Good morning everyone! Happy Tuesday to you!

Joining today's show are Steve Rattner, Nicholas Confessore, Mark Halperin, Eugene Robinson, Richard Haass, Kasie Hunt, Amy Holmes, Rep. Jim Jordan, Fmr. Sen. Chris Dodd, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Bianna Golodryga, Brian Sullivan, John Green and more.

Donald trump is a confusing man. Actually, he is not confusing. he just refuses to admit that he could have been wrong by making his joke about John McCain getting captured over the weekend. Like Joe is saying now at the outset of today's show. He is bumbling and fumbling around trying to walk back the comment. I want to post the WAPO  article. The headline reads like an interesting one:

What Donald Trump was up to while John McCain was a prisoner of war
It was the spring of 1968, and Donald Trump had it good.

He was 21 years old and handsome with a full head of hair. He avoided the Vietnam War draft on his way to earning an Ivy League degree. He was fond of fancy dinners, beautiful women and outrageous clubs. Most important, he had a job in his father’s real estate company and a brain bursting with money-making ideas that would make him a billionaire.

“When I graduated from college, I had a net worth of perhaps $200,000,” he said in his 1987 autobiography “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” written with Tony Schwartz. (That’s about $1.4 million in 2015 dollars.) “I had my eye on Manhattan.”

More than 8,000 miles away, John McCain sat in a tiny, squalid North Vietnamese prison cell. The Navy pilot’s body was broken from a plane crash, starvation, botched operations and months of torture.

As Trump was preparing to take Manhattan, McCain was trying to relearn how to walk.

The stark contrast in their fortunes was thrown into sharp relief Saturday when Trump belittled McCain during a campaign speech in Iowa.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said of McCain.

“He’s a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said sarcastically. “I like people that weren’t captured.”

[McCain makes his first public comments since incident: Trump should apologize to military families]

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a decorated Vietnam war veteran, was not a war hero because he was captured by the North Vietnamese. Trump’s comments drew scorn from his fellow Republican presidential contenders. But The Donald didn’t back down.

“When I left the room, it was a total standing ovation,” he told ABC News in reference to his already infamous Iowa speech. “It was wonderful to see. Nobody was insulted.”

In fact, a lot of people were insulted.

[The Take: Trump’s comments mark a turning point for him — and the GOP]

“John McCain is a hero, a man of grit and guts and character personified,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said in a statement. “He served and bled and endured unspeakable acts of torture. His captors broke his bones, but they couldn’t break his spirit, which is why he refused early release when he had the chance. That’s heroism, pure and simple, and it is unimpeachable.”

If Trump doesn’t think that that’s heroic, then what, exactly, is admirable in his eyes?

And what was he doing while McCain was locked up in the infamous prison that POWs sarcastically dubbed the Hanoi Hilton?

The answer reveals deep divides in the two men’s lives and claims to leadership. They may similarly embrace free enterprise, but when it comes to character, the two GOP presidential hopefuls could hardly be more different.

McCain famously followed his father and grandfather — both admirals — into the Navy. He has said his role model was Teddy Roosevelt, the barrel-chested, bear-hunting war hero turned president. He also saw his grandfather and father as heroes, too, as he wrote in his autobiography, “Faith of My Fathers.”

“My grandfather was a naval aviator, my father a submariner. They were my first heroes, and earning their respect has been the most lasting ambition of my life.”

Growing up in Queens, Trump’s role models were more … theatrical.

“Two of the people I admired most and who I kind of studied for the way they did things were the great Flo Ziegfeld, the Broadway producer, and Bill Zeckendorf, the builder,” he told the New York Times in 1984. “They created glamour, and the pageantry, the elegance, the joy they brought to what they did was magnificent.”

Nine people and groups Donald Trump has denounced
View Photos Not one to back down easily from controversial statements, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s disapproval list continues to grow. McCain grew up in a military household. Trump grew up in a home dominated by his hard-charging, penny-pinching businessman father.

Both young men had rebellious streaks. At the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, McCain was known as a “tough, mean little f——” who “was defiant and flouted the rules” but never enough to get kicked out, according to Robert Timberg’s “The Nightingale’s Song.”

McCain entered the Navy in 1958. Around the same time, Trump was sent to the New York Military Academy to straighten him out after his own youthful transgressions. ”He was a pretty rough fellow when he was small,” his father told the Times in 1983.

But the similarities stopped there. Despite a successful stint at the military school, Trump doesn’t seem to have been eager to enlist. It was 1964, and the Vietnam War was escalating.

He considered going to film school in California. “I was attracted to the glamour of the movies,” he said in “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” adding that he “admired” Hollywood’s “great showmen. But in the end I decided real estate was a much better business.”

Instead Trump attended Fordham for two years before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he took economics courses at its famed Wharton School. (According to a book by Gwenda Blair, Trump was allowed to transfer into the Ivy League school because of family connections, and has exaggerated his performance at Penn.)

During his time in school, Trump received four student deferments from the draft.

“If I would have gotten a low [draft] number, I would have been drafted. I would have proudly served,” he told ABC News. “But I got a number, I think it was 356. That’s right at the very end. And they didn’t get — I don’t believe — past even 300, so I was — I was not chosen because of the fact that I had a very high lottery number.”

As Trump was enjoying the Ivy League and avoiding the war, McCain was about to become one of its most high-profile casualties.

The lieutenant commander had been flying for months, conducting targeted strikes on North Vietnam. He had already been injured in an aircraft carrier fire that killed 134 fellow sailors. And he had already made a name for himself as a pilot.

On Oct. 25, 1967, McCain had destroyed two enemy MiG fighter planes parked on a runway outside Hanoi. He begged to go out the next day, too.

But as he flew into Hanoi again on Oct. 26, his jet’s warning lights began to flash.

John McCain in a Hanoi, Vietnam, hospital as a prisoner of war in the fall of 1967. McCain spent 20 years in the Navy, a quarter of it in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp after his jet was shot down over Hanoi during a bombing mission Oct. 26, 1967. The Navy pilot nearly gave up during his captivity but his memory of books and movies helped him survive. “I was on my 23rd mission, flying right over the heart of Hanoi in a dive at about 4,500 feet, when a Russian missile the size of a telephone pole came up — the sky was full of them — and blew the right wing off my Skyhawk dive bomber,” he wrote in a 1973 account of his ordeal. “It went into an inverted, almost straight-down spin. I pulled the ejection handle, and was knocked unconscious by the force of the ejection.”

McCain regained consciousness when his parachute landed him in a lake. The explosion had shattered both arms and one of his legs. With 50 pounds of gear on him and one good limb, he struggled to swim to the surface.


North Vietnamese dragged him to shore. Then stripped him to his underwear and began “hollering and screaming and cursing and spitting and kicking at me.”

“One of them slammed a rifle butt down on my shoulder, and smashed it pretty badly,” he wrote. “Another stuck a bayonet in my foot. The mob was really getting up-tight.”

He was interrogated for four days, losing consciousness as his captors tried to beat information out of him. But he refused.

As the voluble Trump was already making a name for himself sweet-talking deals for his dad’s real estate developing company, McCain was clamming up in his filthy prison.

And as Trump drove around Manhattan in his father’s limo, McCain was refusing to mention his dad for fear of handing valuable intelligence to the enemy.

Defiant Trump unapologetic over McCain remarks(1:32)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump refuses to apologize for saying that Sen. John McCain is "not a war hero." (Reuters)
McCain might have died from his injuries had the North Vietnamese not found out on their own that his father was an admiral. Instead, they moved him to a hospital and performed several botched operations on him. They sliced his knee ligaments by accident and couldn’t manage to set his bones.

“They had great difficulty putting the bones together, because my arm was broken in three places and there were two floating bones,” he wrote. “I watched the guy try to manipulate it for about an hour and a half trying to get all the bones lined up. This was without benefit of Novocain.”

That Christmas, as Donald Trump was celebrating the holiday with his family, McCain was starving in a prison camp called “The Plantation,” a satellite POW site near the Hanoi Hilton.

“I was down to about 100 pounds from my normal weight of 155,” he wrote. “I was told later on by [cellmate] Major Day that they didn’t expect me to live a week.”

McCain survived, however, slowly regaining his strength. By the spring of 1968, he had taught himself to walk again. Not that there was anywhere to walk. He was in solitary confinement inside a hot, stifling, windowless cell.

Trump, meanwhile, was taking Manhattan by storm. He had already made a small fortune — $200,000 then is almost $1.4 million today — working for his father during college.

In his autobiography, Trump describes these early years as fraught with danger: a quick learning curve for the soon-to-be-celebrity CEO as he went around learning the business. “This was not a world I found very attractive,” he wrote in “Trump: The Art of the Deal.”

“I’d just graduated from Wharton, and suddenly here I was in a scene that was violent at worst and unpleasant at best.”

The danger? Collecting rent. “One of the first tricks I learned was that you never stand in front of someone’s door when you knock. Instead you stand by the wall and reach over to knock,” Trump wrote of collecting for his father, who owned low-income housing blocks. “The first time a collector explained that to me I couldn’t imagine what he was talking about. ‘What’s the point,’ I said. The point, he said, is that if you stand to the side, the only thing exposed to danger is your hand.”

“There were tenants who’d throw their garbage out the window, because it was easier than putting it in the incinerator,” he wrote in horror.

Meanwhile, McCain languished in a genuine hell. When he wasn’t being tortured — several times his interrogators rebroke his mended bones — he was battling everything from dysentery to hemorrhoids.

The prisoner of war survived on watery pumpkin soup and scraps of bread. He saw several fellow prisoners beaten to death, yet McCain refused to sign the confession that would have granted him a speedy release (and a publicity coup to the North Vietnamese).

Trump was living large — maybe not by today’s Trump standards but larger than most Americans. He ate in New York City’s finest restaurants, rode in his father’s limousines and began hitting the clubs with beautiful women.

“The turning point came in 1971, when I decided to rent a Manhattan apartment,” he wrote. “It was a studio, in a building on Third Avenue and 75th Street, and it looked out on the water tank in the court of the adjacent building…. I was a kid from Queens who worked in Brooklyn, and suddenly I had an apartment on the Upper East Side…. I got to know all the good properties. I became a city guy instead of a kid from the boroughs. As far as I was concerned, I had the best of all worlds. I was young, and I had a lot of energy.”

That energy went into signing some of his first real estate deals — and into partying.

“One of the first things I did was join Le Club, which at the time was the hottest club in the city and perhaps the most exclusive — like Studio 54 at its height,” he wrote. “Its membership included some of the most successful men and the most beautiful women in the world. It was the sort of place where you were likely to see a wealthy 75-year old guy walk in with three blondes from Sweden.

“It turned out to be a great move for me, socially and professionally. I met a lot of beautiful young single women, and I went out almost every night,” he added. “Actually, I never got involved with any of them very seriously. These were beautiful women, but many of them couldn’t carry on a normal conversation.”

He was so good looking, he said, that the manager of the club “was worried that I might be tempted to try to steal their wives. He asked me to promise that I wouldn’t do that.”

As McCain remained in solitary confinement, tapping messages on the filthy walls to his fellow POWs in Morse code, Trump was out partying at legendary nightclubs.

Several years later, Trump was frequenting “Studio 54 in the disco’s heyday and he said he thought it was paradise,” Timothy O’Brien wrote in “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.” “His prowling gear at the time included a burgundy suit with matching patent-leather shoes,” O’Brien wrote.

“I saw things happening there that to this day, I have never seen again,” Trump told O’Brien. “I would watch supermodels getting screwed, well-known supermodels getting screwed on a bench in the middle of the room. There were seven of them and each one was getting screwed by a different guy. This was in the middle of the room.”

As Trump made plans to buy and refurbish bankrupt hotels, McCain was staving off death in Hoa Lo Prison, a.k.a. the Hanoi Hilton.

And as McCain continued to refuse special treatment, Trump actively courted it.

“The other thing I promoted was our relationship with politicians, such as Abraham Beame, who was elected mayor of New York in November of 1973,” he wrote in “Trump: The Art of the Deal.” “Like all developers, my father and I contributed money to Beame, and to other politicians. The simple fact is that contributing money to politicians is very standard and accepted for a New York City developer.”

McCain refused to meet with most visitors for fear of being used as a puppet by the North Vietnamese. But back in the United States, Trump was too eager to manipulate the press.

“At one point, when I was hyping my plans to the press but in reality getting nowhere, a big New York real estate guy told one of my close friends. ‘Trump has a great line of s—, but where are the bricks and mortar?’” he wrote. “I remember being outraged when I heard that.” (Expletive deleted by The Post, not by Trump.)

If Trump was used to dining well, the only decent meal McCain had during his five years in prison was the night before he was released.

It was March 14, 1973. McCain arrived back in the United States a physically broken man, but also a hero.

That word has yet to be applied to Trump.

That same year, the Department of Justice slapped the Trump Organization with a major discrimination suit for violating the Fair Housing Act.

“The Government contended that Trump Management had refused to rent or negotiate rentals ‘because of race and color,”’ according to the New York Times. “It also charged that the company had required different rental terms and conditions because of race and that it had misrepresented to blacks that apartments were not available.”

Trump at first resisted signing a consent decree, according to the Times. He hired his friend, Roy Cohn, the lawyer and former right-hand man to U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. “Mr. Trump said he would not sign such a decree because it would be unfair to his other tenants,” the Times reported. “He also said that if he allowed welfare clients into his apartments … there would be a massive fleeing from the city of not only our tenants but the communities as a whole.”

But ultimately the company came to terms with the government.

Trump would weather the scandal, of course, and go on to build his fortune to its present day tally of $4 billion.

McCain, in contrast, received a Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross. He would become a U.S. senator and run for president.

Whether Trump can triumph where McCain came up short remains to be seen.

In a WAPO/ABC Poll, Trump surges to big lead in GOP presidential race. Businessman Donald Trump surged into the lead for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with almost twice the support of his closest rival, just as he ignited a new controversy after making disparaging remarks about Sen. John McCain’s Vietnam War service, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Support for Trump fell sharply on the one night that voters were surveyed following those comments. Telephone interviewing for the poll began Thursday, and most calls were completed before the news about the remarks was widely reported.

Although the sample size for the final day was small, the decline was statistically significant. Still, it is difficult to predict what could happen to Trump’s support in the coming days and weeks as the controversy plays out.

Even with the drop in support on the final night of the survey, Trump was the favorite of 24 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. That is the highest percentage and biggest lead recorded by any GOP candidate this year in Post-ABC News polls and marks a sixfold increase in his support since late May, shortly before he formally joined the race.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who announced his candidacy a week ago, is in second place, at 13 percent, followed by former Florida governor Jeb Bush, at 12 percent. Walker’s support is strongest among those who describe themselves as “very conservative.”

The next seven, ranging in support from 8 percent to 3 percent, are: former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), former Texas governor Rick Perry and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

The rankings are more important than early national surveys in previous campaigns because only the top 10 candidates, based on an average of the most recent national polls, will qualify for the first Republican debates. The first debate will be held Aug. 6 in Cleveland. Fox News Channel is the sponsor of that event and established the rules for eligibility.

The bottom six candidates in the Post-ABC News survey are Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who plans to announce his candidacy Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former New York governor George Pataki, former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.), businesswoman Carly Fiorina and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). Their support ranges from 2 percent to less than 1 percent.

The Republican race remains highly fluid and continues to change with each survey. Four months ago, Bush was at 21 percent, and that support has dropped significantly. Others who have faced erosion include Cruz, who was at 12 percent shortly after he announced his candidacy this spring and is at 4 percent now. Paul was at 11 percent two months ago and is at 6 percent in the new survey. Christie also has dropped steadily, from 14 percent in January to 3 percent.

[Trump says John McCain is not a hero]

In the contest for the Democratic nomination, former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton maintains a wide lead, with 68 percent of registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents saying they would vote for her today in a caucus or primary. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is drawing big and enthusiastic crowds in many states, is in second, at 16 percent. Support for Sanders has grown with each Post-ABC News poll this year.

Trailing the top two candidates are former senator Jim Webb (Va.), at 5 percent, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, at 2 percent, and former Rhode Island governor Lincoln D. Chafee, at 1 percent. Donald Trump dominates the Republican conversation. When Vice President Biden is included as a choice, Clinton is at 63 percent, Sanders at 14 percent and Biden is at 12 percent. Biden is not a declared candidate but has not said definitively that he will not run.

Clinton, who has highlighted the possibility of becoming the first female president in U.S. history, is far more popular among Democratic women than men, by almost 20 points. About 9 in 10 of her supporters say they are enthusiastic about her candidacy.

Part of Clinton’s strength is that she is considered ideologically acceptable to a broad swath of the Democratic Party. Nearly 7 in 10 say she is “about right” ideologically. Only 40 percent say the same about Sanders, in part because nearly as many say they don’t know enough about him to have an opinion.

Sanders is more popular among liberal Democrats than those who are moderate or conservative. He is significantly more popular among college graduates than those without a college degree. Although his message attacks what he calls the “billionaire class” and focuses on wealth and income inequality, he has more support among Democrats earning more than $50,000 than among those who make less than that.

The poll also tested attitudes about President Obama, who has recorded a series of victories over the past six weeks. They include Supreme Court decisions legalizing same-sex marriage and upholding the Affordable Care Act, a hard-fought win in Congress on trade policy (with significant GOP support) and last week’s agreement with Iran designed to check that country’s path to developing a nuclear weapon.

Those successes have not changed Obama’s overall approval rating, however. The new survey shows that 45 percent approve of the way he is handling his job and 50 percent disapprove, almost identical to the poll in late May.

Just 35 percent say they approve of how he is handling the situation with Iran, while 52 percent disapprove. He receives better marks on the economy, with 47 percent saying they approve and 48 percent saying they disapprove. His ratings on the economy are unchanged from the last poll.

[McCain says Trump owes apology to military families]

Trump has dominated campaign news since he announced his candidacy. His comments about illegal immigrants have drawn strong responses, pro and con. He said that the Mexican government is sending across the U.S.-Mexican border criminals, drug dealers and rapists, but that some of the immigrants are “nice” people.

Through nonstop media interviews and some high-profile appearances, including a big rally in Phoenix on July 11, he has drowned out his opponents. His rivals were tentative in taking issue with his immigration comments but pounced over the weekend when he went after McCain (R-Ariz.), a former prisoner of war, who drew the ire of Trump when he said the Phoenix rally had drawn out the “crazies” in the GOP.

Trump has struck a chord with at least a part of the Republican electorate. He does far better among those who are not college graduates than among those who are.

His support among men and women is about the same, and he performs somewhat better among GOP moderates than among those who say they are “very conservative.”

His views on immigration are not widely shared. Just 16 percent of Americans say that undocumented immigrants from Mexico are mainly “undesirable people like criminals,” while 74 percent say they are mainly “honest people trying to get ahead.”

Even in the Republican Party, Trump’s characterizations reflect a minority view. Among Republicans, 66 percent say undocumented immigrants from Mexico are mainly honest, while 19 percent say they are mainly undesirable.

There is clear resistance to his candidacy within the party. A majority (54 percent) say his views do not reflect the core values of the Republican Party.

If Trump were to receive the GOP nomination, 62 percent of Americans say they definitely would not consider voting for him. In contrast, just over 4 in 10 say they would definitely not consider voting for Clinton, Bush or Sanders.

Trump, however, could become a factor if he were to leave the GOP race and run for president as an independent. The survey shows that in a hypothetical three-way race, Clinton is at 46 percent, Bush is at 30 percent and Trump is at 20 percent among registered voters.

Trump takes more support away from Bush than Clinton in such a contest. In a head-to-head matchup, Clinton tops Bush by 50 percent to 44 percent among registered voters.

At this point, big majorities in each party say they are satisfied with their choices in the presidential race, with Democrats slightly more so. But compared with this time four years ago, Republicans are noticeably more satisfied with their field of candidates today.

The Post-ABC News poll was conducted July 16-19 among a random national sample of 1,002 adults, including landline and cellphone respondents. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Full results of the poll and detailed methodology are available here. Scott Clement contributed to this report.

He did drop down a bunch in that poll on that 4th day of it. The poll took place over a 4 day span of time. The day after the comment about John McCain, he dropped significantly in that poll.

In an Iowa poll done by Monmouth University, Walker Takes the Caucus Lead with Trump in 2nd PlaceNo immediate damage from Trump’s ‘hero’ comment, The Monmouth University Poll of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers finds Scott Walker in the lead and Donald Trump in second place. The poll did not find any significant change in support for Trump in interviews conducted after his comments about John McCain’s military service. The poll also found that Bobby Jindal makes his way into the second tier of candidates, doing better in Iowa than in the national polls.


When Iowa Republicans are asked who they would support in their local caucus, Scott Walker is the first choice of 22% followed by Donald Trump at 13%. The next group of candidates includes Ben Carson (8%), Jeb Bush (7%), Ted Cruz (7%), the 2008 Iowa winner Mike Huckabee (6%), Marco Rubio (5%), Rand Paul (5%), and Bobby Jindal (4%). Rick Santorum (3%) – who won the Iowa caucuses in 2012 – Rick Perry (3%), and Carly Fiorina (3%) are tied for 10th place. The rest of the field garners no more than 2% of the vote as a first choice, including John Kasich (2%), Chris Christie (1%), George Pataki (<1%), Lindsey Graham (0%), and Jim Gilmore (0%). Another 11% of likely caucusgoers are undecided.

Support among key groups includes:

- Tea Party – Walker leads Trump 27% to 14% among Tea Party supporters, with Ted Cruz in coming third at 12%. Among non-supporters of the Tea Party, Walker has a
nominal lead (18%), followed by Trump (11%), Bush (11%), and Carson (9%).

- Ideology – Very conservative voters line up behind Walker (22%), Trump (14%) and Cruz (12%) as their top picks. Somewhat conservative voters back Walker (23%), followed by Trump (12%), Carson (10%), and Bush (10%). Moderate to liberal voters choose Walker (19%), Bush (15%), Trump (10%), Rubio (10%), and Carson (10%) as
their top tier.

- Evangelicals – Evangelical voters favor Walker (17%), Trump (13%), Cruz (10%), Carson (10%), and Huckabee (9%). Non-evangelical voters prefer Walker (26%), Trump
(12%), and Bush (10%).  Monmouth University Polling Institute 7/20/15

- Gender – Walker and Trump take the top two spots with both male (24% and 16%, respectively) and female (19% and 10%) caucusgoers.

- Age – Walker (25%) is the clear favorite among voters age 50 and older, followed by Trump (13%) and Carson (9%). Voters under 50 years old spread their support among
Walker (13%), Paul (13%), Trump (12%), Cruz (10%), and Rubio (10%). 

Trump’s statement about John McCain’s status as a war hero, made Saturday morning at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, IA, generated almost universal backlash from his rivals but does not seem to have had an immediate impact on his support among Hawkeye State Republicans. In interviews conducted Thursday and Friday, Trump garnered 13% of the vote to 19% for Walker. This is only slightly different than results from the Saturday and Sunday interviews, which put Trump at 13% to 25% for Walker.

“Walker has been a favorite of Iowa voters ever since his well-received appearance at the Iowa Freedom summit in January. More recently, Trump has outmaneuvered the rest of the field to earn the second spot despite his controversial statements over the weekend,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute in West Long Branch, NJ. “It’s worth noting that Bobby Jindal enjoys more support in Iowa than he does nationally. He is among the top ten candidates in Iowa, but his showing in the national polls makes it unlikely he will gain entry to the first debate.”

Looking at the fundamental strengths of the candidates, Iowa voters hold an almost universally positive opinion of Scott Walker. He holds a 73% favorable to just 9% unfavorable rating among likely caucusgoers. This +64 point net positive rating is more than double the +31 rating (42% favorable to
11% unfavorable) he received from Republicans across the country in last week’s national Monmouth University Poll (bit.ly/1K1hXYi). He is also significantly better known in Iowa where fewer than 1-in-5 Republican voters have no opinion of him compared to nearly half nationwide.

Donald Trump holds a positive 47% favorable to 35% unfavorable rating, which is better than the 40% favorable to 41% unfavorable rating he received from national Republicans last week. He has higher favorable ratings among very conservative caucusgoers (55%) than he does among somewhat conservative (41%) and moderate to liberal (37%) Iowa Republicans. He also has higher favorability ratings among Tea Party supporters (56%) compared to non-supporters (39%) and among men (51%)
compared to women (41%).

Other candidates who have significantly better ratings among Republicans in Iowa than they do nationally are Marco Rubio (64% favorable to 14% unfavorable), Ben Carson (63% to 11%), Rick Perry (61% to 18%), Bobby Jindal (59% to 12%), and Carly Fiorina (44% to 10%). Carson and Jindal are also
better known in Iowa than nationally. One candidate who garners worse ratings in Iowa is Jeb Bush – Hawkeye State Republicans give him a negative 40% favorable to 42% unfavorable rating compared to the positive 50% to 30% national rating he earned in last week’s Monmouth University Poll.

Monmouth University Polling Institute
The rest of the field earns similar net ratings from both Iowa caucusgoers and national Republican voters. The Iowa results for candidates with a net positive rating are: Mike Huckabee (58% favorable to 23% unfavorable), Ted Cruz (53% to 17%), Rick Santorum (50% to 27%), Rand Paul (42% to 32%), and John Kasich (24% to 17%). The Iowa results for candidates with a net negative rating are:

Chris Christie (26% favorable to 51% unfavorable), Lindsey Graham (18% to 41%), George Pataki (10% to 36%), and Jim Gilmore (4% to 17%).

“Rick Santorum is much better known in the state he won back in 2012, but his net personal rating in Iowa is no different than his standing nationally,” said Murray. “One of the reasons why candidates like Santorum and Huckabee are not doing as well this time around is that GOP voters are less concerned with social issues than they were in past contests.”

Issues in the 2016 GOP Nomination Contest
When asked to choose the most important issue in deciding who they will support for the GOP nomination, Iowa caucusgoers select national security (28%) as their top concern, outpacing taxes and government spending (18%), the economy (16%), immigration (12%), social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage (11%) and education (4%). Another 10% of voters say all six issues are equally
important in their vote.

Voters were also presented with the opportunity to choose a second choice among these issues. When both the first and second choices are combined, national security remains on top at 45%. About 1- in-3 also name the economy (38%), taxes and spending (33%), and immigration (30%). Social issues (21%) and education (8%) are seen as less important. Even among evangelical voters, 44% name national security as one of their top two concerns in backing a GOP nominee, compared to 29% who say the same about social issues.

Over 1-in-4 GOP caucusgoers (28%) say they would be very willing to support a candidate they don’t fully agree with on the issues in order to nominate someone who would have the best shot at winning the White House. Another 4-in-10 (42%) would be somewhat willing to put practical politics before ideological purity. Fewer than 3-in-10 would be not too willing (14%) or not at all willing (14%).

The poll also found that Iowa Republicans are divided on how this year’s large field of presidential contenders might impact their party. About one third (32%) say the number of candidates in the race is good for the party while 38% say it is bad for the party. Another 26% say it has no impact.

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from July 16 to 19, 2015 with 452 Iowa voters likely to attend the Republican presidential caucuses in February 2016. This sample has a margin of error of +4.6 percent. The poll was conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute in
West Long Branch, NJ. 


John Kasich to join the Republican race. The Ohio governor, who is good on paper but struggles in the polls will announce that he is seeking the Republican nomination for president
Potential Republican 2016 presidential candidate Ohio Governor John Kasich speaks at the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Conference in Nashua, New Hampshire
John Kasich, the Governor of Ohio, will become the 16th candidate to enter the Republican presidential race on Tuesday.

He has a front-runner's resume: the son of a postal worker, he is now the popular governor of a populous state which Republican operatives consider a "must-win" in 2016.
The 63-year-old also served 18 years in Congress has won all twelve elections in which he has been on the ballot in Ohio. But Mr Kasich is struggling to gain traction in a field in which all of the key roles already seem to be filled.

Jeb Bush has the establishment behind him, Marco Rubio is young and charismatic, Scott Walker is the uncompromising conservative, and Donald Trump is creating a category all of his own. Even those currently languishing on the second tier, like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Mike Huckabee, have natural constituencies from which to draw support.

Despite perhaps the longest resume in the race Mr Kasich, meanwhile, has to battle to prove he even belongs on the stage. His home state of Ohio will host the first Republican presidential debate on August, 6 and only the top-10 candidates in the polls will be allowed to take part. Mr Kasich currently sits in twelfth.

Even if he gains a greater platform to get his message out, much of it will not be popular. His moderate positions on education and healthcare are toxic with the party's grassroots, and he refuses to criticise the Democrat's front-runner, Hillary Clinton. Mr Kasich also faced an uphill battle in his previous run for president, when he briefly sought the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.

His fundraising and early poll numbers were so poor then that he dropped out in July 1999, the same stage in the election cycle in which he is currently joining the race. Mr Kasich tops many lists of potential vice-presidential nominees because of his experience and popularity in the crucial state of Ohio.

But he has said repeatedly that he would only run for president this time around if he sincerely believed he could win.

"I can see sort of the pathway as to how I can be president. I can see what the trek is like to the top of Mount Everest," he told USA Today. He will begin that trek in the small towns of Iowa and New Hampshire which will play such a vital role in determining who will represent the Republicans in 2016, and he will begin it with confidence. "I've never met anybody who I didn't think I could get to vote for me if I could talk to them."

Mitch McConnell Takes Jab Aimed at Hillary That Astounds the Democratic Contender. Hillary Clinton on Monday responded to a jab Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seemingly took at her earlier in the day, contending it proved he is out of touch with the American people.

McConnell said at a Kentucky event that “the gender card alone isn’t enough” to win the 2016 race. Clinton responded on Facebook when asked by a Huffington Post reporter during an online question and answer session.

“Wow,” she said. “If that’s what he said, Mitch McConnell really doesn’t get it. There is a gender card being played in this campaign.”

Clinton continued, “It’s played every time Republicans vote against giving women equal pay, deny families access to affordable child care or family leave, refuse to let women make decisions about their health or have access to free contraception.”

The Democratic frontrunner also ignored several other questions from reporters who used the Facebook question and answer session as a way to ask Clinton questions. Among the ignored were questions pertaining to her email, Libya and whether she would commit to releasing 30 years of tax returns.

Hillary Clinton used a Facebook forum to fire back at U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday, saying that his depiction of her shows that he "really doesn't get it."

At a chamber of commerce event in Shepherdsville, McConnell went on the offensive against Clinton, saying she would be just like President Barack Obama and then suggested that her entire campaign is premised on the fact that she is a woman.

"I don't think arguing vote for me because i'm a woman is enough," he told the crowd, before comparing Clinton to Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, who he beat in last year's general election.

"You may recall my election last year," he said. "The gender card alone is not enough. I beat my opponent with women in my race because the gender card alone is not enough. I'm sure there are millions of Americans who would love to have a woman president. but a woman president to do what?"

When Laura Bassett, of Washington, D.C., asked her to respond to McConnell's words, she shot back that McConnell is out of touch.

"Wow. If that's what he said, Mitch McConnell really doesn't get it," Clinton wrote. "There is a gender card being played in this campaign. It's played every time Republicans vote against giving women equal pay, deny families access to affordable child care or family leave, refuse to let women make decisions about their health or have access to free contraception.

"These aren't just women's issues, they are economic issues that drive growth and affect all Americans. Anyone who doesn't get that doesn't understand what our lives are like.

Very hot weather continues this week. The hot and humid weather will continue today, with forecasted high temperatures in the very high 90s to just over 100 degrees.

As Sunday's high temperatures soared close to 100 degrees, Columbia Metropolitan Airport reported a high of 100 degrees. This was the 11th time the airport has reached the triple digits this summer.

Some communities dealt with showers and storms that moved through the area Sunday evening. There were several reports of trees down in Newberry, Fairfield and Richland counties due to high winds. Some storms also produced some locally heavy rain but not enough to contend with the current state drought.

Today, we will have a slight chance of showers and storms, but it will be hot and humid again. With the high temperatures forecasted around 100 degrees, heat index values could reach in the 105° to 109° range.

There will be a better chance for showers and storms on Tuesday. High temperatures once again will be in the very high 90s to just over 100 degrees. The chance for storms will continue on Wednesday and temperatures will start drop a little but some storms could be strong as a cold front is expected to begin to move into the region. Look for Wednesday's highs to reach the middle to upper 90s.

The approaching cold front is expected stall out over the region on Thursday and Friday. This may give us additional chances for rain and high temperatures back into the middle 90s.

The former Clinton Correctional Facility inmate likened his story to 'The Shawshank Redemption'.

Convicted Murderers Escape From New York State Prison

One of the Clinton Correctional Facility escapees has detailed how he and his partner worked on their escape from prison over the course of months.

Officials tell the New York Times that Sweat has given a thorough account of his actions, which involved climbing through a panel he sawed off in his cell and exploring the tunnels underneath the prison for weaknesses in the structure nearly every night since last winter.

He was confident that guards wouldn’t notice he was missing during these missions because they were asleep. He had apparently been mulling this plan for some time, but took action only after being transferred to a cell next to Richard Matt, his partner in crime who was shot to death by a federal agent during the search for the escaped men.

Sweat says he and Matt joked about the similarity of their mission to the plot from the movie The Shawshank Redemption.

Read more at the New York Times.

Shark Attack Surfer Mick Fanning Heralds 'Warrior' Julian Wilson. Three-time world champion surfer Mick Fanning paid tribute Tuesday to a "warrior" surf buddy who came to his aid as he fought off a shark during a competition airing on live TV.

Fanning, 34, was competing against Julian Wilson at South Africa's J-Bay Open on Sunday when he punched the suspected great white shark after it attempted to pull him underwater by his foot rope.

"I WAS THINKING THAT BY THE TIME I GOT THERE I WOULD BE SWIMMING DOWN TO FIND HIM. IT WAS SUCH A HORRIFIC FEELING"

He yelled at Wilson to get into shore — but the less-experienced surfer, who Fanning was mentoring as well as competing against — paddled out towards the danger in a desperate bid to help is friend.

"At that stage I was just screaming and telling Jules to 'get in,'" Fanning told a press conference in Sydney, Australia. He said the 26-year-old Wilson was a "warrior" for "coming after me."

Asked by reporters if Wilson was a superhero, Fanning added: "Yeah, he's a superhero."

Fanning's shark attack was watched by a large crowd at Jeffreys Bay, 40 miles from the southern city of Port Elizabeth, as well as a live TV audience.

The audience watched in horror as a gray fin appeared alongside Fanning, followed by a series of splashes as he was dragged underwater. Both Fanning and Wilson were picked up by safety teams on jet skis just seconds later.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, the premier of Queensland state, said Tuesday that she had written to the country's government nominating Wilson for a bravery award.

Asked if he agreed Wilson deserved such an accolade, Fanning said: "Oh, for sure. You never know what you're going to do in that situation. He gave all regard up for himself and came for me … I was just thankful that he was there. He was like a powerboat coming for me. It was so brave … he's a warrior." Wilson had idolized Fanning for years, the moderator of the press conference told journalists.

The younger surfer said he felt like his friend and mentor was "like a sitting duck" after losing his board during the attack. "I felt like I couldn't get there in time," Wilson said. "I was thinking that by the time I got there I would be swimming down to find him. It was such a horrific feeling."

Speaking while sitting next to Fanning, Wilson added: "I definitely was there to back him up and hopefully was able to give him some confidence and courage when he was left without a board in the water. I know the boats and jet skis got there pretty fast but it felt like an eternity."

According to Sarah Titley, project manager at Cape Town-based non-profit group Shark Spotters, the predator that Fanning encountered was almost certainly a young great white measuring at least six feet in length.

She told NBC News there was little doubt about its breed and size, based on "the shape, size and color" of its dorsal and tail fins.

In the British Open that ended yesterday after a rain delat on Sunday, here are the final British Open scores:
Scores from the British Open at the par-72 course on Monday in St Andrews
1 Zach Johnson (U.S.) after 4PLAY-OFF
Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa) after 4
Marc Leishman (Australia) after 4
REGULAR ROUNDS
-15 Zach Johnson (U.S.) 66 71 70 66
Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa) 67 70 67 69
Marc Leishman (Australia) 70 73 64 66
-14 Jason Day (Australia) 66 71 67 70
Jordan Spieth (U.S.) 67 72 66 69
-11 Sergio Garcia (Spain) 70 69 68 70
Jordan Niebrugge (U.S.) 67 73 67 70
Justin Rose (Britain) 71 68 68 70
Danny Willett (Britain) 66 69 72 70
-10 Adam Scott (Australia) 70 67 70 71
Brooks Koepka (U.S.) 71 70 69 68
-9 Brendon Todd (U.S.) 71 73 69 66
Luke Donald (Britain) 68 70 73 68
Ollie Schniederjans (U.S.) 70 72 70 67
Anthony Wall (Britain) 70 71 68 70
Martin Kaymer (Germany) 71 70 70 68
Ashley Chesters (Britain) 71 72 67 69
-8 Robert Streb (U.S.) 66 71 70 73
Hideki Matsuyama (Japan) 72 66 71 71
-7 Patrick Reed (U.S.) 72 70 67 72
Stewart Cink (U.S.) 70 71 68 72
Greg Owen (Britain) 68 73 71 69
Retief Goosen (South Africa) 66 72 69 74
James Morrison (Britain) 71 71 70 69
Phil Mickelson (U.S.) 70 72 70 69
Branden Grace (South Africa) 69 72 73 67
Russell Henley (U.S.) 74 66 72 69
Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 72 69 65 75
Marcus Fraser (Australia) 74 69 68 70
-6 Anirban Lahiri (India) 69 70 71 72
Steven Bowditch (Australia) 70 69 69 74
Jimmy Walker (U.S.) 72 68 71 71
Rickie Fowler (U.S.) 72 71 66 73
Jim Furyk (U.S.) 73 71 66 72
Andy Sullivan (Britain) 72 71 68 71
Billy Horschel (U.S.) 73 71 71 67
Paul Dunne (Ireland) 69 69 66 78
Matt Jones (Australia) 68 73 69 72
Ryan Palmer (U.S.) 71 71 67 73
-5 Paul Lawrie (Britain) 66 70 74 73
Scott Arnold (Australia) 71 73 73 66
Webb Simpson (U.S.) 70 70 71 72
Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 73 70 71 69
John Senden (Australia) 72 72 68 71
Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spain) 71 73 68 71
Marc Warren (Britain) 68 69 72 74
Francesco Molinari (Italy) 72 71 73 67
Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 71 68 72 72
-4 Ryan Fox (New Zealand) 72 69 76 67
Jamie Donaldson (Britain) 72 71 71 70
Graeme McDowell (Britain) 72 72 70 70
Hunter Mahan (U.S.) 72 72 67 73
Eddie Pepperell (Britain) 72 70 66 76
David Duval (U.S.) 72 72 67 73
David Howell (Britain) 68 73 73 70
Dustin Johnson (U.S.) 65 69 75 75
Lee Westwood (Britain) 71 73 69 71
-3 Greg Chalmers (Australia) 70 71 69 75
Kevin Na (U.S.) 67 75 70 73
Gary Woodland (U.S.) 72 70 71 72
Matt Kuchar (U.S.) 71 73 70 71
Cameron Tringale (U.S.) 71 71 73 70
David Lipsky (U.S.) 73 69 70 73
Jason Dufner (U.S.) 73 71 67 74
-2 Thongchai Jaidee (Thailand) 72 71 70 73
Ernie Els (South Africa) 71 73 69 73
Romain Langasque (France) 69 72 71 74
-1 Charl Schwartzel (South Africa) 67 72 69 79
Ross Fisher (Britain) 71 73 72 71
Graham DeLaet (Canada) 71 73 68 75
Harris English (U.S.) 71 72 69 75
Bernd Wiesberger (Austria) 72 72 71 72
Richie Ramsay (Britain) 72 71 70 74
0 Ben Martin (U.S.) 74 70 67 77
Paul Casey (Britain) 70 71 75 72
David Lingmerth (Sweden) 69 72 70 77
Brett Rumford (Australia) 71 71 71 75
1 Bernhard Langer (Germany) 74 70 73 72
Mark O'Meara (U.S.) 72 72 71 74
2 Thomas Aiken (South Africa) 75 69 72 74
De Blasio Wants To Save NYC From An Uber "Flood"
072015Uber.jpeg
The City Council could vote to put a temporary cap on Uber's expansion as soon as Thursday, and yesterday the Daily News published an op-ed by Mayor de Blasio explaining why he supports the cap: to prevent Uber from "flooding" the streets of New York.
"Our goal is to ensure that our streets aren't flooded with tens of thousands more cars before we can stand up new rules to govern the marketplace," he wrote, running through a bulleted list of concerns: Unregulated Uber would mean more competition between drivers, and more surge pricing, he argued. More traffic, more carbon emissions, and more vehicles without mandatory wheelchair accessibility (50% of yellow cabs will be wheelchair accessible by 2020).
Under the proposed legislation, Uber would only be allowed to add 200 additional drivers to its platform between now and August 2016. The DOT and TLC argue that the cap, which would apply to all for hire vehicles, is necessary in order to conduct an accurate study of the FHV industry's environmental impact (their ranks have jumped 66% since 2011).
Uber counters that de Blasio is acting under pressure from taxi barons. (Bloomberg News reportsthat de Blasio received over $500,000 in campaign donations in 2013 for his mayoral campaign from the "traditional taxi and limousine industry.") Uber also says that the cap would force them to turn away 10,000 potential Uber drivers in the next year. This number is based off of Uber's calculation that they must hire hundreds of new drivers each week, to keep up with the 25,000 New Yorkers who join the platform on a weekly basis.
Yesterday's op-ed is the most the mayor has spoken up on the issue since legislation was proposed in June. Uber, meanwhile, has been explicit in targeting the mayor. Last Thursday, the app was updated in New York to include a "De Blasio" tab, which allows users to preview what wait times will look like (spoiler: very long), if the temporary cap legislation passes.
And on Wednesday, the company released a TV spot featuring Uber drivers. "I make more money, and get to spend more time with my family," says one. "When the mayor came in town, he promised to provide jobs," adds another.
Meanwhile, many have countered that "job" is a generous definition for what Uber provides to its drivers. "There are serious questions about how Uber treats its customers, its workers," said Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris in an e-mail to Uber supporters on Friday. (To which Uber's New York GM Josh Mohrer responded, point-for-point in an open letter.)
At a City Council hearing on the legislation last month, TLC commissioner Meera Joshi said dryly, "'Jobs' is a funny term. Jobs I associate with healthcare, vacation time, and pensions. These are streams of income, but they are not jobs."
On Tuesday, the company hosted a press conference at Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem, with black community leaders who have expressed opposition to the cap, on the grounds that it will destroy those 10,000 jobs.
"Uber’s latest claim that the... legislation to cap its growth will 'affect communities of color' is appalling," said Jonathan Westin, Executive Director of New York Communities for Change, in a statement on Friday. "While Uber's CEO joins the billionaire's list, workers get scraps: low-wages, no health insurance, no unemployment benefits, and no job security."
Later today, Transportation Committee Chair Ydanis Rodriguez will reportedly rally against Uber at City Hall, with members of the New York Taxiworkers Alliance and the Transport Workers Union Local 100. Both of these groups are particularly concerned about increased competition for riders as the FHV industry continues to grow. (Bloomberg also notes that Rodriguez accepted over $8,500 in donations from the taxi industry in 2013.)
UN Security Council Approves Iran Nuclear Deal.
  The United Nations Security Council votes to approve a resolution at the U.N. headquarters in New York, July 20, 2015.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved the Iran nuclear deal Monday, clearing a path to lift crippling economic sanctions against Tehran while restraining it its nuclear development program.

Monday's vote was largely a formality, because all of the Council's five permanent members — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — along with Germany, negotiated the deal with Iran. The Council ordered its nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to "undertake the necessary verification and monitoring of Iran's nuclear commitments,' and it called on Iran to "cooperate fully" with the IAEA officials.
Assuming Iran adheres to the nuclear agreement, the approved U.N. resolution calls for an eventual end to seven sets of sanctions passed since 2006 to force Iran to halt what the United Nations and the West contended was an effort to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran has always said its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes.
The sanctions will be dropped when the U.N. inspectors confirm that Iran's nuclear program is being conducted peacefully.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Powers, praised the Council for "testing diplomacy," while adding that the deal does not diminish continuing American concerns about Iran. She said those concerns include human rights violations, Iran's support for terrorism and its ballistic missiles program.
Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor called the resolution a “tragedy.”
“Iran will now have $150 billion to fund terrorist groups. How much money will go to Hezbollah and Hamas? How much money will go to [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad]?" he said. "How much money will go to fund worldwide terror activities?”
German pact
Germany on Monday became the first of the countries that negotiated the pact with Iran to take steps to renew trade with Tehran. Berlin's economic minister, Sigmar Gabriel, visited the Iranian capital, but warned Tehran that Israel's security is of "significant importance" to Germany. Iran does not recognize the Jewish state and has vowed its destruction.
"With the recent nuclear agreement and the future events, new issues will be raised for Iran and we have developed the bases, both inside and outside the country, to produce security in the Middle East, and I believe it is for the benefit of Iran as well," Gabriel said. "Developing security in the region and securing Israel is of significant importance to us."
With the U.N. resolution approved, the Iranian accord could take effect within 90 days. The next key milestone would come after the IAEA issues a report, expected in December, on the resolution of past and present issues with Iran's nuclear program. That is when Iran would see relief from the sanctions that have hurt its economy.
The U.N. vote comes as U.S. lawmakers begin their own review of the agreement, which President Barack Obama's administration sent to Congress on Sunday, setting off a 60-day review period. Lawmakers can choose to approve the deal or reject it and refuse to lift congressionally imposed sanctions against Iran. Obama has said he would veto any rejection, which would then force both the Senate and House to produce a two-thirds majority to override the veto.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday that there will be separate classified briefings on Wednesday for House and Senate members, and an open hearing Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has predicted President Obama will have a “real challenge” getting the pact through a skeptical, Republican-led Congress. McConnell has criticized it as “the best deal acceptable to Iran, rather than one that might actually end Iran’s nuclear program."
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (R) and Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon shake hands during their meeting at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 20, 2015.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (R) and Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon shake hands during their meeting at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 20, 2015.
Selling the deal
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is on a tour of the Middle East as part of efforts to ease fears about the nuclear deal. Carter began the trip in Israel Sunday and will travel to Saudi Arabia, Iran's main regional rival, as well as Jordan.
On Tuesday Carter will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has called the deal a "historic mistake" that would only make it easier for Iran to back its proxies in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia has officially said it supports the deal, although it is also thought to have similar concerns to Israel's that the agreement will enhance the Shi'ite power’s influence across the Middle East.
“One of the reasons this deal is a good one is that it does nothing to prevent the military option ... which we are preserving and continually improving,” Carter told reporters en route to Tel Aviv. “But the point of the nuclear deal is to get the result of no Iranian nuclear weapon without carrying out a military strike.”
He said he does not expect to change Israeli officials’ minds about the deal, but said the two countries could “agree to disagree.”
Kerry's defense
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry addressed reporters on Monday, following a series of high-profile television appearances over the weekend, in which he said the deal likely won't restart U.S. diplomatic relations with Tehran, and that he is not planning to visit Tehran.
"I look forward to continuing over the next 60 days to having discussions and testimony and private meetings and whatever form is necessary to help convince the Congress that this deal does exactly what it says it does," he said on Monday. "[The deal] prevents the possibility of a nuclear weapon from falling into the hands of another country while simultaneously opening up the opportunity for the United States to, at this moment in time, put to test the verification measures and all of those things that Iran has agreed to, rather than choosing today to force the potential of a conflict almost immediately, which is exactly what would happen if the Congress does not accept this agreement."
Kerry made the statement during a news conference with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla at the State Department.
Iranian reaction
On Saturday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei commented the deal does not signal cooperation with the United States and its allies on other issues, triggering a stern response from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
"If anyone thought that the sweeping concessions for Iran would bring about a change in its policy, they have received a decisive answer over the weekend...," Netanyahu said Sunday during a weekly Cabinet meeting. "The Iranians don't even make an effort to hide the fact that they will use the hundreds of billions of dollars they will receive in this deal to arm their terror machine."
In an interview that aired Sunday, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he isn't idealistic about what the deal means for diplomatic relations with Iran.
"We shouldn't be naive or starry-eyed in any way about the regime that we are dealing with. I am certainly not," he told NBC's Meet the Press. "I spoke to [Iranian] President Rouhani yesterday and said we want to see a change in approach that Iran takes to issues like Syria and Yemen and to terrorism in the region, and we want the change in behavior that should follow from that change. So we are not starry-eyed at all and I would reassure our Gulf allies about that, but actually taking the nuclear weapon issue off the table, that is a success."
Paul Wachtel, an economics professor at New York University, told VOA that long-standing U.S. sanctions and the more recent U.N. restrictions "severely hampered" Tehran's economy, pushing it into a "deep recession." He said Iran's economy could recover within two or three years of the lifting of the sanctions. But Wachtel said questions remain about what Tehran might do with its windfall of cash, as frozen bank accounts are unlocked at the same time the country boosts its oil exports.
"It is enough money to make a lot of trouble" in the Mideast through support of insurgencies Iran favors, Wachtel said. "As the sanctions are moved, to what extent is it interested in trading with the rest of the world?  Which they do, I have no idea." Some information is from AP and AFP.
Regardless of it all, stay in touch!