslims from entering the country and making Mexico pay for a wall along the Southern border. He even accused his opponent Sen. Ted Cruz — although not by name — for stealing his idea to build that wall.

Most of the crowd cheered and nodded in agreement.

"If Donald Trump is the nominee, Kelly Ayotte might as well resign because it's all over."

But Trump’s comments and proposals have in recent weeks caused a lot of anxiety among party leaders concerned about the re-election prospects of Ayotte and other moderate Republicans running in swing states. Republicans are defending a narrow majority in the Senate and can’t afford to lose independent voters in swing states, or risk low turnout for Republicans less charmed by Trump.

"If Donald Trump is the nominee, Kelly Ayotte might as well resign because it's all over," said Fergus Cullen, former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, who tried to keep the businessman off the ballot in the state, arguing he wasn't a Republican. "He’s hurting every Republican across the country by pushing away the exact constituencies we need to win."

She’s in a bind: Ayotte can’t entirely distance herself from Trump to win over moderates and independents (an important part of New Hampshire’s electorate); right-wing activists in the state are still trying to recruit a primary challenger to run against her. But that causes problems, too: Democrats attack her for refusing to say that she won’t back Trump if he’s the nominee. The challenges won’t end anytime soon, either, given the state’s deadline to file paperwork to run in a primary against Ayotte isn’t until June 10. (A last-minute bid against the incumbent — whose campaign has $6 million on hand — would be an uphill climb, but would likely exacerbate the delicate political situation for Ayotte.)

Ayotte has, however, condemned some of Trump’s comments, and her supporters point out she has not hesitated to criticize members of her own party in the past, hinting she could make a political calculation to go after Trump harder depending on the outcome of the state’s GOP presidential primary. In recent months, she’s taken on Cruz and called for scandal-plagued New Hampshire Rep. Frank Guinta to resign.

When asked once again if she would support GOP nominee Trump, Ayotte continued to hedge. “We're a long way from a decision on who’s going to get this nomination. Feb 9 is going to be an important day in New Hampshire. I'm going to see how that plays out,” she said in the interview.

Pressed again, Ayotte responded: “I'm just watching this primary play out. And I'm going to listen to the voice of the people of New Hampshire.”

But no matter how hard Ayotte tries to stick to the issues at events, she inevitably gets asked about the presidential race. When questioned about the presidential primary at the Rotary Club breakfast Wednesday, Ayotte joked, “Can we start with the easy questions?” before giving her standard response that includes some subtle digs at Trump.

“Right now, we’re in the process where we have such a multi-candidate primary that I think our role is going to very important this time around in how we narrow this field in a way that can give a nominee that can unify the country,” she said.

“I haven’t endorsed anyone, but what I’d like to see is someone who can unify the country, and I’d like to see someone who has the right type of experience to make it happen, but also with a very positive vision for the fiscal strength of the country and for how the country remains safe. I feel just as much in the air as anyone else right now.”

But for all the concerns about Ayotte and other down-ballot Republicans’ fates being tied to Trump, those supporting or considering backing the real estate mogul aren't buying what they call "all Washington talk.”

Tom Harrington, a retired attendee at the Claremont rally, was one of Trump's supporters who dismissed the billionaire's effect on the party’s brand. "I could care less. The Republican brand right now looks like this," he said, motioning a thumbs down sign.

Pointing to businessman Matt Bevin's win as governor of Kentucky in 2015, another Trump supporter at the event, Paul Melnikov, called establishment Republicans' concerns about losing seats in Congress "completely false." "Republicans will benefit from Trump," insisted Melnikov, an IT professional.

In fact, comments from presidential candidates like Jeb Bush and other members of the party about not understanding Trump’s resilience in the polls exemplify why the GOP’s brand needs to change, argued Don Wenz, the retired president of Lebanon college who also attended the event.

“I think he’s going to change the brand. It needs to be changed… He’s great for Republicans,” Wenz said. “They need him because it can’t be any worse in Washington.”

“We need Republicans to understand this side of the party.”

Mark Kauzlarich / Reuters

GOLDFIELD, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called for a "retroactive assessment" of refugees already in the country in the wake of terror arrests that reportedly involve two refugees from Iraq.

"There is no doubt we need a retroactive assessment of refugees who have been admitted into this country," Cruz told reporters after a campaign stop here. "We need to systematically examine the national security threats, and I’ll tell you one of the greatest challenges with the Obama administration assessing security risks is the bizarre, the indefensible political correctness of refusing to acknowledge what it is we're fighting."

Cruz said he wants such an assessment to focus "on those coming from countries with high concentrations of radical Islamic terrorism, high concentrations of Al Qaeda or ISIS or Hamas or Hezbollah."

Asked to clarify exactly what the retroactive assessment would look like, Cruz said, "We need to see a systematic and careful retroactive assessment of refugees brought in from high risk countries, to examine the public record, to examine all of the evidence that might indicate whether these individuals have ties to radical Islamic terrorism. What communications, what statements have they
made, what actions have they done."

Cruz mentioned Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who posted on YouTube a "call to jihad," Cruz said. Tsarnaev's YouTube account featured two videos showing a Dagestani jihadist. (The Tsarnaevs were not technically refugees; their parents received asylum.) Cruz also brought up Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hassan (who is American-born) as an example of "the deadly consequences of this political correctness," saying the Obama administration knew Hassan communicated with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki but did nothing. He also mentioned San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik, who got through the vetting process for a fiancée visa.

Federal authorities announced on Thursday that two terror-related arrests had been made in Sacramento and in Houston. The Sacramento suspect reportedly came to the U.S. as a refugee from Iraq in 2012, and is accused of lying to authorities about traveling to Syria to fight. The Houston suspect, also a refugee from Iraq who came in 2009, is charged with seeking to provide material support to ISIS.

Cruz also called for Congress to pass three pieces of legislation he has introduced that would bar all refugees from areas that are significantly controlled by terrorist groups, allow governors to opt out of accepting Syrian refugees into their states, and revoke the U.S. citizenship of Americans fighting for terror groups. So far, Cruz's legislative efforts have not come to fruition.

Cruz said the arrests underscore "how utterly indefensible President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s proposal is to bring tens of thousands of Syrian refugees into this country" is.

The refugee crisis this past year, one of the byproducts of the long and bloody Syrian civil war, made the question of accepting Syrian refugees into the U.S. one of the most contentious issues in the presidential election. The most extreme position was taken by Donald Trump, who has called for a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration into the U.S.

“I think that there is only one answer that can be reached, and I am hopeful that will be the outcome that the FBI achieves.”

Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Republican member of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, says he's "hopeful" that the Justice Department will indict Hillary Clinton for the presence of classified information on her private email server.

"It is fair to say that there is increasing evidence of an enormous amount of information that was classified. It was classified when it was on her server and it was classified when it was sent," Pompeo said on the Lars Larson Show Thursday. "My guess is that the FBI has determined that same thing, and so I am anxious to see the FBI and Justice Department make their determination here as quickly as possible."

The Kansas congressman added that the only outcome he sees is criminal charges for Clinton.

"I think that there is only one answer that can be reached, and I am hopeful that will be the outcome that the FBI achieves," he said. "These are just facts. We've all seen the reports of the classified information on her server. It could not and should not have been lawfully handled in the way that she did it."

Asked what would happen if Clinton wasn't charged, perhaps for political reasons, Pompeo said he would demand answers.

"I'm hopeful that won't be the case," said Pompeo.

The prognosis is good, the doctor says.

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Ben Carson says he doesn't believe Ted Cruz's Canadian birth presents an eligibility issue in running for president.

"It seems to me like the rules are fairly well-specified in terms of who qualifies to be a natural born," the Republican presidential candidate told NewsMaxTV's Steve Malzberg Show on Thursday. "If your parent is a citizen of the United States, and you're born on foreign soil, you are still an American citizen. And that has always been the case as far as I know. One of my children was born on foreign soil and they're a natural born citizen."

"For me it's not an issue," added Carson.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio have also said there is no issue with Cruz's Canadian birth.

In an interview with the Washington Post on Tuesday, Donald Trump said Ted Cruz's Canadian birth would be a "big problem" for the Republican Party. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul added on Wednesday that he was not sure if Cruz was eligible to be president of the United States either. (Both men previously had said it was not an issue.) On the same day, Arizona Sen. John McCain also said that he wasn't sure if Cruz was eligible.

In an email newly released by the State Department, Hillary Clinton directed an aide, if talking points could not be sent through a secure line, to "turn into nonpaper" with "no identifying heading and send nonsecure."

The email, sent in June of 2011, follows an exchange about whether Clinton had received the information.

State Department

Any details beyond that — what the talking points concerned, how or whether that information was classified, what Clinton actually means by the phrase "nonpaper," or whether the information was actually sent nonsecure — is not clear from the specific email.

A State Department official told BuzzFeed News that there was no indication that the document discussed in the email was emailed to Clinton.

"I’m not going to speculate about whether the document being discussed was classified," the official said. "Generally speaking, I can say that just because a document is sent via a secure method doesn’t mean that it’s classified. Many documents that are created or stored on a secure system are not classified."

Clinton has maintained repeatedly over the past year that she did not send or receive marked classified information on the personal email account she used as secretary of state, and which was housed on a private server.